Bet365 review 2024 | Evaluation of the Bet365 online sports betting, casino games, poker, and bingo gambling apps and website

A bullet point list of the good and bad points at the outset of any review is an excellent way to weigh up the potential and tends to focus the mind a little before going deeper into more intricate details. With an operator that covers multiple forms of online gambling, we’ll need to examine these pros and cons more broadly here and then revisit them in more detail.

I tend to be more involved with sports betting in our own betting activity, but many of these points will apply similarly to casino gaming, online poker, and online bingo.

This first list displays my own experiences of the advantages and disadvantages that – as you’ll see – have been largely positive, but let’s take a closer look at them and see what could be improved.

What I like about Bet365 – the Pros and Cons

The process of reviewing Bet365 has naturally allowed me to document the good and bad points of the betting options. Let’s take a look at a bullet-point list of the pros and cons as a prelude to the rest of the review.

Naturally, you’ll expect to see a list of the positives of holding an account. There are plenty of them, and they form a substantial list:

• Good value welcome deposit bonus.
• Regular follow-on bonuses for valued Customers, often in the form of free bets.
• Full range of sports betting markets, with widely varied betting options, across virtually every sport you can imagine, including extensive options for betting on esports or fantasy sports.
• Comprehensive casino games portfolio, range of poker gaming options.
• Options to play poker games, bingo, and casino games from within the same account that you use for betting on sports, esports, or fantasy sports.
• Consistently competitive odds in sports betting markets.
• Diverse range of deposit and withdrawal options, including using a Bet365 Mastercard.
• Fully trustworthy deposit and withdrawal processes with no fees.
• High levels of safety and security for your personal details and your money.
• A wide range of countries and currencies accepted.
• Excellent 24-hour customer service.
• Helpful problem gambling tools and attention to responsible gambling.
• Simple account registration process.
• In-play live betting on sports and live event streaming.
• Fully accessible on Windows or MAC devices and mobile phones running on iOS or Android operating systems.

What I don’t like about Bet365

It’s not all good, and any service will be open to criticism. Let’s see some aspects of Bet365 that are not so ideally delivered. There are very few negatives, as you might expect from a recognised top-notch gambling destination:

• Cash-out offers from successful sports bets can sometimes be lower than you might expect.
• If you win too much in the sportsbook, your betting account may be limited. However, this application of a betting limit is often an issue with many bookmakers.
• The casino game portfolio and range of poker games won’t be as extensive as those at alternative sites that focus solely on these forms of gambling.
• No cryptocurrency deposit options are currently available.
• Some withdrawals will take longer than you’d hoped to complete.
• Aside from playing poker, there are limited opportunities to get involved in competitions where you can compete with opponents to win prizes.

Ratings are of the most significant value when comparing products and services. I’ll be making much of the judgment based on comparisons between Bet365 and competitors as we head through different sections of the review. In reality, it’s not necessary to try and rate an operator of this quality with star ratings since the information you’ll obtain in the course of in-depth and exhaustive analysis will be infinitely more valuable.

If you need a rating to work on, it won’t be a revelation to find that I’d give a solid 5 out of 5 overall based on my observations. This perception has been built up over 15 years of holding an online sportsbook account and experiencing zero problems in all that time with any depositing or payout issues. I have never had a single problem in any form.

Looking at some critical assessment exercises on other gambling operator review sites, you’ll consistently see they award high ratings. And real players often run these types of gambling sites, too.

So why do we see some starkly contrasting viewpoints when we go to Trustpilot and look at the 2000 plus Bet365 reviews there? And you can see a similar range of comments on reviews of Bet365 at Mouthshut. The ratings are generally poor at both those well-regarded user review sites, with real player reviewers regularly posting negative reviews and experience scores alongside citing many underwhelming experiences in the comments. Let’s see why that may be when we examine what real players really have to say.

Other real player views and evaluations

It’s never a good idea to only take note of one reviewer’s opinions. There are plenty of online review sites or other locations where we can see what the evaluations are like from the perspective of other real users.

You can read the most reviews at Trustpilot where a surprising number are negative. Outside of Trustpilot, most other online comments seem much more favourable. Let’s see some opposing viewpoints from users there and compare them a little further on with some experiences from Reddit users:

Trustpilot critical comments from Bet365 reviewers

Trustpilot has 2604 reviews, to be precise. Of these, 8% are excellent, and 86% are bad. The rest are scattered in between. Surely this can’t paint an accurate picture? You’d have to think that 86% of bad ratings are not great, but there are reasons to believe this figure might be questionable. It’s definitely out of line with our own experiences, so let’s try and work out why the disparity exists.

First, you must consider that this is not a review score specifically on any particular aspect of the betting platform. There are so many elements to betting with Bet365 that it’s a jumble of different issues

So, the first point to note is that it is human nature for most users of a service or product to lean more on the side of complaining about rather than congratulating a supplier. Indeed, this fact is always worth bearing in mind whenever you’re using online product reviews as a factor in deciding whether you would use that service.

It’s also worth noting that you don’t always know whether reviewers are real people. While you can probably trust that some are, there are obvious cases where they may not be.

But the most important thing is to look at the precise details of the individual disputes or complaints. For many gambling industry operators that provide real money gambling services, most complaints will be around one of the following:

Problems with withdrawals – are often caused by errors made by the players themselves, For example, not completing the KYC or verification processes properly.

Issues with bonuses  – arise most often because the account holder hasn’t fully understood the rules attached to the bonus award.

Unable to win anything – these types of complaints would be made by punters and gamers that don’t understand how gambling works. Whether it’s sports betting or casino games, the odds or house edge always favour the sportsbook or the casino. It’s their business to make money. Some players will win. Many won’t. And that’ll all be down to either bad decisions, unlucky decisions, or just plain bad luck.

Restricted or questioned deposits – All licensed and reputable gambling sites are responsible for ensuring their customers can afford to lose the amounts of cash they deposit. This is one of the core principles of responsible gambling. Equally, all operators need to do everything they can to avoid any potential association with money laundering. Both of these can lead to situations that punters see as deposit-related issues.

Accounts closed for no reason – If you look at the player reviews, you’ll see several bettors complaining that their accounts were closed for no reason. Just remember that hundreds, and maybe thousands, of new accounts are created daily. Yet, you only read about a handful spread over a few months? Something is not correct, yes? This potentially misleading volume of complaints brings us back to what we were saying a few paragraphs back: often, you only get to hear about the protests, and not when everything goes how expected.

Of course, there will be some occasions where Bet365 closes a betting account for questionable reasons. But ‘questionable’ is the operative word. Some punters are legitimately blocked for a multitude of reasons. You have to look at the detail of each case to determine why the account was closed, and you’ll regularly find a legitimate reason once you understand the whole background.

Reddit user’s critical assessment of Bet365

Posters on Reddit can usually be seen as credible reviewers of any product or service, and Bet365 is mentioned in an exceptionally high number of Reddit threads across various subreddits.

You’ll see similar issues to those mentioned on Trustpilot but a significantly higher volume of positive feedback to counter the negatives. Probably the best way for you to get a handle on Reddit users’ criticism and experiences – or whether Bet365 does meet their expectations – is to read one of the extensive threads that tackle the question of ‘why use Bet365?‘

With a £1 million jackpot, this challenge runs every weekend and is designed to appeal to football betting punters. The 6 Scores Challenge focuses on six English Premier League football matches where bettors must correctly forecast the correct final scores for each fixture. Participants must enter predictions for the games before the first kick-off times each Saturday.

So far, thousands of account holders have collected cash prizes, with those closest to winning the jackpot only one correct score away. The good news is that you don’t need to forecast all six scores correctly, and lower-value wins are paid out for three correct scores upwards. You can also watch most matches on a live stream.

The promotion is open to all new and existing eligible UK customers and costs nothing to play. Click on the button below for full details and access to the free contest.

     Bet365 most definitely is not a scam. 365 is a trusted online gambling operator with a long history of internet operations, and many online reviews will confirm that they are a valid and trusted business.

Indeed, it’s one of the premier operators providing betting services to millions of clients from more than 200 countries globally and has a website translated into 17 different languages around the world.

You may find some punters with seemingly legitimate claims that 365 quickly limits the accounts of consistent winners. This may be true, but it’s arguably true of many bookmakers. Bet365 is no worse than any other sportsbook in this respect. Limiting accounts doesn’t mean a bookie is operating a scam, but it does imply there’s an argument that any operator that does this consistently is best-suited to losers. Of course, there may well be totally valid reasons for accounts being limited, too.

Equally, there have been some reports of casino games being rigged. The rigging of games is a highly unlikely occurrence in any online casino, given the casino always has an inherent house edge in its favour. Claims of this type are extremely unlikely to be true.

It’s interesting to note that I’ve had several high-value wins from betting on horses. I don’t seem to be heavily limited other than being able to place a bet to win a maximum of £2000 before that bet is referred to a trader for authorisation. In most cases, that bet is then authorised and accepted.

     No online gambling corporation will survive for long in the iGaming industry if they are not legit. As we saw above and will know after we’ve reviewed further, Bet365’s long history combined with many other factors such as licensing, awards, and complimentary real player comments confirm the legitimate nature of the Bet365 website and mobile app.

     Yes, playing games or betting with Bet365 is perfectly safe. With Bet365, you can ensure the safety and security of your personal details, and any money you’ve deposited or won is safe. You’ll be able to cash out any positive account balance at any point, provided you follow the appropriate regulatory-driven processes.

Betting interfaces are carefully designed with security in mind, and each software provider engaged in the provision of the games will have incorporated safety functionality at the design stages.

In addition, the British Gambling Commission regulates Bet365, adding an extra layer of protection that helps overcome any safety concerns.

In short, and in my own experience, Bet365 is as safe as they come.  I believe you could safely award this bookmaker a safety rating of 10/10. In 15 years of holding an account myself, it’s never been compromised in any way, and I’ve never seen an opinion expressed on other sites that have had bet365 reviewed come to any different conclusion.  Indeed, many 5-star reviews you’ll see highlight safety as one of the core competencies, with as low as one-star reviews being notable for their absence.

There’s a simple answer to a complex question here; yes, it is!

Why complex?

When we’re talking about different gambling products, there will be different levels of fairness attached. We’ll take it for granted that the account management side of the service is fair, but really we need to break down any analysis of fairness into the four main options: sports betting, casino games, bingo gaming, and poker. And we should mention virtual sports betting, too.

In sports betting, fairness becomes a genuine concern in the offered odds. Bet365 themselves can’t influence results and how any contest progresses in live betting, so they settle bets based on indisputable results that are entirely transparent. The best mark of fairness is that Bet365’s odds are consistently competitive, which can easily be seen in comparisons with other bookies. Sometimes they may not be the highest odds on offer, but they will be the highest frequently enough that you shouldn’t need to look elsewhere.

For casino gaming and other betting games, random number generators determine the outcomes of all virtual games. These games are based on luck, with an in-built house edge. RNGs are designed to ensure players get a fair and random outcome in any game. Their use ensures that there can’t be any manipulation of outcomes by any operator that runs them.

Regular auditing is another way to ensure fairness, and the well-known firm eCogra audits Bet365 to ensure that it’s consistent in delivering a fair gaming experience.

If we investigate bet365 together, we won’t get too far with the review process if we don’t know precisely where to navigate to access the website and mobile apps.

The Bet365 website is found at www.bet365.com, where you can reach a huge range of gambling and betting options, including the bet365 sportsbook, casino games, live casino games, bingo, poker, and games. I’ve always found the website intuitive to use and fully responsive for most users of assorted tablets, iOS, iPad, iPhone, or Android, although downloading and using an app instead can enhance the user experience and is actually crucial for some users to bet or play:

Mobile access is via various apps that are very straightforward to access from a link at the website’s footer or via the leading app stores. You can watch live sports via the streaming service too and quickly get access to all betting options and results. Depending on the operating system and where you are situated, there may be different access methods.

•  Casino games for Android are at bet365 Casino Games Slots Live or bet365 Games Play Casino Slots. Apple users can get the casino gaming app in the Apple Store.
• For casino players in New Jersey, USA, the casino games app is called bet365 Casino NJ Vegas Slots. US casino apps have been developed in conjunction with strategic partner Playtech. Unfortunately, New York gamblers can’t use the app since 365 doesn’t yet have an operating licence in NY state.
• Players in Spanish-speaking countries have their casino app version known as bet365 Juegos.
• Poker for mobile players is on the Apple Store at bet365 Poker Texas Holdem.
• Bingo players using a mobile phone can get the online bingo app at bet365 Bingo Real Money Bingo in the Apple App Store or the APK version of the bingo app at APKcombo.
• Many sports betting punters with an Apple device will be able to use the Apple bet365 sports betting app, while the Android version is at Google Play. 
• For US and Canadian sports betting fans, the app download process varies slightly. In New Jersey, sports bettors using Android devices must go to Google Play and download the NJ sports betting app. iPhone users can use the standard app.
• Anyone wanting to place a sports bet in Colorado has the same straightforward option if using an Apple device. It gets more complicated with Android downloads within Colorado, and you’ll need to visit the mobile version of bet365.com, download the bet365CO.apk, and install it.
• Canadian betting on sports with 365 is uncomplicated since only Ontario now has access to the bet365 betting markets. If you’re in Ontario, navigate to the .com website, and Bet365 will automatically show you a download link on which you’ll get app downloads using a QR code.

There’s little doubt that any gambling operator wanting to remain competitive needs to improve and expand its services constantly. You’d need to be an insider to fully understand 365’s approach to this task. Still, by keeping an eye on the latest news and developments, we can form a strong understanding of where the company is heading and what future benefits its growth-related decisions will bring to punters and customers.

From the scale, scope, and frequency of the deals and enhancement projects, it’s clear that the Bet365 management teams are constantly reviewing their standing across multiple betting industry sectors. This section will illustrate the obvious internal review process that aims to list projects and deals as announced.

You need to create an account before you can manage it, of course. But once we’ve seen how to create one, there are other aspects of management you’ll need to consider.

Logging in and verification are two key considerations. But don’t forget that keeping an account funded with a positive cash balance will be key – particularly with sports betting where the bet opportunities may arrive unexpectedly. There’s nothing worse than looking to place a bet at the last minute and finding you don’t have the funds.

Aside from these, the only other things to remember are to keep your personal details up to date and to – hopefully – decide how much of your winnings from any bets you want to leave in your account and how much you want to withdraw.

How to sign up for a Bet365 gambling account

Have you heard enough in this review to tempt you into registering an account? Don’t be put off by any fears of it being a complicated process if you have. Registration for new customers with bet365 is straightforward, and you can complete it quickly and with minimum effort. Let’s see how:

Registration is all completed in one online form.

1. You’ll start by filling in simple and obvious info such as your name, country of residence, date of birth, email, home address, and telephone contact number.
2. You can choose how to receive future promo offers via checkboxes for email or direct messaging in your account.
3. Then there is an option to choose a username, account password, and personal pin using a four-digit security number. Passwords must be between 6 and 14 characters.
4. Finally, you can specify a time zone and how the odds are displayed, plus note the bonus code ready for making a deposit. After agreeing with the terms and conditions, it’s just a matter of hitting the ‘Join bet365’ button, and your registration is complete.
5. Now it’s time to login…

How to login to your Bet365 account

Now you’ve registered an account, you don’t actually need to login to see the games on the platform and the different bets you can place. But if you want to play a game or make any form of wager, you’ll need to be logged in and have some account funds.

Logging in to bet365 is easy:

1. Navigate to bet365.com
2. Click on the login button at the top right of the screen
3. A login box will pop up showing fields to enter your username and password. Hit enter after completing those fields.

How to verify

Getting your account and funding it for betting purposes is not the end of the line regarding ensuring your account is in the right operating state.  Your Bet365 account will need to be verified before you can fully use it, and certainly, you won’t be able to withdraw any cash from your balance until you’ve completed the verification process.

Verification is a process that applies to many services that involve some form of financial transfer, and takes us into the field of KYC, or ‘Know Your Customer’. Any supplier that has to meet regulatory requirements must follow this process rigorously since it’s designed to offer financial and regulatory protection to customers and suppliers.

So, how do you verify a 365 gambling account? In fact, there are different ways to verify your details. The simplest, and probably the fastest, is to do it yourself online.

• Log in to Bet365 as explained above and click on ‘Services’.
• Choose the  ‘Members’ option on the menu.
• Navigate to the ‘My Account’ section and look for the ‘Know Your Customer’ option.
• Select ‘Passport Verification’.
• Follow any instructions and have your passport number ready to enter.
• Submit the online form to complete your KYC validation.

How long does the Bet365 account verification take?

The time required for the verification to be complete varies. If all details are correct and no red flags are raised in any verification systems, it may well be completed within a few days. Of course, if there are any problems, it’ll need longer or maybe even fail completely. One of the ways to ensure your KYC is completed in the quickest way is to use a debit card to make the initial deposit.

An alternative way to verify is by contacting customer support on live chat, and they will help you through the process:

• Start a  Bet365 Live Chat session and advise the support agent you want to verify your account.
• The agent will need to confirm your details and will ask for your 4-digit security code.
• When prompted, select ‘passport’ as the verification method to verify your account and tell the agent your passport number.
• The agent will complete the rest of the process and let you know when complete.

You could also verify by email or by post. We would not advise postal verification since it’s obviously the most lengthy method. Email is not as fast as the two methods we’ve already seen, but is worth bearing in mind as another viable option. If you do want to go down the email route, you’ll need to email eng@customerservices365.com and include a photo of your passport along with your 4-digit pin in the message.

We’ll see soon that KYC processes can cause varying degrees of customer dissatisfaction and contribute to unnecessary bad reviews. Often, this is the fault of the user rather than the Bet365 team. The best advice we can give is to complete your personal verification as early as possible in the life of your betting account.

It’ll be clear that these fields are the ones in which Bet365 excels. It’s not easy to think of a bookmaker that offers similarly high levels of trust and reliability and that such high volumes of players or bettors hold in high regard.

bet365 is fully licensed and regulated by the Government of Gibraltar and the United Kingdom Gambling Commission. Licensing by these bodies means that any bookie has to meet some stringent requirements, and they have to prove that they consistently meet them:

• They have the financial stability to be able to settle all bets.
• They operate fairly, fully able to offer their services.
• They meet and adhere to all advertising standards.
• There is no chance of money laundering in any form.
• They put significant effort into gambling support for problem gamblers and responsible gambling in general.

While their association with the UK Gambling Commission will have more importance for UK-based punters, these commitments do ensure that there will always be an inherent level of trust linked with the platform.

Alongside those licensing guarantees, b365 enhances the levels of trust by acting entirely transparently. You’ll be able to find full contact details on the website and mobile app, plus easy-to-follow documented policies for items such as privacy, anti-spam, terms and conditions, cookies, and complaints.

Bet365 has separate licenses for its sportsbook and other gambling products. Both sides of the operation are licensed by the British Gambling Commission (Account numbers 55148 and 55149). This license gives Bet365 legal status in the UK, while international licenses are held in Malta and Gibraltar, which allow international legal operations.

You won’t find too many mainstream gambling operators that can provide services to the global extent that Bet365 can. It’s worth noting that those countries where the company has successfully gained a regional license include Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Gibraltar, Great Britain, Italy, Malta, Mexico, Spain, and the US (specific states only, see below). 

It’s possibly easier to say where you can’t sign up for an account than where you can. But this global reach is one to be proud of, so let’s take a close look at the service availability and countries where Bet365 is legal in different regions: 

Bet365 across Asia

A list won’t be much use here. Coverage of Asian countries is widespread, and it’s hard to think of any that are not allowed so long as online gambling is legal. Indian players, in particular, will be very interested in Bet365’s cricket betting markets and the ability to deposit or withdraw in Indian Rupees, and Bet365 works in India the same way it does everywhere else. 

Bet365 throughout Europe

For a gambling firm that started in the UK, you won’t be surprised that availability for punters throughout Europe is widespread. Aside from the UK, gamblers from countries including Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, and Sweden can register an account. 

Bet365 in Africa

Bet365 is available to players and sports bettors in African countries such as Nigeria, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, and South Africa. 

Bet365 USA

The US sports online gambling industry is in the middle of significant changes, with various states already implementing regulated services. Sportsbooks, casino operators, and online poker rooms have to navigate stringent licensing processes to be allowed to operate a betting business in specific states.

For now, Bet365 has gained a license to operate in New Jersey, New York, Arizona, and Colorado. As of spring 2023, it’s only in the Garden State and Colorado that Bet365 has begun supplying services to punters. 

Bet365 Canada

Canada is also opening up to regulated gambling, with Bet365 Ontario kicking off services to Canadians. Canadian players across other regions can expect services to extend to their area. 

Central/South America

Brazil and Mexico, two of the largest South and Central American countries allow Bet365 to operate under a license. The operator is becoming a popular sportsbook in these regions. Other countries where players are accepted include Argentina, Chile, and Peru. It’s only residents of Colombia, French Guyana, and Venezuela that are restricted by local regulations. 

Bet365 across Oceania

It won’t surprise you to hear that 365 is intensely active in the further flung regions of the world, heading out towards Oceania. Australia is firmly on the list, while nearby places like Indonesia, New Zealand, and many others are also served. Aussies are well-served with markets on Australian Rules football.

You can see that global coverage is extensive, and if you’re not in a supported region, you’ll probably know it because your access will be blocked.

The top online gambling sites are well-versed in delivering neatly designed websites and apps with easy-to-use interfaces. Bet365 is no different than any other top performer, but let’s break down some of the areas of usability and design that are crucial for delivering an outstanding user experience.

User experience

You can navigate the bet365 website easily and intuitively, as you’d expect. Either from prominent menu items or by using the site search feature.

The site is straightforward to use with minimal promotional jargon to interfere with the gaming and potentially lead to bad experiences. The main site menu links to various betting options, including sports, in-play sports, casino and live casino, bingo, poker, and other general games.

When clicking on any of these options, a sub-menu appears, showing further options for that form of gambling. So, as an example, when you’ve navigated to the main casino games page, a menu is displayed that lists each of the game variants available to play.

Overall, it’s easy to access any part of the site you need to reach, with the website presented in an appealing black, green, and yellow colour scheme. The general usability level is high. You can make language changes by selecting your local language from a drop-down menu that lists at least 20 options. However, the software is clever enough to automatically detect where you’re connecting from and show you all the website content in the correct language.

Bet365 has given deep thought to how users interact with the site to place bets or play games. You could even say it’s a surprise how well it does perform, given the sheer number of betting options. The bet365 technical blog explains some of the deeper details around the technical aspects of the website and mobile user interfaces.

Website performance testing

The exemplary performance of Bet365 regarding betting and gambling activities is a given. But the overall experience also depends on how the website performs technically. The Bet365 desktop home page doesn’t score perfect figures in loading speed and responsiveness, but that’s pretty standard for many gambling sites and doesn’t necessarily translate to user problems, as we shall see.

Any website analysis can employ several online tools to run tests. Many of these tools focus on specifics like mobile speed, page size, or the speed at which the first website element appears.

Tests with GTmetrix returned results indicating a grade C, heavily influenced by a TBT (time to the first byte) of over 500ms. This TBT score suggests that many scripts were running on the page. That’s to be expected with so much real-time data flowing between servers. A TBT score in that range is unlikely to impact user interactions with the page significantly.

Similar tests on the Bet365.com home page run with Google Page Speed Insights backed up this GTMetrix test by returning similar results.

When accessing Bet365 on multiple occasions from within the United Kingdom on an excellent quality mobile phone and a broadband connection, pages on the site were seen to load speedily and without any apparent errors. Some slowness may have been noticed with an older mobile device or a flaky broadband connection. Still, even that would be unlikely to have impacted the ability to navigate to any betting options or place any bets.

Aside from the very acceptable initial loading of individual pages and transition speeds between different pages on any test, all pages’ presentation and readability levels are consistently delivered at high quality. We didn’t encounter any technical issues.

Maintenance and other site outages

The software that runs the 365 platforms is ultra-reliable, and unplanned outages are unlikely to be within the technical support team’s control. I can’t remember an unplanned outage, but I’m sure there will have been one or two over the years. For most instances where you cannot login, navigate, or place a bet, it’s more likely to be down to a network problem that’s either local to you or just fully beyond anyone’s control. So, at most times, if you want to know why Bet365 isn’t working, it’s wise to check your own equipment and local broadband connections first.

Planned maintenance outages are another matter and will affect your ability to use the site or app. These planned events are necessary to keep platforms running smoothly and will occur from time to time. Like most prominent firms, technical teams try to arrange these outages when betting traffic is at its lowest. Outages are typically over in a maximum of a couple of hours and rarely impact anyone’s ability to make bets or play games.

Bet365 website safety and security

Bet365 effectively uses the most common technologies designed to improve website security.

128-bit SSL encryption is activated to ensure that all data exchanges remain private. At the same time, a robust and easily accessible privacy policy specifies how the personal details of any account-holders are kept securely.

An excellent tool to test for safe browsing and connectivity on websites is the Google Safe Browsing site status tool. On our test that was run against Bet365, it showed no signs of any unsafe content, and further checks at ssltrust.com reaffirmed this finding.

Other security protection features include using two-factor authentication, captchas, and PINs.

Platform software

The software employed in running a gambling website like Bet365 is hugely complex and has many elements. To understand it, you’d need to consider it from the perspective of the software that runs the site, the payments, the games, and much more.

All of this is well outside the scope of a standard sportsbook review, and all we truly need to know is that the betting and site software work perfectly, fast, and accurately.

Software becomes more valuable in casino or poker gaming and requires a more profound understanding. In our top-level analysis of Bet365 casino games software and our poker room review, we’ll touch on this subject later in the study.

Given that Bet365 is such a high-rated operator, it’s not surprising there’s a list of awards as long as your arm that has been gained over the years:

• Bet365 won the eGaming Review magazine “Operator of the Year” award in 2010.
• Fastest growing privately owned technology, media and telecoms companies in The Sunday Times Tech Track 100  league table.
• Number One Internet gaming company in 2010, 2011 and 2012 by eGaming Review.
• Founder and CEO Denise Coates received a CBE in the 2012 Queen’s New Year honours list for services to the community and business, as well as being named as one of the 100 most powerful women in the United Kingdom by Woman’s Hour in 2013.
• Bet365 won the “Digital Operator” award at the Global Gaming Awards Las Vegas 2018.
• At the Global Gaming Awards London 2021, Bet365 won the “Online Sports Betting Operator” award.
• The 2021 EGR Operator Awards listed 365 as the winners of awards for Affiliate Programme, In-Play sports operator, Mobile Sports Product, and Sports Betting Operator of the Year.
• The 2021 SBC Awards saw Bet365 win an award as Sportsbook of the Year.

A long list of awards is fantastic, of course. It tells you that any company with that many industry awards is highly likely to be trustworthy and reliable. Trust and reliability are essential factors in choosing any gambling firm where you’ll be betting with your hard-earned cash, but getting additional betting cash for free can be equally crucial for anyone deciding whether to sign up and bet or play. Bet365 know how to deliver these extras well, so now we’ll look at those methods of offering additional benefits to players.

If you’re an online gambler that’s visited any operator you won’t have failed to note that all of them offer bonuses of extra betting or playing cash to sign up. They all also offer various promotions designed to reward regular players or encourage new ones to sign up for an account.

Often these offers are fairly straightforward to describe, but in the case of Bet365, the description gets a little more complex. While many of the offers are long-standing and easy to understand, the fact is that they vary in value across the various gambling products and may even vary from region to region. So, in the sportsbook, regular and new offers from time to time apply to individual sports like cricket, soccer, or horse racing. Equally, there are long-standing and new offers for playing poker, casino games, bingo, or esports.

For that reason, it’s impractical to cover them all here, and you’ll find full details a little further on when I review each gambling product in its own right:

• Bet365 Sportsbook
• Bet365 Casino
• Bet365 Bingo
• Bet365 Poker
• Bet365 Esports
• Fantasy Sports

Whatever your thought about bonuses and other promotional offers, none of them will be open to you unless you already have an account and know how to deposit cash. In the next section, we’ll see precisely how to do that via various banking options.

One critical element of online gambling revolves around funding a betting account and getting money out of it into your own bank account. Having a wide range of banking options and withdrawal methods can be crucial to many players. Getting paid quickly and without problems is a good marker of the quality of any gambling site. Bet365 offers plenty of deposit and withdrawal options from which you can choose.

Let’s look at the options for depositing to or withdrawing from a Bet365 betting account. 

Deposits

You can see the true international focus of bet365 in the choice of 18 currencies you can use if depositing with a debit card, with a slightly lower number for wire transfer, Paysafecard, or cheque.

The full range of deposit options includes: Maestro, Apple Pay, PayPal, Google Pay, Paysafecard, Skrill, Skrill 1-Tap, Neteller, Fast Bank Transfer, Bank Wire, and Cheque.

There are no fees for depositing with any of these, with processing near-instant in the case of wallets or debit cards but longer at 5-28 banking days for a personal check.  

Depositing with the Bet365 Mastercard

One super-fast method of funding your account is to sign up for a Bet365 Mastercard. It’s a prepaid card that lets you deposit quickly or withdraw any winnings from your successful bets. Once the card is funded, you will instantly access your balance from any ATM or via online and in-store purchases, wherever a prepaid Mastercard is accepted. You can also use the available balance to make deposits back into your bet365 account. 

Minimum and maximum deposit values

Depending on the chosen method, there is a low minimum deposit of either £5 or £10 or equivalent in local currency. Maximum deposits are allowed of up to many thousands of pounds or equivalent. 

Withdrawals

When making a withdrawal, you’ll also have the same options, and you’ll typically have to withdraw via the same method you deposited.

There are no fees for withdrawing, and the processing time can vary. It takes up to 12 hours for some e-wallets, 1-5 banking days for debit cards, and 5-28 working days by cheque. 

Minimum and maximum withdrawals

The minimum withdrawal amount ranges from £5 to £100 (or equivalent local currency), while the maximum goes from £2,000 right up to £100,000, depending on the method. 

How do you withdraw money from bet365?

Withdrawing funds from your account is easy, and we can cover it in a series of steps:

1. Ensure you’re logged in to your account.
2. Click on the circle at the top right of the screen
3. Select ‘bank’, and you will see the value of any available funds, plus an option to withdraw or deposit more.
4. Selecting ‘withdraw’ will take you to an options page that shows available payout options and will allow you to enter the appropriate amount.

Successful cashout requests are reflected in your account balance immediately but may take varying amounts of time before the money is actually seen in your chosen external account. 

Major payout issues

I’ve never had any experience of payout problems during my 15 years of holding a Bet365 account. However, we’re talking about withdrawals in the thousands of pounds rather than tens or hundreds of thousands.

There are some historical reports of players’ having issues with more significant sums. There’s a documented case of a horse racing punter in Northern Ireland that failed to receive winnings of over £1 million back in 2017 and a matter where an Australian bettor had an account frozen that contained AUD 200,000. These cases can be researched further on the internet if you have any concerns, but these occurrences are extremely rare, especially where the 365 sportsbook is concerned.

Now we know what deposit and withdrawal options are available, we’re pretty much at the point where we can begin an in-depth look at the five main gambling products.

I’ve designed our review to cover all of the gambling options at Bet365. Still, first and foremost, its reputation as an online sports betting company with an excellent sportsbook has genuinely made this operator’s name in the gambling industry.

In this section, we’ll see what betting options await anyone keen to place bets on cricket matches, soccer matches, football league and tournament matches, tennis contests, or a multitude of other sporting events.

Bet365 Sportsbook betting markets

Sports betting and the sportsbook are the most valued and used services by Bet365. Any sports fan can find betting lines on their favourite sport in the library and bet on virtually every market of games or matches, either before the event or on live betting in-game, while simultaneously watching via the live streaming service.

So, you’ll be able to place bets on over 30 different sports, ranging from cricket, football, tennis, rugby league, horse racing, and basketball to more minor but well-known events such as badminton, virtual sports, and boxing. In the US, betting markets are available in most American leagues and offer options to bet on multiple game props or player props.

Esports betting is also available, with followers of video gaming tournaments able to bet on matches based on teams battling it out at DOTA2, CS:GO, League of Legends, King of Glory, StarCraft 2 and Warcraft 3.

Each will offer options to bet on championship events, league matches, or individual events such as horse races

You can choose from fractional, decimal, or American odds, and the odds on offer will regularly be highly competitive compared with other bookies.

The full list of sports markets in alphabetical order includes:

Bet365 sports betting bonus offers

Anyone signing up with a new account at bet365 is entitled to a welcome bonus. As a new customer, you’ll get £50 in free bets – or the equivalent in various local currencies – after depositing and placing your first £10 bet. Or place a minimum £5 bet to receive five times that amount in credits for risk-free bets.

As an eligible customer, you will receive the bonus funds in the form of bet credits that are added to your free bet credits balance – that’s to say, you can’t withdraw them as cash and need to use them to place bets.

It’s best to read the terms and conditions thoroughly so you fully understand the terms of the offer, but note that time limits apply and the value of a bet credit only applies to the odds on offer, and returns from a winning bet would not include your stake. Other exclusions may apply, too. For any eligible punters, this is a good deal to take up when you make your first deposit.

Claiming the bonus – Do you need a bonus code for Bet365 bonuses?

There is no messing about with promo or bonus codes at Bet365. When you register an account for the first time, make a deposit, and place a qualifying bet, as soon as that bet is settled, the appropriate free bet amount will be automatically added to your account balance.

It’s worth noting that some websites do pretend to offer bonus codes. These are real codes, but they don’t give you anything more than if you sign up without a code. If you see these types of bonus codes on offer, they’re usually intended to make some profit for the sites that are listing them.

Bonus rules

There are always rules around bonuses, and sometimes they can be complex. The best way to understand the rules and restrictions around the welcome offer is to read through them on the Bet365 Promotions page.

VIP/Regular player bonus

The deposit bonus isn’t the only extra money you may get in an account. If you’re a loyal customer who makes deposits and bets regularly, a form of VIP bonus is placed at regular intervals in your account. This loyalty or VIP award is typically a reasonably low amount, equivalent to 5GBP, but it’s free betting money and worth having.

An excellent example of a regular player bonus is the type that 365 applied to my own account during the Cheltenham racing festival. A free bet of £5 was awarded to my account daily that I could use to place a bet on a horse race of my choice.

It’s probably worth noting that there doesn’t seem to be any real pattern to the award and it’s hard to be sure how often Bet365 give these loyalty bonuses to regular bettors. Certainly, from my own perspective, the awards do seem to appear once a month on average.

Sportsbook promotions and sportsbetting bonuses

The welcome bonus is an ongoing promotion in itself, of course. But there are multiple other bet365 offers and ongoing promotions across various sports.

Promotions vary, and new ones are added regularly. The best way to keep up to date is to check the website for the latest offers. But here are some examples of the types of promo you’ll see:

1. Price promises – example : best odds guaranteed or boosted odds.
2. Special bonuses on football – example : enhanced odds for successful accumulators.
3. Moneyback offers on specific scorelines – example : match finishes 1-1, and all losing bets are returned.
4. Free bets on horse races after a winner – example : place a winning single bet on a televised horse race and get a free bet for the same amount on the next race. Minimum bet rules apply.

Live streaming services for Bet365 sports betting

Many sporting events are streamed live, including horse races, tennis matches, and football games. If you place a qualifying bet on an event streamed live, that’s enough to enable you to watch it. Some geographic limitations may apply to who can watch an event and from which countries, so check that this is available in your region.

Pre-match betting

Pre-event betting is, of course, the oldest and original form of sports betting. Bet365 pre-match odds are extensive and regularly competitive with the odds at alternative bookmakers. In my own betting experience, any competitors rarely have better odds, although it happens occasionally.

In-play betting

365 bettors wishing to place bets on live events will be spoilt for choice. In combination with live streaming, betting in-play appeals widely to many sports fans. In-play odds are available for many events and matches, covering multiple aspects of what might happen in those events. For instance, there will be odds for events like the next goalscorer in a football match.

Bet365 Cash Out

The cash out feature can be great for taking advantage of profits you might already have made before the original bet has been completed.

For example, let’s say you placed a win double bet on two selections. The first one wins, but you have doubts about the second selection. The cash out option lets you take the win amount from the first selection without waiting to see if the second is successful or not.

Another example may be placing a pre-match bet at odds that have moved in your favour since the bet was struck. In these cases, it may be wise to invoke the cashout option and make a profit before the bet has concluded.

In the past, I’ve personally used the Bet365 cash out feature to cashout for a very favourable sum, but more recently, the offers haven’t seemed to be quite such a revelation. They’re still valuable to have, though, and do present options worth having.

Best odds guaranteed

Also commonly referred to as BOG, best odds guaranteed is a useful feature for many punters and is widely used by bookmakers. Bet365 offer best odds guaranteed on many sporting betting markets, essentially meaning that if you place a bet and accept the odds on offer at the time and they lengthen after the bet was placed. If your selection is successful, then you will be paid at the higher odds.

Betting information – Form & statistics

Suppose you’re uncertain about any specific bet you’re about to place. In that case, there is a dedicated form and stats section for many sports that shows in-depth statistics about the competitors in that event. You can use this information to confirm your thoughts around your selections or rule out their chances of success, although I’d suggest there are much better ways to arrive at betting selections.

Bet365 sports betting vs competing online sportsbooks

Many competing sportsbooks can challenge Bet365 to be the best for punters. Most run sports betting apps alongside desktop websites, so the choice for any customer is a broad one. It’ll be helpful here to summarise the performance of the Bet365 sportsbook compared to one of its main competitors – Ladbrokes.

In the key areas of bonuses, promotions, and banking methods their performance will be broadly similar. Likewise, the country availability and language options will be roughly the same, too. Where the comparison will show some differences is in the betting markets and the mobile apps.

Bet365 vs Ladbrokes – Betting markets

Most punters tend to focus on specific sports with their bets, so the range of sports covered is not necessarily as important as being sure that the sport you want is in the betting portfolio. Of course, a broad portfolio pretty much ensures your sport and the types of bets you want will be available.

Ladbrokes offers betting on around 35 different sports, with Bet365 matching that number closely. Both deliver pre-match and in-play odds, with various individual markets within the events. As the most popular sports, football, horse racing, tennis, and cricket are covered deeply by both operators, although you may find greater coverage at Ladbrokes when it comes to some of the more obscure sports.

In outright betting markets, it’s Bet365 that scores highest, especially in tennis tournaments and various sporting leagues across both soccer and cricket. Premier League and IPL events are covered extensively. Horse racing fans can bet on major races on the calendar such as the Grand National or any of the high-class racing at events such as those with the high-class racehorses at Royal Ascot.

Bet365 Sportsbook vs Ladbrokes – Mobile apps

These days, where nearly every punter wants to be able to place wagers on the move, the mobile app of any sportsbook needs to come under some intensive scrutiny. Both our gambling sites have made a significant effort to ensure their mobile betting solutions operate at the highest performance levels.

Both competing operators provide a dedicated betting app that can be downloaded either by iOS or Android mobile users. You can find the download links at the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, but you can also obtain both from website links. Both come with many features, and, based on real player ratings and other industry reviewers across the internet, they’re rated similarly. But the relative performance level of the Bet365 mobile app in everyday use sets it apart.

If ease of browsing and placing bets is your most critical requirement of any betting app, the Bet365 one delivers on either of these actions quickly, efficiently, and simply.

All navigable screens are optimised to display perfectly on mobile phones with varying screen sizes. Widely-used features like in-play betting and live streaming are delivered as efficiently as on the main desktop website.

You can configure the Bet365 app to receive customised notifications on your phone, while security features such as touch/face ID ensure your details are kept secure while still being able to login quickly.

All in all, if I had to choose between the Ladbrokes app and Bet365’s, I’d fall on the side of favouring the latter.

Limiting your Bet365 betting account

One thing you have to be wary of with most sportsbooks is the likelihood of a betting account becoming limited. This type of limitation is normally applied to the account of a successful punter. In other words, one that wins too much. If 365 applies some sort of limitation to your account, your sports bets will be restricted, and you’ll only be allowed the value of bets that will win a predetermined amount unless a bet365 trader has authorised the stakes.

In my experience, the limit was set at £2000 maximum win and has never varied. I guess this might change for different account-holders.

The question of when this type of limitation is applied is relatively difficult to be sure of. I suspect it varies across different regions, and 365 probably also takes into account the betting patterns of individual customers. I’d estimate that any big win from trebles or bigger accumulators will result in an immediate restriction on a winning account, particularly on how much you can win with single-selection win bets. It’s very likely the win limit would be set at £2000 or an equivalent in local currency.

For doubles, trebles, or accumulators I’ve seen no evidence of the application of any win limits other than the standard limits that are applied at all times and clearly spelt out in the betting rules.

Winning with Bet365 sports betting

The chances of winning with any betting site rest heavily on your ability to make – or be given – selections that offer value in their odds that are greater than their apparent chances of winning. That’s true all the time and irrelevant to which sportsbook you use.

But some elements of bet365 will help improve your prospects of making winning bets. We won’t go into much depth on these here because we covered them in detail on another page where we talk about zero risk betting strategies and how to place bets that either can’t lose or have low chances of losing.

Briefly, the best ways to win at Bet365 include:

1. Use a betting predictions service  – This approach has many pitfalls, but it is possible to find highly effective tipsters that can provide proven and consistent results.
2. Seek out arbitrage opportunities – Arbitrage is the term given to the activity where you place a bet with one bookmaker and a bet on the alternative result at another. The theory is that whichever one wins, you make a guaranteed profit. Some betting markets at Bet365 are ideal for this, given they regularly offer competitive odds on various sporting events. The main problem is that 365 is aware of this strategy and would very likely limit the account of any punter that appeared to be performing successful arbitrage.
3. Keep an eye open for value betting opportunities – Value betting is a process by which you identify events where the odds on a particular outcome are much better at Bet365 than at other bookies and more significant than the real chance of success. The process works on the law of averages, where if you identify value bets consistently, you will come out ahead over time. This search for value is tricky and best performed using software that will determine your opportunities.
4. Use data-mining tools and services – Using a statistical approach in your betting can pay dividends. Many online tools will show stats based on actual historical evidence that will give you the likelihood of an event concluding in one way or another. You can use these statistics to determine the probability of any specific outcome and tie this in with some of the other options we mentioned to increase your winning chances further.

Of course, all of this takes time and effort. You have to work out if the potential payoffs are worth your effort. One thing’s for sure; there are valid ways to increase your profit from sports betting. The same can’t reasonably be said when you’re playing casino games.

However, there are some games in the casino where – if you play with the correct strategy – you can similarly enhance your chances of coming out with more money than when you started.

Fortunately, you will find some of those games in the Bet365 online casino.

While Bet365 is most famous for its sportsbook, it’s fair to say that casino gaming comes a close second. Many sports bettors are attracted to the casinos. They will often be keen to play online casino games with betting winnings while trying to land one of the progressive slots jackpots or build up a big bankroll of chips at the card game or roulette tables.

Whatever game you choose – and there are plenty that could go on the list of favourite casino games – there’s plenty to like about the Bet365 casino, and in this part of the review, we’ll find out what’s on offer. Let’s start with the bonus packages that’ll give you additional playing cash.

Welcome bonus and free bets

The main bonus for new players is a fairly straightforward deal – deposit and stake £10 on eligible casino games to get a £50 bonus.

You’ll need to wager the bonus 40 times on eligible games before you can withdraw any winnings. Various terms and conditions will apply, and you can find these listed on the site. But a good point to note is that not all games contribute – or even contribute at the same rate – towards the 40 x wagering requirement. In addition, there may be restrictions on how much you can bet on any specific round of a game, and there will be a time limit on how long you’ve got to use the bonus before it expires.

You’ll notice here that we’re talking about bonus value in British pounds. If you’re accessing Bet365 from your own country and you’re not a UK player, the bonus offer may be different, plus any terms of use around it. The good news is that the site or app you’re using should automatically show you the relevant offers.

Promos

Ongoing promotions that give you extra value for your gaming are one of Bet365’s strong points. Maximum prize, time limits, game restrictions, and T&Cs to all promotions, and they’ll vary depending on where you are in the world. Examples include:

• Free Spins Escalator – Climb onto the escalator and get up to 50 free slots spins.
• Stake & Get Golden Chips – Get up to £15 in Golden Chips when you play on Live Super Spin Roulette.
• Win or Spin – Win a cash prize or free spins by opting in and playing qualifying video slots.
• Stick or Twist – Stake qualifying bet amounts on eligible slots to get 20 free spins. Choose to Twist to win 10 or 100 free spins.
• Quizmasters – Go for a share of a £1,000 prize pool in a free-to-play live trivia round.
• Operation: Spin – Complete the mission on the eligible game to place on the leaderboard. The top 200 players will win a cash prize.

As you can see, the regular promotions at Bet365 offer good value for players. It’s not that those we’ve listed here will change, but it’s always best to check the promotions page to see what’s currently on offer. However, promotions mean nothing without games, and this is one area in which the 365 Casino excels.

Casino software>

The Bet365 games library contains well over 3000 slots titles. This extensive library indicates that the software comes from many different sources. That means many top software providers deliver gaming that runs smoothly across all operating systems, browsers, and platforms.

So, where do we start?

Possibly the first provider to be mentioned will be Bet365 themselves. Several exclusive game titles have been developed in-house by 365’s programmers. You may see these games referred to as ‘the Originals’, and you’ll find them in the library alongside others from leading software suppliers such as Blueprint, PlayNGo, NetEnt, and Red Tiger

Games

We mentioned that the slots library contains over 3000 titles, but video slots are just one element of the total games suite that makes up any online casino. Here, we’ll look at a high-level list of the different games you’ll see listed in the Bet365 Casino.

Slots

Almost every online casino has video slots as its primary attraction, as in most land-based casinos. A game collection should include plenty of slot titles, and this is what you get in the Bet365 casino lobby. If you are a slots lover, you’ll find the jackpots on video slots very appealing.

Access to both standard and progressive jackpot slots is via the Bet365Games tab. Once on the page, you’ll see the game titles listed in different sections. These sections are ordered by the most recommended, top games, and new games. The five-reel versions of many of Bet365’s games have everything you’d expect from a contemporary video slot, including additional features like free spins and multipliers and the chance to win big prizes like progressive jackpots. In addition, there are several three-reel slots, which may appeal to gamers who like a more conventional form of gaming.

Players will find that most slots allow a minimum bet of 0.1 currency units or less per spin. Equally, for players with bigger bankrolls, it’s also possible to wager at least 100 units per spin on some titles.

Slots jackpots

One interesting jackpot feature is the Dual Drop Jackpots. These are two progressive multiplayer community-based jackpots that use “value-bound and time-bound systems” to guarantee that 2300 plus players will be landing a jackpot win every week.

When combined with the 8 Immortals progressive slots, it’s easy to see that big wins may lie in wait for avid slots players.

Table games

Any online casino’s table games lobby will be familiar territory to any casino regulars who have played these games before. The usual table games you’d expect to see listed will be found in the Bet365 lobby, including several varieties of roulette, blackjack, baccarat, and various other card games.

Video Poker

Video Poker is a favourite for many players, and you’d expect the Bet365 Video Poker library to be a well-populated one. Somewhat surprisingly, that’s not the case. We could not easily find any video poker variants, although other casino card games like Caribbean Stud and Three Card Poker were represented.

Specialty games

The Specialty Games library at any gambling site is generally made up of games that don’t fit neatly into other standard game categories. These specialty games at Bet365 include Keno, instant win scratch cards, and the types of real money game shows that are becoming increasingly popular with players.

Besides Keno and instant win games, others in this category are Pachinko, Rush Cars, and Rush Dogs.

Bet365 live dealer casino games

Live Dealer games are growing more popular, and any online casinos that  don’t provide live games may struggle against their rivals in the future. That won’t be the case at Bet365, where you can enjoy live dealer casino games at any time of day or night. Using gaming tables with the action streamed live over the internet and manned by real human dealers, the 365 Live Dealer casino provides you with an experience as near as possible to the real-world experience of playing at a real-world casino.

The live tables provide games from four main gaming categories: blackjack, roulette, baccarat, and Sic Bo. Blackjack is the most well-represented game, with over 20 tables accessible to players throughout the day. There are variations in the stakes you may use within each game form and the house rules that apply to each table.

The live gaming fun doesn’t end there, and fans of game shows are sure to be interested in the lineup of game-show related live games. Deal or No Deal and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire

Bet365 unveiled a brand new design for its bingo products lastyear. This revamp set the platform up to be easier to use and more convenient for players to access. Anyone that loves playing bingo will be all set to enjoy various bonuses, promotions, moderated in-house chat facilities, and a fascinating array of unique games.

The welcome package for new players stands at 200 free tickets and 20 free spins, with additional weekly cashback prizes. Indeed, you’ll find plenty of opportunities to play for jackpots with substantial real cash prizes.

The subject of online poker is a vast one that we couldn’t do justice to buried this deeply in our review. To explain Bet365’s poker product adequately needs a webpage all to itself, so we’ll cover it at a high level here. Until we have the dedicated page ready, you can contact me here at RealMoney.games should you have any poker-related questions.

Connoisseurs of online poker gaming are unlikely to be deeply interested in the Bet365 poker room. However, for some low-level players or those looking to supplement their casino gaming with the odd game of cards against other players, the poker tables are probably worth visiting. As a real money game of skill, poker probably has no equal. Many sports bettors are well acquainted with using skill, knowledge, and strategies to make their selections. Therefore, playing poker has its attractions.

When you play poker at Bet365 you’ll be on the iPoker network – a network that runs on highly regarded poker software. To enjoy the experience with extra cash in your bankroll, there are specific welcome bonuses for depositing in the poker room and playing the games. The image below clearly shows you what’s on offer.

One great aspect of the iPoker network is their tournament schedule that includes Texas Holdem and Omaha multi-table tournaments and sitandgos.

If you’re keen to play, reaching the poker tables is easy – you can do it from your primary gambling account. While you’ll find video poker in the casino, competitive poker games like Draw Poker, Speed Poker, Holdem, and Omaha are well-represented in the poker room.

If there’s one form of sports betting experiencing phenomenal growth, it’s in the esports field. The 365 esports betting markets will present all gamers interested in placing wagers on their favourite video gaming teams with plenty of choices. Not surprisingly, 365 does this well and with markets that encompass all major competitive tournaments, so let’s see some details about the esports side of the operation: 

What esports does Bet365 cover?

The range of games covered in the esports library reads like a who’s who of top-rated games. Dota 2, Counter Strike Global Offensive, League of Legends, Overwatch, PUBG, King of Glory, Fortnite, StarCraft 2, Hearthstone, Rainbow Six, and Super Smash Bros. are all titles that make an appearance on the list.

What types of esports bets are available?

365 is well-known for offering a variety of markets to sports betting fans and has extended this to esports. Outright contest winner bets are widely available, but you can get a good feeling for the range of options by looking at what’s on the list for CSGO bettors – examples here include map winner, map score, and handicap wagers.

Tournament betting options are presented for CSGO, League of Legends, and Dota2 competitions, among others.

As you’d expect, live betting and streaming apply to esports just as they do to other forms of sportsbetting.

Of course, as with any gambling service on 365, bettors can access all esports betting via desktop devices or from Apple or Android devices using the mobile app. Blackberries or any other Windows-driven products can also be used.

Fantasy sports is a form of betting that can give much more interest and entertainment to customers over a longer period of time. You’ll be acting as a manager of a team or group of selections in a contest where you’ll gain points from strong performances by your selected team members.

What fantasy sports does Bet365 cover?

Fantasy contests are a fairly new addition to the portfolio and it’ll be no surprise that the world’s most-followed sport is first on the list. So, at this time, fantasy football is the sport on offer.

What types of contests are available?

There are multiple ways to get involved. Players can choose from Full Season and Weekly Tournaments. Individual contests have varying entry prices.

How to play Bet365 Fantasy Football

• Log in to your account.
• Navigate to the Fantasy Lobby from the Sports Menu.
• Choose the tournament you wish to participate in, based on entry fee and game details.
• Follow the directions to create your team and click Enter Tournament.
• The applicable fee will then be taken from your balance.

Are there any bonuses that apply to fantasy sports?

At this time, none of the regular promotional offers is applicable to Fantasy Sports. We’d expect this to change and surely there will be promos in future. Probably the best place to look for updates on promo availability will be the fantasy sport section on the main betting site, where you’ll find all details of individual competitions, their prize levels, entry values and numbers, and buy-ins.

Like most sportsbooks now, the bet365 website is fully responsive when accessed on mobile screens. You should be able to quickly navigate to all of the betting options via a smartphone or tablet. The software behind the 365 website automatically recognizes what type of device you’re using and displays the correctly sized view.

In addition, there is a fully-featured mobile app that you can download from either the bet365 app listing in the App Store for iOS devices or Google Play for Android. Reviews from users of this app consistently report that it would feature in any list of top mobile gambling apps, mainly due to the intuitive layout that makes it easy to choose your betting selections or play any of the games.

The app offers a deeply detailed interface laden with customizable features such as the ability to change the odds format, language presentation, and links to gambling-related news and stats. In addition, there are no ads, and live sports streaming is easily accessible once you’ve made a qualifying bet.

In any form of gambling activity, you’re likely to need some help at some point. When you need that help at Bet365, the company culture ensures you can get it quickly and efficiently.  Most interactions will show the customer service personnel have been well trained and present themselves professionally and courteously.

A comprehensive FAQ section should answer most queries, but if there is ever anything you can’t get answered, there are further options. You can get in touch with Bet365 in a variety of ways that you can reach by visiting the FAQ help pages:

Live chat

You’ll probably have to wait in a queue for live chat support, especially at peak betting times. Still, you can expect polite and helpful customer service representatives to provide practical support via the chat feature. Whenever we have contacted Bet365 via the live chat option, our queries have been expertly answered or resolved.

Email

Using email to get support is always the slowest way to get any help, regardless of the service or product. So, don’t expect quick answers from Bet365, although you might be pleasantly surprised. If you can afford to wait, then sure, use email. But using the live chat is the fastest way to get anything answered.

There is also an instant messaging feature that you can access if you have an account, which doubles up as an email alternative. We did not test this, but it would be worth trying if you’re not in a hurry.

Telephone support

If you really want actually to speak to someone, there’s also an option to contact support via a 24/7 freephone number. I tested this and got through to a Customer support specialist with only a few seconds’ wait. The number to call is 01782 684 757.

Social networks and physical address

In addition to the website support, you’ll also be able to make contact with bet365 on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin. In extreme circumstances, you could also write to them by addressing any correspondence to:

Hillside Gaming, Bet365 House, Media Way, Stoke-on-Trent, ST1 5SZ

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It’s not surprising that the 365 teams deliver customer support effectively since it’s an area that the majority of their competitors handle well. But customer support alone won’t help you beat the competition, and many other factors are involved…

There are some crucial elements to consider when considering signing up with a gambling site. I’ve already compared Bet365 against its top competitor, Ladbrokes, under my analysis of the sportsbook. But it’s always worth weighing up the pros and cons with a balanced view to summarise how the site compares with competitors across each key performance indicator when considered under the banner of all forms of gambling.

Another betting firm that operates similarly and with similar coverage to Bet365 is Betvictor. We’ll undertake this comparison exercise with those two online firms as the focus.

• Trustworthiness – Ladbrokes, BetVictor, and Bet365 are all run by organizations with solid reputations in the online gambling industry. They’ve proved that they are honest, competent, and trustworthy, and there is little to differentiate between the three. It’s not easy to split them in this respect, and it won’t serve us much to say that anyone, in particular, has greater reputational strength than its competitors.
• Range of gambling products – All of our competing operators began life as bookmakers, so their sportsbooks will offer comprehensive sports betting options. Each provides a suitably broad range of casino games, and live dealer casinos appear on all three, as do portfolios of specialty games like bingo, scratchcards, and keno. They do differ in the area of online poker – while Bet365 and Ladbrokes both run poker rooms, BetVictor does not.
• Bonuses & Promotions – All gambling operators offer bonuses and run ongoing promotions. Our three are no different, with a range of welcome and ongoing special offers. These will be too numerous to mention here in a list, so best to check the relevant pages on the three sites for the latest deals.
• Payout Speeds – Bet365, Ladbrokes, and Betvictor offer fast enough payout speeds. You’ll see the withdrawal activity confirmed in your account instantly. However, the inherent delays in payment processing systems outside of their control will invariably take up to a few days before the cash hits your bank account or payment wallet.
• Deposit & Withdrawal Options – Punters will be spoilt for choice when using any of the three competing operators to deposit betting funds or activate a cashout request. All offer a wide variety of deposit methods, including debit cards, e-wallets, or bank transfer options. Deposits start at just £5 (for UK punters), or the equivalent in any alternate currency, and transactions are free. You’ll see the cash balance in your account immediately after the transfer is confirmed. There are reasonable limits to the amounts you can deposit that make any of the three suitable for players who like to gamble more extravagantly. Depositors attempting to transfer cash via Skrill or Neteller will likely be displeased with Bet365’s inability to accept these two payment methods.
• Speed, Software & UX – None of our three competing operators scored perfect on website speed tests. However, our user-based tests with each one did not result in any noticeable speed-related issues. If there are any differences, they’ll be minimal, and all technical speed tests do is highlight that users on poor broadband connections or using old mobile devices might have some problems.

Aside from the competitors we’ve compared, several alternative gambling operators could be mentioned in the same breath as Bet365. Each of these will be worth some consideration if you’re looking for online gambling services of the highest quality:

• Sky Betting & Gaming
• Betfair
• William Hill
• Sportingbet
• Betway
• Paddy Power

This list contains some well-known industry giants, but gamblers outside the UK may also want to consider adding Sportsbet.com.au and 1xbet.com. All will have good and bad points in their performance in the areas we’ve noted, although the good points will almost exclusively outweigh the bad.

Most gambling firms do well nowadays in the area of responsible gambling, so let’s see what Bet365 does to protect its customers from gambling-related harms.

We all know the importance of responsible gambling, with Bet365 taking its responsibilities in this area seriously. I covered the risks of developing a gambling problem on our responsible gambling page, but anyone reading this review is likely to be firmly aware of the considerable risks when gambling with money.

To lower those risks, all major bookmakers have measures to help protect their customers. Bet365 has these in place to give protection to players, help reduce the potential for problem gambling, and prevent minors from getting involved in any form of gambling:

My activity

The activity summary lets you easily see activity on your account to see how much you’ve won or lost, how much you’re betting, and how much time you’ve spent on the platform. This can all be seen in a history that goes as far back as you might need it to.

Budget calculator

This calculator is a great tool that lets you enter your incoming sums of money and then calculate how much of it is disposable and how much you could safely risk making bets.

Deposit limit

Reality checks can be pretty annoying, but they are a helpful feature for some. These pop up as messages telling you how long you’ve logged in and forcing you to acknowledge before making further bets.

Time-out

This feature will let you take a complete break for however long you choose (up to 30 days), although you can also customize it for more extended or specific periods.

Self-assessment

The ability to self-assess is another good feature for anyone concerned that they may be gambling too much. This feature offers a series of questions which, if answered accurately, will give you a strong indication of whether you might be heading towards gambling problems.

Self-exclusion

There’s little doubt that for anyone that really wants to stop gambling completely, self-exclusion is a good option. By taking this option, you’ll be prevented from making any form of bets or deposits wherever you are in the world. UK gamblers can activate self-exclusion from all UK-licensed bookmakers by visiting GAMSTOP.

Many years have passed since the Coates family stepped up from their Provincial Racing chain of betting shops and into the online betting limelight. Little did Denise Coates – the well-paid founder of Bet365 – know that when she registered the domain name Bet365.com in early 2000, she took the first step to becoming a giant in the online gambling industry alongside family member Peter Coates. Denise had a vision, which was to enable punters to bet on sports 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and not just when the bookmaker premises were open.

That forward-thinking attitude set the scene for the ongoing development and growth of the new online company from its headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent and secondary offices in Manchester. 365 grew with a philosophy nurtured and acted upon with shrewd business intelligence and tactics over the years to this day and time and contributed to worldwide growth that now sees it holding offices in Gibraltar, Malta, Bulgaria and Australia alongside those in the UK. Company turnover in 2022 was reportedly in the region of £3 billion, making the company worth over seven billion pounds.

Company profitability is equally impressive, with profits in recent years of around £470 million per year.

Since 1974, the firm has been officially known in the business world as Bet365 Group Limited. Currently, it operates under the trading name of Hillside Media, although, to us punters, it’s more affectionately known simply as three-six-five. The early start gave it some real advantages over other bookmakers that were also venturing online, many of whom struggled to make a significant impact with their limited sports betting portfolios that saw them focus solely on football and horse racing.

In those early days of its history, Bet365 came straight out of the gate with more betting markets on more football leagues than competitors. Still, also they were accepting bets on matches, contests, and competitions across varied sports such as basketball, boxing, cricket, cycling, darts, Formula 1 racing, motorbike racing, NASCAR, tennis, and many others.

Given the nature of that auspicious start, you’d be surprised if the website and services hadn’t changed for the positive over the years. And it has done so in ways that solved issues as they arose and implemented improvements designed to improve how customers interact with the services.

In 2004, online poker was introduced to the suite of gambling products, followed closely by a well-populated online casino that later saw the addition of live dealer casino games. In 2005, when internet-based gambling took off, the firm made the smart move to terminate their land-based operations in a deal that saw Corals take them over, allowing them to focus solely on the online side of the business.

Over subsequent years, technological developments have enhanced the general user experience, and the interfaces have seen significant enhancements, especially in mobile betting or gaming. Given that coverage of all primary forms of gambling is included, the various betting options and the different ways you can place bets across sports betting, casino gaming, and online poker have also transformed and grown. Bet365 has placed significant attention on regulatory compliance, especially in responsible gambling, where no effort has been spared to provide players and bettors with valuable tools to protect them from gambling harm.

The value of bonuses has changed, too. The bonus was a £20 free sports bet and a $25 casino bonus in the early days. You’ll get considerably better offers at the current time.

Bet365 was the first online betting website to deliver customers a menu in languages other than English. This language capability started with German, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Chinese, and Norwegian. They were not content with just those; they were followed by Czech, Greek, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese, etc.

With that availability in multiple languages came a need to allow players in those regions to deposit, bet, and withdraw cash in local currencies. 365 again stepped up to the challenge, resulting in at least 29 currencies being handled now.

Most recently, 365 has taken another step forward by becoming the 16th online sportsbook to launch in the US state of New Jersey since online sports betting was legalized there in the middle of 2018. This appearance on the US gambling scene would be the first step to an increasing number of appearances on the roster of regulated sportsbooks across other US states that now include Colorado. Bet365 looks well-positioned to take a high rank in that market

The operation has been active outside of the US, too. Since February 2022, it has been running online operations in Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires and Provincia de Buenos Aires, both in Argentina.

In March 2022, Bet365 announced the closure of its Russian operations as the Ukraine humanitarian crisis intensified.

April 2022 saw Bet365 launch sports betting services in Ontario after gaining operating approval from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission – in doing so, it became one of the first sportsbooks to take advantage of a new Canadian law that legalized single-game betting.

It’s taken considerable effort to build and maintain the scale of effective gambling services. It’s evident that Bet365 won’t rest on its laurels and will continue its quest to deliver plenty of betting options and the ultimate gambling experience for many years ahead.

But what else might the future hold for customers?

The gambling industry is a steady one that will always have customers. But gambling operators can’t just rely on bonuses and promotions to keep punters coming through the door. They’ll need to innovate with their products to ensure they remain competitive.

So, the company seems sure to keep its eye on developments in the industry. It needs to ensure it can compete on a level footing with the likes of Flutter Entertainment, GVC holdings (now Entain) and William Hill.

365 could stay ahead of the competition in the online casino by introducing virtual reality casino games. There will be options to increase the live dealer games and perhaps introduce more live game shows. Cryptocurrencies are also growing in popularity with depositors, and it may not be long before you can use Bitcoin and other cryptos as a banking method.

The sportsbook is already a mature product, and it’s hard to see where they could improve. Further growth in regulated US states seems likely, as does an increased footprint in Canadian provinces and territories as regulated online gambling grows throughout Canada.

As with casino gaming, developments in virtual reality and mixed reality seem likely to ensure those technologies impact how we bet on sports and the whole gambling experience. Interest in virtual sports betting – where you bet on computer-generated events – is growing. We can expect 365 to take advantage of future improvements in how that form of betting is presented to customers.

Both bingo and poker are lesser parts of the portfolio, and there wouldn’t seem to be any significant changes in how those are handled.

One thing’s for sure, Bet365 don’t need to improvise and improve at this point. The gambling products are already mature and delivered to the deep satisfaction of the vast majority of account holders. As we’ve seen during the review and will reaffirm in the following conclusion, there’s much to congratulate them on.

Unsurprisingly for a highly-rated brand in online gambling, several platforms have seen active marketing. Punters in the UK will be incredibly familiar with the betting products, with 365 running many TV adverts alongside their heavy prominence in search engine results.

The TV-based advertising that UK viewers have experienced will likely be replicated on North American TV screens as the operator grows a presence in US and Canadian-regulated betting markets. It’s unlikely that bettors in some States or Territories of the US or Canada won’t have seen a Bet365 television advert already.

It’s in the area of sponsorship that 365 is particularly well-known, though.  By sponsoring major sporting events, many gambling firms get a viable way to get their brand name in front of gamblers. 365 sponsors a number of these types of individual events alongside the overriding sponsorship of Stoke City football club:

• The Bet365 Gold Cup – Horse racing
• Bet365 US Darts Masters – Darts
• Bet365 Select Hurdle – Horse racing
• Bet365 Geelong Cup – Horse racing
• bet365 Scottish Foxhunter Open Hunters’ Chase – Horse racing
• Bet365 Earl Of Sefton Stakes – Horse racing