UK Betting Guide – Sports Betting In UK [2024]

Remember that this list with UK betting sites contains only our top site’s recommendations. We have dozens of more sports betting sites UK to recommend.

No matter what you want to place a wager on or from where (learn here more about how to place a bet online from abroad UK), we can offer several betting accounts UK for you. Our database contains lots of UK sportsbook for any sports: UK horse racing betting, betting on UK ice hockey, or even betting UK prime minister – no matter which one you are looking for, we got you covered.

We can even offer you UK betting tips for today, just keep visiting our website and check the news section every day. We have lots of new UK betting sites (including 5 pound betting sites)  to recommend.

The history of sports betting in UK begins in 1541. (Yes, the 16^th century.) The Games Act 1451 declared all forms of gambling and betting illegal. Until the Games Act 1845, all kinds of UK betting activities were prohibited by the law. The 1845 Act made “games of chance” legal. However, this was a very “shady” policy. Nobody was sure whether betting UK activities can be considered as “games of chance” or not.

The Betting Act of 1928 cleared up the issue. According to the terms and conditions of this document, UK betting activities were legal. The Act stated only horse racing and greyhound bets, but the industry was eager enough to cover all betting types. In this context, we can say that betting UK became legal in 1928.

The Betting Act 1960 cleared up the issue a little bit more. It made all kinds of UK betting and land-based casinos legal. And with the Betting Act 2005, online gambling (and online betting sites) became legal too, as long as it is regulated. The United States Gambling Commission was established to supervise and license the gambling industry.

We will give more details about the legality of UK betting below, but for now, know that this is one of the largest regulated industries in the world, with a yearly revenue of billions of Pounds. We are not kidding. The 2023 numbers are not published yet, but the gross gambling yield in 2019-2020 was 14.2 billion Pounds.

As mentioned above, this UK betting guide contains lots of information, but it is still a general guide. If you want to learn more about UK betting and licensed bookmakers and betting sites UK, we have prepared different articles/guides for every aspect of betting in UK. Make sure to check out other betting sites from other countries as mentioned below:

Below, we talked about the criteria we used to select the best online sports betting sites in the UK. However, choosing a UK betting site is a personal thing and requires you to consider your own priorities, but for more read also sports betting benefits.

For this reason, we recommend that you use the following criteria in addition to ours:

You will find lots of promotions at new betting companies from UK and each one will promise you the stars. Get this money and place a bet. Claim your UK free bets and win.

Don’t forget to grab your no deposit betting UK offer. Thing is, only a couple of them will be truly good and worth taking. First, let’s take a look at the general bonus types that can found in betting UK websites:

All of these offers sound good but they are never truly “free”. You must complete a wagering requirement for each of them. This means wagering a certain amount of money to unlock the bonus funds. The wagering amount is determined by the operator and it can be anything from 1.5x to 20x.

And that’s why most bonus offers, including UK reload offers are not worth taking. You should focus on the ones that offer fair rates and terms. Make sure to read the terms & conditions of all bonus offers before taking them.

It is a good time to start placing bets in the United Kingdom, because:

There are two types of betting odds: decimal and fractional. Decimal odds are popular in Europe and they look like this: 2.5, 9.0, 1.25, etc. By using the (odds * stake) – stake formula, you can calculate the payout of any decimal odd. For example, if the stake is 5 GBP;

• A bet with 9.0 odds will pay 40 GBP (9 x 5 – 5 = 40)
• A bet with 2.5 odds will pay 7.5 GBP (9 x 2.5 – 2.5 = 7.5)

And so on. Fractional odds are used in UK betting. While there are betting UK sites that offer decimal odds, fractional odds are mostly preferred, especially in horse race betting. They look like this: 9/1, 4/1, 1/3, etc. The figure on the right shows the stake and the figure on the left shows the payout of the bet. So,

• A bet with 9/1 odds will pay 9 GBP for every 1 GBP you bet
• A bet with 1/3 odds will pay 1 GBP for every 3 GBP you bet

And so on. In general, we can say that the fractional odds are specific to UK betting market. The rest of the world (the USA included) uses decimal odds.

So, how can you join and register for an account at UK betting sites? This process is quite easy. We can explain it in five steps.

Before we start, let us tell you about or review process. We worked long and hard to give you objective and fair results. While preparing our best betting UK guide:

• We signed up personally, made deposits, and played for a long time. We did not simply take a look at the website and be done with it. We became members, made actual deposits, checked the betting tax UK and played for at least 15 days on each and every one of the bet UK website.

• We checked all of the odds and the coverage of major sports events. We played actual bets and find out how competitive the odds really are. We also checked for how many sports events/leagues are covered. Our goal was to use the same UK betting sites for all of our gambling needs.

• We used different devices to play. We played on desktop PCs, mobile devices, and tablet PCs to ensure that you are getting the same experience & features on all platforms.

• We tested customer support personally. We created “doomsday” scenarios and found out how fast & helpful customer support really is.

• We checked the deposit and withdrawal times. We made deposits, withdrawals, and found out how seamless & fast the process is.

We evaluate new sports betting sites UK according to our high standards and a long list of criteria. Our goal is to give you the opportunity to play at the best UK betting websites.

For this reason, we look for the following while preparing our reviews:

Most people think that UK betting sites on Brexit will be negatively affected, so they look for alternatives. Even if you are not worried about that, there is the “problem” of bonuses. Offshore bookmakers make much better bonus offers than the betting websites UK. You can see this even with a simple search. At the time of this article, William Hill online betting UK was offering a 30 GBP welcome bonus. Even the simplest offshore bookmakers, on the other hand, offer at least 300 GBP. They simply give more.

You may think that betting in the UK from abroad and playing at these offshore bookmakers will be more advantageous, due to higher bonuses. You are right about the bonuses being higher, but the experience itself won’t be that good. Have you ever heard the saying “if something looks too good to be true, it isn’t true”? Well, this is exactly the situation here.

Offshore bookmakers can make higher free bets  in the UK offers because nobody is auditing them. Most of them don’t even have a license – nobody knows who owns them. Anybody can offer you a 600% match rate and a 1.000 GBP welcome bonus. Writing big numbers and offering free bets and no deposit betting UK aren’t that hard.

However, when it comes to getting your bonuses for real, you will see that this is not possible at all. The operator will tell you that you still need to wager the bonus. Or, it will simply claim that you have violated the terms and conditions. And there is nothing you can do. There is no official agency that checks and audits that operator. Legally, you are on your own.

Gambling sites UK, on the other hand, are licensed and audited by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission. Betting regulations in the UK are handled by this commission and it ensures that every operator plays nice.

As a consumer, you have rights, and the Commission makes sure that you can use them. If you experience a problem with a specific betting UK website, for example, you can get legal help.

So, how does this commission really work? And what is the legal status of gambling and betting sites in the UK?

OK, you got the basics about the betting sites UK. They are legal, they are fun, and they can give you lots of useful bonuses, as long as you pick the right online betting sites UK. So far, so good, right?

Now, let’s take a look at what your options are:

What are the sports branches covered by bet sites UK? How to bet on football in UK or what other events you can bet on ?

Of course, these are only the most popular categories. In general, sports betting sites UK websites offer you the chance to place a bet for any sports event in the world.

You can play cricket betting UK or even get X Factor UK betting odds: No matter what you are looking for, there is a bet online UK opportunity for it, you can be sure. You can also check out our guide on buying points sports betting so you’ll never lose a bet again.

A large part of UK betting is completed before the event in question begins. So, if you want to bet on a match between teams A and B that will start on February 20 at 19.00, for example, you must place your bets until 18.59 on the same day at the latest.

While this is the general rule, many betting companies UK sites also allow you to place bets after the match has started. This is called “live betting” (in-play betting) and is a term used for bets that can be placed between the start and end times of a match (i.e. as long as the match continues).

It is much more dynamic than traditional betting and the odds offered are usually always higher. You can get a new bet offer while the match is running. For example, if a player change happens, the UK betting site may make a new offer and new odds for this new situation.

Ideally, a website that offers live betting service should also be able to broadcast live. In other words, you must be able to watch the match you bet on live on the same site. Otherwise, you will be distracted because you will have to use more than one resource. The most important thing to know about live betting, even in e-sports betting, is that you should not be distracted as long as the match continues.

With classic bets, you don’t have to watch the match. You just need to learn the result. In live betting, it is very important to watch the game without interruption in order to benefit from changing odds and new betting offers. If you are going to place a live bet, make sure you have time to do it.

Our UK betting guide is not completed without giving actual examples. So, here is a couple of practical “how to” examples for different sport types, based on the options in the sports betting market in UK.

This will be a short football betting UK guide if you are truly a beginner. There are two teams in football and lots of outcomes that can happen.

We can summarize the most common betting options for football as below:

And here is a short guide to horse betting UK: This sport requires guessing the result of a race or multiple races.

There are lots of horse racing betting sites UK and they offer the following options:

Cricket betting UK is as popular as football or horse racing, as cricket is kind of an “official” sport in the United Kingdom. Here are the most popular options you get for cricket matches:

There are, of course, many more other sports and different betting types. As you can guess, we cannot list all of them here. These are the most popular sports and their betting options. We have prepared a separate online betting UK guide for each of these sports, so you should check them out.

Are you looking for a guide about esports betting UK? or USA Or, do you simply want to learn more about the UK betting industry? We can offer you a separate sports betting in UK guide for each of these topics and many more. We have even prepared a guide about making a living on Betfair.

As a general rule, all of the online payment methods can be used for betting in UK. You can even use a cheque or Western Union. But some methods will be a much better choice to use at online sports betting UK sites. We recommend the following:

Nowadays, you don’t need to switch between devices to use betting sites UK or bookmakers like Monaco bookies from abroad.  Thanks to the HTML5 technology, almost all of the online sports betting UK sites work on all devices, without having to make a download.

These are called “instant-play” betting sites, which means they can run on browsers, no matter what the device is. As long as your device has a browser, you can play at any UK sports betting website.

This means downloading a native application for mobile is not required. You can simply choose to use the mobile website. But if you want to use an application, we have a different guide about the best betting app UK. You should check that out. In general, the best betting app UK is the one developed by your own bookmaker.

In other words, don’t simply look for the “best app”. Instead, pick a betting UK website and use its native app.

That being said, using a mobile app has its benefits too. In some cases, even using an application can be much more advantageous, especially if you’re not afraid to do constant updates.

We will talk about them in this short mobile betting UK guide. By using a mobile betting application, you get the following advantages:

So, how do you find the best betting app UK? As we mentioned above, we recommend that you first choose the application of the website you are a member of. In addition, you should be aware of:

We recommend trying mobile betting UK at least once: According to a report published by EGBA (European Gaming and Betting Association), 43% of sports bets in Europe are placed from mobile phones. Mobile betting is on the rise and you should join it today.

UK betting industry is quite big – we are talking about billions of Pounds here. Some of the betting sites UK are global companies traded on the stock exchanges.

If you are wondering which ones are the biggest bookmakers in UK, the top 3 list is as follows:

1) 888 Holdings

You may remember 888 Holdings with its former name, “Virtual Holdings Limited”. It is founded in 1997 and launched one of the world’s first online casinos, “Casino-On-Net”.

Currently, the holding owns the 4 famous gambling brands: 888, 888Casino, 888Poker, and 888Sport. It also owns lots of bingo brands, such as Wink Bingo, 888Ladies, and Posh Bingo.

2) William Hill

William Hill is the second biggest one, with annual revenue of 1.7 billion Pounds. It is also one of the best-known British brands because it is recognized all over the world. William Hill is also famous for its online casino; sports betting is not the only service it offers.

3) Unibet

Unibet is launched in 1997 and it is a part of the famous Kindred Group, which owns several other famous gambling brands such as 32Red, Stan James, and Maria Casino. The website of Unibet is active since 1999 and it offers online casino games & sports betting together. It has more than 300.000 members from more than 100 countries and sponsors lots of UK football teams, such as Aston Villa and Middlesbrough.

Preparing this list was not that hard. We just checked the revenues of these operators.

All of them are traded on the London Stock Exchange, so this information is easy to find. However, you must remember that this is the “biggest” list, not the “best of” list.

In other words, being best and being big is not the same thing. There are lots of UK online sports betting sites with smaller revenues but much better service quality. When evaluating betting sites UK, be it for UK horse racing betting or Bitcoin betting in UK we recommend ignoring the size of the operator, as this may mislead you.

We know you’re wondering if you need to pay taxes when you bet and win, so let’s prepare a short gambling tax UK guide too. In this respect, we have good news. Players with betting accounts UK do not pay any taxes when they score a win. In other words, gambling revenues (including betting revenues) are tax-exempt. If you win any money with your bet, it’s all yours. You don’t even have to make a declaration to HMRC.

So, who pays taxes? The new UK bookmakers as well as established ones because tax liability belongs to the operators. The government collects the tax of the gambling related payments from them. According to legal regulations, operators have to pay a fixed 15% tax. This is a bigger figure than you think. According to sports betting in the UK statistics, nearly 3 billion pounds of tax revenue was generated in 2018, all of which were paid by UK betting sites.

While this is the general rule, we recommend that you consult a tax expert. Yes, the earnings of casual players are tax-free but if gambling has become a professional business for you (if you make a living by placing bets), you may have to pay an income tax.

Sports betting regulations in UK do not only regulate betting types and protect consumer rights: They also set the online safety rules that UK betting sites must comply with.

Following these rules will increase your online security and prevent both your personal and financial information from unauthorized third parties. For a safe betting UK experience:

You are ready to start betting in UK  now. We told you all the basic things you need to know. If you want to learn more, take a look at our advanced UK sports betting articles. We cover all topics and offer content for all levels of experience. Or, you can simply pick one of our recommended betting sites UK or Alderney bookmakers and jump-start your journey – it’s your call.

No matter what you do, make sure to visit us often. We update our lists and content regularly. Good luck out there!