Betting on sports games has been one of the favourite past times of British people. In the beginning it was almost exclusively a hobby practised by men, but nowadays women like to make an occasional wager. It started in the 18th century when the first bookmaker started their operations. As early as 1845, we had our first Law regulating sports betting and the operation of bookmakers in the UK. Therefore, one can safely say that making wagering on sports is an old British tradition. At first betting was only legal on race tracks and this was pretty much the only legal form of betting. But then, in 1961 betting shops as we know them today were introduced. Nowadays, there is hardly a high street in the UK without a bookmaker.
Bookmakers in the UK
At one point there were over 15,000 betting shops all over the country, which is about one per 4,000, but their number dropped and there were only between 9,100 and 9,200. However, don’t be fooled by the numbers, as this is not due to the fact that British people stopped betting on football and other sports. This is a result of migrating trend towards online betting. A large number of people now do their betting online. Online betting is fully legal in the UK and is treated in the same manner as traditional betting. In fact, the same bookmakers that operate UK’s land-based betting shops have online operations.
Advantages of Betting Apps
If you haven’t switched to online betting yet, or you are not betting at all at the moment, here’s some of the reasons why we would say that online betting has an advantage over betting in traditional land-based betting shops. Though, it doesn’t mean that you should give up traditional betting altogether, you should simply have another option open, no harm in that.
Probably the best aspect of online betting is the fact that you can do it from the comfort of your home, laid back against the sofa, in the kitchen while waiting for the kettle to boil, or wherever you are. And bearing in mind the advancements in mobile technology you can even do it on your smartphone or tablet. You can do it any time of the day, no need to run to the betting shop in order to make it before a game starts.
The second perk of online betting is the fact that you have access to valuable information that would certainly help you make a more intelligent wager and have a ticket that’s more likely to be winning. For example, you may be about to bet on the Spurs winning against Man United at home, but then you read that their key player got injured during training and won’t be playing. Surely, in such an occasion you might change your mind and not bet on that game, something you wouldn’t have known, have you been betting in a betting shop.
And last but not least, when you’re betting online you can make analyse the offers of different online bookmakers and you can compare the range of markets and the odds that they offer for the upcoming match. You would be able to see where your ticket would be worth more and ultimately choose the bookmaker that gives you the best value for your money. This should definitely be taken into consideration, because it can make a huge difference.
Website and Download Apps
When you’re betting online, you’ll notice that there are two types of betting applications, either an instant one that allows you to bet by simply logging in to the website, and an actual downloadable application, for which you’ll have to download software and then install it on your computer. There is a huge and ongoing debate amongst computer geeks as of which is better, but you shouldn’t be bothered with too much detail on this. What you should know is that both options allow you to make wagers and earn money online. It’s up to the pundits really. Nowadays both the download version and the website version offer pretty much anything you need from a betting app. Just bear in mind that not all operators offer both version.
Choosing a Betting App
Now we get to the most important question, and that is- How does one choose a betting app? Well when you realise the number of betting apps which are available to UK players, it may seem like this is a difficult task, but this is not the case. All you need to do is consider all the relevant criteria and choose the one which you think is the best. Depending on your expectations, demands and preferences you can choose the app that will suit you the most. Different pundits look for different qualities in an app, that’s why there can’t be a unanimous decision on which app is the best.
Odds
The point of online betting is, essentially, to win money and therefore, apps that allow you to win more money are better than the ones that will enable you to win less. Therefore the odds that are offered by the bookmaker are probably the most important criterion, or at least one of the few most important. This may seem like an easy thing, but you should always have few things in consideration. Firstly, there are many sports, lots of matches and even more markets on offer. You can’t just compare all of them, it’s impossible, it’s a waste of time and you will get nowhere. Instead, here’s what you could do.
Write down a couple of tickets that you’d like to play, doesn’t matter if you don’t actually make all of the written wagers, you just simply imagine that you will. Select at least 4-5 games per ticket, accumulator bet type, because that way you could make a better comparison. Then, either on your own, on a calculator or on the respective websites or downloaded apps in question calculate the amount of money that you’d win if you play that ticket, with an equal wager.
For example, let’s say that you want to bet on 3 Premier league matches Liverpool- Everton 1, Arsenal- Leicester City 1 and West Ham- Manchester City X, and two Championship matches- Middlesbrough- Leeds 1 and Burnley- Hull 2 and that you like to bet £3 on the ticket. Let’s now say that odds that you get with one app are 4/5, 3/4, 12/5, 1/1 and 7/5 respectively. If you make the potential wager, you could earn £154.22 in total, or make a profit of £151.22. Then say that another app offers the following odds: 77/100, 17/20, 12/5, 21/20 and 29/20. With this app you’ll have a total return of £167.75, or a profit of £164.75. As you can see there’s a difference of over 13 quid, which is not an insignificant amount of money.
If you do this with more than one potential ticket you’ll get a better perspective of the general odds offered by an online bookmaker. Make as many combinations as possible, there’s no harm in that, on the contrary it is quite useful. You can see that even though the second app offers better odds on the accumulator ticket and on most of the selected games. However, there’s one game on which the first app offers better odds. In that case, if you wish to make a single wager on that game, you should choose the first app. There isn’t a limit on how many apps you can have an account and you can make certain wagers via one app and other wagers via another app, always try to get the best value for money you can.
Types of Bets and Markets
Not all online bookmakers offer the same sports, matches and markets. Some of them may include an uncommon sport or two which isn’t featured at other apps. Surely, you may never bet on, say, handball, but it definitely wouldn’t be bad if the range of sports is wider. In addition, the number of competitions that are offered is also important. Matches of the English Premier Leagues, the Championship, as well as the lower divisions and the cups, then the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish leagues and cups will certainly be included when it comes to football, but most betting apps offer a much larger variety of European, national and international competitions. Even the national competitions of smaller countries without a great footballing tradition should be included. Here the rule is simple, the more competitions and matches, the better. Of course, as we said above, always check the odds.
The number of types of bets and betting markets is maybe even more important than the number of competitions and games. It’s not just the single bets, double bets and the accumulator bets. There’s a plethora of different of bets, everyone can find the one that suits them the most. We’re not going to get into too much detail here, but we will give you some of the most popular bets.
As you probably know a single is when you try to predict the outcome of a game, i.e. you wager on one market. A double is a bet where you predict the outcome of two different events and the return of the first is the stake for the second, meaning you have to predict both of them for a profit. Accumulator is probably the most popular bet, which we mentioned above. There you have to guess the outcomes of 4 or more events where you either win a full amount or you lose your bet. There are bets which are a lot more complicated where you select a number of events which are later combined in more than one way. Union Jack, Canadian, Yankee, are only few such bets.
Same goes for the markets. The most common markets are 1, X and 2, and in a 1X2 bet you try to guess simple whether the home team or the away team is going to win or if it’s going to be a draw. A double chance is where you try to select two out of three possible outcomes and the selection is won if one of them is the outcome. For example if you bet 1X on Liverpool- Everton and the full time result is 2:0, you’ve won that selection, and if it is 2:2 you have also won. Then there’s the “Draw No Bet” where the draw is eliminated and your stake is returned if the game ends in a draw. You may also want to try and predict the exact result, like 3:2, 1:1, etc. The odds for this bet are quite high, but it is very difficult to get it right.
You can bet on whether both teams are going to score or not, whether the home or the away team is going to score. In addition, you can try to predict the number of goals that each or either team will score, a correct number or a range. You may also try to guess the correct number or a range of goals in total or in one half. You can bet on whether a player is going to score a goal or not, whether he’s going to get a yellow or a red card, how many yellow cards will a team get, as well as how many corners will there be. This is just a small number of the numerous possible bets, bet types and markets that are available to you.
Finally, a specific type of betting that is worth mentioning is live betting. A live wager is a wager that is made on an event that’s already in progress. For example, if it’s minute 10 and a team is already winning, but you feel that the other team will make a comeback, you can make a wager on that and get pretty good bets. There are multiple markets that can be wagered on a live game, and an app that offers live betting will definitely have an advantage over one that doesn’t.
Bonus Offer and Payment Methods
A lot, in fact, I can probably safely say almost all bookmakers offer some kind of a bonus to new and existing players. This is also a very important factor. Either a specific amount of money or a percentage of your deposit will be offered to you. You could get a 100% match bonus on your first deposit up to a certain amount of money. For example, if you deposit £200 and the betting app offers a 100% match deposit bonus of up to £200, then you will get an additional £200 and you’ll have a total of £400 to wager. Some betting operators offer a no deposit bonus which means that you’ll get £5, £10, £15 or perhaps even more, no matter if you make a deposit or not. Bear in mind that the bonuses come with wagering requirements, which means that you’ll need to wager a certain amount of money before you’re able to withdraw the bonus amount and/or the potential winnings.
Now that we’re on subject of funding your account, we should mention payment methods. It is very important to check which options a betting app offers. Most people fund their account from their credit and debit cards and a reliable app should support at least Visa and Master cards, including Visa Electron and Maestro. Furthermore, there are prepaid cards like Paysafecard and certain others. In addition, there are e-Wallets like PayPal, Neteller and Skrill. Finally, if you’re feeling unsecure about online transfer methods, even though you shouldn’t be, there’s the option of a wire bank transfer. It’s not just the number of available options, you should also consider whether the app charges any fees or commission and also, how long will you need to wait before you receive your money.
Licence, Support and User-friendliness
Amongst the many other aspects and features of betting apps that influence the overall quality of the app there are few that we think are worth mentioning specifically. First, and maybe foremost, the app has to be of an operator which is licensed to work in the UK. A licence to work in the country can be issued by the UK Gambling Commission, or by the relevant authority of an EU member state. Then, then user-friendliness of an app, which is best describe in terms of how easy it is to navigate through and use the app is certainly important. Mobile betting is definitely something that has to be offered by every operator that want’s to have a trustworthy betting app, as there are now over 62 million phones in the UK and half households in the country own a tablet. Last but not least, there’s the customer support, which has to be fast and reliable.