With numerous similar companies that were established all around the UK and have since completely moved offshore to lower the taxes paid, the headquarters of the privately-owned Bet365 is located in Stoke-on-Trent, which is in Staffordshire, UK. That is the birthplace of the company owners and the place they were raised. In addition to their Stoke-On-Trent head office, Bet365 also have offices in Australia and Gibraltar, which government, by the way, granted the company a license for sports betting. The website history roots back to January 2000, when Denise Coates purchased the Bet365.com domain name from eBay. Though she paid £10,000 for the domain purchase this soon-to-be one of the largest bookmaker companies in the world was actually founded in a portacabin. Right from there, the company led by Denise went online and evolved into a platform for sports betting. The global Bet365 online launch was funded by a bank loan, which was granted against the shop estate inherited by Denise from her father. Afterwards, in 2005, the betting shop estate started by Denise’s father in 1974 was sold to Coral for a hefty amount of around £40 million. The deal enabled Denise Coates and her partners to pay off the initial loan in full. Now the Bet365 is among the largest sports betting websites around the globe exceeding even such giants as online divisions of both William Hill and Ladbrokes.
Website usability
The Bet365 website is available in 17 languages, which are predominantly European ones, though the list includes also two Chinese variants.
The website design focuses on being intuitive and informational for its users. With the balanced colour scheme used browsing the site is convenient and non-fatiguing while the yellow odds values posted are contrasting and well discernible against the grey background. All the info and services are grouped into seven sections, which you can quickly switch between by mouse clicking on the link needed. The first section is titled Sports. On opening the section, you are redirected to the page with teams and players competing, scores, betting odds offered for different events. To the left, there is an extensive vertical list of sports the site provides info about and allows punters to bet on. The next section, In-Play, offers a multitude of options for sporting events currently in play. Owing to a large variety of betting services available on the Bet365 site, you can place bets not only on sports events but on virtual casino games, online poker matches, and other digital games. For this, you need to enter one of the corresponding site sections. It is important to keep in mind that using these sections requires the Adobe Flash Player browser plugin installed.
You can also easily switch between fractional, decimal and American representation of the odds by using the corresponding menu item in the right upper corner. The website offers live streaming broadcasts of events (with about 20,000 sports video broadcasts per year), which you can watch for free by clicking the display menu item to the left.
Sports and betting markets
The initial design and content of the Bet365 website were similar to those the company site is famous for today. Back in 2001, it was not uncommon for online bookmakers to accept bets on such popular sports as horse racing and greyhound racing, soccer matches of English, German Spanish or Italian leagues as well as competitions held in sports popular in the USA: baseball, hockey, football, and basketball. However, Bet365 stood out from the rest right from the launch: off the bat, they provided odds on scores of minor and additional soccer leagues. Right from the start on the bookmaker website, you could place bets on dozens of team and individual sports, such as boxing, athletics, bowls, and golf. Along with the sports, especially popular in the UK like rugby, cricket, darts, and snooker the operator site offers betting on internationally popular cycling, golf, hockey and basketball (international matches), motorbikes, NASCAR, Formula 1, pool, speedway, tennis and other. Though this list looks quite standard for a European bookmaker today, the Bet365 company was the first to offer such a vast wagering menu. For each sport, the bookie provides numerous betting markets with a wide range of outcomes for your wagers.
Live betting
Bet365 take a leading position in terms of live sports betting. Offering a large range of live markets, the betting operator allows their customers to bet on sporting events as they are in progress. As Bet365 are dedicated to a constant improvement of their services, the In-Play section becomes more convenient and flexible. With the most recent update, the company implemented its vFabric private cloud technology. Using this cutting-edge feature, the bookmaker is capable of handling thousands of current data changes per second, so the latency of the data exchange with end users was decreased to less than two seconds. This technological advancement has enabled Bet365 to receive and transfer a continuous stream of real-time information, which includes large volumes of incoming customer data.
With the introduction of Cash Out feature, the company made an even further improvement of its live betting system. Owing to this feature, you no longer need to wait for your bet to reach its natural conclusion, instead, you are given the opportunity to monitor your selections and apply the Cash Out at any point you choose. The Cash Out option is available for both single and multiple bets on selected events and markets, which include pre-match and In-Play for a large range of sports like soccer, tennis, basketball and horse racing. In March 2017 the partial Cash Out option was introduced, which is currently available only for selected single bets and straight accumulator bets.
Promotions and bonus offers
Along with quite an impressive coverage of numerous leagues, the first version of the company website offered other features this online betting operator is still known for today. Indeed, today at the Bet365 website you can find a well-known channel 4/1 horse racing offer, which was an original promo since the start. Right from the beginning, the company also offered a $25 casino bonus together with a £20 free sports bet. Luckily for punters, this operator offers much larger bonuses both for virtual casino and sports. Another healthy offer available from this bookmaker is a 100% deposit bonus. It amounts to up to £200 with certain terms and conditions applied, but in essence, it enables customers who deposit £10 or more to receive a matched bonus for using it as a stake.
Probably the most significant offer for new and existing customers of the Bet365 is its Euro Soccer Bonus. For the punters in favour of doing accumulator bets, this offer is great as it allows them to get up to 100% bonus in case the bet wins.
There is also a bonus of between 5% and 100% added to your winning amount if you take advantages of the company’s pre-match accumulator football bets for staking on three or more teams playing in top matches of European domestic league as well as select matches of Champions League. As with the mentioned bonus offers there are some terms and conditions applied to this one, however, you can receive an extra of up to £100,000 compared to a standard payout.
In addition, Bet365 provide their clients with the Bore Draw Money Back offer. If you are a new or an eligible customer, the offer allows you to make a pre-match bet on any outcome from the Correct Score, Half-Time/Full-Time Results and some other betting markets provided by the company for any football match, and the Bet365 will refund your stake if the game finishes 0-0 and your bet loses.
Mobile betting
With accessing online services from mobile devices becoming the dominant method of wagering on sports and this tendency being especially evident in the UK and Europe, Bet365 farsightedly decided to stay on top of this trend. That’s why the Bet365 bookmaker not only deployed a full-fledged mobile-ready service platform for their players, but went even further by adding such in-demand features as live streaming.
Customer support
For your convenience, there are an online chat and e-mail client support services, which you can use 24 hours a day 7 days a week if you need to resolve any company site-related issues or receive an additional info. You can also reach the Bet365 client support service over the telephone.
Payment options
In 2004, Bet365 added dozens of currencies to their deposit options and now their website receives as many as 19 deposit currencies (available for the UK). The variety of payment methods available for making deposits to your betting account is also impressive: you can use Visa and MasterCard debit and credit cards, use such e-wallet services as PayPal, PaySafe, Skrill, Skrill 1-tap and NETELLER. You can also use Entropay virtual prepaid cards as well as BankWire and iDebit wire transfer services. If for some reason these options are not suitable for you, you can opt for a cheque payment. And the best thing about these deposit methods is that they are no-fee and processed instantly, except for the BankWire and cheque options requiring several banking days to process.
All the mentioned options apply to withdrawal, which is logical and convenient as you do not need to seek for methods of your prize money withdrawal other than that you used for opening a deposit.
Summary of the Bet365 review
Having one of the best online betting websites among top world’s bookmakers, Bet365 provide everything to satisfy the needs of both recreational and professional sports handicappers. The bookmaking company offers the best live betting software solutions for customers using the desktop version of the website and the mobile app alike. With a huge variety of betting markets and outcomes available, Bet365 is deservedly a choice of millions of bettors across the globe. One more reason to give preference to Bet365 is that the operator is constantly improving all its services and products, ensuring the most comfortable and exciting experience for all company’s clients.