Betfair is one of the oldest bookmakers in Ireland. It was founded in 2000 in London, England, and it first started as a betting exchange to give players more control, better odds, and transparency than what was already available.
Betfair entered the Irish market in 2004 after it received an operating licence from the Revenue Commissioner, and it fully added a sportsbook section in 2012. It has a good reputation in Ireland and has won multiple awards. We’ll be exploring the features of this bookmaker, bonuses, app usability, the odds competitiveness, among many others.
Betfair has several bonuses for the sportsbook, exchange, and casino sections. In this section, we’ll be focusing more on the sportsbook bonuses and check out the casino bonus later. The sportsbook section has 2 types of bonuses, one for new players and the other for existing players. The existing player offer is a referral bonus program. Let’s check them out further.
Betfair does not currently offer any no-deposit bonus.
In addition to the welcome bonus offered on the sportsbook, there’s a referral program run by Betfair. The Betfair Refer & Earn offer is open to all Betfair customers who have previously deposited with a Debit Card. If you’re interested in this offer, you’ll need to opt in and share your referral code with new users who don’t already have a Betfair account. For each player you refer, you earn €10 each, and the maximum you can refer is five people. You’ll receive the reward once the person you referred registers with your code and places at least a bet worth €10. The good part is, they just have to place bets; it doesn’t matter if it’s on Sportsbook, Exchange, or Casino slots, it should just be done within their first 60 days of registration. Once your referral meets the requirements, you get the reward within 24 hours.
At the time of this review, Betfair did not have any event-specific bonuses.
There are no mobile-exclusive bonuses on the Betfair app. The bonuses available are those you’ll find on the website.
At the time of our review, Betfair did not have a loyalty program.
Registration on Betfair will only take about 5 minutes to complete. Here’s a practical step-by-step guide:
Visit Betfair’s website, and you’ll see a page that looks just like this. Click on the “Join now” button at the top of the homepage.
On this registration page, you need to input your full name, gender, email address, and security question. There’s also a deposit limit menu. Fill in as required and click on the sign-up button.
After clicking sign up, you get to choose your contact preference. Complete as required, or skip to move to the next step.
Here, you have to verify your email and phone number. Codes will be sent to your email and registered phone number. Input the code nd you can move to the next step.
To have complete access to every feature of this bookmaker, you need to verify your account with either a driver’s licence, a passport, or a national ID card.
Betfair has an exchange and sportsbook section. These 2 sections each have over 25 sports. The sportsbook section covers top tournaments like Football, horse racing, tennis, and basketball, as well as Irish-specific tournaments like Gaelic sports and horse racing. Some of the top sports available on Betfair’s sportsbook are:
Here we focus more on the betting tools available on the sportsbook section of Betfair, and they include:
All of these betting tools are available on Betfair. Some can be accessed in the pre-match section, while others are available on both pre-match and in-play markets. You can check them out.
Betfair’s sportsbook has an in-play betting section that supports live matches on sports like Soccer, Tennis, Cricket, Table Tennis, Esports, Volleyball, and Handball. The live betting section includes cashout, bet builder, and live stats. Also, you’ll find a robust live streaming service for different sports, including horse racing, tennis, cricket, and esports. You need to log in before you can access the live streams, and it works just fine. We didn’t experience any lag, and the quality is high.
We conducted an odds competitiveness test on Betfair’s sportsbook. To do this test, we selected a few matches from several events under football and basketball. The average margin on football matches came out over 7% which is high and less favourable to players. We did the same test for a few basketball matches, and the average came out around 6% which is also on the high side. Odds on sportsbooks are less competitive, but if you want more competitive odds, it’s best if you explore the exchange section of the bookmaker. There, you have better odds and more control.
Betfair has about 10 payment channels, and most of them support both deposits and withdrawals. Deposits and withdrawals are fast, and the minimum deposit €5, while withdrawals minimum withdrawal is as low as €5. There’s no limit to the amount you can withdraw, and all the payments are made in EUR; cryptocurrency payments are not supported.
Here’s a table showing the payment options available on Betfair.
These are some of the most reliable payment methods you’ll find in Ireland. If you encounter any issues while trying to make a deposit or withdraw funds, you can reach out to customer support, and you’ll be assisted.
Betfair has dedicated mobile apps for Android and iOS users. The apps are available for download on the Google Play Store and the App Store, with over 1 million downloads already. The apps are among the top-rated betting apps in Ireland, with the Android app having a 4.3-star rating while the iOS app has a 4.7-star rating out of 5. The apps work just as well as the website, and they contain all of the website features with an exclusive push notification feature. Like most players, we prefer playing on the app because of the convenience and speed that it offers.
Betfair has only one customer support channel, which is the live chat support. To access this support, you’ll have to log in to your account. The live chat support is not clearly stated on the homepage. To access it, you’ll have to navigate to the help menu at the top of the homepage. The live chat support sometimes takes over 5 minutes to respond to enquiries. Which is why we even prefer to use the FAQ section, and if we still don’t get answers to our enquiries, then we proceed with the live chat support. This, in our opinion, is a downside, and the bookmaker will need to do better when it comes to customer support.
Most licensed bookmakers in Ireland take responsible gambling seriously. As a matter of fact, it’s made mandatory for licensed bookmakers to have them integrated into their sites. Betfair has 7 responsible gambling tools. These tools are:
In addition to these responsible gambling tools, Betfair still has support organization links to help players struggling with gambling addiction get help. These organizations include Gamble Aware and GamCare. Betfair is a strong advocate of responsible gambling, and they require that new players set a limit on their accounts during registration. If you ever find yourself struggling with gambling, you should reach out to these organisations.
To give you a more balanced perspective, we checked through many users’ reviews just to know how they feel about this bookmaker. The reviews show that many players like the idea of having an exchange and sportsbook on the same website. Others have openly commended the multiple betting features on the betting site. Meanwhile, there were a few negative comments that showed there’s room for improvement. Some of the complaints are the unavailability of sport-specific bonuses like Best Odds Guaranteed (BOG) and the lack of understanding of customer support. Let’s take a look at what some players have to say about Betfair.
Dennis Bishop (2/5) Trustpilot
“Absolutely atrocious customer service. I had a simple question about a bonus and was met with canned responses and a clear lack of understanding from the support agent. It took three different attempts and being bounced between departments to even get close to an answer, and even then, it was vague and unhelpful.”
Roger Og (4/5) Trustpilot
“Betfair is recommended.
I’ve been using Betfair for a few years, and I recommend it. The key thing for me is the Exchange. Odds just seem to be better than anywhere else, and the ability to dip in and out of plays when an event is in-play gives you more control. Customer support has always been helpful, and I’ve never had an issue cashing out. The only drawback is one that also affects other betting sites. It is not always possible to get live video feeds for your favourite events.”
The Betfair casino section contains over 2,000 casino games. The slots section contains most of the games, and some of the most played slots are Big Bass Splash, Buffalo Blitz, Eye of Horus, Book of Dead, and Cleopatra. Betfair’s casino section table games include roulette, blackjack, game shows, baccarat, and poker.
The providers of Betfair’s casino games are:
Betfair has a live casino section where you’ll find some of the top live casino games. Betfair’s live casino games include live roulette, live baccarat, live blackjack, live poker, and several live game shows. The live casino games are of high quality, and we didn’t have any issues testing them.
Betfair has 2 bonuses for casino players. One for new players and the other for existing players. The new player offer is 50 free spins, which is given when you spend €10 on eligible games. While the other bonus is a daily free shot at the Jackpot. You can only play once per day for a chance to win part of the €1,000 that’s available daily. The bonuses have their specific rule; you should check them out so you understand the requirements.
Betfair has a search button that makes it easy to find games. If you know the name of the game you want to play, you can just search it out with this feature.
Some of the things we love about Betfair are the combination of sportsbook and exchange. It just appeals to all types of players. There’s something for both experienced and new players. The sportsbook section contains many features that make betting easy. Betfair covers enough sports, and the sports betting market for pre-match and in-play markets is very advanced. The bookmaker has a robust responsible gambling section, and one feature we particularly like is the search button at the top of the homepage. With it, you can easily search teams, competitions, races, and events.
Some of the things that appear to be the downside of this bookmaker are the unavailability of multiple bonuses because some players are drawn to that, and the unavailability of multiple customer support channels. Other than that, Betfair is the kind of bookmaker that can cater to all types of players. We recommend this bookmaker for players who are not so concerned about bonuses and just want to enjoy many games with advanced features.
