Betfred was founded in 1967 by Fred and Peter Done as a single betting shop. They did so with the proceeds from heavily backing England to win the World Cup in 1966.
Betfred is licensed by the Government of Gibraltar and regulated by the Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner.
Betfred has expanded to become one of the largest global independent bookmakers, with over 1300 betting shops. They launched their website in 2004, and it is one of the most user-friendly platforms. The site is also available via app and is packed with existing user offers, as well as a generous welcome offer, making it well worth a look.
The team here at BetBrothers has heavily researched Betfred, and all you need to know is included in this review.
Betfred Group Holdings Limited is based in Birchwood, Warrington, Cheshire. Founded in Salford in 1967, then known as “Done Bookmakers”. The name Betfred wasn’t used until 2004 when Betfred.com was launched.
They also have a licence with the UKGC and all the standards imposed for UK compliance also applies to Irish customers. This means several regulators are constantly reviewing Betfred to ensure it complies with gambling laws and regulations.
On occasion, the Gambling Commissioner has fined Betfred for failing to adhere to its anti-money laundering and social responsibility policies.
At the time of this review, Betfred offers odds on 23 different sports (including Gaelic Football and Hurling). All the major sports are there, but Betfred doesn’t cover the more minor, more niche sports (at least not all of them).
Betfred has a terrific welcome offer for new users. The €50 free bet offer is the best value on their site. With regular Bet and Get offers and many other existing customer offers, which we will detail below, their bonus offerings are as good as you will find online.
Their promotions page is easy to find and very user-friendly, with each offer having a clear link to its terms and conditions.
Except for the welcome offer, most don’t require a code to receive the bonus, and their other conditions are straightforward and clearly outlined in the terms and conditions.
You must enter the code before making your first deposit, and only Debit card deposits qualify for this offer.
After registering, you have 7 days to make a deposit and settle your qualifying bet.
The qualifying bet can be used on any sport, except for Virtual Sports and Totepool. Also, if you cash out your qualifying bet, it won’t count.
Your Free Bets will be added within 10 hours of your qualifying bet settling. They come in 3 x €10 Free Bets for any Sportsbook Market and 2 x €10 Accumulators (4+ selections).
Once credited, you will have 7 days to use your Free Bets. There are no wagering requirements on winnings from your free bet, but remember you won’t get to keep the €10 stakes; they will be removed whether the bet wins or loses.
Betfred usually has existing customer Bet and Get offers at least once a week.
The majority of the time, if you place a €10 in-play bet on a specific event or match, you qualify for a €5 in-play free bet on another selected match. While reviewing, we came across this offer on a wide range of sports.
Although the new user promotion requires you to enter a code, most of their other offers work automatically if you place a qualifying bet correctly. There is no wagering on winnings, but there are usually minimum odd requirements when placing a qualifying bet so be sure to read each offer’s terms and conditions in full before placing any bets.
Betfred often offers special promotions during major sporting events. The amount of Price Boosts increases, and small free spin offers are frequently available on a slot that is related to the event in progress.
For example, at the time of writing this review, Royal Ascot was taking place, and there was an offer to claim 5 free spins to use on Frankie Dettori’s Sporting Legends slot.
Rather than creating new promotions explicitly for the event, their regular and semi-regular promotions are based around that event. So, the Beat Fred offer we explained earlier will be six horse racing questions as Royal Ascot is happening.
If there was a Premier League Darts match happening, the Bet €10 and get €5 free bet would likely be that you have to place a €10 in-play bet on a semi-final match to get a free bet on the final.
Betfred does not have any regular Mobile betting offers, but its app features a promotions page, where you can find all the same promotions as on the desktop site.
Betfred doesn’t have a loyalty or VIP programme linked to their sportsbook. The closest thing they have is allowing you to link your account to a Rewards4Racing account. Here, you can earn points to purchase race day tickets.
As explained earlier, the welcome offer can be used for any sport except virtual or tote betting. Most other bonuses are free bets for specific events. If your free bet is showing on your account but is not appearing in your betslip after you have clicked on odds to bet on, you are most likely trying to bet on an event for which the free bet is unavailable.
There are numerous regular new offers available at Betfred, so ensure your account is set up to receive communications from Betfred. To check this, click on your balance and click on account settings from the menu that appears. From here, you can edit your marketing preferences.
Because each offer is unique, it’s essential to review the terms carefully. The Bet and Get offers, probably the most common, are for certain games and are often in-play, so you will have a tiny window to place your free bet before it expires. If you miss the match or let a bonus expire it will be automatically removed.
Betfred does not offer a bonus or reward for referring friends to join their Sportsbook.
To create an account at Betfred, follow the steps below.
Click on one of the Betfred links on this page. This will direct you to the Betfred homepage, where you need to click on the green ‘Join’ link in the top right corner.
You will be taken to the first registration page, where you must input your email address, select a username and password, and tick to confirm that you are over 18. Click continue
Next, you will need to enter your name, date of birth, and click ‘Continue.’ Then, follow with your phone number and select a security question, and click ‘Continue.’
Next, you will need to input your address. First, click the ‘outside the UK’ link, then input your full address and click ‘Continue’.
On the final page, you can set your marketing preferences, choose between British Pound or Euro, set up the safer gambling features, deposit limit, and reality check if you wish to. Make sure the code IRISH50 is in the promo code box and click the Register button.
Most of the time, Betfred won’t require you to verify your account when you join unless they have failed to verify you when you register electronically. It is possible, however, they will ask you for further documents, usually a driving license or passport. If requested, you should email the documents to verify@betfredsecure.com or use Live Chat. It’s essential to do this as you won’t be able to withdraw until you are verified.
If you forget your username/ password in the future, click the login button on the home page, and you will see the option “I Forgot my login details.” Select whether you have forgotten your username, password, or both, and enter your email address. You will receive an email with instructions on how to retrieve or reset the information.
If you wish to close your account at any time, simply contact their customer service team, and they will assist with the process.
To ensure the safety of your data, they perform annual PCI-DSS assessments. PCI-DSS enforces rigorous security controls. They also conduct annual independent security audits.
If you suspect your account has been hacked, you should immediately contact Befred customer services and follow their advice.
Betfred covers all Irish horse racing, and Gaelic Football and Hurling have their own dedicated sections. If you are a rugby fan, there were odds for the United Rugby Championship. The national tournaments, such as the Rugby World Cup and Six Nations, are also covered. Finally, if you’re a soccer fan, odds were available on all the major leagues, as well as the Irish Premier and First Division.
We also found a section on transfer betting offering odds on where some of the top football players may make a transfer to during the current window.
Live betting is available, offering a wide range of options and sports to choose from. The design is user-friendly and easy to navigate around the site.
To place a bet, you have to find the market you wish to bet on and then click on the odds. The bet should then appear in your bet slip. As you add more bets, it tells you the type of bet you are placing, what the combined odds are, and, of course, the amount you will be paid if your bet wins.
Bet Builders are heavily featured, and you will also find some pre-selected bet builders with price boosts.
There are no Esports markets currently at Betfred, although we understand there are plans to add markets soon. Virtual Sports has its own section where you can bet on Horses, Greyhounds, Speedway, Cycling, Tennis, Motor racing and Darts.
Betfred offers a massive live betting section that covers a wide range of sports. Betfred gives you the option to cash out live bets.
The odds are updated in real-time, although we found it frustrating how often they changed. When selecting a bet and clicking to confirm it, it would take at least 10-12 seconds to place a bet, and often, the odds had changed, so we had to try again. There were also times when odds on a match were suspended for longer than expected compared to other sites.
When we conducted this review, there were 13 sports to bet on in play, but only one had live streaming: tennis. We tried to watch a match, and although the feed was running smoothly, the picture quality was poor. However, we did like the software that gave us continuous updates on what was happening live in the match.
There were plenty of options to be on live. As you would expect, some sports had more depth than others, but overall, this was good.
There were no options to choose favourites to customise your in-play experience, although as it is designed well, it’s easy to get quickly to where you want to go.
Most types of bets were still available in play, but bet builders were not.
The margin of profit a bookmaker intends to make can be worked out. The higher the betting margin on a bet, the more they are potentially making. This often differs when comparing different sports and indeed differs between different bookmakers.
First, we will show you the margin that Betfred is making on a few fixtures across various sports. As you can see, the results are similar, but they are making the most on the GAA-Football in this example
Next, we will show you how Betfred’s odds compare to some other sites. We compared all these fixtures simultaneously. As you can see, Betfred has better odds than Boylesports in all three events, but Netbet has slightly better odds than Betfred in two of the events.
Betfred allows you to view odds in three formats, Decimal, Fractional or American. You can choose your preference in the Account Settings. If you are unsure exactly what the odds mean, the bet slip will calculate for you exactly how much you will win. To do this, simply select your bet and enter a stake, and the amount you win is automatically generated.
Once you have placed your bet you will have the option to cash out before the event ends if you wish to do so.
Betfred do price boosts on most sports. Once you have selected a game, if there are any, they should appear. These are not on the standard win/lose/draw markets.
The chart below lists all the primary payment methods available for use at Betfred. Once logged in, a Deposit option will appear next to your balance on the home page. To deposit, click the deposit link, which will take you to the deposit page. From here, you can choose your preferred deposit method. Enter the amount you wish to deposit. The minimum is €5 and the maximum is €20000. There are never any depositing fees, no matter which method you choose, and any deposit should be instantly applied to your Betfred balance, except for Bank Transfer, which can take 1-2 days.
The chart below also shows the withdrawal methods available at Betfred. Their processing times are swift. Visa and Mastercard should take no more than 4 hours. Other methods within 6 hours. They suggest contacting them if you have not received your funds after 12 hours. There are no withdrawal fees for any of the payment options. The minimum you can withdraw is €5 and the maximum is €20000. Just bear in mind that if you have been asked to verify your account and haven’t done so yet, you won’t be able to withdraw.
The app itself is very similar to the site, so if you’re used to the desktop, you’ll find it very easy to use. If you are not a fan of downloading apps, the main website has been optimised for mobile use.
You can use the app to place bets, including in-play and cash out. You can also deposit, withdraw, and participate in their promotions just like you can on the site’s desktop version. The odds on the app and desktop are updated simultaneously, so you will find the same odds at both.
If you wish to download the app, head to the Google Play Store or Apple Store, depending on your device.
If you have an issue with your account, you should contact Betfred customer support by clicking on the help button in the left-hand corner of the home page. This will bring up the Help & Support box. Here you will firstly find the most popular FAQs and the option to search their help section. Or select the category your issue concerns, which will bring up several FAQs on that area.
If you can’t find the answer in the FAQ section, then click on the Contact Us tab. Here you will be offered three options. Firstly, there is live chat. Which is an automated bot to begin with, but you will be put through to a member of their customer support team if the bot can’t help. This is available 24/7.
Next, you have the option to send them a contact form, and they will reply via email within 48 hours. When we tested this, we got an email reply within 12 hours. Their third option is to contact them via letter, and there is a postal address. Although not mentioned on their ‘Contact Us‘ page, you can email them at support@betfred.com. We suspect this is not mentioned as they prefer you to use the contact us form.
Betfred actively promotes responsible gaming. The home page has several links to its safer gambling section, and once logged in, you can access its tools from the My Account section.
You can set a Deposit Limit, which can be daily, weekly, or monthly. Any reduction will take effect immediately if you decide to change your limit, but any increase will be implemented after 24 hours.
Other tools include a reality check that reminds you how long you’ve been playing. This can be set to remind you every 15, 30, 60, 120, or 240 minutes. There is also a timeout feature that will ban you from accessing your account for one day, one week, one month, or six weeks. Finally, you can self-exclude yourself for a minimum of six months up to five years.
They have a Self-Assessment Questionnaire that will rate your gambling risk once completed.
Finally, if you need help and support, Betfred suggests contacting them or one of the companies dedicated to providing assistance to people. These include links to GambleAware, GamCare and Gamblers Anonymous.
Betfred has been around for a while and has nearly 10,000 reviews on Trustpilot, with a score of 3.1/5. Although this sounds very average, upon reviewing the comments, we found that the majority of negative reviews were from individuals complaining about losing money on slots, suggesting their RTP was lower than claimed. We have found this to be a common complaint across all sportsbooks with casinos and suspect it is simply due to people who have lost money and are angry, thereby leaving negative reviews.
We found very few complaints about people not receiving bonuses or being banned from claiming bonuses, which is a good sign. The only slight concern was that there were a few negative reviews regarding the speed of the live chat feature. Betfred had responded to 99% of the negative reviews and offered further assistance to customers who had left negative reviews. There are significantly more positive reviews about fast payout times than complaints about slow payments, which is another positive sign. The app’s both have very positive reviews from customers, as we mentioned earlier
Betfred has a decent range at its Casino. In total, there are over 2000 games to choose from, as well as a large number of slots. They also have standard casino games and a live casino, and offer lotto, bingo and poker.
Like most casinos, Betfred has a few slots exclusive just to them, but also has slot types like Lucky Tap, Rapid Jackpots, Drop & Win and Megaways.
There is also a range of around 40 table games, including numerous versions of Roulette and Blackjack, as well as a couple of Poker and Baccarat options.
The games are provided by the top names in the gambling software industry, including Playtech, Blueprint, Big Time Gaming, Pragmatic Play and Inspired.
Betfred also features a live casino section, which includes the regular games you would expect to find, such as Roulette, Blackjack, Baccarat, and Game shows, all of which have their own dedicated sections. There is also a section called Live from Vegas, which will have a video feed to tables in various Las Vegas casinos. Playtech seems to provide the software for all of their live games. Stakes for Blackjack can be as low as €1 and Roulette can be as low as €0.20.
If you prefer the app, everything is available on here, and as we have mentioned already, the app is highly rated.
Just like their sportsbook, the casino is packed with ongoing offers for existing customers.
There is a weekly offer that allows you to accumulate free spins. You need to opt into the promotion, and for every £10 staked on slots, you get one free spin.
There is also a slots missions promotion, where you must opt in again. You will then have to play certain slots to get free spins.
There are also two daily mystery free spins promotions, the first of which requires you to log in each day and open a casino game, and you could be granted free spins. Or if you opt in to the upgraded version of the promotion and stake £10 the next day, you are guaranteed at least 10 spins, up to 100 spins.
There are regular short-term offers which usually involve staking £10 on a certain slot to get 5 or 10 free spins.
Winnings from any of these promotions are yours to keep and don’t need to be wagered.
We have already mentioned the free spins accumulator and free spins missions features available. In addition, Betfred have something called comp points. You earn 1 point for every £10 staked at the casino or live casino. You can convert these points into Cash, Free spins or Golden Chips.
Overall, we were very pleased with Betfred. They are indeed the Bonus Kings. With an excellent welcome offer and numerous new offers for existing customers, plenty is going on to keep your interest.
We found the website itself easy to navigate, which is essential as no search feature exists on the Sportsbook section. It’s not cluttered with information, and a simple A-Z sports list makes it easy to find the sport you’re looking for. Adding links to current major sporting events on the home page was also helpful.
We had no problems depositing or withdrawing. The My Account section contains all the tools you need to customise the site to your preferences, such as which marketing material to accept, through to how to display the odds.
We were a little disappointed to find only 23 sports, with many minor sports missing. We were also disappointed that no Esports were covered, although all the Irish sports were happily covered. The sports available offered a wide range of betting options, both pre-match and in-play.
The overall live betting experience was okay; it’s a little slow to place bets, and live streaming wasn’t the best we have experienced. Although the software provided to follow the games was good, there’s room for improvement. This didn’t spoil our overall experience, and we certainly would recommend getting a Betfred account if you don’t already have one.
