Online Bookmakers
In this section you'll find a list of all of the bookmakers which we feature on the site. This list, and the reviews contained within, specifically relates to sports betting - many of these bookies also have casinos, but that's not the focus of these reviews. For bookmakers with online casinos (or stand alone casino sites), see our casino section for more specialised information.
Top 10 Online Bookmakers
1. Coral
Coral reinvented itself a few years ago and fast became our favourite site. They've operated on the UK high street since the first half of the 20th century and now boast over 1,700 locations. And thanks to integration with their online platform you can even deposit and withdraw to your online Coral account in cash through one of their betting shops.
Their online site has a few tricks up it's sleeve as well, with a very handy search feature which will get you straight to the bet you want to place - something that most other bookies don't seem to have adopted, despite it being incredibly useful. Combine this with cash out, streaming and a host of other features and you have yourself a solid site.
18+ T&Cs apply #ad
2. Ladbrokes
Ladbrokes are another British high street bookmaker with a strong online product. Good odds, nice range of sports and bets and all the normal bells and whistles such as live streaming, in play betting and cash out. Plus, thanks to their acquisition of Betdaq they also offer a betting exchange built into the main Ladbrokes site.
Recently they've also significantly stepped up their game when it comes to offers and features and, in addition to their almost daily price boosts, they now offer a number of unique promotions.
Other novel additions include 'Edit My Acca' - where football accumulators can have legs removed after they've been placed. So if you start to doubt one or more of your selections, you can take them out part way through the bet. As far as we're away this is unique to Ladbrokes.
18+ T&Cs apply #ad
3. BetVictor
Known as the Gentleman Bookmaker, Victor Chandlers betting site offers everything you'll want from a bookie - very strong odds, good range of markets and penty of features. If you're a Liverpool fan you'll particularly want to take note as they were a sponsor of LFC between 2016 and 2019, something that encouraged them to offer a wide range of Liverpool bets that you couldn't find anywhere else.
In the offers department they don't run quite as many promotions as the others on the list, but they do have a few solid regulars.
Their strongest feature, however, is their odds. Without going to an exchange, BetVictor offer some of the best football odds you're going to come across on the web. So if odds are your main concern and you're not too bothered about offers, then grab yourself an account.
18+ T&Cs apply #ad
4. 10Bet
10Bet are a relatively new online-only bookie, but they're certainly trying their hardest to make a name for themselves.
In-play fans should take note - their live betting section is huge, with odds offered on events from around the world. They particularly like to boast about the sheer number of leagues and countries their football coverage includes, with over 12,000 live events a month from 150 leagues.
They offer a decent range of promotions on football, horse racing, tennis and various other sports.
18+ T&Cs apply #ad
5. Betfred
Betfred's 'bonus king' moniker should give you some kind of idea of what you're in for when signing up with this bookie. They love offers and run promotions on everything from football to snooker and lots in between - even bigger novelty and TV betting markets often get some kind of money back special on them.
Of particular interest is their long running 'double delight' promotion which pays out double on winning first goalscorer bets for a second goal by that player (and treble for a hat trick). And with big limits (max £5k) it can really make a difference to your bets. This has since been extended to cover other sports including rugby and american football as well.
Another interesting fact about Betfred is that they're a bit of a trendsetter when it comes to new markets and they were the first betting site to come up with the idea of the both teams to score market (through their Goals Galore coupon).
18+ T&Cs apply #ad
A History of Betting in the UK
The UK has a long history of betting and gambling, and though there is enough relevant material to fill a sizeable book, we will give a solid outline of the subject here. Modern Britain is one of the biggest regulated betting markets in the world and we intend to take a look back to how it all began. Starting in “ye olden days” we’ll make reference to the very earliest records of betting in the UK. There will no doubt be some very large jumps along the way but we intend to cover at least the main details of every major development in UK betting right up to the modern day.
As with many facets of life there has been, perhaps, more change in the last 50 years or so in from a gambling point of view than in the hundreds or even thousands of years that preceded it. What is certainly true, of course, is that our knowledge of the mid-20th century onwards and records for it are certainly more comprehensive. Nonetheless, our aim here is to start at the very beginning and then, via gambling’s first tentative steps, through the development of betting on horses, betting at trackside, the legalisation of betting shops and the football pools, steadily move forward in time to the present-day world of online betting and mobile betting.
Of course, many of the areas we touch upon here are covered in greater detail elsewhere on this site, four example our football bets article or our piece on horse racing betting. As such this feature seeks to cover the subject in its full breadth, yet in only limited depth.
The Origins of Gambling
Unsurprisingly what we know about the very earliest origins of gambling is somewhat patchy. That said, gambling is referenced in texts as early as the fourth century BC and there is certainly much to suggest that it existed long, long before then. It is easy to argue that it is in human nature to take chances and certainly the fact that gambling exists and has long done so in all four corners of the world definitely backs that up. It has also been argued that a speculative mentality has had certain evolutionary benefits in the development of humankind… but that’s another article altogether.
Back to the matter in hand; it is claimed by some that the first evidence of gambling can be found in China, as early as 2,300 BC. Tiles that are believed to have been used to play a game of chance suggest that gambling is more than 4,000 years old, although some scholars believe it is probably even older. Dice were, in fact, discovered in an Egyptian tomb dated at around 3,000 BC, although we can say with far more certainty that ancient Greeks and Romans gambled. Whether on games of pure chance, or on those of skill, people – so history shows us – like to gamble.
Playing cards in some form or other were developed in the ninth century, in China, whilst one could argue that the first casino game was invented in the 1400s. There is evidence to support the idea that a variation of modern baccarat existed in Europe at this time, with blackjack (or variants of the game) being mentioned in literature in the late 16th century.
Early Gambling in the UK
Whilst gambling in some guises was definitely taking place far earlier in the UK, the earliest records with any great detail or certainty of gambling taking place on these shores date back to 1190. As with many aspects of British life, class was a significant factor, and there were fears that the upper classes could lose serious amounts of money or even their estates to the lower classes through gambling.
Whilst legislation to combat this possibility was not introduced until much later, in the late 12th century Richard I (The Lionheart) and his French counterpart Phillip felt the need to define more clearly who could and couldn’t gamble. Of course, at a time when kings were all-powerful, they were exempted from any such restrictions. However, it was decided that only noblemen could gamble, meaning that playing games for money was restricted to princes and the like, down to knights.
The first ever responsible gambling policy decreed that stakes were limited to 20 shillings in 24 hours, with a severe fine and harsh penalty for anyone who gambled any more than that limit.
Richard II introduced further legislation at the end of the 1300s which sought to restrict gambling, although the concerns were not moral or to do with property, but simply that games and betting on them was becoming too much of a distraction.
Further 'famous' gambling legislation came under the reign of Henry VIII in the 16th century. He told the clergy to “leave diceing and chasseing [chess was a popular gambling game at this time] un-done on pain of durance vile”.
Gambling Becomes Commercial
In these early days of gambling it was almost exclusively an activity that took place directly between the involved parties. Peer to peer betting came along a good while before betting exchanges! However, as urbanisation, industrialisation and the growth in the amount of available leisure time all took hold at the start of the 17th century, gambling became a more recognised recreation for many.
Betting on horse racing began to grow, as did lotteries. For most punters in the UK, the lottery started in 1994 and the idea that lotteries have existed for hundreds, let alone thousands of years would come as something of a surprise.
Whilst the earliest lotteries were used by the Romans to raise funds and Louis XIV (the Sun King) was a big fan in the 1700s, lotteries in the UK only really became national and widespread in 1694, with private lotteries being made illegal in 1721.
Lotteries at this time were primarily state fundraisers, designed to either help reduce debt, or else generate revenue for a specific purpose. The British Museum was built partly on the back of lottery funding.
However, tickets were far too expensive for the common man. And this is where commercialisation first comes in. Entrepreneurial folk realised they could buy tickets and then sell fractions of them on to poorer people in exchange for a proportionate return of any prize. Brokers took a cut, of course, but this type of lottery then becomes a little closer to the modern variant, with a commercial entity seeking to profit.
Horse Racing
Horse racing has a history almost as long as that of gambling itself, however, both truly took off together in the UK during the period that started as early as the 1500s, with both experiencing steady growth from then. James I set up Newmarket as a centre of British racing and Charles II expanded this as organised horse racing really began to flourish under royal patronage.
Whilst betting on races took place at this time it was restricted to the upper classes and was generally a straight 'match bet' – one horse against another. There were no bookmakers and no commercial aspect. The connections of one horse simply bet against the connections of another, or perhaps friends would wager against each other, both picking a horse.
In the 19th century, however, following a period in which horse racing and betting on races swept the nation, we see the emergence of bookmakers. Tattersalls was launched in 1789 with the aim to bring order and regulation to betting on horses. The Jockey Club had been founded 37 years earlier and brought codified rules to the sport and now Tattersalls hoped to do similar with regards betting.
As said, at this stage, betting was predominantly between two people, although sweepstake races also emerged as the first multi-horse races. Where previously betting was simply one horse against another in a two-horse race, in sweepstakes a number of horses would compete, with each owner putting forward a stake which was pooled to offer a prize for the winner.
The first three British Classics grew from such races, with the oldest, the St Leger, being formed in 1776, the Oaks coming three years later, and the Derby being first run the following year in 1780. These races proved hugely popular and whilst contests with just two horses did not facilitate the services of a bookmaker particularly well, this new breed of racing certainly did.
Perhaps laying claim to be the first bookmaker in the world, Richard Tattersall, who had run a horse dealership for some time, opened a 'subscription room' in 1789. Here ante post bets were placed and whilst Tattersall himself did not lay the bets, his roll was crucial.
From these beginnings, bookmaking in a form we would recognise it today took shape. Multi-horse races were at the centre of that. Gradually horse race wagering moved from matched betting on two horses, through to 'one with the field' betting (essentially a bet on the favourite or the field as a binary choice) and finally to a modern system where odds were offered for each and every horse in the race.
Having said that Tattersall may stake a claim to be the world’s first bookmaker, we now make a more convincing argument for William Ogden to be awarded that title. Tattersall was effectively an offline betting exchange, facilitating bets but Ogden, who was based in Newmarket, is widely held to have first used the modern odds structure to take bets in 1790. By offering odds on all horses in a race and varying those odds to shape trade, Ogden essentially invented modern bookmaking.
Gambling Backlash
It is hard to overstate just how popular gambling in the UK was for much of the second half of the second millennium. Gambling was popular with all classes and took many different guises. Industrialisation meant people had more disposable income and as the concepts of free time, recreation and leisure were formed, gambling became yet more popular.
Be it betting on horses, wagering between friends on games of chance or skill, betting on animals, for example cockfighting, betting on human contests such as bare-knuckle boxing, or wagering in the gaming houses that offered luxurious surroundings and were the earliest casinos, betting in the UK was massive and commercial.
However, there were those, of course, who opposed it. Gambling through the ages has been resisted on various grounds. These include such accusations that it distracts the masses from their roles as workers, that it is morally corrupting, that it could lead to the middle classes losing wealth and status and that it accompanies other sins, such as drinking and fighting.
There were various movements against gambling throughout its growth in the 1800s and onwards, including the National Anti-Gambling League. Earlier, in 1844 the House of Lords Select Committee on Gaming looked into the issues around gambling. A year later the Gaming Act was introduced and among its many elements was that it rendered gaming and gambling contracts null and void. As such bets were essentially unenforceable and did not represent legally binding contracts. Perhaps amazingly this remained in force until the 2005 Gambling Act was passed.
The idea behind this move was to remove government involvement from the settling of disputes relating to bets. It also aimed to remove state backing for a pastime (gambling) which was deemed to be counterproductive to the nation’s work ethic.
The Act also clarified the position between gambling and trading stocks and shares and also gave the police greater powers to deal with the gambling of the lower classes – whilst largely leaving those higher up the social scale free to gamble. The 1853 Betting Act went even further.
This complex-verging-on-impenetrable piece of legislation essentially made it very difficult for the working masses to gamble legally. However, with gambling in clubs and credit betting by correspondence (initially written and subsequently by telegraph and phone) untouched, richer bettors could continue to indulge their pastime.
The only commercial gambling that remained an option for the working class was trackside at race meetings. However, attending the races remained relatively expensive at this time and was largely a middle-class pursuit anyway.
As in modern times, be it with regards tax loopholes, cyber security or anything else, a game of cat and mouse ensued. The gambling prohibitionists thought they had won but gambling simply moved location. Initially some bookmakers relocated to Scotland, where betting houses weren’t prohibited until 1875, whilst others moved to Europe and took postal bets. However, the larger shift was away from betting houses and away from legality. Betting houses were illegal but street betting took their place … and then some.
Street Betting in the Pre-Betting Shop Years
In a time during which more people had more money than ever before, as well as defined working hours that included something of a weekend, this meant that life wasn’t one, long, never-ending cycle of work; hence the masses weren’t going to be deprived easily of one of their favoured pursuits.
Bookmakers operated semi-legally (at best) from private homes, buildings, shops and just about anywhere they could. They used “runners” to take the bets on the street, in peoples’ homes or at work (again, just about anywhere they could) and these same runners would deliver winnings back to the winning punters.
Another factor that supported this growth in sports betting was the emergence of the mass media and communication. As newspapers and subsequently radio developed and reported on sport, the interest in events - and their results - grew and this went hand in hand with an increase in betting on such events.
The aforementioned National Anti-Gambling League, founded at the end of the 19th century, had been unsuccessful in banning trackside betting at racecourses. However, they began to focus on the activities of the street bookmakers. Various attempts had been made previously but following a coordinated national campaign, the principled folk at the National Anti-Gambling League managed to force the creation of the Select Committee on Betting at the turn of the 20th century.
The Committee, replete with anti-gamblers, unsurprisingly reported that gambling was a major problem and access to it should be heavily restricted, especially for the poor. They petitioned for its removal from the public realm and wanted it restricted solely to trackside. They also made the failed but subsequently adopted recommendations that all bookies should be licensed and that a totalisator system (see our Totepool betting feature) should be introduced to provide an alternative to regular bookies.
In 1906 the Street Betting Act came into being and totally outlawed the practice of runners and street betting. Stats show that there was a rise in arrests for the activity and this, alongside anecdotal evidence, suggests that the Act did little to limit betting.
Prohibition, as found in many instances, rarely works when that which is prohibited is widely liked and demanded. And so it was with gambling, with the police reluctant to enforce the laws with any vigour, especially when taking bribes to look the other way was an easier and more enriching alternative.
In 1933 the Royal Commission on Lotteries and Betting made it clear that the anti-betting laws had failed. However, the Commission did not believe that legalising betting shops would be the right solution. Whilst accepting that neither the present nor past ideas of gambling control were efficient, the Commission’s recommendation did little to move things forward.
Liberalisation in UK Betting
Shortly after this, World War II came along. The pressing matter of the moustachioed Austrian, not to mention the establishment of the welfare state and National Health Service, meant that gambling reform was very much on the back burner.
In 1949 another Royal Commission was created and had as its focus the public mood. Old-fashioned morality and ideas were left behind in the post-war world and crucially, so cynics might say, there was something of a war-sized whole in the national finances that somehow needed filling.
Rather than try and oppose something that the majority of people wanted, or at worst were indifferent towards, the government came to view betting as a potential income source. The Commission argued that prohibition couldn’t work, that licensing and regulation were the way forward and that social and economic problems were not caused, to any great extent, by gambling.
This more liberal outlook was slow to translate into legislation and for a long time the semi-legal street betting continued. Some of the big high street giants and global betting brands have their roots in such activities.
Football Pools
One product we haven’t yet mentioned, that began in the 1920s, is the football pools. The pools, essentially the forerunners of modern football jackpot games, involved punters predicting games that would end in score draws (although other variants were available).
The first pools coupons were handed out at Old Trafford in 1923. At this time there was nothing else offering a large jackpot for a small stake. This was the main appeal of the pools, as well as the fact that they relied on a certain degree of skill and knowledge.
It was this latter factor that allowed them to avoid regulation under the various betting acts that would be passed over the years. As games of skill, not chance, they could be more widely offered, whilst the huge jackpots meant their popularity soared.
Even as recently as the 1990s as many as 10 million people 'did the pools'. The National Lottery, of which more later, would ultimately deliver a near-fatal blow to the pools and numbers dwindled to less than a 10th of that figure.
Despite its recent malaise there are plans to try and reinvigorate the pools. Come what may, for many the pools was, and for some still is, a cultural icon. Viv Nicholson’s vow to "spend, spend, spend" remains one of the most famous gambling quotes around and her example should have acted as a warning for future lottery winners. Of course, it didn’t.
1960 Onwards and Modern Gambling
It wasn’t until 1960 that the Betting and Gaming Act was passed in parliament and finally made fully legal a range of activities that had been going on for many years in the shadows of the law. On the 1st January the following year the Act came into law, initially making gambling for small amounts on games of skill legal. A reporter at the time commented that, "Weekly bridge clubs, meeting in the local hotel, will no longer have to settle up in the bus shelter." In addition, pubs were now also allowed to have fruit machines.
Later that year, in May, the first completely legal betting shops opened their doors. The number of applications for licenses was huge and by 1965, 16,000 were issued by magistrates in the UK. Penalties for illegal bookies were increased significantly and it was hoped that by bringing the industry out into the open, the government would have greater control, influence and, of course, be able to levy taxes.
One of the immediate affects this had was actually negative. Greyhound racing had long been a major staple of British working-class life. However, with punters now able to bet on the dogs – as well as a range of other sports and events – away from the track, attendances dropped sharply. In the 1960s alone around 30 greyhound tracks shut their doors, with a total of 91 National Greyhound Racing Club (NGRC) tracks closing in total between 1960 and 2010. With further closures of non-NGRC tracks, that means more than 100 greyhound venues have shut down since the Betting and Gaming Act 1960 was passed.
However, by and large the Act was deemed to be a success and much of it remained in force until very recently. There were various changes made by subsequent acts, with the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act (1963), 1968 Gaming Act and the Lotteries and Amusements Act 1976 all subsequently being passed.
However, in essence the gambling landscape in the UK changed relatively little from the 1960s until the advent of online gambling in the 1990s. The 1968 law was primarily introduced to ensure that any venue offering gambling had to be licensed and thus regulated. Prior to that many private venues offered casino games and it is estimated that there were more than 1,000 such 'casinos' in existence when the Act was introduced.
Throughout this period attitudes to gambling in Britain continued to become more relaxed. Those that argued it was morally corrupting were an ever-decreasing minority. The majority of people argued that either gambling was a valid and enjoyable leisure activity or, at the very least, that people should have the freedom to gamble if they wanted to.
Gambling and betting covered a wide range of activities, as it still does today. The precise things people think constitutes gambling varies enormously. The strictest of interpretations may even view insurance and similar financial products, including Premium Bonds, as forms of gambling. However, there is no doubt that from the football pools to bingo, from a trip to the dogs to a bet on the football and from a game of blackjack in a casino to a game of penny pushers at the seaside, the UK was, and still is, very much a nation of gamblers. And as we approach the present day, another huge gambling development would emerge.
The National Lottery
As we have discussed, lotteries have a long, long history. However, the National Lottery Act 1993 paved the way for a revolutionary new betting product to be launched the following year.
The National Lottery was first played on the 19th November 1994. Whilst its launch wasn’t up there with 'where were you' moments such as the moon landing, many will indeed remember that first draw more than 20 years ago. The seven jackpot winners certainly will, with each one taking home more than £800,000.
A staggering 49 million tickets were sold for that first draw, more than one per person in the UK (of eligible buying age). In the first year alone more than £400m was given to a range of causes from the proceeds of the lottery. Anyone who watched any post-event interview with a British athlete at the Rio Olympics will have no doubt heard thanks being given to lottery funding. There can be no disputing the fact that the money raised by the National Lottery has indeed revolutionised British sport and done wonders for the arts.
Of course, whilst some have mockingly labelled the lottery as no more than a tax, it remains hugely popular, attracted by the huge potential jackpots. Cynics may take the opposing view that, based on the current jackpot odds of around 45 million to one, you are more likely to be killed in a plane crash. Four times more likely in fact.
Stats aside, the National Lottery, despite various controversies and changes, remains a hugely popular bet for those in the UK, even if many players do not view their actions as gambling. As with the pools before it, the National Lottery is a cultural touchstone that has spawned numerous films, dramas, documentaries and tales of both woe and joy.
The 2005 Gambling Act and the Online Future
There were many reasons that the 2005 Gambling Act (which came into law on 1st September 2007) was needed and one of those related to the National Lottery. Many in the gambling industry argued that they were operating on an uneven playing field. It was felt that whilst the lottery was working with very lax regulation, the rest of the sector had to work to far more stringent codes of conduct. Ad hoc deregulation followed but as this happened it became abundantly clear that the existing laws were outdated, especially with regards to technology and online gambling.
In the mid-1990s online gambling took its first steps and few could have predicted what a meteoric rise it would have over the next 20 years or so. One of the main things the Act did was move regulation of gambling from the Gaming Board for Great Britain to the Gambling Commission, the latter of which was established by the Act. In addition, licensing was moved from the magistrates’ courts to the various local authorities.
The Act’s other stated objectives were to protect children and the vulnerable from gambling (more of an issue in an online world), prevent any connection between gambling and crime (causal links both ways and also to stop one funding the other); and lastly to ensure that gambling is conducted fairly and in a transparent manner.
In the new gambling landscape, the old regulation left much to be desired and so the new laws were designed specifically with online gambling in mind, as well as taking into account the offshore nature of these activities and developments such as Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs). FOBTs have been hugely controversial over the years and this was the first time they had really become to be treated any differently from normal fruit machines.
Whether legislation is able to keep pace with the developments in online and other forms of gambling remains to be seen. But the UK government is sure to keep trying to both regulate and profit from the gambling industry for as long as it thrives; and there are certainly no signs that betting in the UK is getting any less popular.