Betfred are a much loved high street bookmaker who have been running betting shops in the UK since the 1960’s. Their online offering represents the full suite of gaming products covering casino, bingo, poker, lottery and, of course, a heavy dollop of sports.
Sports
Casino
Bingo
Poker
About Betfred
Betfred are one of the most iconic brands in the online gambling sector. The company were famously founded by brothers Fred and Peter Done in 1967 and started life on the high streets where they still very much operate.
They are based out of Salford, England and are one of few bookmakers not to uproot the company and shift to foreign shores in search for softer tax laws. Whilst this option would have almost definitely been discussed at some point by the powers that be, the decision to remain in the UK has meant that they are seen as a very British brand, with both brothers picking up awards for services to UK business.
Betfred had seen some of the biggest growth in the history of online bookmaking. In 2003 the company announced that they had seen revenue reach an all-time high of £550 million, but just twelve months later they announced that this number had reached an astronomical amount of £3.5 Billion.
What’s been impressive to see from Betfred is that they have always been a forward thinking bookmaker and one that has continued to grow. This was highlighted in 2011 when they bought The Tote for £265 Million in an attempt to revive what was in all fairness a dying sector of the gambling industry. As a result, Betfred pledged to plough over £150 Million into the horse racing sector over the next 7 years. On top of this, Betfred, have been associated with the likes of Wembley Stadium, Haydock Park, Kempton Park, Nottingham Greyhound Stadium, Ovlerton Stadium, World Snooker Championship and many more sport events and venues.
High Street Betting Shops
Betfred are still one of the most popular high street bookmakers, still running a vibrant shop community with stores ranging up and down the UK. In total they have around 1,300 stores, with the majority based around Liverpool, Manchester and London. Whilst this isn’t as many as the likes of Ladbrokes and Coral, the company are easily within the biggest in terms of market share for high street bookmakers.
The company’s acquisition of The Tote has been one of the biggest success stories for the shops. As many of the older generation of gambling still like to use betting shops such as Betfred, The Tote is usually linked with the same sort of generation. As punters were keen to see how Betfred were going to revive this once mainstream form of betting, Betfred picked up a mass of new punters of the back of this purchase and in turn, revived several betting shops owned by The Tote and also within existing Betfred stores.
What’s been impressive to see from Betfred is that the number of stores that they host across the UK are continuing to offer new features. The company were of the first to offer fixed odds betting terminals and they have targeted promotions linked with their online site, for punters coming through their betting shop doors.
Betfred is a fast-growing bookmaker that is now one of the biggest players around. Their origins stem from a single shop in Salford, from which Fred Done started out with his brother Peter in 1967. They now operate over 1350 bricks and mortar shops, employ over 8500 people and are one of the biggest horse racing sponsors going, as well as having close links to other sports.
Headquarters are in Lancashire but the company is technically owned by Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited and is licensed and regulated by the government of Gibraltar and Gambling Commission.
They are a huge company, offering the full gaming experience, from sports betting and casino to poker, bingo and games. Staying true to Fred’s Manchester United-supporting roots they are particularly strong on football but cover just about every other sport too.
Odds & Markets
You know that when you use any of the most established bookmakers in the industry, you are going to be getting around the best price going. Betfred is no different and they have managed to price just about every market that we tested right up with the best. Whilst they stand out on an ‘overall’ level in that they just do everything really solid, Betfred are probably best utilised for markets such as Goals Galore and Double Delight, where you will often find a sizeable increase in odds with these types of bets over the competition.
The market coverage probably lets Betfred down somewhat, and holds them back from becoming one of the top 3 bookmakers in the industry. They have a huge emphasis on football and horse racing, which isn’t uncommon, but it kind of overrides the rest of the site for us. Don’t get us wrong, if you want to bet on tennis, golf, cricket, American sports and more, you definitely can do, with the market coverage being more than reasonable, but compared to the likes of be365 and Coral, the bookmaker doesn’t quite reach those standards.
Features
As mentioned, Betfred are a huge company and accordingly they offer all the little extras that make the best bookmakers what they are. Customer service, whilst not always the most knowledgeable out there, is available 24/7 by all the usual methods, including live chat.
There is a reasonable but not exhaustive online FAQ and help section, as well as an excellent stats facility for football fans called the Football Analyser. This gives loads of information on upcoming matches and helps you highlight value. Racing fans will enjoy the interactive race cards whilst there is live commentary of a number of sports, including football and horse racing.
The site itself is nicely designed, quick and easy on the eye, whilst the in-play console and mobile site are also far better than average. Overall Betfred is a really top notch bookie with great free bets and promotions and very solid odds.
IN PLAY BETTING
As one of the biggest bookmakers in the world, you would expect Betfred to have a more than adequate in play betting section, and that’s exactly what they have! Once you get over the poorly designed website, the content that is on offer is really top notch. They cover a huge number of games from around the globe with football and it’s here where you are going to be most impressed with this section of the sportsbook.
Out side of football you get a good, but not quite as good range with other sports, but the likes of tennis, basketball, American football and ice hockey should all get welcomed mentions, with great sections for each.
LIVE STREAMING
The live streaming section is one of the newest additions to the bookmaker and with this you’re going to be able to watch live games from football, tennis, basketball and many more throughout the channel. To access this section you simply need a funded Betfred account and away you go. You can also gain access to live streams of dozens of horse races each day from their access to At The Races, but for this you will need to have wagered at least £1 on that race to view it.
CASH OUT
Cash out is now on offer from Betfred as well, meaning that you can access this section with just about any bet that you place on site. All games that are accessible for this function are highlighted with a cash out symbol, so you should never really be in doubt either way. The pricing is also considered to be one of the best with Betfred, with reports that punters are getting a better cash out offer than most of their competitors.
The Betfred casino is part of one of the world’s largest gambling outlets. Betfred have been around since 1967 and in that time there is pretty much nothing that the company haven’t achieved. The success of the casino, which opened it doors in 2005, has been another crowning moment of this incredible gambling brand.
What’s been impressive to see from Betfred is their willingness to keep improving. There’s little doubt that sports betting is the companies priority and it’s fair to say that their casino room isn’t and probably never will be one of the biggest in the industry, but it’s a more than solid option for most and perfect for anyone looking to combine sports betting with casino games.
Software And Platform
Betfred actually use a surprisingly few number of software providers for their online casino. These providers include Finsoft, IGT / Wagerworks and Playtech. Whilst the number may be on the low side, they still include some great names and in turn, are able to provide some fantastic casino games throughout.
The limited number of software providers means that Betfred are one of very few these casinos these days that offer a download version of their product. On top of that you are also going to be able to access the casino via your desktop on both Mac and Windows devices. The mobile app can also be accessed by your smartphones browser or if you prefer you can download via the App Store for iOS devices.
The site comes complete with a fair amount of features as well, such as the search function allow you to quickly find the game that you are after. It also highlights exactly which games can be accessed on the app as well, which enables you quickly jump over the app if you wish and still access your game of choice.
Casino Games
In total the casino includes 240 games across the board, which is a bout middle ground for most online casinos. The casino does tent to add in several new games every week though, which is always a positive and these can all be accessed from the ‘New Games’ tab within the casino.
SLOTS
The slots section equates to about 80% (~200) of the overall games at Betfred and whilst the numbers aren’t all that the high, the quality is still fairly good throughout. The software providers that they use allow Betfred to easily chop and change the games on offer and we have actually seen it reported that they had over 300 games at one point. At the time of writing this number has been dramatically reduced, but this is usually for good reason, due to poor games on offer. Highlights within the slots section include The Flintstones, Frankie Dettori and Battle of the Gods.
BLACKJACK
The blackjack tables are pretty sparse at Betfred to be honest, with just a handful or so games to choose from. It’s the table games where the casino really does tend to struggle and we noticed that it’s here where the range of games really do start to drop off.
ROULETTE
Unfortunately, roulette follows a very similar pattern to blackjack in that the number of games (8) on offer is adequate at best. Whilst this section was improved, we can’t help but feel that there are much better alternatives in the industry than Betfred.
VIDEO POKER
The video poker wasn’t actually all that bad and with 10 games on offer, there were likely more than enough to keep you going. We knew that PlayTech offer up a good range of games for this, so we did have high expectations. Variations include jacks or better, aces and faces, joker poker, tequila poker and mega jacks.
JACKPOTS
With 65 jackpot games in total, this is the reason why you want to be making the Betfred casino your home! It’s the biggest range of jackpot games in the industry and all 65 games have more than acceptable jackpots, with most hitting in excess of £100,000 and some hitting over that £1million mark. The inclusion of dozens of jackpot Marvel based games really does add another layer of depth to proceedings.
Betfred are famed for paying out one of the biggest online jackpots in the history of the industry. Starting with just a £1 spin on the King Kong slot, a £250 win then moved their attention to the Beach Life progressive, where just 6 spins late the lucky punter went on to win a cool £5.1milllion!!