Compare the best PayPal betting sites in the UK below, and read our complete guide to using PayPal for online sports betting.
PayPal is among the most popular eWallets. It boasts hundreds of billions of transactions a year from over 300 million users worldwide and at least 30 million businesses, including dozens of betting sites in the UK.
In this post, we pick the top bookies accepting PayPal in the UK based on deposit and withdrawal limits, user rating, and betting markets offered. We also list others with the same services and delve deeper into how PayPal works, its security, and fees. Additionally, we answer other essential questions you may have about using the eWallet for your betting and other transactions.
The UK betting market is home to over 50 betting sites. About half of them accept PayPal for both deposits and withdrawals.
Boylesports checked all the right boxes with a good strike of balance between transaction limits and costs, speed, payouts, bonuses, and markets. It is headquartered in Ireland but has branches in the UK.
Boylesports has a minimum Paypal deposit limit of £5 and an unlimited maximum. Its minimum withdrawal limit is £5, too, and the maximum is £50,000. You must verify your PayPal account if you wish to go that high in your transaction. This bookie also doesn’t charge any transaction fees for either withdrawal or deposits.
The bookmaker has average prematch payouts of 93.5%. Its in-play payout average is 93.5% as well. Moreover, it has up to 150 prematch markets and another 150 markets in the in-play section.
The runners-up for the Best Paypal bookie category, Betfair, has a higher user rating of 3.9/5, compared to 3.3/5 for Boylesports. Besides, at only £1, its minimum withdrawal limit couldn’t get any lower. However, Betfair has a maximum deposit limit of £6,000 and a maximum withdrawal limit of £5,500 for PayPal users.
Betfair also has lower prematch and in-play payout averages of 93.13% and 92.75%. Its last drawback against Boylesports came from its markets. Betfair only had up to 70 markets for prematch punters.
Another close rival for this category was Betfred, which has its headquarters in Warrington, UK. This bookie allowed minimum deposits and withdrawals of £5.50 and £5.00, respectively. Betfred also offers free transactions. One of its drawbacks came from the lower prematch average payout of 93.13, tying with Betfair.
Betfred also only allowed up to £15,000 PayPal withdrawals and had lesser markets, up to 75 for in-play betting and the same for prematch betting. Its final blow came from its extremely low user rating of 1.5/5.
Dozens of other UK bookies accept PayPal deposits and withdrawals. See a more extensive list below.
Other Betting Sites that Support PayPal in the UK:
PayPal is one of the most secure online payment systems. It is also one of the biggest e-commerce institutions in the world. Users with PayPal accounts can send and receive money, while merchants can receive payments. Another key advantage of the e-commerce platform is that you can create an account with your email address, which is simple and convenient.
The company was founded way back in 1998. Its original name was Confinity. It grew fast during its first years, attracting 1 million customers by early 2000. Confinity changed to PayPal in June 2001 and was acquired by eBay in 2002, although they later spun off.
Today, PayPal is the most popular eWallet around the world. It is available in more than 200 countries and supports 26 currencies. Betting sites and punters alike love PayPal for its speedy transactions, flexibility, ease of use, and tight security, among other reasons.
This online financial service lets you pay for items or receive payments through a secure internet account that you open with an email address. It also allows you to link your bank account, debit card, or credit card details.
You can deposit money from your bank account into your PayPal account and use it to pay for goods and services through the internet. Alternatively, you can also choose which of your cards to pay with via PayPal. You can also set one of them as the default card, so you don’t have to go through the same process every time you make payments.
Any money you receive in your PayPal account stays there, but you can also transfer it to your bank account or debit card. What’s more, you can use it to pay for services such as betting, even if it is not enough. The balance will be topped up from your other assigned accounts.
Therefore, punters can deposit from their bank accounts into PayPal or deposit into the betting account directly, with PayPal as the middleman. They can also withdraw from their bookie into the eWallet. The service is fast and almost instant, unlike bank transfers that often take up to several days.
Every betting site worth its salt provides many deposit and withdrawal options, often including PayPal. Using PayPal has numerous benefits for a punter. Let’s look at some of them:
PayPal has a quick registration feature that bookmakers can use to shorten the user account registration process. It works much like google accounts. In such a scenario, PayPal shares the necessary information with your preferred online bookmaker, enabling you to sign up in a few clicks and little-to-no typing.
Ladbrokes and Coral were the earliest adopters of this feature among bookies in the UK.
PayPal transactions are usually instant. There will be no delay before you can start placing bets. Some platforms will say withdrawal may take up to 24 hours, but that’s on the bookie’s end and not PayPal. Moreover, a couple of hours is still a much better deal than you would get when withdrawing to a bank account.
Having been around for a long time and attracting hundreds of millions of users over the years, PayPal can be trusted. It offers reliable services with minor errors or downtime.
Adding to why you can trust PayPal is its excellent security. Your details are protected with the latest encryption technologies.
PayPal itself has never experienced any breaches. Additionally, it offers 100% protection in case of unauthorized transactions from your account.
If you would like to make online transactions anonymously, you will be glad to know that PayPal saves you from prying eyes by maintaining your anonymity. It is not a must for you to submit any banking information to transact. However, you might not be able to send more than a couple hundred thousand in this case.
What’s more, PayPal does not share your financial information. Sure, you may have to link your credit card or bank account to PayPal, but they do not disclose this to your bookie when they act as the middleman.
Among the biggest PayPal selling points is simplicity. Everything is straightforward, from the account creation process, which only requires a valid email address, to the sending and receiving funds, which only takes a few clicks. There are also no registration fees, and you can use the services so long as you have an internet connection.
For the punters who would like to spend the money in their PayPal account on things other than betting activities, PayPal also issues a debit card linked to your PayPal balance. The Cash card makes spending easier and opens up a wider range of services. PayPal also issues cash backs when you use its cards.
For starters, you need a PayPal account if you wish to use PayPal to deposit and withdraw from your bookie. If you have an account, you may use it to register on betting sites that offer quick registration with PayPal or simply add PayPal to your account information on the bookie’s site. The following steps will help you create a PayPal account:
Since you’ll probably have to fund your PayPal account before using it to transfer money to your betting account, it would be best if you linked at least a credit card or bank account. Alternatively, you can fund your account from another PayPal address.
To add to your PayPal balance, log into PayPal (either through your browser or the mobile app) and follow the steps below. Adding money usually takes 3-5 business days.
Funding your betting account via PayPal is usually the easiest and fastest approach. While logged in on your bookie’s site:
Most sites will only withdraw to your PayPal account if it was the same one you used when depositing. It’s a security measure to keep your money safe. That said, withdrawing is a straightforward process involving:
Most bookies will not charge any withdrawal fees. However, PayPal may charge you a small fee for withdrawing to your bank account or transferring the money to any other channel.
Besides maintaining your anonymity and protecting your card information when facilitating your transactions online, PayPal has a few other tricks up its sleeve as far as security goes. The eWallet has had a strong reputation for maintaining safety from the very start.
Well, its precursor, Conformity, was initially a security software company. The eWallet provider also uses industry-standard SSL encryption to keep your information locked up securely. You do not maintain any liability in case the information is compromised.
Paypal also monitors transactions closely to single out potential fraudulent activities. For example, it will flag, lock, or freeze unusual cross-border transactions until verified. You can solve this issue with a quick call to customer support.
Finally, PayPal makes anti-phishing possible by never asking its users for account information or passwords via email. It also has a dedicated email, spoof@paypal.com, for reporting any phishing information.
There are two points where you might incur costs when using PayPal in your betting activities. One of them is through your bookie’s charges, and the other is PayPal’s service fee. However, most betting sites do not charge, and those that do often maintain low rates due to the availability of many options.
PayPal does have a range of fees for the transfer of funds, mostly when converting between currencies. It is highly unlikely for you to incur costs when the currency in your PayPal account is the same type you are transferring to your bookmaker.
Another chargeable scenario is when transferring money from your credit card, which PayPal treats as cash. So, how does the eWallet make money if PayPal doesn’t charge you for the payments you make? Well, your bookie has to pay a small operator fee, which is the main reason not all betting sites have PayPal.
Steven is responsible for all content on BettingGuide UK. He is an experienced iGaming content writer that has been working in the industry since 2018. If you have any questions regarding online gambling in the UK, don't hesitate to contact him.