Compare the best sports betting sites for betting on football from the UK below.
Football betting in the UK roughly dates back to the early 20th century, when bookmakers such as Littlewoods offered pool betting at Old Trafford. However, it was not until the internet explosion in the late 90s that football betting was truly revolutionised. That’s when we started seeing the likes of bet365 and Betfair.
Today’s online football betting sites offer a whole new world of bet types that seemed impossible just a couple of decades ago. Talk about betting on yellow cards, penalties, first or last goalscorer, corners, and even custom bets, among others. They also provide live streaming services and in-play betting, not forgetting a wide range of payment options that have been made possible by online transactions.
There are at least 50 betting sites in the UK, making the spots for top betting sites highly competitive. They have to provide multiple betting markets, extensive deposit and withdrawal options, promotions, attractive margins, customer support, mobile apps, streaming, virtual sports, and more.
This review gives information on the best UK football betting sites and why they make this list. We also discuss the bookies with the best betting apps and those nailing virtual football.
Launched in 2000, Bet365 is the standout choice for football betting. It offers extensive markets, up to over 90, for thousands of football games in most seasons. This bookie also distinguishes itself through the bet builder and edit bet offers, live streaming, great mobile app, and partial cash-out support.
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Paddy power started in 1988 and is one of the biggest betting sites in the UK. It has many exciting offers, but the bet builder, #What Odds Paddy, stands out most. The feature allows punters to craft custom bets by mixing and matching unique markets. You can get in touch with the company on its official Twitter page using #WhatOddsPaddy, and they’ll respond with the odds once they have updated it on the site.
This bookie also provides the latest on betting news, a betting accumulator, live streaming, Acca insurance, and the same game multi-bet. The latter is a feature exclusive to PaddyPower. It allows users to wager on related options within a single football game. You can rack as many as 20 options, increasing the odds each time.
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Founded in May 1999, Betfair has been crowned the best and largest online betting exchange worldwide. It has a sportsbook with fixed odds, but their sweet spot is the football exchange that allows players to bet against other peers. It provides punters with better odds alongside a larger palette of betting markets.
Among other key offers on the site are cash-out, live streaming, in-play betting, bet builder, and Same Game Multi-Feature for football. Betfair’s odds are competitive, especially for exchange players. As for the markets, you get at least 60 in football.
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This bookie is relatively new to the scene (2008) compared to the others. However, that has not stopped it from making this list. It boasts the coolest, futuristic website. The bookie has a predominant focus on European markets, for which they offer competitive odds and bonuses.
888Sport offers daily price enhancements, a football bet builder tool, and daily free bet offers. Besides, its price boosts go up to 100%, and the profit boost token (PBT) make for a unique selling point.
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Launched in 1997, Unibet has its headquarters in Malta. It has over 1400 employees and stations in Australia, Denmark, Estonia, Malta, Belgium, France, Italy, Gibraltar, the US, and the UK. They have a major emphasis on South American markets in football.
Unibet has a relatively novel bet builder called Same Game Multi, which allows you to combine several game outcomes into a single bet. However, it is only available for selected top-tier matches.
Unibet also has live streaming for football and daily uniboost bet boosts of up to 3x. The odds are rarely the best but still fall on the competitive side and even beat some bookies on this list, including Paddy Power and 888sport.
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UK's very own, London-based William Hill is a global online gambling company that makes for a solid option for any football punter. William Hill has Acca insurance, in-play cash-out, and live streaming. It also gives commentary on high-profile games.
William Hills easily makes the top ten list of best odds for football matches, but it undisputedly tops for most betting options. You can expect about 100 unique betting markets for football.
William Hill sets itself apart in promotions and has been dubbed the “bonus king” for a good reason. The bookie also offers existing customers a wide selection of football promotions.
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Betfred is one of the oldest bookies in the UK, having started in 1967. It is the property of Lightcatch Limited, and its headquarters are in Warrington, UK. This bookie has long been an authority in the football betting niche.
Their outstanding products are exciting promotions, especially the Betfred Goals Galore Bonus. It is a promotion that offers an amazing bet accompanied by three coupons. The bet only involves picking a match where both of the teams score. Another is the PickYourPunter feature, which allows bettors to build unique bets and receive instant prices.
Betfair also provides great daily bonuses, a cash-out feature, live streaming, and in-play betting. Their odds make the top ten list, although their markets fall a little short when compared to most of the other bookies on the list.
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Another of the newer entries, Betway is one of the bookies that meets all the requirements that matter the most to football punters. Betway provides great promotions, including free bets, regular bet boosts, and Acca. Live streaming and in-play betting are covered, too.
Its markets are only second to William Hill and bet365 on this list. It has at least 70 betting options for international and lower league matches. William Hill also boasts the #BetYourWay feature that allows punters to mix and match markets. Punters use the #BetYourWay on the Twitter page - @Betway to create a unique bet and request a price.
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Also known as The Football Pools, this is one of the oldest pool makers for football games. The bookie’s major unique selling point is its vast range of football pool betting options. Among its most exciting pool betting offers is footie5, a free option where you could win £25,000 by predicting five matches correctly.
ThePools is also famed for their Question of the Day promotion. It rewards bettors with small prizes of £1 free bets by answering specific questions correctly. These could be challenges such as the expected score in the EFL League One matches.
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Betvictor Ltd is an independent bookmaker founded way back in 1946 by William chandler. It has its headquarters in Gibraltar and remains a privately owned company. The bookie is famous for its sportsbook, which includes a bet builder that football punters can customise bets.
BetVictor also provides in-play betting, bet boost, quick bets, a bet calculator, coupons, and a blog. It has diverse leagues and bets, including managerial positions. The site supports cash-out, too.
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New betting sites are launching all the time in the UK, but, how do their football betting products compare to the best football bookies.
A lot of the new betting sites launching in the UK are currently coming from various different White Label Solutions such as Progress Play Limited. Unfortunately, the products are pretty much identical with the same designs, markets, functionality, bonuses, and payment methods.
But, there are some unique new football betting sites launching under their own licences and better technology such as SBK, Betiton, BetTarget and more.
BetTarget is a new sports betting site that launched in 2021 and is powered and operated by Aspire Global International. Players will find a great range of sports, betting markets, payment methods, and competitive betting odds.
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BetUK is among the new bookies leading the way. It is especially popular with punters for its bet accumulators. There are also prize boosters through the Acca Club. Although this bookie does not provide live streaming for football matches, it offers in-play betting and real-time game updates.
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The second youngest bookie on the list, SBK, came into the betting scene in 2019, thanks to UK’s betting exchange Smarkets. It is delivered in the form of cutting edge betting apps for Android and iOS that help SBK stand out. SBK also offers some of the best odds in football matches.
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BetItOn is the newest betting site on this list, entering the betting industry in 2020. It has great football coverage, decent odds, and cash-out as well as partial cash-out. The site also offers Acca prize boosts through Boostiton. However, BetItOn is yet to introduce in-play betting.
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This sportsbook went live in 2020. 2Kbet offers a traditional sportsbook that allows punters to back outcomes of games. It supports full and partial cash-out and a few promotions for new and existing customers. However, this bookie lacks a mobile app and support for live streaming.
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When shopping for a football betting app, you want to look at user experience, promotions exclusive to the app, ease of installation, markets, and other tools. The ratings of the app speak a lot, too. Here are the top 5 football betting apps in the UK.
William Hill just recently updated their mobile app for Android and iOS. It features exclusive promotions, bet boosts, Acca insurance, in-play betting, live scores, full account management, customer service, and trending markets (top bets).
The Android and iOS mobile apps for Bet365 is simple yet powerful. It features over 200,000 live streams, betting stats and data, promotions, live chat support, touch ID, and cash-out, among others.
Betfair has great apps for both Android and iOS. The app supports live betting, account management, live scores, stats, cash out, touch/ face ID, live streaming, notifications, and Acca edge, which refunds those who lose by just one selection.
Betfred’s Android and iOS apps are comprehensive with friendly user interfaces. It supports live streaming and betting, cash-out. Betfred also has a Goals Galore App, which allows you to bet on both teams and comes with offers on selected games. It also has a Messenger app that can be used to place bets through Betfred’s team.
Among the highlights of Paddy Power’s highly-rated Android and iOS mobile apps are fast login with Touch ID, in-play betting, live streaming, cash-out, Acca insurance, and live chat support. You also get access to all of the site's promotions and bonus codes.
Virtual sports betting is the type done on computer-simulated games. In football, the matches are often not full-length. You also get new events starting nearly every minute. Moreover, each match’s outcome is determined by random number generators (RNG), as in casino games.
Wagering on virtual football is similar to placing a bet on conventional football matches. You only have to log into your account, browse to find a bet you like, and click on the odds. Once the wager is transferred to the bet slip, you put in your stake and finalise. The results will be out quickly because the matches don’t last long.
The top sites are often the ones that offer the most betting options. Therefore, it is no surprise that the same names dominate the lists on this review. Here are the top sites for virtual football betting:
Bet365 virtual football compresses entire seasons into an hour, allowing punters to bet on 38 weeks of about 48 unique leagues in just 60 minutes. The betting options include individual match results, multiple bets, outright competition winners, and more. A new season begins every hour of the day.
William Hill recreates the most popular sporting events in the form of virtual football. The matches are joined by live commentary, providing a life-like high-definition simulation. Matches last two minutes, so they go for half time every 60 seconds.
After the competition, the bookie shows game highlights, including scoring, near misses, corner kicks, and free kicks. There are extensive betting options such as correct score, total goals, double chance, over/ under, and Asian handicap.
The matches here kick off every three minutes 24/7. It is always time to bet on virtual football via Betfred. Punters can wager on results, correct scores, score casts, winning margins, and more. The matches have realistic commentary and great graphics, too.
Betvictor structures its virtual matches around real leagues globally, but outcomes are not replicated. They follow a knock-out tournament style. Each event takes 90 seconds, including a five-second interval. The betting options include total goals O/U, double chance, Asian Handicap, 1×2, HT/F, and correct score.
Coral offers about seven virtual sports, football being among the top-tiers. The games here kick off every three minutes. It has all of the usual markets as in conventional football events. Punters can wager on games up to five hours in advance.
It is not uncommon for a big game in a competition like the English Premier League or the Champions League to have hundreds of different markets on sports betting sites.
However, here are some of the most common football betting markets - and what they mean:
1x2 (full-time result): A simple one to start off, 1x2 is the match odds market. 1 refers to the home team, 2 to the away team, and the x is the draw. Backers have to predict the final result.
Accumulators: Very popular with football fans and around the world, accumulators are cherished as they offer a chance to win big money from relatively small stakes. Backers combine a number of bets into the same wager in order to bump up the odds by a lot.
Draw no bet: This bet does exactly what the name suggests. Backers pick a team to win and, if the final result of the game is a draw, their stake will be returned back into their betting account.
Double chance: Again, this bet is what bettors would expect. Double chance bets give players two opportunities to win. An example of a double chance bet would be backing the result to be either a draw or a win for the away team. It is particularly useful when backing the underdog.
Correct score: Predicting the correct score in football betting is famously difficult, but that does not stop a lot of fans of the game from trying. The correct score bet is only valid for the first 90 minutes, in the event of a match in a cup competition going to either extra time or penalties.
Halftime/fulltime: Similar to 1x2 bets, the extra facet of halftime/fulltime bets is that backers have to guess the result at both the break and the final whistle. For example, fans might want to bet on the away side to be in front at halftime but for the home team to turn it around by the end.
Halftime/fulltime correct score: This is the same as the above betting market, but the backer has to pick the score for the break and the end of the game, not just the result.
Goalscorers (first, last, and anytime): Very popular for football betting, goal scorer markets can provide a lot of value. It is possible to bet on who scores the first goal in the game, or the last goal, or even just betting on a player to score at any time in the game. Additionally, a lot of the top betting sites offer similar markets such as to score and win the game.
Both teams to score: This bet is handy for games where goals are expected. As long as both teams in the game can find the net, then the BTTS bet will be a winning wager.
Result/both teams to score: A useful combination bet, backers pick the result of the match as well as betting that each side will be on target during the game as well.
Over/under goals: Goals markets are a very popular choice, with over/under the main choice. It is usually the case that over/under 2.5 goals is the default. This means if there are three or more goals in the game, over 2.5 wins, and if there are two or fewer, then under 2.5 goals wins. This bet works the same whether the number is 2.5 or 0.5, 1.5, 3,5, 4.5 and so on.
Win to nil: If a backer thinks a team will win a game and keep a clean sheet, then the win to nil market on sportsbooks is going to be the right selection for them to make.
European handicap: Handicaps are increasingly popular for football betting. Essentially, the handicap means teams have goals either added to or taken away from the number of goals they actually score in the game. For example, if Chelsea are -1 against Tottenham, they need to win by two clear goals or more for the bet to be a winner. Handicaps work in the other direction too. If a fan bets on Tottenham +2, then the bet wins even if Spurs actually lose the game by a single goal. Handicaps can provide a lot of value in matches where there is a strong favourite to win the game, with their odds to win very short as a result. European handicap markets are sometimes shown as EH for short on sports betting sites.
Asian lines: Asian lines are another type of handicap. They are named as such as they originated in Asia, but these markets can now be found at sportsbooks all over the world, including in Ireland. The difference between European and Asian handicaps is that in Asian lines, the number can be a fraction, whereas it is always a full number on the European handicap. Chelsea -1.5 on the Asian handicap would be the equivalent to Chelsea -1 as an EH bet. The half goal means that the draw is eliminated from the potential outcome of the bet, whereas in EH the draw can result in a push and the stake being returned to the player as a result. The Asian and European handicaps are effectively a form of spread betting, but with sport. Asian lines can be used on various markets, including total goals scored, as well as for which team will win.
Specials: Among the ways that the top betting sites try to beat their competition in the industry is through the use of special bets. These can be a variety of markets, including request-a-bet wagers where customers can effectively build their own accumulators. Enhanced odds and price boosts are some of the other special bets that are widely available at bookmakers. There might also be special football markets offered at times, for example offering the chance to bet on which manager will be the next to be sacked in the English Premier League. Many online bookmakers also allow bets on football transfers nowadays, with wagers taken on which club a particular player will sign for before the end of the transfer window.
There are no shortcuts to success when betting on football. After all, if it was easy to make a lot of profit from football betting, everyone would be able to do it. The bookmakers would go bust!
However, following a football betting strategy can be a good way to increase the chances of getting one over the bookies. Many people find that sticking to a certain type of market, such as both teams to score, is their best way of maximising earnings as a result of placing football bets.
Research is the key. With so much information out there, much of it in the form of data and statistics that is easy to digest, there is no excuse for not being clued up before having a bet. It is also crucial to know all the latest news from the world of football, as an injury or illness to a key player is likely to have a big impact on a team's chances of winning their next games.
Football betting tips can be found all over the internet these days, but it is hard to know which ones are worth following. The best football betting tipsters are open about their records.
Many football fans also use strategies such as matched betting in order to profit. In theory, matched betting provides a guaranteed profit as a result of all potential outcomes being covered. This tactic relies on using free bets from bookmakers and then betting on exchanges as well.
Some of the most common mistakes to avoid in football betting are relevant for other sports. For example, chasing losses is almost always a bad idea. It is also important to remain in control by ensuring a budget is maintained - never bet more than you can afford to lose.
On a similar note betting while emotional, or while under the influence of alcohol, is never a good idea. There is nothing wrong with taking a break from football betting when on a bad run.
Having unrealistic expectations over how much money can be won through football betting is another common mistake. The vast majority of accumulators lose. While they offer the chance to win big, the likelihood is that at least one result will let down this type of bet. It is often better to stick with singles and doubles that bettors have full confidence in.
Missing out on the best odds is also a mistake many bettors make. Even when a bookmaker has enhanced odds for a certain bet, this is not necessarily the best price that is available. It is usually worth taking a bit of time to shop around with various bookmakers in order to ensure the top value is taken from a wager. A small difference in odds might not seem like it makes a big impact. However, those who regularly bet on football will see it all mounts up in the long run.
Linked to the above is the need to have accounts with a range of different football betting sites. There is nothing wrong with doing this, in fact, it is recommended. While some bookmakers do try to reward the loyalty of their customers, usually the number of free bets that are offered across the industry means that it just makes a lot of sense to have many more options.
Lastly, placing too many wagers is something football fans should avoid when betting. It is usually more profitable to carry out deep research on a few well-chosen bets rather than spreading money around a large number of wagers. While it might seem as though more bets equals more chances to win, this is not the case if they are bad bets.
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.