Betsafe is an online gambling site with a solid reputation for delivering a fair, honest, and secure betting experience; and despite not having enjoyed quite the same levels of success as some of the biggest names in the industry, Betsafe have still managed to grow to become one of the more respected mid-sized bookies – even expanding their product range to include an online casino and other gaming facilities.
Today, we’re going to take a look at some of the main features that Betsafe offer, and by the end you should have a good idea of whether or not they will be a good fit for you.
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THE BETSAFE WEBSITE
Betsafe’s website is modern, well built, and extremely reliable; and while it’s a little scarce on imagery and fancy graphics, this actually means that the pages load faster, so that your betting experience is fluid and hassle free.
In the following section, we’re going to cover some of the main features of the site that we feel make Betsafe unique.
LIVESCORES
Keeping track of the results in various sporting events can be tough, and unless you’re willing to download an app to your mobile device and continually monitor it, or open a new browser window and go to a score tracking website, it’s tricky to keep tabs on what’s going on and where.
Betsafe have come up with an ingenious solution to this, and dedicate an entire section of their website to it. You can access this from the ‘Stats & Livescores’ tab on the secondary navigation menu, which is just beneath the red site-wide menu at the top of each page. As you may have guessed, this is also where you can find stats.
Once inside the live score area, you can narrow down the events overview in front of you by the sport, and with scores updated every few seconds this provides an accurate overview of what’s going on in each game, and is also ideal to help you decide which in-play bets to place.
MOBILE BETTING
As well as offering a downloadable app for mobile devices, Betsafe have recently relaunched their mobile website, and in all fairness, they have done a fantastic job of developing it.
The sleek, slick, and contemporary design is both intuitive and easy on the eye, and a wide variety of account and betting facilities are readily available from the menu on the left-hand side. This provides immediate access to various areas of the site, including ‘In-Play’, ‘Promotions’, ‘Account Settings’, and an A-Z list of all the markets available.
To access the mobile website, all you need is a working internet connection and a compatible mobile device (virtually every device and browser is compatible). Simply open up your browser and head to the Betsafe website as normal, where you will be automatically redirected to the mobile optimised version of the site.
What’s more, if you’re not yet a member of Betsafe, you can sign up super quickly through the mobile site, it takes just a couple of minutes to get started.
We would go as far as to say if you bet mainly on mobile then Betsafe should be near the top of your list for new bookies to try. It really is a quality product.
IN-PLAY
In-play betting has seen a surge of popularity in recent years, and virtually every bookmaker now offers some form of in-play betting markets for their punters to enjoy.
Betsafe’s in-play options may not be the most comprehensive in the world, but they still offer a decent range for you to choose between. In order to access the in-play events, click the ‘In-Play’ tab from the red navigation bar at the top of the page, and you will be taken to a special part of the site which displays an overview of all current in-play events.
You can separate these by sport which is useful when a lot of fixtures are live, and there is some live streaming availability too.
Running side by side with the live score facility we talked about earlier, the in-play betting area displays up to date odds and prices, as well as providing accurate scores, so you always know what’s going on in what game. Your betting life just became that little bit easier.
The only thing we don’t like is that the game visualisation, live stream, and stats are all on 3 separate screens so you can’t view them together. Also, these are all massive so to see the odds and markets you have to scroll past them anyway – it would be better to be able to see both at the same time.
OTHER PRODUCTS
Betsafe may be best known for their online sportsbook facilities, but they also offer a number of other player focused gambling products, all of which can be found from the main navigational menu.
The online casino is arguably the most popular area of their site besides the sportsbook, and inside this casino you’ll be able to play hundreds of different games ranging from video slots, like Football: Champions Cup, Divine Fortune, Boom Brothers, Dracula, Subtopia, Stickers, Koi Princess, Lucky Angler, Twinspin, Blood Suckers, Warlords: Crystals of Power, Pyramid Quest for Immortality; to video poker titles like Jacks or Better and Deuces Wild.
There is even a live dealer casino which allows you to play a small number of casino table games, like Roulette and Blackjack, against a live dealer who is streamed to your computer via video link.
What’s more, your account balance is shared between all of the different products on the site, so there’s none of that transferring malarkey you might remember from a few years back, when you had to transfer funds out of your sports betting account and into the casino account. Just head to the casino, play a few games, and then head back to the sportsbook and continue betting. It’s incredibly easy to use, and thanks to the intuitive design it’s no hassle to navigate through the different products available.
Some of the other gambling facilities include a poker room, a virtual sports room, and a particularly impressive esports area.
Sports Betting at Betsafe
The biggest market at Betsafe by a country mile is the Football. At the time of writing there are over 16,500 events, massively overshadowing their next biggest market which is E-Sports, offering 530 events.
While Football is definitely most prominent at Betsafe, the other markets offered are not be sniffed at either. There is an absolute mountain of choice, including: Golf, Tennis, and Cricket; as well as some of the less conventional markets like: Darts, Formula 1, Motorbikes, Motorsports, Rugby League and Rugby Union.
American sports are also widely covered, with markets existing for Basketball, Baseball, NFL (American Football), and Ice Hockey.
Athletics is another big market at Betsafe and, during the summer months especially, you’ll find a range of events from running races to field events; all of which offer multiple betting options and bet types.
Truth be told, you will be hard pressed not find your desired market at Betsafe, and it’s clear they go the extra mile to make sure they offer a varied and comprehensive range of betting options to players.
Unusual Markets
Sports-wise, the unusual markets available are quite broad too, and one of the biggest of these is the Mixed Martial Arts section, which at the time of writing contains over 500 events.
Other less common sports betting markets include: Handball, Pool, Snooker, Beach Volleyball, and Australian Rules Football; and Betsafe also offer a number of Political/Special bets, which we will look at next.
The Political bets are split into two sections: UK and USA. In the UK, you’ll find events like the ‘next Prime Minister’, the ‘next party to win a general election’, as well as markets on popular current events. For instance, Brexit (the vote on whether or not the UK would leave or stay within the European Union) was a very popular market at the bookie, with a reported £500,000 staked on the referendum in total.
Moving away from politics, Betsafe offer some TV markets as well, although they tend to be quite sparse and often aimed at European customers, betting on things like Big Brother Finland. You won’t find any of the zany bets that you may find at bookies such as Paddy Power though.
Still, the selection of TV specials and Political markets does tend to increase seasonally with each new series of Britain’s Got Talent or The Voice for example, so it’s just a case of keeping an eye out for what’s available.
How Good are the Odds?
When it comes to odds in general, Betsafe are known to offer some of the best prices out there, particularly within Football markets; and their ACCA’s are particularly good value thanks to regular price boosts and promotional odds increases, making that market particularly popular with players.
Other events that often feature generous odds include the American markets, plus Golf and Tennis; in fact, the latter is often used in promotional TV and online advertising campaigns as a way of attracting new players to the site.
Best Features
Bet Builder
This inbuilt bet building tool allows the punter to create a same game multiplier using the selections they want, and then gives an automatic price for that bet which can be taken or the bet can then be changed.
For example, you could bet on team A to win, a penalty to be missed, and player A to get a yellow card. Other options include goal scorers, number of corners, both teams to score, winning margin, there are quite a few options.
It’s a really easy tool to use and although it is only possible to make football bets with it the tool can be used on all sorts of leagues and competitions; Brazil’s Series B, the Chinese Super League, and of course all of the big UK and European leagues and competitions.
Statistics
Anyone who likes to crunch numbers and analyse past performance will love Betsafe’s stats offering. The range and depth of the data in here across every sport they offer really is impressive.
You can view league or competition progress with charts and graphs and tables, look at specific teams or players and their history, even look at match by match statistics.
There is so much in here it would be impossible to cover all of it, they even have info on stadiums, referees, and an archive going back to the early 90s. Head to heads are one of the more useful things to look at, especially when trying to work out the value of odds, for example.
BANKING
Betsafe offer a range of deposit and withdrawal methods to suit pretty much everyone. Below, we’ll cover some of the main options alongside their minimum deposit limits.
| PAYMENT METHOD | MINIMUM DEPOSIT | MINIMUM WITHDRAWAL |
|---|---|---|
| Debit Cards | £10 | £20 |
| Entropay | £10 | £20 |
| Neteller | £10 | £20 |
| Skrill | £10 | £20 |
| Paypal | £10 | £20 |
| Paysafecard | £10 | £20 |
Now, while it won’t apply to punters from the UK, it’s also worth pointing out that as an international brand, Betsafe do allow depositing, betting, and withdrawing in a number of different currencies. These include GBP, US Dollars, Swedish Kroners, Norwegian Kroners, Bulgarian Lev, and Polish Zloty.
There are also a number of other deposit and withdrawal methods which you can find under the ‘Cashier’ section. Not all will be available to players from all countries, but it’s extremely unlikely you’ll ever find yourself unable to deposit.
In terms of the withdrawal time frames, Betsafe aim to process all of their requests in under 24 hours, although usually it’s a lot quicker than that, most often taking between 4 and 8 hours. Once processed, you can expect to see the funds in your account within 1-5 days if you’ve withdrawn to a Visa or Mastercard, and anywhere from instantly to 4 hours if using one of the EWallets offered.
History & About
Betsafe are a part of the Betsson group, a Swedish online gambling giant, and they operate an online sportsbook, casino, and poker site, which cater to thousands of players each and every day. While they may not command quite the same levels of respect as some of the largest online sportsbooks (Bet 365, Betfair and Betfred for instance), the company has grown rapidly in recent years, and much of this growth can be attributed to the online casino side of the site which has attracted a large number of new players thanks to its lucrative bonuses and promotional offers.
Founded initially by Bill Lindwall and Rolf Lundstrom, Betsafe enjoyed a revenue in 2015 of €402 Million, and with operating costs of just €95 Million, it’s clear the bookies profits margins are very healthy indeed.
Even more impressive, is the fact that they employ a whopping 1,800 staff around the world (we are talking Betsson Group here as a whole), and aside from offering an extremely high-quality experience to punters, they are also helping support the infrastructure of Sweden and Malta thanks to all of the jobs they have created.
Today, the bookie looks set on expanding its operations into more countries around the world, and it’s clear that mobile betting is a key component of their growth strategy.