Trust

Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited is licensed through Gibraltar and the UKGC. They also have multiple other European licenses, allowing them to offer their services beyond the UK and Ireland. Of course, all those licenses mean that the operator is very well regulated.

On AskGamblers, Betfred has received a good rating and customers generally indicate that they are happy here. Notable is the very small number of complaints, of which some are still unresolved. Still, for an operator that has been online since 2005, this is commendable.

Betfred does have an excellent reputation and can be considered trustworthy. They were fined by the UKGC in the past for failure to carry out adequate funds checks when a customer deposited £210,000, of which £140,000 were subsequently lost. The money had actually been stolen and Betfred failed to adequately check for money-laundering in this instance.

They were ordered to repay the £140,000, which were returned to the victim whose money had been stolen. They also made a payment in lieu of an official fine and paid the cost of the investigation to the UKGC.

Overall, this still means that Betfred is safe for customers, but they will likely check bigger deposits more thoroughly in the future.

Bonuses and promotions

Betfred was apparently once known as the bonus king on the high street. And when you check out their promotions, you’ll find out why. They have plenty.

Their welcome offer will give you €30 in free bets after you signed up and deposited at least €10 and staked those €10 on evens of 2.0 or higher on any market in the sportsbook. You’ll get your €30 worth of free bets within 10 hours of your bet being settled. Whilst odds of 2.0 are quite high here, there are no restrictions as to the betting market, which is an advantage.

Your free bets are valid for 7 days.

Welcome offer aside, Betfred has plenty of other promotions, which include acca insurances, free bets, and various other promotions for a range of sports and betting events.

If you are also playing at the Betfred casino, you’ll be able to peruse a range of casino and live casino promotions as well.

Terms and conditions are reasonable in most instances we checked and come with fewer restrictions than we’ve seen elsewhere. You should still always read the full terms before claiming a bonus, of course.

Odds and betting selection

Betfred is particularly interesting for football betting fans as the bookmaker offers smaller margins than most competitors and thus higher odds. Their betting selection for football betting markets is generally excellent, however, you should be aware that their focus is mostly on UK and Irish markets. Whilst they’ve come to include international markets in recent years as well, you may not find that many options for leagues or matches outside of Europe.

When you visit the football betting section, you’ll see the major events at the top, followed by the big leagues and below that international markets according to country.

You then need to click your way through to the matches, depending on league or country, where you can find the outrights first, followed by other betting options, which include:

• Match Result
• Both Teams to Score
• Total Goals Over/Under
• No Draw Both Teams to Score
• Full Time/Half Time

And much more. Bigger matches offer more betting options than smaller matches, though. So, you may not be able to get all the selections you may find elsewhere for local teams.

Other markets that Betfred features are horse racing, greyhound racing, darts and snooker – all of which are decidedly British, which explains why these markets are covered so much better. You’ll find better odds for these sports at Betfred than just about anywhere else.

In-play betting has been upgraded in recent years and offers a good range of betting options as well. It’s much improved to what it used to be, but competitors are in some areas better, which includes live streaming. Whilst it is offered at Betfred, updates and commentary tend to be less seamless than we’ve seen elsewhere.

Banking

Whilst there is no separate link for the banking options on the homepage, you simply need to visit the FAQ section to find out everything about banking at Betfred that you need to know. The information found here is not just comprehensive, it may even be too much at a glance.

Under the option “Accepted Payment Methods/Depositing Funds”, a number of frequently asked questions are addressed before all the different payment methods are listed with all the details you could want, including available currency, minimum deposits and much more.

A simple table would have been a little more helpful here, but we don’t want to complain.

Of course, credit cards (not for UK customers) and e-Wallets aside, instant banking, bank transfer and prepaid cards are accepted for deposits.

Betfred is also transparent when it comes to giving information about withdrawals. Requests may take up to 48 hours to be processed and the KYC process is thorough. Maximum withdrawals are dependent on the withdrawal method, though there are no limits per day, week or month.

Since Betfred is giving you all the information you need to know about making deposits and withdrawals, you’re well served to go through them thoroughly.

Customer Service – 4/5

Customer service at Betfred leaves very little to be desired. Whilst there’s no direct live chat link on the homepage, you just need to scroll down the menu on the left-hand side to find the ‘Contact Us’ button, which gives you all the options you could possibly need to contact the customer service team.

There are three sections for sports, games and the casino, which all have a live chat you can open, phone numbers you can call (from inside or outside the UK) and three separate email addresses to write to.

Since the live chat is open 24/7, you’re well served to contact the friendly and very professional customer service team this way. Whilst you will easily get help here, we would have preferred the customer service team to be a little more engaging in gambling forums.

Software – 3.5/5

Betfred’s homepage is exceptionally well organised. You have the main menu at the top for the different sections of the sportsbook and casino and a menu on the left-hand side to drill down your options and get plenty of useful links.

Navigation is intuitive and smooth and whilst you sometimes have to go through one more link than might be necessary, it’s still easy to find everything you could be looking for.

The design of the site is not the most modern, but functionality supersedes in this case and browsing through Betfred’s pages was just a really pleasant experience.

The same is true for their mobile pages, which are neat and just as well organised as the desktop page. For once, we couldn’t say that we have a preference one way or another. Except that the bet slip takes up a little too much room on the desktop site and can’t be folded away.

Additionally, Betfred offers a surprising number of apps to download, including for their sportsbook, casino, games, bingo, lotto and virtual. The Android apps can be downloaded directly through the Betfred website, whilst the iOS apps are downloadable via the App store.

Other

When a bookmaker and online casino is considered a full-service provider, they offer at least a poker network as well, potentially bingo and lottery games. All of that is the case with Betfred. They have a comprehensive casino portfolio, an excellent range of live tables and even offer virtual games to bet on.

Their Totepool is a special form of betting competition punters can join to win a jackpot, which is especially suited to those who like to bet on horse racing.

Beyond that, it’s always interesting to check out their “What’s New” section, read their blogs or listen to their podcasts.

Betfred really does deliver the full gambling experience and they do it more safely than many of their competitors.

Summary

We’ve already said everything important there is to say about Betfred. They are an excellent bookmaker and gambling provider, with the only downside of focussing a bit too much on the UK and Ireland markets. That’s mostly a disadvantage if you are from outside the UK or Ireland, of course.

They have been expanding their horizons, but they can still go further.

But if you want to check them out for football betting, you are well-served to give them a try. Their margins are low, odds are high, betting limits are more than reasonable and higher than many other bookmakers offer, and you will have a very pleasant experience placing your bets here.