Betfair has been my main stay for a while now, it’s where I place the majority of my bets. Overall, it’s an excellent app to use which has an extensive coverage of different sports and markets all arranged on an easy to use interface. I’ll go in to a bit more detail about Betfair throughout this post so you have a strong introduction in to how it all works and why I use them as well as what opportunities there is for you as a new or existing customer.
Sign up offer
Sign up offers vary greatly between bookmakers and some users prefer different types of offers to others. Some bookies will offer matched deposits, free bets, bonuses etc. I’ve always been a fan of ‘risk free’ offers, this is where the bookmaker will offer you a one time bet whereby if it loses they’ll give you a full cash refund. There is of course a limit to this amount, but you can put it on just about anything (Ts&Cs permitting).
For Betfair, the offer is a £20 risk free first bet. That means, when you sign up, you can deposit any amount up to and including £20 and stake it on a bet, knowing that if the bet loses you’ll be given the £20 back in cash. Just to clear that up – as someone once asked me on Twitter if they post the cash to you; this means that you can withdraw the money if you want to. It’s not returned in free bets or credit in a way that ties you in to using it again, if that first bet loses you have the option to withdraw the money you put in.
All you need to do is place a bet at odds of 1.2 or greater to qualify, the promotion will be automatically applied to the first bet you place. So if you were to stake your £20 on a 10/1 accumulator and it won, you’d land £220 in cash, as you would with any other bet. The risk free bit steps in if your bet loses, if that accumulator falls; whether it be by just 1 selection or 5, you’ll get your £20 refunded. Simple as that.
I’ve always preferred these offers as everything is within your control, you can bet on anything provided it meets the minimum odds requirement. You could go for a big win and stake the £20 on mammoth odds, or you could even go for something like a 2/1 shot which could give you a handsome pot to play on with.
How to sign up
You can sign up via mobile or using your laptop/desktop, either by going to the app store or google play and downloading the Betfair app or by heading to their website and doing so that way. I provide links on each of my platforms to get the £20 risk free bet as I think it’s a cracking way for new followers to get involved on any of my bets.
After you’ve signed up, you’ll need to make your first deposit which can be done using any debit/credit card or Apple Pay. They recently added Apple Pay to the permitted deposit methods, making for a quick and easy start for anyone who uses Apple Pay.
Is there anything I need to know about the sign up offer?
If you’re ever unsure about what you’re getting or what you’re entitled to when signing up to any bookmakers I recommend thoroughly reading their terms and conditions. Betfair’s are all pretty straight forward but there’s a few key ones you should bear in mind:
- Minimum odds need to be 1.2 (1/5) to qualify
- Maximum refund is £20
- Excludes: Canadian, Goliath, Lucky 15, Super Heinz, Patent, Lucky 31, Lucky 63, Trixie and Yankee.
- Qualifying bet must be placed within 30 days of opening your account
- It is your FIRST EVER bet placed that counts as the qualifying bet
- Refund will be processed within 1 hour of the losing bet being settled
Other Betfair features and offers
Betfair have a variety of features that makes them great to use and for big events they’ve been adding more and more offers for existing customers.
Over the Cheltenham Festival this year they were offering free bets on their exchange app, which you can log in to as well when you have an account. All you needed to do was place a qualifying bet on the first race each day. They’ve recently been running a promotion where they’ll give you a free bet of up to £25 if you win a same game multi at odds of 4/1 or more. They’ve added more emphasis on existing customers recently so I’d expect this to continue in the future.
‘Same Game Multi’ brings me nicely on to one of Betfair’s features. This is similar to a ‘bet builder’ or other similar moulds. It’s where you can combine multiple selections on one game for a larger pay out, it’s great if you’re kicking back and watching a big game on Super Sunday for example. With an extensive list of markets you can build some fantastic bets using this feature, they’ve even taken it further by adding ‘stats bets’ to the same game multi menu now. This allows you to bet on things like shots on target for both teams and players, as well as the usual stuff like corners, goals, bookings etc.
On a similar note, they also have their #OddsOnThat section. This is their request a bet system, you can request this via social media by using that hashtag and tweeting it to Betfair. Also, they’ll have plenty already priced for big games and it’s definitely worth having a scan through them as you can find some absolute gems.
They also have their ‘odds boost’ section. Which is as simple as it sounds, here you’ll find an array of bets which have been given an enhanced price. You can find some superb boosts and we’ve used the odds boost feature extensively during builders or even on my actual odds boost bets. It’s a fantastic feature as they often better any bookmaker around on these selections.
Layout and interface
At the end of the day, some people simply don’t care about odds, offers or features. Some people just want an app that is easy to use and understandable.
I have been using Betfair for a long time, but even as a new user it’s very user friendly and easy to navigate. You can use the top bar to navigate your way through different sports as well as accessing the in-play options, The Exchange and Casino features.
I’ll use football as the example for navigating through the site as that’s probably what most of you bet on, as do I. Once you click football you’ll be met with a list of the games that are currently in-play, if that’s not what you’re after then you can click one of the featured leagues. This tends to be the top flights of each league and then the EFL. If what you’re after isn’t there you can select the ‘browse all’ tab. From here you can select which nation you’re looking for on the left hand side, which will in turn display the options for the leagues from that country. It’s all very self-explanatory when you’re using it and I recommend having a play around to familiarise yourself with where everything is.
Overall, I recommend giving Betfair a try. It’s very worthwhile, not only for the fantastic sign up offer but as your main bookie it could be the right fit for you. Just make sure you’re reading the Ts&Cs of any offers and gambling responsibly. Betfair has plenty of advice on site regarding responsible gambling, you’re also able to limit your account or self-exclude if you feel that to be the right decision.
