Unibet Bookies
Unibet Review: Claim £20 Free Bet if first bet loses
Unibet Bookies has been doing what it does best since 1997 and is now one of the largest privately owned gambling operators in the European market, providing services in 28 languages to more than 5.6 million customers in over 110 countries.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, our Unibet review can reveal that the Swedish-owned company has a large Scandinavian customer-base but actually its head office is in Wimbledon, South London.
They offer some of the most comprehensive markets for UK football and other sports betting, with regular special offers and competitions for UK bettors.
They also cover football from all over the world with an impressive Live Betting section which has hundreds of live streamed events every week (over 9000 a year) across a variety of sports, including football, tennis, basketball, handball, volleyball and table tennis.
Their football live streaming includes major domestic leagues such as Serie A, Eredivisie, Ligue 1, Liga Sagres, International football from all major confederations, trans continental competitions including Copa Libertadores, Copa Sudamericana, Asian Champions League, CONCACAF Champions League and many more (including the Premier League!).
They even bet on Futsal. I mean what on earth is that? We do not want to know. That said, it is to Unibet's credit that they bet on esoteric sports only known to undiscovered Scandinavian Eskimo tribes. You would think it demonstrates the breadth of their betting options.
Strangely, Unibet Bookies do not seem to have heard of UK horse racing. They only currently offer horse racing betting on the biggest meetings such at the Cheltenham Festival, Grand National and Royal Ascot. But there is no daily UK horse racing betting. This is a major omission for a company striving to make inroads into the UK market. Their European roots are showing severe naivety if they don't realise the importance of British racing to the UK and Irish punter.
On a more positive note, uniquely they offer a Ca$h-In function which gives you the option to settle your bets before the match is finished - for all bets placed in this Live Betting console, so you can take a portion of your winnings early, or cut your losses before it's too late.
This Ca$h-In feature enables you to close an open position at any time during a match or event, depending on the value of the current bet. The Ca$h-In offer might be for more or less than your original stake, depending on what's happening in the match and their offer will appear on the Ca$h-In button. To accept the offer, simply click the Ca$h-In button and confirm. The bet will be considered settled at the shown price and the funds will be deposited immediately to your Unibet account.
For example, the score is 0-0 at half time between Barcelona & Read Madrid. You place a bet of £10 that Barcelona will win at odds of 2.00. A couple of minutes into the second half, Barcelona score to take a 1-0 lead. The odds for Barcelona have now changed to 1.20, but Read Madrid have had several good chances and you think a draw or even a Read Madrid win is still possible. You have the option to Ca$h-In your bet now and get an immediate payout of £17 (rather than the £20 if you wait to full-time and Barcelona win). Your winnings are secured and settled, whatever happens in the game.
Unibet also offer a special accumulator every week called the Supertoto from which there is an estimated £10,000 guarantee to single coupon winner. A list of 8-14 matches are displayed and, from these, you select a result for each match (you can hedge your bets by choosing multiple outcomes for one match; however this increases the price of your coupon as it creates extra combinations). When you've finished, click submit and your coupon will be registered and available for viewing anytime in your 'Pending Bets' under 'My Account'.
Also available is the Superscore from which you predict the correct final score for three matches. A single winner is guaranteed a minimum of €1,000 in winnings.
Our Unibet review found the website itself to be clean, basic and simple to navigate with an event drop down list, located on the left side of the page, which displays the amount of betting markets available for each sport.
They also only offer odds in decimals, which might not be as familiar to those only used to fractions such as 2/1. This is another nasty reminder of their Scandinavian bias. How painful would it be to offer fractions as well? It would take a one-armed, drunk software developer about half a second to code it into the site. Some Euro-lovers would suggest that decimals are easier to understand than traditional fractional odds. As a decimal, odds show an outcome equivalent to the fractional odds + 1. Thus, fractional odds of 10/1 are shown as 11 as a decimal, odds 1/1 (evens) is 2 as a decimal and odds of 1/2 (odds on) are 1.5 as a decimal.
For example, place a £10 bet at 15/2 and you might take a moment to calculate that this is actually 7.5/1 which would be displayed as 8.5 in Unibet's decimal odds. Simply, this means that if you bet £10 and it wins your return is £85. The decimal odds quoted tell you what Unibet pay you when you win, including your stake. Easy.
However that is a bit like telling a Frenchman that English is an easier language for him to speak.
Unibet's sports betting section claims to offer a £20 risk-free bet. But, if your first bet loses then Unibet will give you a free bet up to that £20. So it is far from risk free as you need to lose first to claim it. This is a feeble incentive given the bonuses other firms are offering but, as we always say, the offers should not be the main criteria for choosing your betting partner.
Unibet also offers casino, poker and games sections, all mandatory at a world-class online gambling location. All of these sections are at the top of their game and are as good as anywhere else on the web.
So, to summarise this review, the pros of Unibet Bookies are:
- Established since the birth of the online world.
- Huge, trusted company with millions of customers.
- Clean website that even your senile old granny could navigate while sleep walking.
- Great football markets.
- Based in UK and regulated markets.
The cons of Unibet are:
- Based in UK but aimed at Scandinavian winter-sport lovers. The focus is more the mainland European market than Britain and Ireland.
- No UK daily horse racing markets. An almost unbelievable and totally unfathomable omission. Demonstrates an ignorance of the UK betting market.
- No fractional odds option. This should exist as an option as any child could add it to the software. Another slap in the face for the British punter.
- Paltry free bet and you need to lose money to get it.
If IKEA did betting it would be something like this: annoying, smug, missing a few essentials but slick, clean, efficient and fair. The result of our review is that we highly recommend the well-established, trustworthy Unibet Bookies, despite their undoubted eccentricities.