Best Football Betting Sites In 2023

Getting into football betting in 2023 is easier than ever before. With dozens of online betting sites available at your disposal, it’s quite easy to get lost in the plethora of options. Equally as challenging is opting for the one that is best for your wallet. Luckily, with bookmaker culture being so popular and well-developed in Great Britain, most football betting sites here are legitimate service providers, certified by the prominent gaming authorities in the country.

Still, knowing that a betting site isn’t going to steal your funds or do something shady with your personal information is not enough to make an informed decision. After all, football betting is about much more than just finding a trustworthy site. Many factors come into play, such as the availability of bonuses, cash-out rules, the amount of betting markets and different competitions you can bet on, etc.

If you’re a newbie to the world of sports betting, or a seasoned veteran looking to change things by switching to a new platform, you’re in the right place. This comprehensive guide to the best online football betting websites will not only help you make an informed choice but also give you an overview of the most popular betting markets and the leading football competitions on the planet. Finally, we’ll provide you with valuable tips on how to bet on football and what mistakes you should avoid if you don’t want to lose too much money.

12 Best Football Betting Sites

Out of the hundreds of football betting platforms available, only a couple dozen are functional, legitimate and provide enough payment options for their players. This allows players to experience betting on football satisfyingly, without any major problems arising during the process.

However, a smooth betting and payment experience is not enough to consider a newly-emerged platform to be one of the best football betting sites on all of the internet. There are additional features that matter, and online bookmakers are particularly poor at implementing them on their platforms. Things like live betting options and interface, free bet offers, promotions and bonuses, and, perhaps most importantly, access to a variety of football betting markets, all play a role in determining the quality of a betting site.

Scouring the web in search of top-notch football betting sites can be not only very time-consuming but also exhausting. Thankfully, here at Betting Apps, we’ve done the dirty work for you. Below, you can find a rundown of the best football betting sites in the UK, with a wide range of markets and the top football leagues at your disposal.

Ladbrokes

A clear interface and short waiting times drew hundreds of thousands of customers to Ladbrokes in the first place. Originally started as a horse betting enterprise for British aristocracy back in 1886, Ladbrokes has come a long way towards becoming one of the most popular football betting providers online. They are most known for its wide selection of betting markets and a heavy focus on football, making it the perfect choice for all of the hardcore fans of the beautiful game.

Marathon Bet

When you start using Marathon Bet, you’ll soon realize that it isn’t just your run-of-the-mill football betting site. It is much more than that. It’s a go-to place for any fans to get the most up-to-date information on the most recent football developments, as well as a top-quality bookmaker. As a betting site, Marathon offers some of the most competitive odds for football matches, some of which can be live-streamed directly on its website!

Sky Bet

Skybet has a long-running history with the English Premier League, through sponsorships and its previous ties to the Sky brand. As such, it should be no surprise that it is one of the best platforms for betting on all football in the UK. After all, so much of its promotional material is football focused. With a comprehensive website and an easy-to-use mobile app that allows players to track live match statistics, and a host of attractive bonuses for new customers, Skybet should be on your list of online betting sites to try out.

Bwin

This betting site is a landmark name in global football. Bwin has gone broad to strike partnerships with countless European clubs and competitions over the years. Placing focus on making the football betting aspect of their platform smooth and convenient has paid off. This includes providing some very competitive odds! If you’re a fan of other sports, Bwin’s pushed to offer betting markets across over 40 different disciplines.

888Sport

With some of the best odds when it comes to online sports betting sites, as well as one of the most responsive customer support departments out there (a rarity in the world of online bookies), 888 Sport deserves its spot amongst some of the best UK betting sites. What makes 888 even better are the frequent bonuses and promotions that apply not only to new customers (as is the case with many bonuses on other sites) but also to long-time users.

Betfair

Betfair’s football betting odds are some of the best in the business, but what makes it truly stand out is the amazing cash-out features that the site has implemented over the years of its existence in the bookmaking industry. Unlike other betting sites and casinos, it does not strip you of most of your potential winnings when you cash out early, allowing you to realistically incorporate early cash-outs into your betting strategy!

Unibet

If you’re after a football betting site with a wide array of payment options to choose from, then Unibet should be your #1 choice. The platform, listed on the Swedish Stock Exchange, also offers risk-free bet options to its new customers for a limited period, a welcome offer that makes this site one of the most beginner-friendly bookies on the World Wide Web.

Betfred

Headquartered in Manchester, the city that hosts two of the (arguably) best football clubs in all of England, it should be no surprise that Betfred is many-a football fan’s favourite website to bet on. Of course, most sites provide their existing and new customers with bonuses and promotions, but none are as football-centric in their time-limited promotional offers as Betfred. If you’re only planning to focus on football markets, then opening a new betting account with Betfred is something you should consider.

Betway

If you’re looking for an all-in-one experience, encompassing all major footballing events, with a wide range of betting markets, great odds, and frequent, attractive promotions, then Betway is your go-to online betting site. Bet boosts and free bets are more frequent at Betway than any other platform out there, and while the fact that they also focus heavily on other sports makes their football offer less comprehensive than some of the other bookies mentioned above, betting on football with Betway remains one of the best ways to do so in 2023.

William Hill

Having been in business for over 75 years, William Hill knows what makes gamblers want to stick with a betting provider. This betting site is second to none regarding the multitude of betting markets. With incredible odds on the best football leagues, and a wide array of other, less popular football competitions, betting with William Hill is a pleasure that very few sites can even come close to matching.

Paddy Power

Despite being a relatively new sports betting site (especially compared to some of its “ancient” competitors), Paddy Power has amassed a huge following among sports betting enthusiasts thanks to its unique approach towards promotions and bonuses. With features like Acca insurance and Power Prices (offering enhanced odds on selected football markets), the British platform is one of the best sites for football betting. Contrary to other online bookies, Paddy also keeps its users up to date with the latest football news and developments, having struck partnerships with popular footy podcasts, such as the Totally Football Show with James Richardson, among many others.

Bet365

Like Betway, Bet365 strives to combine every feature that makes punters’ lives easier and incorporate them into their platform. Unlike Betway, though, this betting site focuses heavily on football, with the vast majority of its offers and special features pertaining exclusively towards the beautiful game. In some regions, Bet365 also offers live streaming of football events, allowing you to make live bets and adjust your existing accumulator bets as you watch the game!

Football Betting Sites Ranking Criteria

Football betting sites evolve on a daily, if not hourly basis. This is why, in addition to reading our guide, you should be able to assess every single platform you use and make your conclusions regarding whether or not it’s still a good fit for you and your wallet.

How can you do that accurately? Well, there are a few features that are near-universal when it comes to betting sites, and their quality will tell you a lot about whether or not setting up an account with any given platform is worth it. Below, you can find some of the essential criteria, which are also the ones we used to create the list of the twelve best football betting sites in 2023.

Odds

Odds are probably the single most important factor in sports betting. Whether horse racing, bets on football, or any other sports, you should always check the odds on the platform before you deposit money there. Don’t only check the competition or games you’re interested in betting on shortly! Be sure to evaluate the betting odds on other sports and football leagues as well, since they may be a good indicator of what betting on most football matches will look like in the long term on that website. Finally, be wary of platforms that seem to offer odds that seem too good to be true. Oftentimes, they come with withdrawal limitations that may make it incredibly difficult to get your money out of the website.

Live Betting

These features have become increasingly popular with punters in recent years. Live betting is all about making bets as the match unfolds, with odds being constantly updated to reflect the events on the field. These kinds of bets, however, are incredibly reliant on the technology and infrastructure required to keep up with dozens of football games playing out in real time. In our experience, only a few football betting sites in the UK have managed to make live betting a smooth and exciting experience. If you want to focus on live bets, then ensure that your chosen platform’s live betting technology is near-flawless.

Cash Out Availability

While most online betting sites make early cashouts available to all users, the quality and amount of money you get to keep vary from platform to platform. If you plan to cash out frequently, you need to play a few bets on a handful of platforms to determine how much money from the total possible winnings you get to keep, and how much of it goes to the bookie.

Football Bonuses and Promotions

Football betting is the main focus of this article, and we assume that it is also the main focus of your betting plans. This is why you should pay special attention to the football bonuses and promotions on every website you check out. Some of them may be top-tier gambling platforms, praised by users worldwide. However, suppose their football offers are limited. In that case, it might be better to go with a smaller betting brand with better-priced enhanced odds offers on football competitions, or price boosts and free bets for new customers.

Mobile App

According to various internet monitoring agencies, mobile traffic accounts for half of all online traffic worldwide, and this percentage is only expected to increase in the upcoming years. Finding a bookmaker with a great, functional mobile app should be one of your priorities. Our guide to the top football betting apps should be a big help here. On top of the fact that you’ll get an enjoyable mobile experience, a developer’s level of dedication to its mobile customers shows whether or not they’re going to continue to dominate the market for the long term.

Site Design and User Interface

They may have the best odds and betting market, but these fantastic features will mean nothing if these bookmakers don’t have a clear site design and a user-friendly interface. In our experience, most well-designed football betting sites strike a perfect balance between clarity and an in-depth display of information. When things get too simplified, you won’t have the full picture and a good enough understanding of the bets you’re making. On the other hand, if you’re flooded with stats and numbers, it can get unnecessarily complicated to use and fairly intimidating, especially for new customers.

Betting Markets

New punters make the mistake of thinking they won’t need many markets at the start of their football betting adventure. However, once you spend some time on any given football betting site, you’ll realize that when it comes to bets on any given match, more is always better.

For example, you may not be too sure about the performance of the entire team, but you’re fairly sure that with the form he’s in, the main striker playing for that club will bag one or two goals in the upcoming match. A good betting website with a sufficient offer of betting markets will enable you to bet on that player scoring in his next game, regardless of the match’s outcome. The same goes for things like clean sheets, goals scored in a game, and many other factors. Football is a complex, multi-layered sport, and there is much more to it than the final score. Legitimate, experienced bookies understand that and provide their users with a wide array of betting markets to play around with.

Football Betting: Tips for Beginners

As a football betting newbie, you may get overwhelmed by the ever-present numbers and possibilities of potential winnings. This leads many betting rookies to fall for many classic gambling traps, even when they use the best betting sites around. Be wary of falling into self-destructive habits, and follow the four beginner tips we’ve outlined below to make your experience with any football betting site as fun and stress-free as possible.

Don’t Just Stick to One Market

Trying out a variety of different betting markets is where the fun is. Just betting on the match outcome can get boring (and frustrating) quickly, not to mention that by sticking to just one market, you’re limiting your options to win money on your bets. Making bets on individual players’ performances, teams to score, or some of the time-limited, outlandish markets that bookies like Paddy Power often offer can help you discover that there is much more to the betting game than simply the results.

Try Out Different Bookies

Just because you’ve made an account on one website, it doesn’t mean that you need to stick to that site forever. Diversifying your bets across various platforms can lead you to discover that football betting odds vary from site to site. You should always check on a few different websites before you bet on football matches to make the most out of your potential wins.

Don’t Be Lured by Big Accumulator Bets

Making wild accumulator bets with over 10 matches may seem appealing at first. Clicking on the outcomes of different games and watching the value of your 5-pound bet increase to astronomical proportions can get to your head very quickly. However, you must remember that if just one of these matches doesn’t go your way, your chances of winning are completely gone. That is not to say that accumulator bets are not worth playing around with. It is a good idea to stick with ones that compile around three to five games, though. Getting the outcomes of more than six football matches correctly is more like winning the lottery.

Watch Football Regularly

This should go without saying. If you’re not a passionate football fan and aren’t willing to dedicate most of your weekends to watching the beautiful game, you might not be ready to start making football bets. Simply keeping up with the stats and recent results is not enough. Only by watching the games and understanding the tactical intricacies of football, you’ll be able to develop the “hunch” that many punters rely on for landing outrageous bets and making tons of money off of them.

A Brief Guide to the Most Popular Football Competitions

While many avid football punters will tell you that obscure leagues always have the best odds, it may not be the best idea to start with those competitions if you don’t have much prior betting experience or are just getting into watching football in general. If the latter is your case, you will do your best to pick one of the competitions listed below and make it your main betting focus for the coming weeks. These are our favourites, but Bleacher has an article ranking the top ten football leagues as well as a top ten for competitions if you’re looking for inspiration.

UEFA Champions League

This is the most coveted club competition in all of football. Fans (quite literally) fight for the chance to buy tickets for the cup stage matches, and billions of pounds are made yearly because of the Champions League’s marketing value alone. The odds on these games may not be too competitive, but it’s a perfect tournament to start your betting journey with, as it’s relatively low-risk, and if you play your cards right, it may prove extremely rewarding.

UEFA Europa League

The Europa League is the second tier of European football competitions. This is where teams from lower-ranked leagues usually play their trade, as well as some of the top-tier clubs that have ended their domestic leagues a spot or two below the ones guaranteeing Champions League qualification. Since this tournament is much less prestigious and predictable, it usually comes with much better odds.

Premier League

The English Premier League (EPL) is hands down the most widely watched domestic league all around the world. It is home to some of the most successful teams in the history of European club football, such as Manchester United, Liverpool, and Chelsea. As such, it may have seemingly unattractive odds, but according to many gamblers, it’s one of the best leagues for making accumulator bets. Every once in a while you do see some truly crazy single and accumulator bets that resulted in wins like the 5,000/1 odds bet on Leicester City winning the League.

La Liga

For decades, La Liga has been dominated by two teams: FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. The landscape of the Spanish top-flight competition has changed a bit with the rise of teams like Atletico Madrid, Sevilla and Villareal. However, La Liga is still a very predictable league. It’s a good place to start if you want to bet on the underdogs by correctly predicting the outcomes of some of the less-publicized La Liga matches that don’t involve one of the five best teams in the league.

Serie A

The Italian first division has undergone some major changes in recent years. After a decade dominated by Juventus, who won nine of ten Scudettos (the Serie A trophy name), Inter Milan under the leadership of Antonio Conte has managed to snatch the champions’ title away from Juventus. Last year’s season ended with AC Milan taking the title, and there’s even more movement at the top of the table this season.

Bundesliga

Although the quality of football in the Bundesliga is certainly very high, we can’t say it is the most exciting European league out there. Much like Serie A in the past, the German top flight continues to be dominated by Bayern Munich, who keep winning the domestic championship and snatching up the best players from the rest of the league’s participants. Its nature makes the Bundesliga home to some of the most exciting betting markets in European football, such as “which team will Bayern poach a player from next”, or “Robert Lewandowski to score three or more goals” ahead of nearly every Bayern match.

Ligue 1

Similarly to Serie A, the French top flight used to be a metaphorical playground for Paris Saint-Germain, by far the wealthiest and most star-studded football club in all of France. However, a few seasons back the champions of France gave the title away to Lille OSC in an upset that stunned football fans worldwide. While this blew the league wide open for new betting possibilities and improved odds, the strengthened ranks of PSG with the likes of Leo Messi have helped them to regain their dominance.

National Teams’ Tournaments

The World Cup, Euros, and Copa America are some of football’s most passionately followed tournaments. For example, the World Cup finals are viewed by billions of people worldwide, meaning that at least a few dozen million make bets on the outcomes of World Cup matches. This is why the national teams’ tournaments are so lucrative regarding betting. All of the top football betting sites hop on the bandwagon and offer very attractive promotions for new customers and veterans.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I recognize a shady football betting site?

There is no single handbook that punters can go by when determining the “shadiness” of any given betting site. However, there are some red flags that you should watch out for. Here are just a few of the most common ones:

• Odds that are too good to be true
• Aggressive marketing and over-the-top promotion of cryptocurrency payments
• No license issued by an e-gaming regulatory body
• Too much focus on a single competition, with a disregard for all others

What betting sites are the most reliable?

Thankfully, there are plenty of reliable, easy-to-use betting sites that make their money honestly and transparently, while allowing their users to win plenty of cash, too. We’ve outlined twelve such online bookmakers above, with the five absolute best ones being:

• Betfred
• Bet365
• William Hill
• Paddy Power
• Betway

What are the most common football bets?

Most punters bet on the outcome of games, usually on the victory of one team or the other. Most sites for football betting offer attractive odds on the game ending up as a draw, which, despite being one of the most common results in football, is severely overlooked by bettors.

Is online sports betting better than going to a traditional bookmaker?

Online sports betting is more convenient than visiting a brick-and-mortar bookie’s shop. There are no opening hours, live betting is efficient and constantly updated, and you can claim your winnings as soon as the game is over, without having to head to the shop once again.

What are the most efficient payment methods when betting on football?

We Found the quickest and simplest way to deposit and withdraw our money when using top football betting sites is via debit card. E-wallets are another hassle-free way to do so, although you may face slightly longer waiting times. Cryptocurrencies are a newer alternative, but you should run a thorough background check on the website before depositing your crypto holdings there.