Dictionary definitions of bookmakers

ldoceonline.com (Longman): book‧mak‧er also bookie (informal)
Someone whose job is to collect money that people want to risk on the result of a race, competition etc, and who pays them if they guess correctly.

collinsdictionary.com (Collins): A bookmaker is a person whose job is to take your money when you bet and to pay you money if you win.

merriam-webster.com: A person who determines odds and receives and pays off bets

Encyclopedia definitions of bookmakers

en.wikipedia.org (Wikipedia): A bookmaker, bookie or Turf Accountant is an organization or a person that takes bets on sporting and other events at agreed upon odds. Bookmakers in the United Kingdom focus betting on professional sports, especially horse racing and association football; however, a wider range of bets, including on political elections, awards ceremonies such as The Oscars and novelty bets can also be placed.

investopedia.com: Someone who facilitates gambling, commonly on sporting events, by setting odds, accepting and placing bets, and paying out winnings on behalf of other people. “Bookie” is a slang term for “bookmaker.” Bookies do not usually make their money by placing bets themselves, but by charging a transaction fee on their customers’ bets known as a “vigorish,” or “the vig” (= overround). Bookies may also lend money to bettors.

definitions.uslegal.com: Bookmaking is the practice of laying bets on various possible outcomes of a single event. It is a practice of betting by determining odds, and receiving and paying off bets on sports competitions such as horse racing and the like. The term originates from the practice of recording such wagers in a ledger or a ‘book’ and gives the term bookmaking for the practice of making the book.

Educational gambling web sites explanations of bookmakers

gamblingbox.org: Bookmakers combine a comprehensive knowledge of statistics, a deep understanding of sporting events and other types of events where there is a winner and a loser and the ability to pull in a profit, no matter how an event turns out.

A bookmaker is generally a very accomplished expert in setting odds. Using their own knowledge and the resources they have available, bookmakers will give odds on a given team winning or losing in a sporting event or, in some cases, will give odds on other events, as well. For instance, a bookmaker could theoretically give odds on the outcome of an election and allow people to place bets on that election, if they wanted to.

The way bookmakers do business ensures that they always do come out on top. This doesn’t mean that you can’t win a bet with them, of course, but they are absolute masters at making certain that their own businesses remain profitable while still providing an opportunity for people to wager on sporting events and other events.

sportsbettingis.com: A bookmaker is a company mainly engaged in giving the possibility to make money bets on outcomes of sports events, participation in these bets and paying out of winnings in case outcomes are not in bookmaker’s favor. Events that bets are made on can be not only sports ones but also political, cultural, etc.

The bookmakers always use the mathematics in their operation, especially its following sections: combinatorial analysis, probability theory and statistics. The main task of the bookmakers is to correctly build betting odds.

“To correctly build betting odds” means to correctly evaluate the chances of each outcome and offer the odds bringing profits to the bookmaker. It is not easy to ensure such a balance. It’s a difficult task with hundreds of specialists working with it. Smaller bookmakers look at odds of larger competitors and only introduce small changes.

Of course, bookmakers are in the business of setting odds and determining prices which are offered for certain betting events.

Photo: Zadorozhnyi Viktor (Shutterstock)

When viewing odds in betting exchanges such as Betfair, Betdaq, Smarkets, or WBX, you should understand that it is neither the exchange platform or the traders using them who set the odds.

The fact is that the bookmakers are used as the market guide for traders on the betting exchanges, and it is the bookies who compile and publish their odds weeks in advance of the events in question (sometimes even months), and certainly well before the exchanges even open their markets for trading.

If you have ever calculated odds you will have noticed that the bookmakers’ offers often do not represent the ‘true’ picture, in other words, the ‘true’ mathematically calculated values (the statistically expected values).

Only occasionally (probably in less than half of all cases) are odds close to the statistical expectations of the betting event. However, in the vast majority of games, odds are either considerably higher than mathematically expected or far lower…

Why Is This So?

You have to appreciate that bookmakers do not really intend to predict an outcome (correctly). If you enjoy statistical analysis, then take a little time to do a simple calculation for any league of your choice. Simply convert bookmaker odds into probabilities and compare them to the actual distribution of the results (historical data for 22 European leagues can be found at www.football-data.co.uk).

Bookmakers have been around for thousands of years in one form or another. Their main goal is of course to make a profit. They price their odds to ensure that sufficient action is taking place on both sides of a bet.

If a bookmaker’s betting odds are not aligned to public opinion then a disproportionately large amount of money will be placed on only one side of a bet. This would be a gamble for the bookmaker. However, bookmakers are not in the business of speculating on an outcome.

The role of bookmakers is, strictly speaking, rather the function of an intermediary, similar to a stockbroker. They take money from various people on various outcomes and after the game is finished they pay out the winners.

In return for this service, the bookies take a “fee” known as the overround.

Photo: Stanislav Komogorov (Shutterstock)

The Case: Match abandoned in the second half

When this article was originally written, our last bet of the day was ‘laying’ Mallorca in their La Liga trip to Granada. Before retiring to bed, we checked the score, 2-1 to Granada, with around 30 minutes to play.

Upon checking our Betfair account the following day we were concerned to find the bet had not been settled!? A quick search confirmed fears that the match had been abandoned.

Usually, it’s fog or a floodlight failure, or where the match officials are concerned, a pulled groin muscle, an errant or out of control flag, a clumsy fall, or a slide-tackle from an over-enthusiastic defender.

But no, bizarrely, this abandonment was caused by a flying umbrella, which struck a referee’s assistant in the face and drew blood from his cheek.

After the referee had called a stop to the game the manager of Granada explained in the press conference that it was an unfortunate ‘accident’ and that the poor youth in the Granada section of the crowd was still holding the handle as he was arrested by police.

Much sympathy for the scarred linesman, his apparently innocent assailant and other fans deprived of the result, but where did this leave our bet? We were now in the land of limbo and searching through Betfair’s Terms and Conditions.

Which rules apply?

Like all UEFA leagues, we knew La Liga was faced with 3 options for concluding the affair:

1. replaying the whole match;
2. arranging for the last 30 minutes or so to be played out (probably behind closed doors); or,
3. as it was a Granada fan to ‘blame’, awarding of the match to Mallorca with the customary 3-0 score line.

But how are bets affected by these options and what is the range of different terms and conditions employed by the bookmakers and exchanges in such situations?

Ensure that abandonment and postponement rules are clear before betting

When betting you need to ensure that abandonment and postponement rules are clear especially before embarking on strategies such as cross-market trading, arbitrage or accumulators.

No two bookmakers’ Terms and Conditions are ever identical and for arbitrage or trading it is better to use markets with similar rules for postponement and abandonment or, to know the rules instinctively before making bet selections which could otherwise be detrimentally affected by things such as inclement weather.


The next page concentrates on the different attitudes taken by bookmakers and exchanges…

Every serious football bettor should have several bookmaker accounts at his disposal in order to pick and choose the best available prices. Having invested so much time and effort in producing a match selection system which brings consistent profits, it would be churlish not to spend just a little more time seeking out the best possible reward.

At Soccerwidow we are great advocates of the much maligned bookmakers, which have seemingly had their gloss taken away from them by the trendier and seemingly more flexible betting exchanges. But of course, there is a price to pay for the convenience of using exchanges, and the more successful your system becomes, the more commission you may be liable to pay to these trading platforms.

(2) Getting the most from 1X2 markets:

Let’s have a look at Betfair’s main attraction to bettors: the opportunity to lay an event.

Using bookmaker markets there are three alternatives available to gain a financial advantage over Betfair’s home, draw or away lay prices: Asian Handicap +0.5; Double Chance; “Dutch” Back (click to enlarge; opens in a new tab):

German Bundesliga Matches 26th-28th October, 2012

Here, you can see a few more red figures in the right-hand columns than we saw in the back bet comparison article, but still, 21 out of 27 (77.8%) Betfair lay prices were beatable during this round of matches.

However the extent of advantage the bookmakers have competing with lay options is far smaller than backing; purely because when laying an event two results are effectively ‘backed’ rather than just one when backing outright:

• 11.03% bookmaker advantage laying the draw in the Augsburg vs. Hamburg match was only worth 0.40 units more than Betfair’s return with a fixed liability/stake of 10 units.
• 11.62% bookmaker advantage laying the draw in the Mainz vs. Hoffenheim match was worth the same 0.40 unit advantage.
• 9.47% bookmaker advantage laying Bayer Leverkusen away at Bayern Munich was worth just 0.07 extra units than with Betfair.

In conjunction with the table above, the following table shows the best alternative options to laying each event in Betfair during this round of matches (click to enlarge; opens in a new tab):

German Bundesliga Matches 26th-28th October, 2012

In our article Comparing Backing Odds: Bookmakers vs. Exchanges we showed using the example of just one round of matches in the German Bundesliga that every game was more profitable backing in the bookmaker market.

Let’s have a look at just a small selection of bookmakers who provided financially more advantageous odds on all bar one event (click to enlarge; opens in a new tab):

German Bundesliga Matches 2nd-4th November, 2012

Straight away, the noticeable thing is the high frequency Pinnacle appears in this table. In fact of the 27 home, draw and away events, Pinnacle were the top bookmaker in 14 of these (51.9%). They were also second best in a number of others.

Another notable fact is the sheer number of bookmakers all offering better financial returns than with Betfair.

Please note we only used a fraction of available online bookmakers and only those showing on Oddschecker.com, a site which concentrates on just 20 bookmakers and three betting exchanges. Oddschecker compares each bookmaker’s prices for dozens of different betting events within each featured match, highlighting the best odds for each event. With around 500 online bookmakers trading today, you can be sure that the majority of Betfair’s prices are bettered by many, many different bookies, beyond just our small selection.

How accurate is an odds comparison site? Well, we went one stage further and actually checked the availability of the odds by logging into each bookmaker. As an example, out of 100 top-flight matches across Europe analysed during this particular weekend in November, just four of Pinnacle’s prices were different to the ones advertised in Oddschecker (two of them were actually better than quoted). Of course, as in every market, bookmaker prices are forever fluid.

As mentioned in our previous article Comparing Backing Odds: Bookmakers vs. Exchanges, this exercise was part of a huge, ongoing analysis of home, draw and away back prices throughout the top-flight European leagues. The results shown here are representative of a typical weekend in the Bundesliga. Most other top-flight leagues are also consistently similar with bookmakers usually outweighing the rewards on offer with the betting exchanges.

In fact, if you want to back the draw in a game, over 95% of the games we have analysed this season would have had financially greater benefits available in the bookmaker market.

Taking into consideration the standard Betfair commission rate of 5%, the bookmakers who wish to compete have to offer something more attractive but this is a balancing act if they want to avoid the risks of an arbitrage situation. The margins are therefore very fine but over the course of a season, you will undoubtedly be at least 5% better off placing your back bets in the bookmaker market rather than at Betfair.

Comparing Bookmakers’ Odds with Exchanges’ odds

Below, is a tiny extract from a huge Soccerwidow exercise comparing Betfair prices across many European top-flight football leagues with the best available odds offered by a selection of online bookmakers:

German Bundesliga Matches 2nd-4th November, 2012

For consistency, our exercise uses odds available 24-hours in advance of each match.

The calculations above take into consideration Betfair’s 5% commission charge, and you can see straight away that just one event marked red in the extreme right-hand column provided a better financial return with Betfair (the possibility of Augsburg winning at Hannover). Otherwise, 26 out of 27 events (96.3%) were better off backing in the traditional bookmaker market.

The extent of the bookmaker advantage in all of the 1X2 match event possibilities is also shown and here are a few examples:

• Freiburg to beat Moenchengladbach was priced at 3.50 in the bookmaker market, thus providing a financial advantage of 11.98% over Betfair’s price. In effect, for a 10 unit stake the bookmaker return is 2.68 units better off than with Betfair.
• The draw in the Bayer Leverkusen vs. Fortuna Dusseldorf was priced 9.25% better with the bookmaker market offering 3.25 units more return for a 10 unit stake.
• Backing Werder Bremen to beat Mainz provided a return 7.21% better with the bookmakers rather than with Betfair.

With the spread of results during this round of matches in the Bundesliga, it is evident that every HDA result which happened (cells highlighted in dark blue) was more profitable as a back bet in the bookmaker market. Even with some exchanges offering lower commission charges than Betfair, bookmaker prices are on the whole still more financially rewarding.

Successful Gamblers ‘Plan’ to Win – They Never ‘Hope’ to Win

An amount as small as 5% may not sound large, but 5% is a huge amount when considering factors such as eventual yield and return on investment.

If you have found what seems to be a successful selection system but lack the discipline not to attend to details when running your betting venture then we suggest that you are not serious enough about it. It follows that if you are not serious enough about your gambling then be honest with yourself and please do not bet.

Other bookmakers didn’t close his accounts but effectively also ended their relationship by limiting his stakes to ridiculously small amounts such as 2 € per bet.

Our initial response was that bookmakers are free to choose their clients and accounts belonging to customers who do not satisfy their business model are subject to cancellation. This was half accepted by the reader who stated you can read similar suggestions throughout the Web without ever finding a clear explanation but he was insistent and what he really wanted to know from us was WHY?

Therefore, this article attempts to answer in detail the legitimate question as to why customers are banned by bookmakers or accounts are limited.

However, we cannot promise that our conclusions will be agreeable to everyone because sometimes it is better not to know WHY, as dreams are sometimes all too easily shattered by the truth.

Warning: If you prefer to cling on to aspirations of becoming very rich one day with sports betting then perhaps you should stop reading this article now!

Doubtless, life is more bearable if there is some hope of better fortune involved. The reasons why bookmakers close accounts are banal. Using simple logic to interpret the business approach of bookmakers, the bigger picture almost certainly conveys a straightforward message to the masses of people with gambling dreams. Unfortunately, the truth which evolves is contrary to the popular belief system of becoming rich from betting.

Soccerwidow’s survey results for the question “Do you make money with betting?”

This poll has been present on the Soccerwidow site for many months. Let us take a look at the current vote scores to discover whether readers admit to making money from betting:

Survey results (up to November 2012)

So far (as per November 2012), the survey has accumulated a total of 832 votes. Although this is a fairly representative sample, we cannot claim any scientific significance as it has not been carried out under controlled conditions.

Unfortunately, the survey also has a design error. It contains the option, “I make a living from betting”, but fails to quantify voters’ winnings over and above £5,000 (English site) or 5,000 € (German site). Therefore, we have to accept that anyone regularly winning more than £5,000 or 5,000 € per annum had no other option but to tick, “I make a living from betting”. Of course although this is insufficient for survival in most European countries, our readership is worldwide and it may be that 5,000 currency units is enough to live on in some countries.

Every bettor should try to optimise the financial return from his/her risk, which means finding absolutely the best prices available.

Of course, depending upon the betting exchange employed, profits are eroded by up to 5%, or more if you are subject to premium charges with certain firms.

The time it takes to analyse a match and formulate value bets would be wasted to some degree if you then neglected to tie in the best possible reward on offer.

With a little imagination it is fairly easy to contrive several alternatives to laying certain outcomes within a betting exchange when faced with any lay bet opportunity. The question before committing to a lay bet is whether the same outcome can perhaps be achieved using a different market on the same match?

For example, betting against a team to win a match would usually mean laying them in an exchange, but how about the ‘Double Chance‘ bookmakers’ market favouring the draw and the other team? What about an ‘Asian Handicap +0.5‘ back bet on the other team, or a ‘Dutch‘ back bet on the draw and the other team, possibly even using two different bookmakers?

As ever, the best way to guide you and explain things as simply as possible is using an example and we have chosen the German Bundesliga 1 game between Borussia Moenchengladbach and Hamburger SV (Mgladbach v Hamburg) on 26.09.2012.

Firstly, let us assume we wish to bet against a home victory:

(1) The Obvious Approach: Laying the Home Team at a Betting Exchange

Mgladbach's Lay Price 5 Hours Prior to Kick-off was 1.83 (Betfair)

Laying 10 units at a price of 1.83, provides for a loss of 8.30 units if Mgladbach win the game but 10 units of profit if they don’t win. Including the typical 5% betting exchange commission however, the net financial gain for winning the bet is 10 units minus 5% = 9.50 units.

9.50 divided by 8.30 = 1.145, which equates to a back-betting price of 2.145.

Those back odds (2.145) provide a benchmark against which to compare the various back bet alternatives.

However, it is also necessary to find the equivalent (adjusted) lay odds which take the betting exchange commission into consideration. These adjusted lay odds are the basis for calculating the stake needed to achieve a return of 10 units. This is again crucial to allow comparisons and for this some further reverse engineering is needed:

Back Odds Converted to Lay Odds

The corresponding “adjusted” lay odds to win 10 units can be calculated using three simple steps:

• 1 divided by 2.145 (see above: corresponding back odds) = 0.4662
• 1 minus 0.4662 = 0.5338
• 1 divided by 0.5338 = 1.873

Alternatively, you can also adjust the lay betting odds using a simpler formula:

Divide (Lay Odds minus 1) by (1 minus Commission) plus 1

Illustration:

(1.83-1) divided by (1-0.05) +1 = 1.873


What do these ‘adjusted’ odds mean?
To win 10 units you need to calculate your stake (risk) based on a lay price of 1.873 rather than the price on offer of 1.83.

8.73 units divided by (1.83 -1) = 10.52 units, minus 5% commission (0.526) = 10 units return.

This effectively means risking 5.18% more than the price of 1.83 suggests.

Divide (1.873 minus 1) by (1.83 minus 1) = 1.0518

Therefore, to win exactly 10 units you must risk 8.73 units at lay odds of 1.83.

Multiply 10 units by (1.873 minus 1) = 8.73 units.

Phew, are you still with me..?

Summarising the results:

• Adjusted back-betting price: 2.145 - used to compare the lay price equivalent with the bookmakers’ back bets
• Adjusted lay odds: 1.873 - used to calculate the lay stake to win exactly 10 units
• Necessary stake to win 10 units at lay odds of 1.83: 8.73 units

The reason is simple: If the ‘back’ price for an event with a bookmaker is higher than the ‘lay’ price in a betting exchange the opportunity of an arbitrage transaction becomes possible.

This simply means that by ‘backing’ the outcome with the bookmaker and immediately placing a counter bet in the betting exchange (a ‘lay’ bet), risk-free profit can be generated from the event no matter what the outcome.

Since there are now many software applications which automatically monitor price fluctuations in the markets and immediately react (and much faster than a mere mortal can type the word Betfair or Betdaq into their browser window), prices in betting exchanges are ‘by definition’ higher than at bookmakers.

Only in fringe markets and/or those with low liquidity (i.e. not frequented by bots), does it sometimes occur that a bookmaker temporarily offers a better price than in a betting exchange. However, in these cases arbitrage is rarely viable because of the difficulty in getting a lay bet matched in a stagnant market.

How are prices set at betting exchanges?

Prices on the betting exchanges always ‘follow’ the prices of the bookmakers. There is no other way purely because arbitrage opportunities would immediately open up should anyone be foolish enough to offer a bet at a lower price than the best bookmaker’s offer.

Compiling odds works as follows:

Large bookmakers have their own analysts departments; smaller bookmakers use the services of odds compiling bureaux. There are hundreds of mathematicians and statisticians employed to calculate bookmakers odds. The calculations are performed using statistical and mathematical methods such as those described in this blog and especially Soccerwidow’s Basic Betting Course.

Depending on the popularity of a match and the expected demand for bets that it will create, bookmakers publish their odds in plenty of time before the game. Smaller leagues have a lead time of approximately one week or so; bets on more prominent matches are often published a whole month in advance and sometimes even earlier.

Betfair opens up its markets around a week before kick-off and if you have time to check the virgin markets, you will find them completely empty, without any back or lay-offers. As a rule, betting exchange markets ‘wake up’ about 2 days before kick-off. Before this time, professional market traders are busy with other things.

Photo: Dragana Gerasimoski (Shutterstock)

The first people to offer bets on the betting exchanges are the ‘Arbers’. The odds they offer for backing outcomes are generally far below the bookmaker prices. Lay odds are also extremely excessive. In ‘Betfair speak’, at this stage there are many ‘ticks’ between the back and lay prices.

Only about 24 hours before kick-off do back and lay prices close-up to each other. The situation is often then just the one necessary ‘tick’ between the back and lay prices. This does not necessarily mean that any bets have been matched, but more that the market has ‘settled’.

Serious price fluctuations are not expected until 2-3 hours before kick-off and hit their peak activity in the hour before the start when team news is made public. The ‘bookmakers margin’ (overround) evaporates and the odds in the betting exchanges are now likely to be considerably higher than the odds of the best bookmakers.

Are Betfair’s prices ‘fair’?

The prices on betting exchanges do not necessarily reflect the true probabilities (= expected outcomes). They are certainly ‘fair’ in relation to the prices in the market, but inevitably do not represent the true zero odds. They are often close, but not always.

The reason for this is that bookmakers set their prices taking into account the expected demand and odds at betting exchanges follow bookmaker prices (as explained above).

For example, bookmakers have the habit of under-pricing emotionally favoured or heavily supported teams, whilst underdogs are often offered at odds which are far too high. However, beware! This example is a very, very rough rule of thumb. Ultimately, it is always necessary to recalculate all odds yourself.

Summary

At betting exchanges you will find higher odds almost without exception. The overround is no longer part of the equation, and betting exchange odds cannot be lower than bookmaker odds due to arbitrage.

Betting odds at betting exchanges do not necessarily represent ‘true’ probabilities (= expectations) because prices at betting exchanges follow bookmaker odds, which in turn are ‘profit-optimised’ in their favour.

We hope you now understand the pricing mechanism in the market a little better and it would be great if you would leave a comment.

Last Update: 15th November 2011

I have gone to the trouble of making a table showing some the best Online bookmakers and their free bet offers and bonuses. It is however of the greatest importance that one reads in detail the terms and conditions of using these free offers before a bet is placed, since each bookmaker has different provisions.

There is also a list of bookmakers to avoid, which are considered as the “black sheep” of the industry.

The general rule is that the higher the bonus or free bet offer is, the more caution is required. Bonuses up to £/€ 50 are quite common and offered by some very well-known, large and reliable bookmakers, for example, from Betfred and Expekt. Currently, the highest bonus is offered by Bet365 (£200), also a well known and very reliable bookmaker. However, be cautious and read the T&C carefully to be compliant with the requirements to receive the bonus.

Online Bookmaker	Free Bet/ Bonus	Languages	Deposits/ Withdrawals
10Bet United Kingdom	100 € 50% of initial deposit First deposit bonus on a player’s first deposit (bonus code: FD100). Bonus will be credited once the initial deposit has been rolled over once. In order to withdraw the bonus, customers need to roll over their bonus 6 times at odds greater than 1.60	Deutsch English Český Dansk Ελληνικά Español Français Hrvatski Italiano Magyar Norsk Polski Português Română Русский Suomi Svenska 中文 日本	Visa Mastercard Maestro Bank Wire Moneybookers Western Union u.a.
188Bet Isle of Man	£25 Free Bet UK customers only If the first bet loses, 188Bet will refund the stake up to £25 - no risk	English	Visa Mastercard Bank Wire Moneybookers u.a.
888Sports Gibraltar	up to £50 Total of 5 Free Bets “Basket structure”: Place a bet of at least £10 and receive a £10 free bet token. Afterwards every 4th bet of at least £10 each will earn you a 'bet bonus' free bet token of £10 up to a total of £50. All qualifying bets must be a minimum of £10 and must be placed at odds of evens (2.0) or greater.	Deutsch English Español Dansk Français Svenska	Visa Mastercard Maestro Bank Wire Paypal Moneybookers u.a.
Bet at Home Malta	100 € 50% of the first deposit The bonus must be redeemed within ten (10) days of the first deposit by entering the bonus code "FIRST" in the menu "Deposit/Withdrawal/Redeem bonus". Customers must rollover the amount of their first deposit and the bonus amount four times (4x) within 180 days with minimum odds of 1.70 Not for customers from the USA, France, Israel, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine or Turkey	Deutsch English Italiano Español Ελληνικά Polski Slovenščina Français Türkçe Čeština Magyar Slovenčina Русский Nederlands Български Hrvatski Română Srpski Svenska Suomi Dansk Português	Visa Bank Wire Moneybookers
bet24 Malta	25 € / 500DKK Customers from Austria, Switzerland, Luxemburg and Lichtenstein are entitled to 50% sport betting bonus on their first deposit up the value of €25.The bonus must be wagered 8 times at a minimum of odds 2,00 before a withdrawal can be done. Customers from Iceland, Faeroe Island and Greenland are entitled to 100% sport betting bonus on their first deposit up the value of 500DKK.The bonus must be wagered 4 times at a minimum of odds 1,50 before a withdrawal can be done. Customers from countries not mentioned above do not qualify for any bonuses.	Deutsch English Dansk Eesti Español Français Italiano Latviesu Lietuvi Magyar Nederlands Norsk Polski Suomi Svenska	Visa Mastercard Bank Wire Moneybookers
Bet365 United Kingdom	£200* 100% Initial Deposit Bonus Qualifying deposits must be a minimum of £10* and to receive the bonus, the amount of the qualifying deposit needs to be turned over once. Afterwards deposit and bonus need to rolled over 3 times prior to making a withdrawal. * or currency equivalent	Deutsch English Български Český Dansk Ελληνικά Español Italiano Magyar Polski Português Română Slovenčina Svenska Norsk 中文	Visa Mastercard Maestro Bank Wire Moneybookers Paypal u.a.
Betfred Gibraltar	£50 Free Bet 100% of first deposit To qualify to the free bet the first deposit needs to be turned over once	English Español	Visa Mastercard Maestro Bank Wire Moneybookers Paypal u.a.
Blue Square Alderney	£5 Free Bet 100% of first deposit Immediate credit	English	Visa Mastercard Moneybookers
Boylesport Isle of Man	£20 Free Bet 100% of first deposit To qualify fo the free bet the first deposit needs to be turned over once	Deutsch English Español Svenska	Visa Mastercard Bank Wire Moneybookers
BWin Gibraltar	No bonuses but points The more activity the more points; and exclusive products for points	Deutsch English Български Català Český Ελληνικά Español Français Hrvatski Italiano Magyar Nederlands Norsk Polski Português Română Русский Slovenčina Svenska Türkçe	Visa Bank Wire Moneybookers Paypal
Coral Gibraltar	£30 100% Matched Deposit Offer The free bet will appear once the amount of the first deposit has been bet. The free bet stake is not returned with any winnings. For UK customers only.	English	Visa Maestro Mastercard Moneybookers
Expekt Malta	£50 50% bonus based on the amount of your first deposit, up to £50 (€57) Bonus will be credited to the account after the first deposit has been wagered once on bets of at least 2.00 in odds	Cesky Dansk Deutsch English Español Français Hrvatski Italiano Latviešu Magyar Nederlands Norsk Português Polski Svenska Suomeksi Slovensky Slovensko Vlaams Ελληνικά Русский	Visa Mastercard Bank Wire Moneybookers
Gamebookers Gibraltar	30 € 100% of first deposit The bonus and deposit need to be turned over 3 times at minimum odds of 2.0	Deutsch English Ελληνικά Español Français Polski Italiano Română Русский Svenska	Visa Bank Wire Moneybookers
Ladbrokes Gibraltar	£/€ 50 Free Bet 100% of first deposit Use the code MAXIMUMBONUS (Casino, Poker, Bingo) and FB50 (Sport) to get the top bonus Qualifying bet must be a win single of £5 or more placed on any sport. Only the win parts of each-way bets qualify. The Free Bet will be credited on settlement of the qualifying bet. The Free Bet stake is not included in any returns. Only for customers living in the UK and Ireland betting on the English or Irish language site.	English Irish Български Canadian Český Dansk Ελληνικά Español Hrvatski Italiano Polski Português Magyar Norsk Română Русский Slovenčina Slovenski Svenska Türkçe Suomi 中文 ไทย	Visa Mastercard Maestro Bank Wire Moneybookers Paypal
Paddypower Isle of Man	No bonuses for first deposit but daily 'money back' bets and various specials depending on activity	English Español	Visa Mastercard Maestro Bank Wire Moneybookers Paypal
Pinnacle Sports Curacao	No bonuses for first deposits but Pinnacles says about themselves that they have the most competitive odds in the market	Deutsch English Español Français Italiano Norsk Polski Português Русский Suomi Svenska עברית 简体中文 繁體中文 ภาษาไทย	Bank Wire Moneybookers
StanJames Gibraltar	£150 Free Bets in a five-stage process First free bet (£10) matching the first Qualifying Bet up to a maximum value of £10; second free bet (£20) matching the next two Qualifying Bets up to a maximum value of £20, etc. (see T&C). Minimum odds 1.5; no rollover requirements. Only for customers from the UK, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Canada, United Arab Emirates, Monaco, South Africa and Cyprus.	English	Visa Mastercard Maestro Bank Wire Moneybookers
Tipico Malta	100 € 100% deposit bonus The deposited amount and the bonus has to be turned around 3 times on sportsbetting before a withdrawal can be requested. The minimum odds are 2.0, whereby individual or combined bets count. Only valid for residents from following countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Hungary, Turkey.	Deutsch English Français Hrvatski Italiano Srpski Türkçe	Visa Mastercard Maestro Bank Wire
Victor Chandler Gibraltar	£25 Free Bet 100% of first deposit Immediate credit	Deutsch English Ελληνικά Español Română עברית 繁體中文 中文简体 日本語	Visa Maestro Bank Wire Moneybookers Paypal
William Hill Gibraltar	£25 100% of first deposit Immediate credit; The bonus and deposit need to be turned over 4 times at minimum odds of 1.5	Deutsch English Česky Dansk Ελληνικά Español Français Hrvatski Magyar Nederlands Norsk Polski Română Русский Slovenski Suomi Svenska 日本語 简体中文 繁體中文	Visa Mastercard Maestro Bank Wire Moneybookers Paypal