Betfair Bookmakers Review

Betfair is not a traditional bookmaker, but rather, they are an online betting exchange site. Betfair was founded in 2000 and has quickly become the biggest online betting exchange site in the world. With betting exchange sites, the punter does not play against the bookmaker, but against other punters. The odds are also set by the punters and not by the bookmaker.

Registering with Betfair is a fairly painless process, although if they cannot verify your age using the details you provided, further checks might be carried out to verify you are over 18. Once you have registered, the sheer of information which is available on the homepage of the site can make it appear daunting and confusing to a new user. Fortunately, Betfair has a lot of help documentation which makes it easy to quickly orient yourself with how the site works.

While Betfair do their best to ensure the website is easy to use for new customers, the fact that it is a betting exchange and not a traditional bookmaker, means that the information is laid out a bit differently than most bookmakers. This can be quite disconcerting for the new customer and it will take you a while to come to grips with the layout and betting options available to you.

In order to make the transition for to a betting exhange platform easier, Betfair have also included a demo which walks you through the site and its functions and we will recommend that you go through the demo, unless you are already familiar with the betfair layout.

Once you are comfortable with the Betfair site, the number of betting markets and betting options available to you is just staggering and if you do not find any odds you like, you can always set yours. Betfair has two main betting types. The traditional bet on an outcome and a “lay”; a Lay is placing a bet against an outcome happening. Simply put, if you lay a bet against “Team A”, you are betting that “Team A” will not win the match, so a draw between the two teams or a win for “Team B” will win you your bet.

With Betfair, you do not pay a commission on your bet but you do pay a commission on your winnings. For most markets, this commission is set at 5% but can be reduced to 2% if your betting volume is high. Betfair also has what they call a “Premium Charge” which is applied to customers whose winnings are deemed disproportionally high when compared to the commission they pay.

The sheer number of events you can bet on is staggering, Betfair has a market for almost every sporting event you can think of as well as a number of unique events like political elections and game shows like the x-factor. You can also request events they might not have on the site.

Unfortunately, Betfair are not known for their bonuses and promotions, but their very competitive odds tends to make up for that. At the moment, there is only one bonus available on the betfair website

Welcome Bonus: Betfair will give all new customers a £25 risk free bet

Betfair’s odds are frequently better than traditional bookmakers and the betting options you have are both better as well as varied. They have a quick and responsive customer service as well as very good documentation on how to use the site for the new punters who might not be used to the betting exchange system.

This review is based on a non-weighted average and while, more often than not, the overall score is an average of the individual review categories, the editors at Free 25 Bet reserve the right to tweak the overall score if we feel it does not reflect our assessment of the bookmakers.

Betfair's Ratings

Ease of Use7

Promotions5

Market Range9

Betfairby Free25Bets

1 8 10

Pro

• Usually have the best odds
• You can set your own odds
• Unlimited Betting Limits
• Wide selection of sports and markets

Cons

• the betting exchange site has a steep learning curve
• They charge commission on winnings
• They have a Premium Charge applied to some customers
• They can be light on promotion and bonuses