When it comes to identifying the best sports betting sites in the UK, there are a number of criteria that punters may consider.
What’s more, they’ll also have a huge and diverse range of sportsbooks to choose from in the UK marketplace, which is just one of the reasons why sports betting accounts for around 37% of the £5.9 billion online GGY generated on these shores.
Fortunately, sites such as My Betting Site UK provide an independent resource through which you can compare individual gambling brands. But what exactly should you look for when seeking out the best UK betting sites?
1. The Welcome Offer (and Wagering Requirements)
Each online sportsbook offers new players a so-called “welcome bonus”, which is meant to incentivise target customers and help brands to compete in a crowded marketplace.
Typically, sportsbooks will offer bonuses in the form of a free bet up to a specific value, which may be anywhere between £10 and £40 on average. However, you may also receive a money back offer up to a certain monetary value, with this enabling you to recoup some or all of your losses if your first wager is unsuccessful.
Interestingly, 888 Sport has also adopted the unusual approach of offering punters a 100% deposit match welcome bonus up to the value of £100, with this creating a highly lucrative promotion that enables punters to wager freely across various sports and betting markets.
While it’s important to review the structure and value of each potential welcome offer, we’d also recommend checking out the wagering requirements applied to such bonuses.
For example, the aforementioned 888 Sport bonus is subject to wagering requirements of 2x the value of the bonus, so if you credit your account with the minimum of £10 and receive a further £10 with which you play, you’ll have to play through £20 before withdrawing any associated winnings.
However, betting brands LeoVegas and Ladbrokes are currently running welcome offers that are wagering free, which means that there’s absolutely no restrictions in terms of how and when you withdraw your winnings.
This is a huge boon for punters, so it’s something to keep in mind when searching for a sports betting site.
2. The Full Range of Sports and Betting Markets
Next up, you’ll need to consider the full range of sports and betting markets available at each sportsbook, particularly if you have specific areas of knowledge that you’d like to exploit or a predetermined wagering strategy.
Of course, England’s recent heartbreaking defeat against Italy brought a thrilling European Championship finals to a thrilling conclusion, but most of the market leading sportsbooks continue to offer access to between 30 and 35 different sports on average.
This also ensures that punters can access various ante post and in-play betting markets, and it’s important to review each one in detail before choosing where to commit your hard-earned bankroll.
Interestingly, sites such as LeoVegas are also renowned for boasting a particularly wide coverage of sporting events, including American disciplines such as American football and basketball.
This may be of particular interest for punters given the upcoming NFL campaign, with the 2021 season set to commence on September 10th when defending Super Bowl champions the Tampa Bay Buccaneers take on the Dallas Cowboys at the Nissan Stadium.
3. The Average Payout and Return-to-Player (RTP) Rate
Finally, we come to what’s arguably the most important consideration, which is a sportsbook’s average payout and the overall return-to-player (RTP) rate available to customers.
In simple terms, the RTP rate is expressed as a percentage, and refers to the average amount that a player can expect to recoup for every £1 wagered online. This also equates to a site’s average payout rate, which is highly information when choosing how and where to spend your hard-earned bankroll.
For example, Betiton Sports is thought to boast an average payout rate well in excess of 93%, which means that players can recoup a relatively sizable amount of cash when wagering through the platform.
What’s more, it’s reasonable to presume that the application of sporting knowledge within specific markets and the deployment of a consistent betting and bankroll management strategy can improve these average gains further, creating a more rewarding gambling experience overall.
You should be able to find each sportsbook’s average payout rate quite easily online, while using this data to make informed decisions in real-time.
