Betfair is one of the largest bookmakers in the UK. The brand is synonymous with betting exchange in the world. In our Betfair review, we are going to see why the Betfair betting exchange is so popular, how good the Betfair bonus offers are, as well as what the most popular features on the Betfair website are. If you want to learn about all of this and more, then keep on reading.

Betfair History

Betfair was founded in 2000 by Edward Wray and Andrew Black. The company forged its success on its trading system called Betfair Exchange. They were also the first-ever betting company to sponsor a football team from England.

Their Betfair Exchange trading system was revolutionary at the time. It had given customers something that was lacking on the market. Betfair had given them a chance to use their own sports knowledge and play against other users. All of the customers using the Betfair Exchange could set their own odds when betting.

Betfair’s launch party was the reason why so many people actually found out about the company. Their launch party campaign featured the slogan “Death To The Bookmaker”. That enraged many of its competitors who tried to fight back against Betfair. However, their efforts had the opposite effect. Betfair received a massive amount of media coverage, and in turn, their client base started to grow.

Since then, Betfair has added more features and games for their players, such as their own casino, poker, and horse racing. In 2016, Betfair merged with one of its biggest competitors, Paddy Power. Together they have formed Paddy Power Betfair, a company that operates from Dublin.

Betfair claims to get an average of 4 million users every month.  They have subsidiaries in the United States and Australia. Together with Paddy Power, they have become one of the largest bookmaking companies in the world.

Betfair Homepage

Betfair Exchange

The first thing we are going to be talking in our Betfair review is the reason why Betfair is so popular — the Betfair Exchange. As we’ve mentioned earlier, this was Betfair’s original feature, and this is why most customers go to their services.

Long story short, the exchange feature means we can bet against other players and not the bookmaker. We can play with our own odds and don’t have to depend on the bookmaker setting odds we don’t like. Betfair makes a profit by taking a commission on those bets.

We also need to mention the Betfair bonus for the customers who use their exchange feature. New players can get a cashback in the amount of £860 (€1000). All we need to do is sign up to the Betfair website, find the Betfair exchange feature and apply a promotional code.

We can also play games on the Betfair exchange platform. The games are a unique mix of casino and odds betting. The principle is the same, however. We can bet other players on a win or a loss outcome.

Furthermore, the exchange feature is integrated into the company’s mobile app as well. We can place bets through the app just as on the website.

The exchange feature is available in 17 different languages and it processes around five million transactions every day. The one drawback with the exchange feature is that it sometimes isn’t available for smaller sporting events.

Betfair Exchange

Betfair Online Betting

Betfair offers a wide range of sports and games we can bet on, although it is primarily focused on UK-based sports. There is also a large number of factors we can bet on, such as a team’s new manager, the number of corners in a game and so on.

Betfair Football

Betfair has one of the greatest football selections in the entire UK market. Although they do offer good odds on most games, we would recommend using the exchange feature here as well. Combined with Betfair’s streaming service, we can watch almost any game and place bets with our own odds.

Betfair Horse Racing

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention horse racing in our Betfair review. Betfair’s horse racing selection is almost as extensive as their football selection. They also have a horse racing forum, where we can learn about all of the upcoming races, important information about the race or jockeys, and betting advice from other players.

Betfair also offers live streaming service for horse racing, and we can use the exchange feature here as well. For more avid horse race enthusiasts, Betfair has a timeform. It is a complex system of ratings based on racing merit. We would strongly recommend it to anyone who loves watching and betting on horse races.

Betfair Tennis

We can bet on almost any tennis match we want with Betfair. Their exchange feature is also available for tennis, which is great, especially when there are larger tournaments. We can bet before and during the matches. The payout percentage Betfair has for their tennis selection can be quite high.

Betfair Cricket

With Betfair, we can watch and bet on all major cricket matches, such as the Twenty20 International and The Ashes. We do, however, feel that their offer isn’t as great as those of some other bookmakers from the UK.

Betfair Features

We are going to dedicate the next part of our Betfair review to talk about all of the features Betfair has to offer. They include:

  • The Betfair Exchange
  • Live streaming
  • In-play betting
  • Cash Out
  • Price rush
  • Betfair tips

Since we’ve already talked about the exchange feature previously in our Betfair review, we are going to skip it here and start with the live streaming feature.

Betfair Live Streaming

Betfair mostly streams football matches and horse races. We can stream a wide range of top league matches in Europe on their website. Live streaming services are a great feature, but they do come with some drawbacks.

Betfair live streaming services are mostly catered to their UK customers. Most of the games we can watch are of UK-based sports. Furthermore, customers who are from different countries might find a geographical block when trying to watch certain games. We recommend checking their schedule to see what games are available for streaming in other countries.

Betfair Live Betting

In-play betting or live betting is also a popular feature on the Betfair website. We can bet in-play on a number of games and matches. We can also use the exchange feature when we want to bet live.

However, we have seen some critiques of the live betting feature. Some users claimed that they experienced a five-second delay when placing a bet live. Keep this in mind when placing your next bet.

Betfair In-Play Betting

Betfair Cash Out

The Betfair cash out is a feature designed to help us cut our losses or guarantee a win. The cash out is a popular feature with most bookmakers. However, what separates Betfair’s cash out from their competitors is their partial cash out option. We can choose the amount we want to withdraw from our bet before the match is over.

Betfair Price Rush

The price rush is a great feature that can increase the value of our current bet. Betfair scans the prices that are available in their exchange system and compares them with the sportsbook. If the sportsbook has lower odds than the exchange, a price rush will appear in our sportsbook.

Betfair Tips

The Betfair website is a great place to find sports-related news and betting tips. They feature a wide selection of articles that range from NFL news to British politics. We would definitely recommend checking out this part of the website, as it might have great tips on how to improve our betting skills.

Deposits & Withdrawal

Betfair offers a wide range of payment methods. We can use most credit and debit cards, as well as e-Wallet solutions. Credit and debit cards have a minimum deposit amount of £5.

However, it is a bit different if we want to use an e-Wallet option. The minimum deposit amount for NETeller users is £10, while that amount is £12 for anyone using Skrill. Processing time on all payment methods, except a bank transfer, is instant. Keep this in mind when applying for a Betfair bonus, as most bonus offers have different deposit amounts.

Another thing to note is that withdrawal time varies for different payment methods. All e-Wallet solutions have a withdrawal time of between 12 and 24 hours. Credit and debit cards have a withdrawal time of two to five days working days. There are no added charges when withdrawing funds.

The Bottom Line

Whether you are new to betting and gambling or an experienced pro, we feel Betfair has something for everyone. On their website, we can watch matches, play casino games and poker and enter tournaments. There is also a large number of Betfair bonus offers we can count on.

While writing our Betfair review, we were most impressed with their exchange feature. Betfair’s exchange feature is the best we’ve seen so far. We can place our own adds and engage with other users of the website.

Even if we don’t know how to calculate our own odds — no need to worry, Betfair has us covered. We can ask Betfair for useful advice on Twitter. We just need to tweet them with the games we want to play, and they will help us calculate our odds.

The Betfair bonus for new customers is also not something to be missed. We recommend going for the exchange welcome offer. However, some other Betfair bonus offers include the casino and poker bonus. New customers are also entitled to the Betfair bonus in the form of a free bet or a cashback offer.

We hope our Betfair review has been helpful. If you have any more questions about Betfair bonus offers or promotions, we recommend checking their website for more information.