Betway Review

Last Updated: March 4, 2024

Review of Betway

1.5|5

Editors Note:

Betway was founded in 2006 and in their early years of operation had a very bad reputation with online punters. They were accused of:

  • Cancelling winning bets
  • Confiscating winnings
  • Predatory wagering requirements making bonuses impossible

In recent years, complaints about the brand have died down, although there’s been no public change in ownership over that period.

I’m starting to think they might have turned a corner BUT with so many more legitimate options out there I’m still not happy to recommend that punters sign up… even though in throughout this Betway review you’ll see the service offered is competitive.

Pros & Cons of Betway

  • Well designed website & app,
  • Smooth betting interface.
  • Excellent range of sports & markets available.
  • Good for esports betting in particular.
  • Many complaints about conduct.
  • Accessing customer service is difficult.
  • Reduced the value welcome bonus.
  • Quick to limit winners.
Betway Review
Avoid this bookmaker.
Recommended:
No

Betway Licensing & Safety

Safest rating

Is Betway Safe?

1|10
  • Licensed & regulated in Great Britain by UKGC
  • Malta Gaming Authority licence
  • Registered with IBAS & ESSA
  • Poor track record

Malta Gaming LicenseBetway Limited is a Maltese registered company which holds a valid licence from the Maltese Gaming Authority, the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) and a range of other official regulatory bodies.

Betway is also registered with IBAS and a member of ESSA. IBAS is a third party arbitration service aimed at resolving disputes between gambling providers and customers, whilst ESSA (European Sports Security Association) is a non-profit that monitors irregular betting patterns and event manipulation.

Ownership:

  • Founded in 2006 and owned by the Betway Group.
  • Employ over 500 people and widely advertised on TV
  • Sponsors of West Ham United and associations with Premier League Darts, the Chester Cup, Queen Mothers Champion Chase and professional boxing.

Why the medium risk rating then? Although all Betway’s licenses check out and they are trying to build their reputation, as pointed out in the into to this review, they have a very chequered past. In their early years they were accused of:

  • Cancelling winning bets
  • Confiscating winnings
  • Predatory wagering requirements making bonuses impossible

So… whilst they may have turned a corner of late… why take a risk by betting your money with them when you don’t have to?

Deposits & Withdrawals at Betway

Limited but quick options

Will I get paid?

1|10
  • Wide range of options
  • eWallets supported
  • Limited withdrawals options
  • Slow & blocked payouts reported
Method
Fee
Time Scale
Deposit
Withdraw
Limit
Method

Mastercard

Fee

0

Time Scale

Instant

Deposit

Withdraw

Limit

£5 – ?

Method

Visa

Fee

0

Time Scale

Instant

Deposit

Withdraw

Limit

£5 – ?

Method

Maestro

Fee

0

Time Scale

Instant

Deposit

Withdraw

Limit

£5 – ?

Method

Neteller

Fee

0

Time Scale

Instant

Deposit

Withdraw

Limit

£10 – ?

Method

Skrill

Fee

0

Time Scale

Instant

Deposit

Withdraw

Limit

£5 – ?

Method

PayPal

Fee

0

Time Scale

Instant

Deposit

Withdraw

Limit

£10 – ?

Method

Entropay

Fee

0

Time Scale

Instant

Deposit

Withdraw

Limit

£10 – ?

Method

EPS

Fee

0

Time Scale

Instant

Deposit

Withdraw

Limit

£10 – ?

Method

Paysafecard

Fee

0

Time Scale

Instant

Deposit

Withdraw

Limit

£10 – ?

Method

eWire

Fee

0

Time Scale

Instant

Deposit

Withdraw

Limit

£10 – ?

Method

Citadel Direct

Fee

0

Time Scale

Instant

Deposit

Withdraw

Limit

£5 – ?

Method

Bank Transfer

Fee

0

Time Scale

3-10 days

Deposit

Withdraw

Limit

£20 – ?

Method

Euteller

Fee

0

Time Scale

1-3 days

Deposit

Withdraw

Limit

£10 – ?

Method

Astropay

Fee

0

Time Scale

1-3 days

Deposit

Withdraw

Limit

£5 – ?

Method

Neosurf

Fee

0

Time Scale

1-3 days

Deposit

Withdraw

Limit

£5 – ?

How To Deposit To Betway

Depositing at Betway is a quick process. Simply click on the ‘Banking’ button and from the options that appear click ‘Deposit’.

A number of deposit options will appear on screen. Betway does offer an excellent range of deposit options on the site. Select the one you want to use and then follow the on-screen instructions to complete the deposit.

This will include, initially at least, entering in the details for your payment method, such as your Debit Card number and, of course, how much you wish to deposit into your account.

Once you have completed this click on the button and your deposit should be with you instantaneously.

How To Withdraw From Betway

You can withdraw from your Betway account in very much the same way as you deposit. Once logged in, click on the Banking options, and select Withdraw from the options that appear.

One thing to note, which is now customary on all UK sites, is that you can only withdraw to a payment method that you have used to deposit on the site previously. What options are available to you will be shown when you click on the Withdraw option.

The site recommends using ewallet services, such as Skrill, Neteller or PayPal to receive your withdrawals the quickest.

How Long Does It Take To Withdraw At Betway?

Given that there are a long list of deposit and withdrawal options at Betway (though more to deposit than withdraw it must be said), there can be a large difference between the speed of withdrawals.

As we mentioned previously, the site recommends ewallet services for the quickest withdrawal method, sometimes almost instantly but in most cases they can be completed within 24-hours.

Debit card withdrawals and bank transfer withdrawals take between 2-3 days to complete.

However, as with all online betting sites nowadays, you will need to verify your identity before your first withdrawal and this can increase the time it takes for your first withdrawal, or any subsequent ones that you may be asked ID for.

Customer Service at Betway

A number of support options available

What’s customer support like?

1|10
  • Confusing help section
  • Live chat (logged in only)
  • Poor response times
  • Not helpful for new customers

With Betway, you have to access the sites Help section first before you can get through to contact customer support. If someone has an urgent issue with their account, they don’t want to have to jump through hoops in order to contact customer support. They want the information there and ready for them to utilise.

Once you have loaded up the help section, you then need to answer “No” to the question “Was this article helpful?”. When you do that a link will appear for you to contact customer support.

However, you need to be logged in to speak to customer support, so you will be prompted to do this first. However, we’re quite sure what will happen if the issue is to do with the log in to your account.

If you can log in, you will then be given a link to a Live Chat service to speak to a customer services representative.

This is an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy. If people want support, they should be able to get it quickly, not have to go through this whole rigmarole every time.

Betway Website Review

Mobile & desktop site review

Is Betway Easy To Use?

7|10
  • App has excellent review score
  • User friendly
  • Great desktop site
  • Well designed service

Betway Mobile Review

Betway’s mobile app has an excellent rating of 4.7/5 across almost 25,000 reviews. That is a very solid score across a wide range of customers, many of whom have awarded the app five stars.

However, there are also very few 1 star reviews to counter the overall score which is a little fishy. Even the very best apps have some people who won’t like them for whatever reason, so we’d expect to see some one-star reviews for any of the top apps.

Not that the Betway app deserves such a low score. It is a very fine app. It is set up like the desktop site, but uses one column instead of three. That makes it so much easier to use on a smaller screen device. The same user-friendliness is evident in the app and placing bets is as easy on your mobile as it is on desktop.

Stability is excellent and compared to some apps, you don’t encounter many technical issues. All in all, this is a well-designed mobile app, especially when you consider the number of betting options available.

Betway Desktop Review

Our review of Betway might have highlighted some big problems so far but it would be unfair to say that their desktop site was anything other than a roaring success. The site is not radically different to how the best sites have their site set up, but there is a nice colour scheme, a balance of graphics and text and the overall effect is a bookmaker that is not only nice to look at, but also relatively easy to find your way around.

A dedicated Support button at the top of the screen makes it easy to contact the site if you have any issues, very reassuring for customers, especially when you consider Betway’s previous history where they have been accused by customers of some very shady practices.

The site is clean, easy to navigate and with so many sports and markets per fixture, the site is surprisingly easy to navigate around to find the markets you want, even for the lesser known sports.

The in-play betting service is excellent and has a large number of options, plus it has a selection of live streams to watch, as well as horse racing, provided you have bet £1 or more on the race in question.

Overall, like the mobile version, Betway’s desktop site is very nicely done and very user-friendly. However, be aware that the site has reduced its welcome offer from £30 of free bets down to just £10 recently. Some adverts still advertise that £30 offer though, so that can be a little misleading.

How To Join Betway

Joining Betway is simple and you can do so from the app or the website.

  1. Click on the green Register button.
  2. A Create Account page will load up into which you must enter:
  3. Personal Details (First & Last Name, Date of Birth)
  4. Account Information (Username, Password & Email address)
  5. Contact Details (Address, Mobile Number, Deposit Limits)
  6. You can then select whether or not you want to receive the Welcome Offer or not.
  7. Click to confirm you are of legal age and have read the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.
  8. Finally select how you wish to receive promotional material from Betway.
  9. Click the Register button and your account will be registered with the site.

Markets & Odds at Betway

Plenty of available markets

What sports can you bet on at Betway?

6|10
  • 30+ different sports covered
  • Live betting
  • Live streaming
  • Good market depth

It’s time to change gear a little with our Betway review and to start talking more specifically about the service they provide to punters, rather than the background of the company and their banking offerings. Let’s start off by analysing the events and markets that the bookmaker offer to customers, across the following array of sports:

  • Aussie Rules
  • Badminton
  • Baseball
  • Basketball
  • Beach Volleyball
  • Boxing
  • Cricket
  • Cycling
  • Darts
  • eSports
  • Floorball
  • Football
  • Formula 1
  • Futsal
  • Gaelic Sports
  • Golf
  • Greyhounds
  • Handball
  • Horse Racing
  • Ice Hockey
  • Kabaddi
  • Netball
  • NFL
  • Politics
  • Rugby
  • Snooker
  • Table Tennis
  • Tennis
  • UFC / MMA
  • Virtual Sports
  • Volleyball
  • Winter Sports

It’s fair to say, therefore, that whatever sport you like to bet on, Betway probably have it covered. Their selection of available sports, in fact, matches up with that offered by any and every other online bookmaker.

When you delve a little deeper and look at what the bookie offers for each sport, what’s more, things get even more impressive. Betway price up events from a multitude of different competitions and tournaments from around the world, not only for high profile sports like football but also for smaller sports such as badminton and volleyball.

Each different event which is priced up by Betway, too, tends to benefit from a really good range of different markets.

These extend from the simple and obvious like event result or correct score markets to some really specific and unusual alternatives. According to the company, more than 190,000 events are also taken in-play and it is to these events that we’ll now turn our attention.

In-Play Betting Review at Betway

Wide range of in-play events

Is live betting offered at Betway?

6|10
  • 190,000 in-play events yearly
  • Cash out available
  • Strong on stats & scores
  • Limited live streaming

A multitude of in-play events are continually available at Betway, and are arranged by sport on the main page of their in-play section.

Almost every sport for which Betway offer pre-event markets also benefit from in-play alternatives, with even lower profile events like table tennis matches being taken in-play. The selection of markets provided for each in-play event is also impressive and compares well with the live betting options offered by even the biggest bookmakers.

Betway In-play

Once you’ve found the in-play event you’re interested in, a simply click takes you to that event’s in-play interface. With Betway, those interfaces are really attractive and feature a handy graphic at the top which can be set to display live scoring, statistics or even live updates of the event.

As if all of that weren’t enough, too, Betway also provide live streams of UK and Irish horse races. To watch you need to have wagered a minimum of £1 on the race.

Welcome Bonus

Up to £10 in free bets

New customer offer

2|10
  • Up to £10 in free bets
  • Min odds 1.75
  • Free bet matches deposit amount
  • Very small bonus amount

Ahead of concluding our Betway review, let’s take a second to assess the bookie’s welcome promotion. The promotion gives brand new customers to Betway the opportunity to earn up to £10 worth of free bets simply by following these straightforward steps:

New Customer Offers at Betway

  1. Head on over to www.betway.com
  2. Register your brand new account with the bookmaker
  3. Make a deposit of up to £10 to that account, via a debit card.
  4. A free bet worth 100% of that initial deposit will be credited to your account but will not yet be activated.
  5. Place one bet or multiple bets up to the value of your initial deposit. Single bets must be at odds of at least 1.75 and the place portion of each way bets must be at odds of at least 1.40
  6. Your free bet token will be activated and available to use for a total of seven days before it expires

NOTE: whilst the Betway sign up offer is a decent one, if you’ve read up this page, you’ll know we don’t recommend joining Betway because of their historical problems paying players. If that puts you off check out these free bet deals at bookmakers we do recommend.

How To Use The Betway Bonus

Betway’s new starter bonus is one of the easiest to access and what’s more you can claim the same bonus if you sign up at the Sports or Esports betting parts of the site.

  1. Join Betway as outlined above.
  2. Log in to your new account and deposit £10.
  3. Unlock your free bet by placing a £10 bet at odds of 1.75 or higher
  4. Add a bet to your slip and either split your bet between cash and bonus balance or use the entire bonus balance to place your bet.
  5. Your bet will be placed and if it wins you’ll receive your winnings back minus your stake amount and they’ll be available to withdraw.

Overall Review

Here’s our overall take on things…

Our Verdict of Betway

Bad historical reputation
OUR RATING FOR:
BETWAY
1.5 | 5

Betway score well in various different categories of this review.

The bookie covers just as many sports as anyone else, and provides an attractive, intuitive website which makes it easy for punters to navigate those many punting options. An excellent array of markets are on offer from Betway and inplay stats and action areas are second to none.

Their welcome bonus is decent but it’s definitely smalle than the industry average so it’s not surprising we only score them with 1.5 stars overall.

Our review grade is purely based on their previous poor behaviour and the way they’ve cancelled winning bets, refused payouts and tried to rip players off with bonuses in the past. That coupled with a general lack of value on offer makes them a bookie to avoid.

It looks like they are trying to change their reputation BUT why take the risk when other, safer, bookmakers are available? Compare Betway to Bet365 for example and you’ve got a no competition.

Betway FAQ

Your questions answered

How To Contact Betway

If you cannot find the answer to your query in the Betway Help section, then to contact the company, when you are asked “Was this article helpful?” select the “No” option. A link will appear which says “Click here to contact us.” Click on the link. If you are not logged in at this point, you will be prompted to do so. A link to Betway’s Live Chat service will appear. Click on this and you will be connected to a member of the customer services team to help you with your request.

How To Close Your Betway Account

You cannot close your Betway account yourself, you need to contact the customer support team via email to request that they close your account. Send your email to support@betway.com and they will then action your account closure.

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