Introduction
Denis Coates started as a banker in a local betting shop and now runs Bet365, a company that turned more than $600 million in operating profits last year (March 2014 – March 2015). The company is significantly bigger than William Hill and Ladbrokes, their biggest competitors in the UK.
Coates, an inspiring entrepreneur with a hard-working attitude (”I’m not a regular at the races, I’m a regular in the workplace”), was listed in the Forbes magazine’s rich list with an estimated fortune of $2.5 billion (she owns 50.01% of Bet365 Group).
Bet365 has succeeded for a reason: they’ve got a huge amount of betting markets and wager types – as you might guess – and their live video streaming (in 2009, they were the first to secure rights to stream England national team’s match exclusively on the internet, and they broadcast 20,000+ events per year) and live in-play offers (yes, the same ones you often see advertised on UK TV with Ray Winstone and on Australian TV with Samuel L. Jackson) are second-to-none.
Bet365 prohibits players from many countries (notably the US and Australia).
Banking Options
I doubt you’d be able to find a wider range of banking options at any other gambling site. You name it, they have it. All the banking options are free and instant. Here’s a screenshot of a list of the banking methods I took from their website:
Sportsbook
The betting selection is huge. I’d be surprised if any betting site in the world had a deeper selection of betting options, but I don’t have any data to back this up. From the popular sports, leagues and games to the less-popular ones like trotting, water polo and curling, Bet365 has you covered.
They also offer all types of different bet types – again, I doubt you’ll be able to find another site with a wider variety of bets. Their live betting selection is unmatched as well, and Bet365 is the busiest live video streamer in the business.
You can even bet on currency rates and how they fluctuate relative to each other. For example, is American dollar going to be worth more or less relative to Japanese yen five minutes from now? Or a day from now? Or a week from now?
The quality of their betting lines is OK – they’re not particularly expensive, but also not the cheapest in the market (lesser-known sites like Pinnacle Sports and 5Dimes routinely offer better odds).
Casino
Bet365 uses 30+ casino software providers, most notably NetEntertainment, Microgaming and Playtech. They offer some of the biggest progressive jackpots on the internet, as well as some of the most popular slot machines (such as Iron Man 3, The Avengers, Monty Python’s Spamalot, Gladiator Jackpot, and Deal or No Deal).
Slot players are automatically a part of Bet365’s Slot Club which just means you can exchange player points for money. By accumulating a certain amount of points on a certain number of consecutive days, you can exchange your points into cash – the more points you earn and the longer you can keep the streak going, the more you earn. (Limits are 50-4000 points and 10-25 days for £5-£1000).
The best blackjack game (financially-speaking) at Bet365 Casino is Switch Blackjack (99.86% return) while the worst variation of Bet365 blackjack is Blackjack Pro (99.56%). The best video poker game is Zero Jacks or Better (100% return) and the worst is Aces and Faces (95.47% All of these return percentages are true suggesting you play according to optimal strategy.
The live dealer casino offers blackjack, baccarat, casino hold’em, hi-lo, roulette and sic-bo – it’s one of the most extensive live dealer casinos on the internet.
The casino software is audited by GLI Europe and licensed by Gibraltar. Here’s an example of a Bet365 payout report published by GLI Europe:
Poker
Bet365 Poker runs on Playtech software (Playtech is well-known as a provider of casino software but is a top-5 operator within the poker market as well). It belongs to the iPoker network which, traffic-wise, is on the third place out of all non-USA sites in the world (with PokerStars and 888 Poker ahead of it).
If you’re based outside of the U.S. and looking to play poker exclusively, PokerStars and 888 Poker are better options due to higher player traffic, bigger tournament prize pools and better software (although the last one is a personal opinion). However, I recommend Bet365 if you’re looking to play casino games or bet on sports in addition to playing poker. Bet365 is #1 in the world as an all-in-one gambling site.
While Bet365’s strength is offering great gambling options overall all in one account – as well as high player traffic – their weaknesses are limiting their high stakes games to £5/£10 (obviously a weakness only for those looking to play at high stakes), offering a weak sign-up bonus relative to other top poker sites, and, incredibly, not offering any software at all for their iMac/Mac users. If you have one of those, you’ll be unable to play at Bet365 Poker.
You can play up to 16 tables simultaneously, and the software has a mini-view function (see minimized tables to make it easier to keep track of what’s happening at all the tables) and an active table alert function (you’ll be alerted whenever it’s your turn).
Fortunately, Bet365 Poker is now on mobile and has regular ring games, sit& go tournaments, multi-table tournaments and speed poker. You can either download the mobile app or play the software inside your mobile device’s browser.
There are limitations to playing on a mobile, though. Firstly, the lack of screen space means you won’t be able to play multiple tables at the same time, so you might be used to a faster pace. Secondly, there are no high stakes games on mobile – the highest stakes you can play on are £2/£4. Thirdly, there’s some lagging here and there (although, fortunately, this happens more often when browsing through the lobby rather than sitting at the table), but it was a small inconvenience.
Bet365 Poker’s first-deposit bonus offer is 100% up to 100($/€/£). You earn the bonus by collecting Merit Points and then exchanging them for bonus money.
For the sake of this example, say you deposit £100. Your first 50 Merit Points earn you £1, the next 300 Merit Points £4 and then you’ll get £5 for every 450 Merit Points. You will have cleared your bonus after earning 8,900 Merit Points and you earn 15 Merit Points per every £1 paid in rake or tournament fees.
In total, you need to pay £593 in rake to receive £100 in bonus money (in other words, you’ll get 16.8% of your rake back). You have 60 days to clear the bonus from the moment you made the deposit.
While you’ve had an account for 90 days or less, you’re eligible for ”Beginner Games,” which are cash games for other recent account creators.
Bet365 Poker has a VIP system to encourage players to remain active. They have Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum levels (with qualification limits of 1000, 5000, 10000 and 25000 Merit Points, respectively). Once you’re on one of the levels, you can exchange your Merit Points into cash, bonuses or tournament tokens. (Before being able to exchange points, though, you must have maintained your current bonus level for the past three months.)
Customer Service
Bet365 operates in 18 languages and 27 currencies. You can reach their customer service via phone, e-mail, live chat (all of these operate 24/7) and fax. Customer service is one of the most important aspects of an online gambling business (or any business), and Bet365 gets our highest rating for making the customer service experience convenient (different ways to contact), fast (waiting times are short) and friendly (being professional yet friendly results in a good experience). I recommend using the live chat service due its speed and practicality.