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Betfred review
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A true British icon and one of our traditional gambling houses at Stakersland with a long history of sports against its name.
That name is, of course, Betfred. The big boss Fred Done made the right gamble back in 1996 when he backed England to win the World Cup. Roll on through the years and he and his brother Peter are now billionaires as they continue to keep their stately betting mansion stocked up with betting markets and bonuses. The community currently stands at 828K and most of these are Brits, while a handful of British stakers are also tapping into Betfred from their vacations in Spain from time to time. You’ll find very few visitors from abroad here and this is likely down to the very British-nature of Betfred. The doors are wide open for those who want to experience the stately grounds though and you’ll find the Betfred butlers waiting to greet you upon arrival. You might have guessed already but the major sports available at Betfred include horse racing, greyhound racing, and football, it’s very much quintessential British betting. You won’t find any specific geo targeting or player specific preferences and this all comes down to the fact that it’s built for one type of customer, the Brits. Horse racing and the greyhounds take priority with the largest slice of wagering across their sportsbook. Still, for all the traditions and grand designs that you find when you walk through the grounds of Betfred, it hasn’t stopped them from keeping one foot in the future with Esports. The emerging market is well covered here and you’ll find a wide range of markets from individual matches to outright winners for all the large competitions and leagues. Popular games such as League of Legends, Starcraft, Overwatch, and Call of Duty are all closely followed. We’re all inspired by the unbreakable will of the Done family to win and by keeping up with modern betting markets they are still managing to uphold the Betfred brand.
The limits of Betfred are large enough to keep most stakers happy with £1,000,000 maximum payouts for nearly all national hunt and flat racing events, take note that the limit drops to £100,000 for ante-post markets and £50,000 for all overseas racing. The greyhound racing events are also covered up to £250,000 in total and football pays out up to £1,000,000 for all the major top-tier leagues and competitions including internationals. Betfred do seem to restrict their stakers on various markets though with the £100,000 limit on UEFA Europa League games working out to only 5% of what both Bet365 and William Hill both offer. The £50,000 limit on the National English League is also extremely reduced against William Hill’s £1,000,000 top payout. It doesn’t stop with football either as the £100,000 payouts across the sports in the US, and the likes of tennis and snooker too, are a long way off the £500,000 that Bet365 and Ladbrokes both offer. Betfred is obviously keeping a tight grip on their payouts. They would only need to operate for 48 hours to payout that top £1,000,000 limit, and a £50,000 winner on an overseas horse racing event would only take them around 2.5 hours to balance the books. Convenient for Betfred but this doesn’t show much value for stakers. Although Betfred is currently running a loss at the moment, they have managed to make a millionaire in the past and we hope the funds would be readily available again if another big winner hits that top limit.
Betfred’s €200M annual gross gaming revenue is generated by a 828K staker community who are actively spending up to €30-35 per month. This is an iconic bookmaker at Stakersland who knows the industry inside out with limits of up to €1 million available.
The books of Betfred have taken a hit recently and the Done brothers are currently running their Betfred mansion and group operations at a loss. The Stakersland mansion is enjoying a profitable run though with the monthly gross gaming revenues coming to £18 Million with an average spend per staker of £30-35. This works out to around £200M in gross gaming revenue but under the Betfred group, the Done brothers are down €40 million due to several operations outside of Stakersland running at a loss. Betfred’s major rival in the park would have to be Paddy Power with a similar UK community of horse racing and greyhound fans. Paddy Power’s €420 million gross gaming revenue across the year is a significant slice of owner Flutter’s €1.12 billion revenues and shows a considerable step-up in earnings, and the fact that the Flutter Group is a profitable operation shines a light on the loss-making Betfred as well. One more comparison worth mentioning is yet another other UK market favourite in the shape of Ladbrokes. Here we have a significantly larger community of 1.7 million stakers that has been built up within a shorter time. The annual gross gaming revenue of €409 million is yet again significantly larger and twice the amount of what Betfred is making, though a slightly lower yield per player of €20-30 can be found.
Betfred Offers
A true British story with the majority of stakers based within the UK. A few other British stakers are coming in from sunnier climates such as the Spanish coast, and those who travel in from as far away as India are able to get a different source of betting inspiration.
| United Kingdom | South Africa | Ireland | Spain | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| monthly | 750K | 46K | 7.4K | 6.4K |
| License |  |  |  |  |
Social Buzz
Out of the 34 reviews and seven complaints on the site, only one is marked down as resolved. Out of the few positive comments, great bonus offers and a decent game selection are both mentioned. But again, the long withdrawal time periods, declined withdrawals, and account closures seem to hold the most weight in terms of staker issues.
Most of the stakers here have been rating Betfred with high ratings in the 4-5 area. A total of 33 comments and 351 votes have been made in total with most of the reviews shining Betfred in a positive light. The negative comments are based on poor customer service and the excessively high wagering requirements, and these have been consistent throughout.
Bonus clash
Our bonus experts rate this setup as a reasonably valued bonus program from Betfred that looks to give fair value to both stakers and the Big Boss Fred. It’s one of those few rare examples at Stakersland where stakers are valued and rewarded, as it used to be in the good old days. You can start your adventure with the free bet deposit promotion that gives you £30 from £10. Your journey can then continue onwards with a set of eight well-structured challenges based across football and horse racing.
“Their welcome bonus is decent in my eyes. £30 from a £10 deposit is really nice. The odds of course are bit higher than usual but still it's a nice promo that I would recommend for you to try.”
“I really love their promotions and offers. Most of them increase my winnings by two or more times. What could be better when you expect to get £30 but instead receive £90?”
"Unortunately, there are not many bonuses to try there for me. Free bets are only available on two of the promos. The others seem to be based on the “place a bet and maybe your winnings will be increased” structure. I don’t like that type of bonus.”
“There are almost no free bet promotions, instead they offer increased odds and complicated custom system bets. The other disadvantage that I’ve found is the selection of sports linked to the promos. I strongly believe there are sites with more developed bonus systems out there.”
Our bonus team searched through the Betfred promotions and picked out all the important details. So, below you’ll find all these bonuses and odds-based deals displayed with our running commentary on what we think and what you can expect from each offer. Read on and let’s see what Fred and his team have in store for you:
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Welcome Offer - Bet £10 Get £30 in Free Bets  | welcome bonus | Make a deposit of £10 and place it on any sports market at odds of 2.0+ | Customers depositing using prepaid Visa’s and Mastercard’s, or e-Wallets will not qualify for this promotion |
Experience the generosity of Betfred and enjoy their £30 welcome bonus reward. To qualify simply make a deposit of £10 and wager with odds of 2.0 or more. Your reward will be credited to your staker account within 10 hours of the qualifying bet being settled. Not a bad start at all!
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Double Delight & Hat-trick Heaven | Other | Place a pre-match single bet on the first goalscorer market in any of the selected events | Offer applies to bets taken prior to kick-off only |
Continue on with yet another top bonus from the Boss. In this promotion, if your chosen player scores first and scores again then your odds will get doubled. Odds will then get tripled if the chosen player scores first and scores two more goals. This promo is only available for singles and selected matches only but again, very rewarding if you pick a hotshot. All good, moving on…
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Double Delight & Hat-trick Heaven In-Play | Other | Place an in-play single bet on the next goalscorer market in any of the in-play games | Own goals do not count |
A play on the previous promotion by doubling or tripling your odds by wagering in-play on the Next Goalscorer market (First, Second, Third Goalscorer etc). Qualifiying bets require the player to score next and then score again, and the treble bonus is available if he scores next and then scores two more goals. The Betfred bonus value continues to impress so it makes sense to carry on betting here.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Free Bet up to £10 if 2nd | FROM £1 | Place a win or each way single on any of the nominated races on the specified day | Does not apply to Ante-post bets and to bets placed on unnamed favourites/unnamed 2nd favourites |
Betfred rewards you with a free bet worth up to £10 if your horse finishes second. This offer requires a win bet or each way single on any of the nominated races on the specified day. This is more like it with an easy-to-understand offer for all racing fans.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Extra Place Races | Extra Places | Winner or each way markets | Doesn’t apply to ante-post bets |
Betfred safely approaches the market standard and then extends the races with extra places priced at 1/5. The promotion applies to markets highlighted with ‘Winner or E/W’ only, and both singles and multiple bets qualify for the offer.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Best Odds Guaranteed | Best Odds Guaranteed | Back a horse in any UK or Irish race after 8 am on the day of the race | Doesn’t apply to ante-post bets or Lucky 15, Lucky 31, or Lucky 63 bets |
Enjoy one of the oldest promotions in the UK from your first day right through until the end of your stay with Betfred (or until they decide to stop the Best Odds Guaranteed offer). It’s a simple but rewarding offer where you’ll get paid out at the higher price should your original bet price drop. Remember, the Best Odds Guaranteed offer applies to bets placed after 08:00 on the day of the race.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
All Correct Bonuses | Other | Place a Lucky 15, Lucky 31, Lucky 63, Yankee, Canadian or Heinz on Horse Racing, Greyhounds, Virtual Horse racing or Virtual Greyhounds | Applies to Horse, Greyhound, Virtual Horse and Virtual Greyhound bets only |
Stake any bets via the Lucky 15, Lucky 31, Lucky 63, Yankee, Canadian or Heinz systems on Horse Racing, Greyhounds, Virtual Horse racing, or Virtual Greyhounds and should your selection come out as a winner, you will be rewarded with up to 25% of your winnings in cold hard cash. A small note should be made that all selections must run for this bonus to apply.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
One Winner Bonuses | Other | Place a Lucky 15, Lucky 31 or Lucky 63 on Horse Racing or Greyhounds | Does not apply to virtual racing |
Betfred will instantly have your odds increased by 3, 4 or 5 times once your Lucky 15, Lucky 31 or Lucky 63 settles with only one winner. This particular promotion only applies to Horse and Greyhound Racing bets though.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Acca Insurance | acca insurance | Place a pre-match 5-fold match result football accumulator on games from selected leagues | Permutation bets do not count towards this offer |
This particular acca insurance promotion is far too complicated compared with the market standard at Stakersland. Here, stakers are rewarded with up to £10 as a free bet if one of the 5+ fold football accumulator selections falls short. The minimum odds are 1/3 per selection and the offer is only limited to specific events.
Conclusion
Betfred takes its own approach to bonus programs with a great selection of tailor-made football and horse racing offers. The welcome bonus is such an enticing offer where you can instantly triple your first deposit with up to £30 in free bets available. The Double Delight for both the pre-match and in-play markets is something the British stakers will love and the horse racing is well covered with a handful of offers that include, mostly, friendly terms. We do feel that those free bet promotions would be more enticing if they were included as a daily or weekly free bet club, something along the lines of Paddy Power’s setup would really push this bonus program up a notch or two. Not bad at all from Betfred though and plenty of value to be gained for football and racing fans.
Sports betting
The Betfred sportsbook runs on the Betgenius software which focuses on racing and football markets.
Let us do the testing and examine each of the bookmakers and the betting tools on offer because, well, that’s what we do best. We keep an eye on all the betting entertainment here at Stakersland and then feed that back to you in an easy and understandable way. You can then clearly see what to expect when you sign up to the likes of Betfred and the other betting venues in the park. Here’s what we found from our tests on Betfred.
Betfred uses the Betgenius technology to power its online presence and this comes entirely down to the dark arts of marketing. The system is purely driven and focused on customer acquisition and retention. It’s also probably one of the only sites where you can meet all the ad networks and trackers together in place - Google Adwords, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Сooladata, Bing Ads, Otherlevels, Twitter Ads, Adnxs, Facebook Ads, Teads, Eyeota, Rezync, Pippio, Instana, and of course Betgenius Connextra and Mathtag. Besides those there are also technical trackers like hotjar, appsflyer, adalyser and rfihub in place as well.
Sports
Betfred’s major revenue is from the UK and Irish Horse and Greyhound markets. Football is the second biggest market though and it’s highly specific to the top tier British leagues. It is worth a mention that Betfred shops are available on all racecourses in the UK, offering the most extensive coverage when it comes to races and markets of all kinds.
Betting slip
A classic betting slip which is identical to most of the operators in Stakersland and comes without any modern twists. Stakers can use both partial and complete ‘Cash Out’ for their bets, but there is no banker feature. The types of bets available include Single, Combined, and System with specials (Patent, Trixie, Yankee, Canadian, Heinz, Super Heinz, Goliath).
In-play stats
The information available is generally quite limited during the matches of any type at Betfred. For the higher tier events and leagues, Betfred does offer a reduced level of statistics through their Betgenius widget. This includes position tracking in the form of directions of the attack, recent form data, and lineups are available too.
Betting markets
Betfred features both in-play and pre-live markets with 33 pre-match markets and 38 markets available at the time of kickoff. In Tennis they usually come up with 16 live markets and 12 pre-live markets, with around 6 pre-live markets available for basketball events.
Margins
The sports betting margins at Betfred is currently on par with the market average. For top sports like football, the pre-live markets come in at 3.38% and 6.89% for live. Tennis events margins come in at 5.76% and goes down to 5% after the game starts.
Event results
We found no such thing as event results or statistics available through Betfred. There are no open results available for horse racing and greyhounds either. All related information is available for your settled bets only. Betfred should really look to reconsider its position and provide their stakers with the information they need to make informative decisions.
| Sports | margins | live margins | markets | live markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tennis | 5.76% | 5% | 12 | 16 |
| football | 3.38% | 6.89% | 33 | 38 |
| basketball | 4.69% | 5.42% | 6 | 22 |
| ice hockey | 7.27% | 9.04% | 5 | 16 |
Our team of betting experts calculated the margins here and found that there is betting value to be found at the old grounds of Betfred. In fact, the margins come in slightly lower than average for the top events on both pre-live and live markets. Take the Europa League for example, the 3.48% on the pre-live markets is one of the best around and shows a lot more value than other traditional betting establishments like Ladbrokes with 6.7% and William Hill with 5.56%. The Champions League live margin of 5.88% also shows considerable value when compared against the 9.28% of Ladbrokes and it’s still lower than the 6.2% of William Hill. It looks like all of Betfred’s experience comes to fruit here with impressive betting value for UK stakers across the top football events.
Financial Limits
The Stakersland financial team take great care in gathering all the important legal processes and procedures undertaken by each bookmaker within the park. All the data and details are checked and verified by our whole team before we set it out in the table below. Read on to find out about what you can expect when dealing with the Betfred financial and internal account teams.
Payment Method Restrictions
Which payment methods are valid when claiming my bonuses?
The bonus terms explain that prepaid cards and e-wallets will not qualify for the Betfred welcome promotion. This leaves British stakers with Debit card and Bank transfer payment methods as the only deposit methods to qualify for the welcome package which is fairly standard.
The Influence of Third Party Agencies
What checks are being made and do they use any third party agencies?
In line with the terms and conditions, Betfred will undertake checks to verify your name, address, and date of birth. They also warn that the information obtained from such checks will be used “to undertake public searches”. Betfred conducts verification checks which could include sharing information with third party organisations such as credit reference agencies. You also consent to transferring your personal data outside of the European Union (EU). In addition to all this, your data is also shared with nearly all marketing trackers available on the Internet. It’s an unsafe site from a data protection point of view.
Personal Data Transparency
Will they inform me about the automated checks being performed?
Neither of the Betfred terms and conditions or Help sections mention anything about automated checks performed upon account creation, only the standard KYC procedure is detailed. The direct request from their support representative was replied to with the following answer: “verification can be requested at any point”. Within the privacy policy they are not explicitly clear what trackers they are using and only mention Active Win and Sharp Gaming without mentioning 20 other ad agencies they are currently employing.
Social Media Communication
Will my financial disputes and complaints be answered on the social media profiles?
We counted four registered finance-related complaints on Askgamblers with only one resolved successfully. It’s obvious that the Betfred representatives do not communicate with people on the Trustpilot and LCB forums.
Gambling Anonymously
Are my banking transactions with the bookmaker private?
Betfred will not use any identifiers to keep customers transactions private. Most transactions will have “Betfred” name next to them, however, for some payment methods it will just be “Gibraltar”. The bookmaker representatives could not explain what that depends on though.
Withdrawal Timeframe & Common Complaints
How fast are the withdrawals and what do stakers complain about the most?
It takes up to 48 hours to approve withdrawals on the Betfred side, the exact time depends on the requested amount. After approval, funds will reach staker accounts in 3-5 working days, as Betfred representatives told us. As our forum analysis showed, there are very few complaints from Betfred players about withdrawal delays regardless of the lengthy approval time.
Player-Friendly Withdrawal Limits
What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal limits available?
According to the Betfred terms and conditions, the minimum withdrawal is set to £5 for all withdrawal methods except for bank transfers. A maximum withdrawal request limit is set to £20,000, although it can be lower or higher depending on the selected payment provider. For debit cards the maximum is £9,999.99, Neteller is capped at £4,000, PayPal at £5,000, Skrill at £6,500, and bank transfers must stay within £25 to £25,000 per day. The limits are significantly lower than the present market averages and this could potentially lead to withdrawal problems should your winnings exceed those maximum caps.
Withdrawal Options & Additional Costs
What are my banking options when withdrawing my funds and do they add fees?
Withdrawal options depend on regions but the following options are given for UK stakers: Debit Cards, PayPal, Skrill are free of charge. Neteller is free as long as the deposit amount was wagered x1, otherwise a 2% fee is applied. One bank transfer is free every 28 days, otherwise it will cost you £12 for a standard and £25 for an urgent bank withdrawal.
Regulatory Check Transparency
Are they clear about the Source of Funds and Source of Wealth procedures?
Betfred is straightforward and clear about the source of funds procedure that they conduct, both in their terms and conditions and upon request from support. They provide players with a full list of documents that might be requested, depending on the actual source the money originated from.
Conclusion
Betfred offers all the standard payment options but the relatively low maximum withdrawal limits might raise alarm bells for some stakers. The payout times indicated on their banking noticeboard are higher than average, but in most cases, withdrawals are approved sooner and there were very few complaints about this from stakers in general. We were glad to see that Betfred is clear about all the verification procedures. They also happily provide a comprehensive list of the documents required for any type of check that they may carry out in the future. However, the major problem that we can see is how your private information is being used and what information is being shared with marketing agencies. As it looks from our view, you will be followed across your online journey and as such you might be specifically targeted as per your activity on Betfred with promotions and relevant offers. All of this targeting also reaches out to any wi-fi devices that are connected nearby as well. It’s very intrusive and worrying for stakers who like to keep their activities private.
Customer Support
The Betfred support team come across as a polite bunch of people who provide the necessary information on the majority of our queries, albeit with short generic replies. The one outstanding issue though was the fact that it can take up to and over an hour before an agent is free to join you. We’re a bit unsure on how to treat this level of service overall and simply put, it’s unheard of in the land of stakers. Moving on from their bizarre response times, they do have both the email and live chat channels open for support, although the live chat is only available from 9am to 5pm. The fact that most UK stakers are at work until 5pm makes this option irrelevant, so you could even ignore any Betfred instant customer service altogether. Additionally, there is nothing available on SLA’s and so we can’t make any official judgments about the level of support you should be receiving. Hopefully, the following results collected from our own tests can help to spread some light on what you can expect from the Betfred customer service team.
Support Speed & Resolution
How fast do they reply to my general queries?
It takes around 1.5 hours to get connected to a live chat agent and this is supposedly down to the length of the queue, which can reach up to 100 stakers at the busiest of times. The average response time is then 2-3 depending on the level of your query.
Live Chat Access
Is the online live chat tool available on the site?
Live chat is available for new stakers and as it works out, they are in the same queue as registered stakers who are waiting to get connected to a support agent. Unfortunately, Betfred’s support do not give out any bonuses over live chat and although we emailed them repeatedly, only one of our emails had been replied to after a 24-hour waiting time.
Support Team Competency
How quickly will the support team reply to complex queries?
Betfred agents need up to three minutes to provide stakers with the required information on complex financial or technical queries. It’s not very useful but it is in line with most other operators whose support teams are not always up to speed with top-level complex betting queries.
Level of Technical Expertise
Are the support agents sufficiently trained to answer technical queries based on odds, margins, and markets?
The support team told us they have no access to technical information regarding odds, margins, and markets. It sounds to us like everything is outsourced including both the online chat and their web site.
Unregistered Staker Support
Will the customer service team interact with unregistered stakers and will I get a free bet?
The agents provided us with copy-and-paste templates with the details of their welcome offer for new members. After repeated requests we were told that agents have to follow these specific rules and not divulge additional details.
Professional & Friendly Service
What type of response will I get when requesting a bonus from the service team?
The reaction from our constant bonus requests was a mixed bag. At first they replied with a template, but then they started to explain with their own words which was most likely triggered by a possible language barrier, showing that the agents do offer that human touch now and then if required.
Customer Service Knowledge
Will the agents provide the correct information about payment limits when compared to the terms and conditions on the website?
All the provided information from the team regarding important financial questions like withdrawal and deposit limits, fees, and commissions matched up with what can be found in the terms and conditions.
Willingness to Help Out
Will the support representatives help me navigate around their website?
Based on our navigation and general ‘how to find’ questions, the support agents happily sent us both directions and links upon request which helped us to find where we needed to go quickly and efficiently.
Tolerance Levels
Does the support team have a high tolerance level for repeated bonus requests?
After repeated requests to receive a free bonus the tone of the conversation did become less neutral, however, there was always a level of politeness being held throughout.
Onsite Support Efficiency
How efficient is their onsite Helpdesk compared to the competition?
The Betfred Help Section contains a convenient list of questions and the answers can be viewed by clicking on the selected line. There is also a useful menu providing an overview on other sections and this provides stakers with a helpful source of information overall.
Conclusion
Well, there is no such as thing as customer service when it comes to Betfred. The support team is only available during working hours and with 200 stakers often in the queue, trying to deal with all those matters is always going to cause bottlenecks. Big boss Fred’s idea to outsource the website to Betgenius, who is in a legal battle with Sportradar, doesn’t look so genius after all. A ray of light for new stakers is that you can contact and ask all your initial questions before signing up and walking through into the Betfred estate, however, those technical questions once again proved to be an issue. Further proving that their traders, bookmakers, and the technical department is not a part of their inner office setup.
Conclusion
Well, there is no such as thing as customer service when it comes to Betfred. The support team is only available during working hours and with 200 stakers often in the queue, trying to deal with all those matters is always going to cause bottlenecks. Big boss Fred’s idea to outsource the website to Betgenius, who is in a legal battle with Sportradar, doesn’t look so genius after all. A ray of light for new stakers is that you can contact and ask all your initial questions before signing up and walking through into the Betfred estate, however, those technical questions once again proved to be an issue. Further proving that their traders, bookmakers, and the technical department is not a part of their inner office setup.
It’s likely that you’ll be looking for external help if you do come across any major issues at Betfred, so here’s a mini FAQ for you to help you on your way:
Are you able to complain with Betfred?
At the first stage, all complaints should be lodged with the customer support via the live chat, phone, or email channels. Complaints may be escalated to the Customer Service Team Leader, Customer Service Duty Manager or Head of Customer Services. According to the T&Cs, a complaint should be resolved within eight weeks depending on the accuracy of the data provided.
Where to complain if they refuse the withdrawal?
Official disputes can be submitted to IBAS which is Betfred’s ADR, or to the European Online Dispute Resolution platform. If you remain unsatisfied with the overall resolution then the dispute may be forwarded to the Betfred regulators; the UKGC for UK stakers and the Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner for all others.
How do players rate the Betfred customer service?
Stakers generally rate the Betfred customer care service rather low and this is all down to slow responses, a lack of technical understanding, and the team not being available in the evening hours. The 9-5 support schedule is such a bizarre idea that we’re still left scratching our heads.
Up or down
Betfred still operate out of their grand mansion estate and all that history still flows through the creaky corridors and sweeping staircases, but unsurprisingly, the website follows suit and runs on dated technology too. This does not prevent them from being online for most of the day in the world of Stakers though, but that 98.34% uptime rate also means that Betfred’s cyber butler is not always going to be on call to welcome you onto the premises. It is often the case that Betfred’s maintenance is performed with all services suspended, and so the average uptime of 98.38% means that they are out of business for 11 hours and 34 minutes every month. Considering that the customer service is only available from 9 to 5, a one-day holiday per month for the virtual mansion is not going to distract those 200 patient stakers who sit and wait for a free support agent to appear. However, despite their server becoming unavailable and taking a rest for one day a month, their Google Page Speed test leaves a lot to be desired. The 21/100 for web applications and 15/100 for mobile shows that it would be worth working on one or two of the speed issues or maybe just changing the platform altogether. One or two big decisions are needed by Fred and his brother, so perhaps it is time to renovate the mansion and restore the foundations with something that ties in more with the modern era.
TECHNOLOGY
Should any staker click on a link to load the odds, it’s going to be a challenge for Betfred with serious processing power required behind the scenes, as almost all update requests are performed as http get requests. There are some much-needed updates coming from Betgenius with the addition of web sockets though. The frontend itself could truly be called a "refurb with old materials" with a migration to React starting a long time ago, and eventually being halted. Betfred uses the flux container which was updated most recently in 2017, and it seems like the developers tried to make a SPA application, but it didn’t work well with various scrolling issues. So, some further tuning is likely to be required in a few years time.
DATA CENTER
In parts, the Betfred servers are protected by Imperva which is a server protection system similar to Cloudflare that is used against attacks. It was a brilliant option due to the outdated version of the ASP.NET technology they were using for the back-end. However, these good ideas are taking their time with Imperva being used for the main domain and all internal services going directly to the Betfred server hosted at Redstation. It’s more likely those services have not been optimised yet and were blocked by Imperva, a solution which is designed to prevent Betfred from external attack and high network loading. Let's hope the Betfred developers know what they are doing.
SSL CERTIFICATE
It seems as though Betfred must be unique in everything they do. They have decided to install a free certificate to protect its stakers with a free SSL option provided by GlobalSign. Despite the cost of $0, the certificate uses a standard encryption level of 256 bits with a root key of 2048 bits to secure all onsite transactions and personal data flow.
The Betfred setup is like an ancient discovery from the past that has been sprinkled on top with new trends and technologies. This is how the Betfred website is described by our tech team at Stakersland. Product developers obviously have different tasks during their daily work activities at Betfred, and it could be the fact that nobody is willing to take this setup onwards at the given £25,000 salary. It’s doubtful that their aim was to create a convenient and comfortable solution for their friends coming for a little entertainment in the evening, so that refurb by the right team of developers is something that should be looked into sooner rather than later.
countries where Betfred is licensed
The Betfred head office is based in the UK, Cheshire to be exact. There is also another registered office on the island of Gibraltar and they hold both the UK and Gibraltar gambling licenses under the registered name Petfre. These two licenses open up the Betfred sign up form to many staker nations but as we said, the majority are from the UK and the betting services provided further proves that. Regardless of their loss-making operations, the Betfred team continue to expand with support positions open in the Cheshire office still available.
Betfred utilises the betting licences from both the UKGC and GGC to attract stakers from multiple nations, but the obvious betting attraction has always come from within the loyal shorelines of the UK.
A little bit more about that loss-making operation though as it is surprising for such a big name as Betfred. Betfred is now a well-known brand on the streets of the UK with over 1,600 betting shops. It wasn’t always like this though because as of 2004, the company was known as Done Bookmakers with a chain of little over 300 shops. The decision by Boss Fred to launch the Betfred.com sportsbook in the same year was the gamechanger for the brand and pushed them into the modern era of betting. However, the business ideas of Betfred have not always been so well thought out. In 2016, Betfred bought out 322 shops from the newly formed Ladbrokes/Coral merger and, as a result, they now own even more betting shops that don’t hold much profit for the future. In fact, this is the reason for their current loss-making operations. It was a disaster for Betfred and a wonderful bit of business for the Ladbrokes/Coral GVC merger. A hard lesson for Betfred on how to plan and move your business in line with the modern era.
In terms of sanctions recorded against the Betfred name, we found one or two significant cases that are worth a mention. Firstly, on more of a public setting, various stakers have gone up against Betfred with one man losing out on a jackpot of £1.7 million due to a mistake on a betting slip, it came down to the fact that he wrote ‘Bailarico’ instead of the official winner ‘Bialco’. This prompted further action by betting groups like ‘Boycott Betfred’ who were finding further examples of stakers losing out on winnings. On more official lines, a fine of £800,000 was issued when it was found that a staker had been allowed to bet with stolen money and was eventually sent to prison. On a positive note though, Betfred won a court case against HMRC in 2018 with the ruling that Betfred overpaid VAT and were due a huge £1,000,000 refund. However, fines continued to land on the desk of the bosses and the following actions were recorded in October 2019 by the UK Gambling Commission, upon an investigation into Petfre (Gibraltar) Limited. Betfred failed to carry out source of funds checks on a customer who deposited £210,000, and lost £140,000, of stolen money back in 2017. As a result, Petfre Limited agreed to a regulatory settlement consisting of the following:
- divestment of the gross gambling yield of £140,000 lost by the customer. This money was returned to the victim whose money was stolen
- a payment in lieu of financial penalty of £182,000
- agreement to the publication of a statement of facts in this case
- payment of £15,168.42 towards the Commission’s investigative costs.
It’s certainly not the cleanest of business slates for Betfred with more than a couple of cases where action has been taken against them. A part of this goes with the territory of being in the business for so long, but one or two cases could have been avoided had they been more efficient and diligent with their source of funds checks.
Questions
What documents do Betfred require for account verification?
The Betfred terms and conditions currently list all required documents for verification checks and these are as follows: an in date driving license, passport, national identity card, an official marriage certificate or civil partnership certificate, deed poll or equivalent in Scotland, a decree absolute or final order, and a utility or bank statement from the last three months.
In some cases, the team might request a photograph of you holding your own passport, national identity card, or driving licence held open at the appropriate page that contains your official details. Additionally, if the team require the need then they all also hold the right to make further checks which may mean you will need to supply any of the following types of documents: employment, inheritance, investment, property, savings, or winnings from other bookmakers.
How long does it take them to settle the bets and payout?
Bets are settled and winnings are paid to the account within a couple of minutes after Betfred receives the official results. On some special occasions (for example, a stewards inquiry) this process can last for up to 45 minutes. Betfred is currently using Betgenius for their data feed, and they themselves are currently being sued Sportradar over the licensing and distribution of live data. This could have a significant impact on future bet settlements, but for now the process remains. All UK horse racing and Irish horse racing will be settled according to the stated terms and condition. British sports are settled quickly but the international lower leagues might mean lengthy waits for settlement due to the time it takes for the official scores to be published, sometimes this could mean a wait of 24-48 hours. That large 200-staker customer support queue might well be linked to these settlement and payout issues.
How to request a withdrawal and how long it may take?
In any case where it is possible, funds will be transferred to stakers the same way that they were originated. Withdrawals first go through the internal approval procedure performed by the official Betfred security team. This can take up to 48 hours, however, the actual time is usually much shorter according to the support team and staker experience. Once transactions are approved, it then falls into the hands of the selected payment providers to be fully processed. These additional processing times vary from method to method and can take several days to reach your own personal account. As a rule of thumb, debit cards and bank transfers can take up to 3-5 working days to complete.
After two official regulatory actions, Betfred toughened their compliance procedures and they now clearly describe the source of funds verification procedures. With the absence of a real-time customer service available round the clock, there is a high chance your withdrawal will be taking longer then you expected. There is no easy way to speed up the process because live chat is the only option, and we all now know that this takes at least one hour to be connected between the hours of 9am and 5 pm.
Are multiple accounts allowed?
The Betfred terms only allow stakers to hold one active account at a time and opening additional accounts or allowing any other staker to open such accounts on your behalf (by using alternative contact details, payment method or any other means) is prohibited. The Betfred team holds the right to close or merge (link) any duplicate accounts.
Is it safe to open an account with Betfred?
While Betfred is a loss-making enterprise by racking up £40 million pounds as a net loss, they are still one of the biggest and most respected operators in the UK with almost 1,600 betting shops. This does not stop them selling your personal data to around 20 marketing agencies who will follow you across your online journey with all possible types of gambling ads appearing before your eyes. On the other hand, Boss Fred might not be aware of the extent to what Betgenius is actually doing here. To summarise, it is not safe to visit Betfred but it is safe to open an account and wager smaller bets in the form of casual gambling. Should you win larger amounts then you will face significant withdrawal limits and the compliance rules will take longer than expected. There is no easy way to complain online except by taking those complaints directly to UKGC or visiting a Betfred betting shop. One thing is for sure with all the mentioned data privacy issues, Betfred is one of the biggest online bookmaker suspects in the whole of Stakersland.
VPN Usage Legal or Not?
Stakers are allowed to access and use Betfred over VPN as long as all due diligence procedures and account verifications have been completed. Both legally and technically, the use of VPN is not allowed when trying to avoid official country restrictions and also when trying to register from a location which is a prohibited jurisdiction. In the case that any staker decides to use VPN access for such purposes, their accounts can be closed with all funds frozen until further notice.
gross gaming revenue
customer base
time to make £1M
Social Buzz
Up or down
A total of 42% of the total comments here are marked down as ‘excellent’ and 14% as ‘good’, but on the other hand, a hefty 37% of the comments are rated with the lowest possible rating. Various issues arise on the site such as poor customer service, delayed withdrawals, and software problems. Even through Betfred has claimed the profile and many reviews are down as ‘excellent’, the negative reviews have soared over the last four years.