Unibet probably aren’t the first company you think of if someone talks about Britain’s bookies. In a recent YouGov poll, only half of respondents had heard of Unibet, compared to over 90% for Betfred, William Hill and Ladbrokes. On the other hand, Unibet outstripped many of their better known rivals when it came to popularity - they managed a fairly respectable 11th place among gambling operators, beating PaddyPower, SkyBet, Betfair and Bet365.
Source: YouGov’s Most Popular Gambling Brands 2024
So what is Unibet doing right, and what is it doing wrong? In this article, we take a detailed look at what it has to offer, analysing its sportsbook and casino, its welcome offers and regular promotions, and also its safety, security and service, so that you can make a solid assessment before signing up with them.
Overview
Deposit And Withdrawal Methods
| Method | Minimum deposit | Minimum withdrawal | Withdrawal time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Card | £5 | £15 | Up to 1 working day |
| Apple pay | £5 | £15 | A few hours |
| Skrill | £5 | £10 | Up to 12 hours |
| Neteller | £5 | £10 | Up to 12 hours |
| Paysafe card | £10 | N/A | N/A |
| Trustly | £10 | £5 | Up to 1 working day |
| Instant bank transfer | £5 | £10 | Up to 1 working day |
Registration Process
A very straightforward two step process.
Support
| Live chat | Phone | |
|---|---|---|
| Available 24/7 | Via webform | 0800 329 393 |
Compatibility
| App | Desktop |
|---|---|
| iOS | Website |
| Android |
Main Pros And Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Great welcome offers | Difficult to access contact details |
| Regular promotions | High minimum withdrawals |
| Excellent range of markets | |
| 24/7 customer service | |
| Speedy withdrawals |
Unibet’s Background
Among British bookmakers, Unibet is a relative newcomer, having been founded in 1997. It launched its online betting site in 1999 and expanded internationally with great rapidity; by 2004, it had over 300,000 registered customers in more than 100 countries.
As part of its aggressive expansion, it acquired a number of other companies and, to better reflect the multi-brand nature of its business, renamed itself the Kindred Group in 2016. Brands owned by Kindred include 32Red and Bingo.com, as well as a number of other gambling operators based outside the UK.
Unibet are generally pretty well regarded in the industry, but they have experienced controversies in recent years. In 2022, one of Kindred’s subsidiaries was threatened with fines of as much as €120,000 daily for illegal operations in Norway, which Kindred has refused to discontinue. Meanwhile, in Canada Unibet was fined $48,000 for infractions of their Internet Gaming Standards.
Welcome Offers
Unibet has a pretty generous selection of welcome offers, which is always nice to see! If you’re making money through Matched Betting, though, the amount of profit you can make from free bets is more limited than it might first appear, as the sports betting offer only gives you £20 in free bets, with another £20 of casino bonus - which, while always nice, has a much smaller chance of making you a profit.
Sports betting: bet £10 and get a £20 free bet and a £20 casino bonus
Casino: deposit £10 and get a £40 casino bonus (subject to wagering)
Racing: bet £20 and get £20 in free racing bets
Poker: deposit to receive £20 in extra tickets and a £500 playthrough bonus
Sportsbook
Unibet separates sports betting from horse racing, somewhat unusually, which means the ‘My Bets’ and ‘free bets and uniboosts’ sections are duplicated. So don’t panic if you can’t find a racing bet in your sports betting history - you just need to check the racing section.
Unibet has a particularly diverse range of sports markets, which is nice to see, and also indicates the number of available markets for each sport, so you know how much is available to bet on at any time. Overall, their odds are fairly competitive - perhaps not the very best you might find for any particular fixture, but on a par with their main rivals.
Range Of Sports
- American Football
- Australian Football
- Badminton
- Baseball
- Bowling
- Cycling
- Darts
- eSports Basketball
- Floorball
- Formula 1
- Gaelic Sports
- Handball
- Ice Hockey
- Lacrosse
- Motor Sports
- Rugby League
- Rugby Union
- Surfing
- Table Tennis
- UFC/MMA
- Volleyball
- WWE/Pro Wrestling
- Winter Sports
- Yachting
Regular promotions
Unibet has a fairly good range of regular promotions. They offer weekly ‘bet builder rebounds’, both on football and American sports, which allow you to claim a refund in the form of a free bet if your bet builder loses. Your free bet does also have to be on a bet builder, admittedly, which somewhat limits the profit you can make if you’re Matched Betting - but this is still a very worthwhile offer.
Most customers will have regular opportunities to get a free acca bet when placing an acca, and Unibet also offers regular racing refunds, with your stake back as a free bet if your horse comes in 2nd or 3rd place. On top of this, Unibet has frequent price boosts, including three small boosts for you to use on any racing every single day.
Unibet Casino
Range of games
Unibet offers an incredibly wide selection of games - 3861 at the time of writing! - which make it a firm favourite with many casino fans. As well as a good range of exclusive games, you’ll find all your familiar favourites, including the Big Bass series, Eye of Horus and Fishin’ Frenzy.
Regular promotions
There are a fair few regular casino promotions offered, including Free Spins Friday, which, as it sounds, offers customers free spins every Friday, their daily free ‘Spin n Win’ wheel and other rewards, including large jackpots and drops and wins. They also offer ad hoc promotions to selected customers, which appear in the customer’s bonuses section of their account.
Other Promotions
Unibet has regular promotions on Bingo and Poker. If you’re a Bingo fan, there are various opportunities to play for a share of prize pools, plus a free daily scratchcard which offers you the chance to win rewards. If you’re more into Poker, on the other hand, you can complete missions to win certain rewards, with more generous offers available during special events throughout the year.
Finally, their refer a friend scheme allows you to earn up to £150 in bonus funds (with wagering requirements) by referring three friends to sign up with Unibet. Your friend does have to wager at least £500 in sports betting or £1000 on casino within 60 days, though, so you’ll need to be sure they’re keen to use their new account before sending them an invite.
Usability
Unibet is relatively unusual among bookies, in that its homepage doesn’t take you straight to any kind of betting, but displays promotions prominently, and large ads for the sections of its websites below.
Its sportsbook homepage, meanwhile, is also quite different. Unlike other bookies, Unibet doesn’t display promotions front and centre; instead, it focuses on top markets centrally, with its range of sports listed on the left and the promotions and other highlighted markets to the right. No space is occupied by your betslip, which pops up at the bottom of the screen when you make a selection, which avoids the cluttered feeling some bookie’s websites suffer from.
The handy search tool on the top right ensures you’ll have no trouble tracking down any event you’re looking for. The separation of Sports and Racing is also quite unusual, but easy enough to navigate once you’re aware of it.
Event pages are laid out with less efficiency than you might expect, although their appearance is perfectly appealing. Information about the match and performance statistics is shown in a box on the top right, but below it quite a bit of space is wasted, meaning you can view less in the way of markets. There also aren’t any dropdown options for the main markets, meaning that there’s no way to minimise any you aren’t interested in (though less popular markets are hidden by default, and can be expanded if you wish to view them).
The casino section takes a much less revolutionary approach than Unibet’s sportsbook, with the layout following the normal pattern we’d expect from a bookie: promotions at the top, and the range of slots displayed below. We’re always pleased to see a prominent search tool, though - and with the aforementioned 3861 games available, it’s certainly necessary if you’re looking for a specific one! We’re less thrilled by the difficulty of locating the RTP for each game, however, which ought to be easy to access.
The Help Centre, while logically organised, could be better when it comes to providing all the information a customer might be looking for; e.g. in answer to ‘What methods can I use to deposit?’, it refers a customer to the deposit page rather than simply listing available deposit methods. Their ‘Contact Us’ section, meanwhile, requires the customer to jump through several hoops to access contact information, and shows only limited contact options depending on the nature of the customer’s query (e.g. only showing an email form, when live chat and a phone number are both available too).
Safety And Security
Unibet uses SSL encryption technology to ensure that all information they process is securely protected - meaning you don’t need to worry about your card details being intercepted by any third party.
It offers ‘medium protection’ for funds it holds, according to the Gambling Commission’s ratings system. When you deposit with Unibet, your funds are held in separate accounts, meaning that in the event of insolvency, your funds would be protected. While you aren’t 100% guaranteed to receive your money back, Unibet’s arrangements should ensure that you do.
Unibet’s dedicated Safer Gambling section, meanwhile, offers a number of useful tools for those concerned about their gambling behaviour. As well as the normal reality check, deposit limit, time-out and self-exclusion features, they also offer a self-test, to allow you to evaluate whether your gambling behaviour is a cause for concern.
Service And Support
Unibet has excellent contact options, with 24/7 live chat available, a phone line with extensive opening hours, and a reasonably swift email response - the trick is to locate them! The Contact Us tool requires customers to confirm the nature of their query and skip past a short list of recommended articles before they can access Unibet’s contact details - and the details shown are restricted, depending on the nature of the customer’s query. This isn’t uncommon nowadays, but we certainly prefer companies who make it easy to make contact, as opposed to deliberately making it awkward for anyone to talk to them.
| Live chat | Phone | |
|---|---|---|
| Available 24/7 via website | Via webformResponse within 12-24 hours | 0800 329 393Open 7am-11pm |
Unibet App
Unibet’s app is much as you’d expect a bookie app to be. As with its website, there are separate sports and racing sections - though promotions are displayed rather more prominently on the sports section of the app than on the website. The search tool allows you to view a full list of available sports - which isn’t the most obvious place to find them, but is easy enough to locate.
While Unibet does have a dedicated casino app, casino and live casino games are available via the sports app, so there’s no particular need to download more than one. If you’d like to play poker, though, you will need to download a separate, dedicated app.
Summary
Unibet has some peculiarities, but overall it has a lot to offer, especially in its welcome offers. Its website is easy to navigate and interestingly laid out, and its regular price boosts improve its already reasonable odds still further.
If you’re just getting into Matched Betting, it’s definitely worth signing up to Unibet and taking advantage of its sports offer. And if you aren’t already familiar with the principles of Matched Betting, you can always try out our free trial to get started and earn your first profits.