If you search online for information regarding Unibet, the European brand with global as well as UK focus, you’ll see some common threads. Most people are in agreement that this is a huge sportsbook that doesn’t receive the attention that it deserves.
This sportsbook is a part of the Kindred Group, formerly the Unibet Group, headquartered and licensed in Malta. It started back in 1997 with basically a “for players, from players” premise. The goal was to provide the easiest and most user-friendly betting platform with the widest range of sports available, and the superior customer service to back it up.
The sportsbook is located via the unibet.com domain and also includes a Casino, Live Casino, Games, Bingo, and Poker but, consistent expansion over the past seven years has provided the Kindred Group with a substantial website portfolio.
In 2011, this company was one of the 48 recipients of a Danish market license through the new re-regulation in the area and, subsequently, acquired Bet24, an online sportsbook.
2014 heralded the company’s initial appearance on Stockholm’s NASDAQ and the acquisitions then continued with Bingo.com, Stan James online, and Gibraltar’s Gaming business, 32Red, that included 32Red.com, Roxy Palace, as well as some other smaller casinos. The recent deals solidified the site’s involvement in the prominent UK gambling market.
In late 2016, the group became the first gambling operator to offer BankID in its Swedish markets. BankID is a groundbreaking electronic authentication system that provides for fast and easy player verification and a safer and secure website. And, in 2017, it became the first operator to meet the requirements of the EU Recommendation on Consumer Protection. It completed an independent external audit focusing on the following:
Establishing and maintaining fair and responsible gambling services has been a priority and the previously named Unibet Group, and it has won several awards over the past few years.
Sports Betting Operation – EGR Awards 2016 Socially Responsible Operator – EGR Awards 2016 and IGA Awards 2016 In-Play Sports Operator of the Year – IGA App Awards 2015 Online Sportsbook Operator of the Year – IGA App Awards 2015 Sportsbook Operator of the Year – IGA Awards 2014
We don’t know about you, but we feel more comfortable with an online operator that has done its due diligence in setting up a quality system with safe and fair gaming practices. It goes above and beyond so that its efforts are recognized by peers and certifying organizations. The family of operations has over 14 million registered users around the world.
We barely scratched the surface with information regarding the sportsbook in our introduction, so we’ll delve a bit deeper now, as this is an impressive bookmaker.
You could say that Unibet is a real global experience as its sports offerings cover the world and it welcomes a broad range of players, except those within the 24 areas noted above. However, it’s also fair to say the betting site leans a bit more toward the United Kingdom. The games and matches are more prevalent for UK punters and the group’s acquisition of Stan James online as well as other smaller UK targeted casinos cements this brand and the Kindred Group’s place in that prominent gambling market.
The sportsbook is one of the most comprehensive books available to international players. It would be quite difficult to locate a prominent sporting event that’s not available for betting as the menu is so thorough.
42,000 football markets are now posted. 42,000! Football is one of the prime focuses and featured leagues include the Premier League, LaLiga, Ligue1, Serie A, Eredivisie, and Bundesliga, but you would be hard pressed to find a match that’s not listed by this book.
Whereas this brand is known for football betting, it also makes an equally impressive showing with its Live Betting area. It is one of the best for In-play action, especially with the addition of Unibet TV, which provides live streaming for an astounding 30% of its live betting options, which equates to about 40,000 events per year. Access is provided to all players who are registered and logged in, and either has money in their player account or have made a bet within the last 24 hours. It operates with just a ten-second delay and is a phenomenal benefit for sports enthusiasts who appreciate watching while wagering.
There would be something very wrong if we didn’t start out this section by acknowledging the enormous amount of betting options that are available on unibet.com. Can we say 42,000 football opportunities, again?!
The menu is extensive on its own but then branches out to include games, matches, and tournaments that are not just in the mainstream category but cover the relatively smaller regions as well.
Football is the sport that garners the most attention, and Unibet offers the high-demand Asian Handicap bets in conjunction with these matches. An Asian Handicap is a form of spread betting and pertains specifically to football. So, instead of just betting on who will win, the bet is on how many goals by which they’ll ultimately win.
When we get a bit more granular, there are many different components to this sportsbook that we find quite advantageous.
The bonus program is not the highest. In fact, the welcome bonus is a relatively small £25 match bet, but promotions are plentiful. Not only are there quite a few sports-specific offers, but players are routinely issued new bonuses that they can access and accept in their account area. These are at the discretion of the sportsbook but should satisfy players who love ongoing opportunities to claim some free bet money. There’s also nothing stopping anyone from just asking for an extra perk from time to time. The worse they can say is no, right?
We also need to mention, again, those pool betting games that we’ve already introduced. Supertoto and Superscore are not widely available, and players can get in on the fun and try to claim some of these prize pools. The BetUP game is in conjunction with live football betting and the prize pool for BetUP and all of these types of games increases according to participation.
Seguing from the prize pool games to the “How to’s,” this betting website does an excellent job of not only explaining how to get into the prize pools but providing instructions on other aspects of their operation through written instructions as well as some video teachings. It’s very accommodating to newbies or the more recreational bettors that could benefit from guidance. After all, they started with the philosophy of educating the players along the way – by players and for players.
What we like most about this bookmaker, though, is their live betting area encompassing video feeds of the games and matches. Live streaming elevates the brand, without question, to one of the best books around for their all-encompassing in-play area. We’re not talking about a few games here and there, but at least 30% of all in-game betting opportunities (and there are a lot!) come with the option to watch the game right there on unibet.com.
Video feeds are available to registered players who have some money in their player’s account or have made a bet within the last 24 hours, and it’s a free service. Occasionally, though, they may offer a special live event, but it will post any associated fees so players can opt in or out.
We’re not going to touch anything having to do with the actual sports or betting process here. Unibet has created a great sportsbook, and there isn’t very much that they’ve missed if anything.
What we are going to mention is the only partial disclosure of their financial menu and details regarding deposits and withdrawals. If you’re not a registered member, you do not have access to the actual methods offered for these types of transactions. We have determined that players can deposit via bank transfer, Entropay, Mastercard, NETELLER, Skrill, Paysafecard, Visa, Visa Electron, and Ukash. But, whereas most of its competitors put forward a neat, concise table of their available methods as well as turnaround time, minimums, and associated fees, you won’t find that unless you already make the leap and register an account.
It would be a bigger benefit letting potential players know of their options. We read a posting on their self-hosted forum requesting that PayPal is added as an approved method. Players who utilize PayPal as their sole method of account funding should know up front if it’s available to them.
The second thing we’re going to mention in this area is regarding their Customer Service department. Customer Service is available via 24/7 chat and through a dedicated email address, but they just eliminated their international phone option that some people prefer. Some of their customers have also mentioned that it could take 15 minutes or even more for a live chat agent to begin assisting them.
Additionally, and this is all player perception, and certainly, not across the board, players have noted some issues in lagging response times and complaints that were not satisfied. On the flip site, the majority of these were from a few years ago, so it seems the sportsbook has taken measures to improve player satisfaction and we hope they continue their positive progress.
Lastly, they have an opportunity to cater more to sharp bettors. It is recreational-bettor heavy with its lower limits, but the brand has been known to impose limits and/or restrict betting for anyone who proved to be a more successful punter. With its fantastic live betting area and game feeds, it should be an across the board sportsbook regardless of betting ability.
Um.. have we mentioned football? Football is, by far, the number one sport staked for pre-match wagering as well as in-play. Football is impressively covered, and bettors from all over should be able to find their favorite team and get in on some action.
As far as the odds offered, they’re in line with most everyone else. When we go back to football (once again), bettors may even have a slight advantage as opposed to the website’s direct competitors.
They offer Enhanced Accas and organizes them right in their main menu. These provide for better odds on select games and will vary, but they offer additional value for bettors looking for advantageous odds as opposed to favorite team selections.
For the more obscure bettors, the company offers niche markets and currently even provides a bonus on the famous Eurovision Song Contest and its accompanying novelty futures bets. Eurovision takes up a majority of the novelty bets, but there are also some fun ones like “Who will be the next James Bond?”, “Who will be the next Time Magazine Person of the Year?”, the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize, and Pound Sterling vs. Euro predictions.
Recreational bettors will certainly appreciate the cheap 10p minimum that applies to most wagers but, when we get to the caps on the payouts, they are a bit lower than some of the other European bookmakers.
Football – £250,000 Olympic, World and Continental Tournaments for Men governed by FIFA or UEFA, including qualification phases; International Club Tournaments for Men governed by FIFA or UEFA, including qualification phases; any domestic league on the top-level for Men in Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Spain, or Sweden; any main domestic cup for Men in Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Spain or Sweden.
Football – £100,000 All other International Tournaments; all other International Club Tournaments; Domestic leagues on the top-level in any other country; Main domestic cups in any other country; Any domestic league on the 2nd level for Men in Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain or Sweden; any International Friendly that is regulated by FIFA.
Football – £50,000 All other competition/match-related offers that belong to any other Football, excluding Beach Soccer and Futsal
Note: all bets related to players (including Yellow/Red Cards), transfers, managers, disciplinary measures, corners, shots on goal and other offers that are not decisive in deciding the outcome of a competition/match, will be treated as PR and Novelty bets and subject to the same limits as outlined below.
Other sports including Athletics, Bandy, Boxing, Cycling, Trotting and Winter Sports – £25,000 and £40,000
Non-sport – PR and Novelty Bets – £10,000
We think that most people would enjoy and appreciate the overall product. We equate it to a large superstore where you can shop and pick up absolutely everything you need all in one place as opposed to going from store to store to tick all of the boxes on your list.
The sportsbook has all of the sports that international bettors are looking for in a nice, neat easy to access menu that breaks down into markets as high as 50 for some events.
Going back to the superstore analogy, the company has some good bonuses (or sales). Rather than giving something big away and then nothing more, they have opted to provide the on-going opportunity for added value.
The site also has the additional gambling options that many players enjoy and take advantage of while waiting to see if they have a winning ticket, with the casino, live casino, poker room, special games area, and a bingo room. More of the one-stop shop philosophy is in play here.
Here’s the big one, though: sports bettors typically are sports fans as well. They enjoy the games themselves and wagering just enhances the fun for them. That’s why, if you’re a sports fanatic, you will love the brand as they are providing you with the games and matches that you’re interested in watching. Unibet TV is a premiere service that most sportsbooks are not up to speed with as yet. The concept is a no-brainer, though. Give the people what they want, and keep them on your site that much longer so more wagers are placed.
We want to provide a quick devil’s advocate point of view, though. Unibet may scare some players away initially by not fully disclosing all of the options for funding and cashing out from the Unibet betting account. It’s not as comfortable of an experience to not have all of the information at your fingertips before deciding whether or not to provide your personal information and register a betting account with Unibet. A player’s experience is that much better if they are acutely aware of their options beforehand.
We did previously note that Unibet has a lot of promotional options, but some have relatively lower value than as provided through some other sportsbooks.
Starting out with the Welcome Bonus, the sign-up incentive provides for a risk-free first pre-match or live bet up to £25. Newly registered players need to opt-in to receive this offer and then make a bet of £1 or more. A winning ticket is just a winning ticket (and always a good thing!), but a losing ticket will be refunded up to a maximum of £25.
The return is subject to the standard rollover requirement of five times on bets with odds of 1.4 or higher. It’s important to note that this playthrough is necessary before being able to cash out any real money.
The incentives certainly don’t stop there, though. The following are some other sportsbook-only promotions. Additionally, the sportsbook other bonuses, tournaments, and free play for casino, bingo, and poker players.
“Money back if your batsman is run out.” This offer pertains to a cricket bet made during the IPL season. Participants make a wager on any top batsman market during any IPL match (pre-match or live) and will receive a free bet refund up to £50 if their selections get run-out.
“IPL Prize Draw” The prize draw is the second IPL promotion but, this time, it’s all up to a prize draw. A live bet of £10 or more with minimum 1.40 odds on the IPL plus an opt-in to this contest and players may be lucky enough to win one of the 100 different free bets being given away each week.
“IPL Live Reward” You guessed it. The live reward is IPL offer number three and Unibet is offering £5 live risk-free bets during their IPL live streams (three selected matches only). Players can choose from over 100 live markets during the game and, if they lose, the up to £5 refund is awarded as bonus play.
“NFL Profit Boost” The NFL Profit Boost is one of Unibet’s American Sports promotions. Even though US players are prohibited from registering, American Sports are still popular and highly wagered. This opportunity is regarding NFL four-folds and provides for a 25% profit boost to players who opt-in.
“NBA Free Bet Club” For every live bet of £50 at odds of 1.4 or more, a £10 free bet will be issued to the Unibet customer.
“NHL Overtime Refund” As 25% of NHL matches go into overtime, this offer provides for a free bet refund of up to £25 on voided NHL bets. The stake must be at least £5 with 1.4 odds and, if the bet loses in overtime, a refund is issued as a free bet.
“£10,000 US Sports Shootout” Every NBA or NHL wager of £10 or more equals one prize draw ticket. Every Monday, ten winning tickets will be drawn for £1,000 each. Here’s the bonus on top of the bonus here, this is a cash prize offer and not a free bet promotion.
“Cycling Celebrations” Out of American Sports and on to cycling with the 100th anniversary of the Giro d’Italia. Every 100th player staking at least £5 will automatically receive a £10 free bet.
“90+ Premier League, Champions League, La Liga” You didn’t think Unibet would leave out football, did you? If a goal is scored after the 90th minute, all losing correct score, halftime/fulltime, first goalscorer, and last goalscorer bets of at least £5 will be refunded up to a maximum £50.
“Eurovision Song Contest” The Eurovision content is the novelty futures bet that we mentioned before and it’s currently an extremely popular one. Unibet offers several market bets and, through this promotion, is also offering a £10 free bet for the final event with every £20 bet made during the semi-finals. Then, during the Final round, ten free spins on the Guns ‘n Roses machine will be awarded to everyone making a £20 bet.
“Refer a Friend” Unibet offers another cash win opportunity, as opposed to free bet bonuses, with its refer a friend program. Players receive £20 in cash for every friend referred up to a total of ten friends. If you’ve got a good sized friend group, you can claim up to £200!
It’s no surprise to you by now; we’re not thrilled with the quality of information posted on unibet.com regarding their deposit and withdrawal set-up for its players. It wants you to be a fully registered player before you can peruse the options and figure out a plan that works for you with your location and currency.
The good news is that we haven’t seen any deposit fees posted anywhere aside from what the bank or other financial institution may charge its customers, and the majority of deposits should be instantly available with just a minimum £15 transfer.
The following are some financial options available toward player account deposits:
Despite the popularity of debit and credit cards, having e-wallet solutions and prepaid cards as payment solutions is always a good idea. They are more apt to be quickly approved and can take traditional banking institutions and their restrictions right out of the equation.
Unibet supports these currencies: Canadian Dollar, Czech Koruna, Danish Koruna, Euro, Great Britain Pound, Romanian Leu, Swedish Krona, Swiss Franc, and US Dollar.
Withdrawal methods will vary per player and per region depending upon the deposit method originally used but, from what we can ascertain, cash outs are typically implemented using that same deposit method except that credit or debit cards are converted to bank transfers.
Unibet does not charge for withdrawal transfers and posts the following timelines for receipt of payments:
NETELLER or Skrill – within 12 hours Bank Transfer – 1-3 business days Credit or Debit Cards (if available) – 3-5 business days
If these times are indeed accurate, Unibet can be applauded for issuing some of the faster payouts.
We did bring this subject up a bit earlier as there were some issues with the level of Unibet’s Customer Service a few years back. There were some publicly posted problems, and Unibet did receive a hit in some of their ratings from review sites solely due to customer service.
However, in the last year or two, these types of comments have been few and far between. We’ve seen several posts regarding the proper communication received by Unibet’s agents regarding kindness and accuracy.
Customer Service Department:
Email – info@unibetsupport.com. Phone – International phone support is no longer available. Live Chat – available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
We’re going to give the enormous amount of worldwide betting opportunities to Unibet, hands down. Should we mention the current 42,000 football markets again? Players could be busy for hours just trying to pick a favorite.
As far as the payout limits, as this is a recreational bettor’s bookie, it’s natural to have lower ceilings. In fact, Unibet’s limits are almost 100% identical to 888sport, also a global book catering to recreational bettors. If you compare it to other UK-based operators like William Hill or bet365, it will come out way behind when you compare its £250,000 football cap to their £2,000,000 each, but this is attributed to their sharp bettor focus.
Odds on Unibet are nearly equally competitive. They may sometimes offer a slight advantage on some football lines, but what makes this website stand out and take the lead in their betting opportunities are the pool betting games. BetUP, Supertoto, and Superscore are exciting additions to regular and in-play wagering and are not widely available.
Score another for this site with its live in-play betting area that also streams tens of thousands of games and matches annually. Their live betting is one of the best in the business, and it’s a great incentive for sports fans to keep a little money in their player account and to bet from time to time, so they can have continuous access to the events they’re interested in watching right on unibet.com.
We are going to go with practically everyone else when it comes to deposits and withdrawals as it’s not at all helpful for potential new players to have the various options and details hidden from them. Customers like full disclosure, especially regarding money. This brand does, however, have a relatively extensive menu available. Some of the more regionally-focused books have such limited menus that they don’t even feature e-wallets or prepaid cards, but Unibet does have such a good variety of the new, online financial providers that its players should be able to find something that works for them.
Unibet is all-around impressive. It’s run by a group that’s listed on the Stockholm NASDAQ, and that has been acquiring various other gambling platforms for multiple millions each. Customers should feel secure in the fact that it’s a stable operator and able to pay them when having those big winning tickets to cash out.
Football players from around the world (well, with a few exceptions) can, not only bet on but can watch their favorite teams in action all from the same location. The live betting area is the standard to which many of its competitors should emulate. It’s also a plus to offer in-play promotions as well as Unibet’s pool betting games that we’ve mentioned a few times previously.
We started out by saying that this is a sportsbook from players and for players, so it’s fitting to close it out with mention of the Community, hosted at unibetcommunity.com that features how to’s and other information as well as a forum whereby their representatives publicly answer questions from their actual players.
Recreational bettors will appreciate the variety and the promotions, and experienced bettors would also benefit from adding Unibet to their roster of favorite sportsbooks, even if it’s just for the in-play action and the live feeds. Why not?
