Ladbrokes Sports Review
Reviewed By James Molloy
Ladbrokes is one of the oldest and most recognisable brands in the sports betting industry right now. They've been about since 1886 and in that time have risen from a single trackside betting hut to a multi-billion-pound corporation, providing gambling opportunities over a wide range of platforms.
The company's merger with the Gala Coral Group in 2016 was the biggest gambling merger ever at the time. Since then, Ladbrokes Coral has now been bought out by GVC Holdings and they are reportedly worth a staggering €5 billion as a result.
Whilst both Ladbrokes and Coral now work out of the same company, the two brands are very much separate. They also have separate sponsorship deals, with Ladbrokes putting their name to the likes of the Scottish Professional Football League, UK Open (Darts), Players Championship (Darts), Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown (Horse Racing), Summer Mile at Goodwood (Horse Racing) and the Stayers Hurdle at Punchestown (Horse Racing) to name just a few.
| Pros | Cons |
| Link online and offline account | Desktop layout a little cluttered |
| Great range of promotions | Can struggle to match the best for pricing |
| Established, trusted brand |
Ladbrokes Sports Welcome Bonus
Welcome Bonus
New accounts to Ladbrokes get a €20 free bet when you place your first bet of just €5. The promotion is one of the best in the business right now and essentially offer a 400% match on your first bet.
You need to enter the promo code “20FREE” when you make your deposit and in return, you get 4 x €5 free bets. The first bet you place must be €5 or more and must be placed at odds of 1.50 or greater. You then have 7 days to use all your free bets before they will expire.
Deposits made using prepaid cards, Moneybookers, PayPal, Paysafecard, Neteller or Skrill will not be able to claim this offer.
Current Promotions
Ladbrokes is one of the best when comes to promotions. Here are just a few of their ongoing offers for new and existing players.
#GetAPrice – Tweet Ladbrokes to get a price on any bet or combination bet. Literally, anything goes here!
Best Odds Guaranteed – Place a bet on a horse race and if the Starting Price of the horse that you bet on and won with is higher than the price you took, they will pay at the higher SP.
Odds Boost – Get daily odds boosts from a range of sports and markets on site.
Sports and Markets Available at Ladbrokes
Registration
Registration takes just a couple of minutes to work through. It starts by asking for some personal info, such as name, DOB and email. The next step is your contact info, which is your address and phone number.
The third phase is your account info. Here you need to include a username and password. It's also where you need to enter any deposit limit if you want to apply this to your account and where you enter the promo code (20FREE) to claim the welcome offer.
The final phase of the registration process is where you need to verify your account. They will first check your details across the GamStop database to see if you're already on there. If you are, then you won't need to verify your account again.
If not, you will need to send in documents such as driver's license, passport, utility bill and things like this. It's a quick process and you can take photos on your smartphone as long as they are clear. Only once you've done this will you get access to your account and be able to make your deposit.
Sports and Markets Available at Ladbrokes
It won't be a huge surprise to hear that you're getting a huge range of sports at Ladbrokes. Horse racing and football are top of the pile as you would expect. If there's betting available on it, Ladbrokes will have it. Everything from the likes of tennis and golf all the way to water polo and e-sports can be found at Ladbrokes. Even niche sports, such as wrestling, rowing, floorball and futsal are all pretty well equipped as well. It's about as comprehensive a list as you'll find at an online bookmaker.
Betting Features
The horse racing section is, without doubt, one of the best parts of the Ladbrokes site. Not only do they cover races from all over the world as well as any, but they also include a ton of features within as well.
The first thing to note is the link with the Racing Post. For each race in the UK and Ireland and most of the international ones, you get a verdict, tips, form, results, commentary and video of previous races for horses in that race all for free.
Horse racing also has live streaming of each race, and all you need is to have placed a bet on that race to view the race.
For those that don't know, Ladbrokes acquired Betdaq a few years ago, who was one of the biggest betting exchanges in the betting industry at the time. They've now integrated this into their betting platform, which means you get to choose from betting in a traditional sense and also on the betting exchange as well. This is something that very few bookmakers can do.
We also really liked Ladbrokes' work for coupon bettors as well. The vast majority of these are aimed at football, but with it you get to choose from a massive range of markets and leagues from all over the world. This means that you can make your coupons in a much more refined manner and doesn't require you to jump between so many markets and matches.
Finally, their in-play betting and live streaming section is the icing on the cake for us. This section of the site is buzzing, to say the least. There is always something going on and we would guess that they now turn the majority of the matches and games that they cover live, given how diverse this section is.
Live streaming is also linked up to the in-play betting section. For this, you need to be logged in and to have placed a bet within 24 hours or have a funded account. You get access to the whole live streaming channel across all their sports for this, so it's vast.
Desktop/Mobile Experience
Ladbrokes has a busy looking site, but it's one of those that as you spend a little more time on it, it gets easier to use. What's probably most impressive about it is the layout. The site not only looks good, but it functions well as well.
We liked that the sports menu is one that is hidden, but you can bring it forward as and when you need. This basically does away with what would be a pretty standard side menu for most, and then allows more room for the main content, whilst still allowing you to access that menu as needed.
The betting app can be downloaded on both iOS and Android from the respected app stores. It's one that has evolved a lot in recent years and is now as good as it's ever been.
It feels a little less “busy” than the desktop version, which is a good thing for mobile. You can access a range of menus as you need, and back buttons mean that you can easily revert to where you came from.
Payments and Banking Methods
One of the plus points of using the more established bookmakers is often to do with how their banking system works. Ladbrokes is no different and with it, you get a wide range of payment methods to choose from. These include ones you'd expect like Skrill, Paypal and Neteller as well as World Pay and The Grid.
You're probably aware of how most of these works, but one that you may not be familiar with is The Grid. This hooks up your online account to a brick and mortar account, which means that you can track bets placed in-store, online. This payment method has the lowest amount you can deposit on site, which is 0.10p and also the fastest withdrawal time, which is instant as you get it in cash from the high street store.
Outside of this, you can deposit from as little as €5 of the online methods and withdrawals generally take up to 2 working days. The e-wallets and Apple Pay are much faster and come through pretty much instantly, although the site states up to 3 hours, which is fair enough. The minimum withdrawal amount is just 0.01p.
Betting Odds with Ladbrokes
A bookmaker can't survive at the top of the game for as long as Ladbrokes have without having a dam good pricing section. Is it the best? No. But it's ridiculously consistent. Without being the best price, they are usually not far off and you could use them as a single bookmaker, although we always recommend that you should be flexible about where you bet to get the best price.
Customer Support
The support centre is one of the best that we've seen. The staff seem switched on and can't do enough to help. There are several ways that you can contact them but our advice would be to use Twitter where possible as here we got the fastest response time. If you prefer a more traditional method, Live Chat, email and phone are all available.
| Social: |
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| Available Hours: | 24/7 |
| Phone: | +00 800 032 1133 |
Responsible Gambling Features
Ladbrokes are very active, as one of the biggest companies in the industry, to play their role in responsible gambling. Right from the off, you need to be able to verify your account before you can deposit. On top of that, there are several features on-site, such as betting limits, deposit limits and cooling-off periods that can help players.
They're also the founding members of The Senet Group who are a self-regulating industry body looking to minimise the risk of gambling-related issues. They have a ton of information on their role and how they look to promote responsible gambling within a mini-site connected to the sportsbook.
Our Verdict
Ladbrokes has been an impressive bookmaker to test. Right from the off you can tell that they are a polished platform and everything from the desktop site to the mobile app has been carefully carved to serve a purpose.
Whilst there are flaws, such as the somewhat erratic pricing structure, it's been hard to come up with negative things to say about the brand, which is a positive in itself. The inclusion of the betting exchange, the range of promotions, number of sports/markets and the links with their high street betting shops (via The Grid) make them one of the best bookmakers in the business.
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Contributors
Hi, I'm James Molloy
"I've worked in the betting industry on product, operations and customer service for several years. A class operator will deliver on many aspects and we cover them all."
- Sports Betting
- Football
- Online UX
Reviewer since October 2015
