Ladbrokes Review

A firmly established bookmaker originating in the United Kingdom, Ladbrokes have one of the most recognisable brands and online betting sites in the gambling industry having been founded way back in 1886. One of their best features is the extensive, and at times, overwhelming promotions page. This Ladbrokes review will look at their current online and mobile offering explaining the pros and cons of using the sites and mobile apps as well as what to expect in free bets, promotions, customer service and banking solutions.

Ladbrokes Sign-Up Offer – Better Than The Rest!

It’s tough to fault Ladbrokes on their current new customer sportsbook offer. Bonus bets of up to £20 which is easy to understand and doesn’t come with too many restrictions is fairly generous in this day and age. It’s open to customers who are residents in the UK or Republic of Ireland.

When signing up for a new account, place your first bet of £10 on a single bet and get £30 free bets!

What about restrictions and key terms to be aware of?

As with all online bookmakers, it’s really important to be aware of the details of the offer in question. For example, the minimum odds of 1/2 (1.50) for your first bet to qualify is vital to keep in mind, especially if you’re a bettor focused on short odds as you don’t want to be caught out.

Single line accumulators are eligible for this promotion but every leg must be at odds of at least 1/2 (1.50). Bets won’t count if they’re void either so don’t use this for wagers like “Draw no Bet” or anything where that concession is a key part of the market.

Have your debit card ready for funding your new account too as deposits made by online wallets like PayPal, Skrill, Paysafe, Moneybookers or Neteller aren’t eligible for a free bet.

Here’s a Helpful List of all the Key Terms for Ladbrokes New Customer Offer:

• 18+, New UK and Republic of Ireland Customers Only
• Deposit and bet a minimum of £10
• Deposits made by Moneybookers, Paysafe, Paypal, Neteller or Skrill will NOT qualify for this promotion
• Place a £10+ qualifying bet on any sport, at odds of 1/2 or greater
• Qualifying bets must be made within 14 days of account opening
• A “Qualifying Bet” is classed as a real money sports bet of at least £/€10 win or £/€5 each-way, at fractional odds totalling 1/2 (decimal odds 1.5) or greater. For a single line accumulator bet, each individual selection of the bet must at fractional odds of 1/2 or greater to be deemed a Qualifying Bet. Please note that only the win parts of win/each-way bets will qualify
• Your free matched bets up to £30 will be credited on placement
• You must use your free bet within 7 days of it being credited to you
• Free Bets can NOT be Cashed Out
• Full T&Cs apply

It’s not all about New Customers though…

Offers & Promotions for Existing Customers

This betting site has always had plenty of promotions over the years and that’s no different now. Obviously offers and promotions can change regularly so you’re best checking out the Promotions section of the Ladbrokes website.

However, if you want a sneak peak into some of the promos, this is what’s currently live on site at time of writing:

Ladbrokes 5 team acca insurance

If you like your football multiples then this is certainly a promotion to consider. Get your money back as a free bet (up to £20) if your five-fold accumulator loses by just one leg. It’ll certainly make some of those near misses a little bit easier to take.

Each selection must be from the win-draw-win market and be at odds of at least 1/10 (1.10) but the overall price must be 3/1 (4.0) or bigger to count for the insurance feature. This offer now includes all football matches in all competitions but any cashed out bets won’t be counted.

Ladbrokes Odds Boost

Ladbrokes are pushing a fairly new feature which allows customers to “boost” the odds on their chosen selection once a day, essentially lengthening the price and increasing the potential returns. The boost in question will depend on the market and original price but is available on bets up to £50, anything extra above that limit will be struck at the usual odds.

This is something a few different firms are trying of late and there may well be periodical extra boosts made available around flagship events or tournaments. As with the new customer offer, anyone funding their account initially using an e-wallet will be excluded from this concession.

Are Ladbrokes a Trusted Betting Site?

As the gaming industry has increasingly moved its focus towards online operations, being able to ensure you can trust the bookmakers that you open accounts with is one of the most important factors to consider for the modern-day punter.

From humble beginnings under the current name in 1906, Ladbrokes have become part and parcel of the British high street and hold a licence with the Gambling Commission in the UK as well as having operations in Spain and Australia.

Following a merger with Coral in November 2016 which was worth £2.3 billion the Ladbrokes Coral organisation accounted for more than 3500 locations across the UK and Ireland. In March 2024 the company were acquired by GVC Holdings – who also own other bookies such as Sportingbet and bwin – in a deal that could be worth up to £4 billion.

While they boast plenty of recognition as one of the long-standing gambling brands in the UK, the newly merged organisation were subject to a £2.3 million penalty package courtesy in relation a couple of big staking customers.

By their own admission, Ladbrokes Coral failed to meet their own standards and those expected by the authorities in dealing with two individuals who displayed problem gambling behaviour, wagering £1.3 million of stolen money.

There is now a dedicated section on the site in relation to problem gambling including a budget calculator and FAQs as well as more details on Ladbrokes’ approach to responsible gambling – an approach we consider robust. 

Payments & Banking

There are a wide variety of deposit methods offered by Ladbrokes, as you’d expect for an established online firm. Visa, Visa Electron, Maestro and Mastercard are all accepted. Giropay, Trustly and Entropay are just some of the other options plus of course online wallets like PayPal and Skrill.

While these solutions that don’t involve a debit card are perfectly valid as ways to process the transactions in your account, it’s important to keep in mind the significant downside to using them with this particular operator.

Many Ladbrokes promotions such as their new customer offer specifically exclude users who are depositing using online wallets so if you’re looking to take advantage of these concessions it’s vital that you fund your account using the correct payment method.

At the same time there is significant upside to Ladbrokes accepting Paypal and that’s from a speed perspective – getting your money withdrawn here will be very quick indeed as you can see below.

Deposit Methods, Minimum Deposit Amount and Time Taken:

• Debit Card* – Min £5 – Instant
• Skrill –  Min £10 – Instant
• Paypal – Min £10 – Instant
• Neteller – Min £10 – Instant
• PaysafeCard – Min £5 – Instant
• Bank Transfer – Min £10 – 1-5 Days
• *Credit Card transactions not available in the UK

Withdrawal Methods, Minimum Withdrawl Amount and Time Taken:

• Debit Card* – Min £0.01 – 1-3 days
• Skrill – Min £0.01 – Min 6 hours
• Paypal – Min £0.01 – Min 6 hours
• Neteller – Min £0.01 – Min 6 hours
• PaysafeCard – Min £0.01 – Min 6 hours
• Bank Transfer – Min £0.01 – 1-5 days
• *Credit Card transactions not available in the UK

Ladbrokes – a Solid Sports Betting Site

As you’d expect from an established firm, Ladbrokes offer betting on seemingly every sport or event possible. There are 31 sections ranging from the usual Football and Horse Racing to TV and Christmas Specials – even in the middle of June!

While their offering isn’t quite as wide-ranging as some other competitors, with 167 markets on top tier football it’s likely that bettors will be able to find what they’re looking for. The ability to search by specific coupon also makes it fairly straightforward to pick out selections of a certain type if accumulators are a regular part of your betting strategy.

‘Edit my Acca’ is a new tool which means punters can swap out legs of their multiples after they’ve been placed, for a price of course. Ladbrokes also operate an exchange but that isn’t subject to much marketing attention compared to their sportsbook offering.

Is there Ladbrokes Cash Out?

Cash out is offered on selected markets and is capped at a maximum value of £50,000. While that might seem fanciful for bettors with smaller bankrolls it’s certainly something to keep in mind if you’re occasionally placing multiple bets with higher potential pay-outs than this.

There’s also the #GetAPrice functionality which allows players to design their own football wager based on a pre-defined set of match events such as result, goals, cards and corners.

There’s no on-site functionality to build these, which does mean it’s a manual process of tweeting a request to the @Ladbrokes Twitter feed at the time of writing as there’s no guarantee that every submission will be priced. There is a handy button provided which will fire up the necessary Twitter window though, which is a nice touch from a user experience point of view.

The desktop site is solid, if unspectacular. The A-Z of sports on the left-hand side is a welcome addition as it allows easier navigation to your chosen sub-section. There’s no search functionality but that’s not a game changer in the most recent iteration. It’s not the most clean or slick design on the market, most of which is down to the prominent promotion of Ladbrokes’ casino offering even on sports pages.

Mobile Betting – Take Ladbrokes on the Go!

It doesn’t matter whether you’re an iOS or Android user, Ladbrokes have a mobile app that allows you to access their services on the go. There’s mobile web too and even this is a very solid offering with live streaming enabled as well as the usual array of betting markets but it can’t currently support a phone being held in landscape mode when it comes to basic browsing which is disappointing.

Once again, the A-Z of sports menu is your best friend for navigation and the My Bets area is especially useful for staying up to date with how your picks are faring if they’re in-play or check what’s coming up.

The Live Betting Suite

Live betting is becoming more and more popular and Ladbrokes offer plenty of opportunities to place bets once the action gets underway. In-Play and Streaming is actually the first tab on the desktop site which shows how much they value it as a service for customers.

That’s backed up by an in-depth offering of events with dozens of markets for high-profile contests although the timeline style visualisation on the event page isn’t the most informative. It only records major events and doesn’t indicate the current match state e.g. who is in possession or if there is a corner being taken.

Is Ladbrokes Live Streaming Available?

The ability to watch and bet on a wide range of sports including football, tennis and basketball is a useful tool for punters though, particularly on the go. There’s a handy menu option which will display what’s coming up and sorts the events by sport and kick-off time, ideal if you’re looking to tune into multiple events across any given day.

A bet on the event in question isn’t required but your account must be funded (i.e have money in it) or active whereby a bet has been placed in the last 24 hours. The “Watch live” button is easy to find on both the desktop and mobile site and really opens up the opportunities to take in a variety of different sports.

Horse Racing fans are well catered for with live streaming available on all UK and Irish meetings plus Best Odds Guaranteed and the occasional extra place race. Greyhounds are shown too with selected BAGS and evening meetings. However, it’s well worth keeping in mind that a bet on a race is required in order to access the live stream for these sports. At the moment the minimum wager is £1 per race.

An Easy to Understand VIP programme

Exploring the VIP options at some sportsbooks can feel a bit like you need to channel your inner Sherlock Holmes to get a basic understanding of what’s on offer but that’s not the case with Ladbrokes. They’re pretty up front and honest about the various requirements to ensure VIP status and have even included a specific option on their main menu for it.

How does the Ladbrokes VIP programme work?

Ladbrokes employ a points scheme which dictates if you’re eligible for the VIP programme together with the amount you’ve deposited in a month and if so, how high your rank is. Points are awarded for every £10 increment staked on various areas of the site. 3 points per £10 stake on sports multiple bets is the highest return followed by 2.5 points per £10 on sports single bets which is encouraging for those who aren’t big casino players.

That said, you can earn VIP points through those too with 2 points for every £10 stake on slots, scratch cards and bingo and 1 point for all other casino games.

The Bronze level requires £1,000 in deposits per calendar month and 1,500 VIP points (the equivalent of £600 in single sports bets or £750 in multiples). Silver needs £2,000 of deposits and 2,500 points while Gold VIP status requires £4,000 and 12,500 points. This final level would mean £5,000 staked on sports singles in order to qualify.

There is a platinum level too, but that’s invite only.

As with the requirements to reach each level, it’s easy to see what you’ll be entitled to once each milestone is reached. This ranges from Exclusive VIP promotions, customer service support and enhanced comp points redemption in Bronze all the way up to an account manager, hospitality prize draws and invitations for those reaching Gold status.

Customer Service

Customer care is an important part of operating a sportsbook. In the world of online betting, users expect real time responses if they run into a problem and Ladbrokes provide a team of support agents to chat to if you encounter a problem. This service is accessed through the “Contact Us” section and is available on the desktop site, mobile apps or m-site.

You don’t have to be logged in so if you’re having issues accessing an account then the live chat option is a good one. Queries are answered by a real person, not a machine with stock responses and you usually won’t be kept long in a queue. Response times may vary during high-profile events but we conducted several tests at different times of the day and an agent was allocated almost immediately upon loading of the window on each occasion.

There’s also a Help Centre which offers a detailed, robust library of Frequently Asked Questions on everything from Banking and Payments to Promotions and sport-specific rules.

Twitter support is available via the handle @LadbrokesCare but any personal information shouldn’t be shared via that medium unless it’s through a Direct Message with the approved account.

A British company with a UK focused sports betting offering

Ladbrokes are steeped in the history of British bookmaking and while they have operations in different regions around the world, the UK is their key market. New products or services are launched to this core customer base and a significant proportion of their marketing efforts are aimed at this territory too.

The site is available in multiple languages but the option to change this is hidden away in the top right-hand corner of the homepage and is displayed as the flag of the default setting. There are three versions of English (UK, Ireland and Africa) together with Swedish and German.

Join Ladbrokes and claim your matched bet of up to £50

As you’ll see from this Ladbrokes review there are plenty of positives about this well-known and respected sportsbook brand. Customers can take advantage of the £50 matched bet offer although it’s important to check the small print of the promotions, particularly with regards to certain payment methods which are excluded.

With great customer support and decent banking options, with debit cards and Paypal accepted amongst others, we’re sure you’ll really enjoy betting at Ladbrokes.

Pros

• An amazing new customer welcome offer sees you get up to £50 in free matched bets
• Paypal is accepted for depositing and withdrawing
• A safe and secure site, built on their strong history in the sports betting world
• Live Chat is a great customer support option and is super quick with responses
• A clear and transparent VIP program allows you to move up the Ladbrokes ranks

Cons

• No search bar available for finding markets easily
• A lot of the promotions have restrictions on payment methods