Betfair Review

Betfair - sports betting, casino and poker online

Betfair – The largest internet betting exchange

About Betfair
Betfair is unlike any other type of online sportsbook on the internet today. As well as being a major online sportsbook, Betfair has also branched out into the online poker market, and the host an arcade full of hit instant win games. Even this though, is not why one of the United Kingdom's main sportsbooks stands out against the competition.

Betfair's most advantageous and attractive aspect concerns its internet betting exchange. Just exactly what this is cannot be easily explained in detail, but in short the internet betting exchange allows the gamblers to wager on sporting events at odds which are set by other punters, rather than the odds set by the house, in this case Betfair itself. This can often be a very tricky way to gamble, but it has proven most popular in the United Kingdom. Despite their success at home, Betfair's clientèle is still for the most part linked to this region, although they are steadily branched out into other world gambling markets.

Betfair Sportsbook

The heart and soul of the Betfair operation, Betfair sportsbook is by far one of the fairest online sportsbooks in terms of odds, that a player might find. Such is the importance of this factor that Betfair claim to offer up to twenty percent better odds than most of their nearest and closest rivals in the online sports gambling world. However good that may be, and however lucrative the internet betting exchange service that Betfair hosts is, there are still negatives to be said about this massive online sportsbook. Betfair charges a five percent commission on all successful winning bets. This is a policy that is either overlooked or avoided completely on most of their rival online sportsbook sites, and has proven unpopular with punters in the past.

Betfair Poker

Aside from their sportsbook, Betfair has also delved into poker as another source of entertainment from their main site. Betfair poker is hugely popular, although since its inception over seven years ago, it has not been without controversy. Today, with its name and brand cleared up, Betfair poker offers excellent tournaments, downloadable and live poker games, plenty of promotions and a solid learning program to teach even the most novice of poker players the ropes.

Betfair Casino

Betfair's casino doesn't quite conform to the simple blueprint that the majority of other online casinos adhere to. For a start, Betfair casino seldom has any promotions on its website, and because of this there is a distinct lack of any major crowd that you might expect to find on other online casinos offering tantalising welcome bonuses and promotional packages. When they do decide to launch a promotion (which is rare) it is almost certainly over shortly after, and then a period of several months can go by without any mention of a new deal, and without any attempt to remove the previous offers' promotional information from the site, as is the case at the moment. This really works against the casino, although they do have a fine selection of games spread over many genres, most of which are considered to be of good quality and provide solid entertainment for gamers.

Betfair Extras

Betfair does have one or two extras on their main site, such as an online horsebook and the Betfair Arcade. The arcade is a mash up really of several instant win games, whilst the horsebook is a more generic expansion of the traditional Betfair sportsbook. Both of these additional sites could essentially have been integrated into the Betfair Casino and sportsbook, and contain essentially the same content, so pose little real value for gamers.