Unibet Sports Review:

Founded in 1997, Unibet has been providing punters across Europe with access to a wide range of markets and competitive odds ever since. Part of the publicly traded Kindred Group plc, Unibet comes from the same family as brands like 32Red, StanJames, Bingo.com and Maria Casino.

Perhaps best known to most UK punters as one of the official sponsors of PDC Darts, Unibet is enjoying a growing reputation amongst sports betting fans. But how does their offering compare to other similar sportsbooks?

Any review of a sports betting site must begin with an analysis of safety and trustworthiness. Luckily for Unibet, this is obvious at a glance. As part of the Kindred Group plc., Unibet belongs to a corporate family with revenues in excess of £750 million in 2017. There are over 1000 staff at Unibet, serving some 11 million players across 100 countries worldwide. With these kind of statistics, you know instantly you’re dealing with a trustworthy corporate operator – great peace of mind.

Beyond being part of a corporate group of gaming companies, Unibet is also an award winning sportsbook. They’ve won countless awards over the years, including the coveted 2016 eGaming Review Award for Sports Betting Operator, as well as IGR Awards in 2014 and 2015.

As far as licensing is concerned, Unibet are licensed by the UK Gambling Commission, one of the most reputable regulators in the world, as well as holding a license from Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner. That means two separate regulatory systems for Unibet to operate within – double the regulation, for double player security.

The Unibet site and mobile app benefit from enhanced encryption technologies, designed to keep your personal details safe from even the most organised hack attempt. Robust SSL technology double-locks your account, while payments through trusted third-party processors completes the picture of Unibet as one of the most secure, trustworthy sports betting sites going.

Unibet have their fair share of customer complaints, and you can see these all over the internet. In most industries, this would be an immediate cause for concern. However, gambling and betting operators frequently attract the ire of losing or disgruntled players, so it’s hard to read too much into these complaints.

While it does seem like there may be some issues dealing with customer support, the majority of these claims seem baseless, or to have more straightforward explanations than their 1-star reviews would let on.

With over 11 million customers, you’d expect some to be unhappy – even a 99.99% customer satisfaction rate leaves a lot of angry reviewers. In spite of these complaints, Unibet does enjoy customer loyalty in the vast majority of cases, so it’s fair to assume they must be doing something right.

Unibet supports a wide range of payment methods, on both the deposit and withdrawal sides. Credit and debit cards are joined by the likes of Neteller, Skrill and Paysafecard, to complete a decent lineup that should suit the vast majority of players. Note that Paysafecard isn’t available for withdrawals, nor is Maestro or Mastercard, so you’ll need an alternative payment method setup alongside these for withdrawals.

Payout time is typically 12 hours for e-wallets, or anywhere from 3-5 days for the other forms of payment. This is around average for the industry, and certainly no worse than what you can expect from the majority of major online sportsbooks.

Unibet offers a free app for iOS and Android platforms, which you can download by clicking the direct link on their betting apps page, or from the respective app stores. As well as providing a fast, secure way to bet on the go, with the same styling and design as the Unibet website, the app also allows live streaming, in-play betting and instant notifications from your favourite sporting events. It’s clear a lot of thought and design has gone into these apps, which offer an incredible betting experience on any mobile device.

Aside from the apps, you can also visit the Unibet site on any mobile device, in browser. The website is designed to be responsive and, as a result, it loads natively on any screen size. This is perfect if you don’t have the app, or if you’re checking odds, for example – simply head over to the website in browser for a seamless, identical experience on your mobile or tablet.

Unibet offers new players a welcome bonus, in the form of a £20 free bet when you bet £20. The offer is limited to players over the age of 18, and it must be your first Unibet account to take advantage of the free bet. The free bet is matched to the size of your first deposit, up to £20, so it’s worth making than initial £20 deposit to trigger the full amount of the free bet available.

The minimum bet value with the bonus is £1, and minimum odds of 2/5, or 1.40 apply. You have 30 days in which to use the free bet, before it’s no longer active. The minimum deposit to trigger the bonus is just £5.

It’s worth noting that the free bet is not available for use in racing events, and the stake is not returned. Other terms and conditions apply, and you can find out more details from the bonus terms and conditions at Unibet. It’s worth checking these out before you activate the bonus, so you don’t end up accidentally breaching the terms and forfeiting your bonus amount.

As free bets go, this is not a bad way to kick things off. It’s not going to set the world alight at £20, but it’s a nice amount to let you try out different markets, and hopefully win a few quid into the bargain. The terms are also reasonable, which makes this a more attractive proposition than some other welcome offers.

In addition to the free bet, there are a number of other promos that run throughout the year. For example, Unibet offers an ACCA Rush promotion which offers up to 25% boosts on odds for Premier League five folds, alongside similar offers 180+ Refunds for IPL betting. These promotional offers are all pretty decent, fair, and help add a bit of extra excitement to proceedings.

Unibet offers some of the best odds going. As a major online bookmaker, they’re regularly benchmarking against the odds offered at other sites, and always fare well in direct comparisons. This extends beyond the headline odds on offer into more obscure markets, where odds are at least competitive, and often more generous than competing offers.

In terms of betting markets, Unibet has a slightly smaller selection than some. The integration of StanJames, for example, left some players furious at the smaller selection of markets than they were used to, reflecting the fact that for all it offers a decent spread, Unibet isn’t as granular as some other operators.

Nevertheless, the betting markets that are available should be sufficient for the vast majority of punters, and when you factor in the decent odds across the board, their betting selection is still well above average.

In-play betting is available at Unibet, both online and via the mobile app. Coupled with live streaming for over 10,000 events each year, the in-play functionality gives Unibet punters the flexibility they demand from a modern bookmaker.

One glaring omission here is the lack of a cash-out option. This is now something sports gamblers expect, especially when dealing with in-play markets. It would make the Unibet offer a lot more compelling if this feature was introduced, and would put their in-play offering on par with the likes of Betfair sports and Bet365. As it stands, without a cash-out feature, the in-play functionality lags behind these competitors.