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Dean Cooke Sports Betting & Casino Writer
24 May 2024 11:15am BST
24 May 2024 11:15am BST
Dean Cooke Sports Betting & Casino Writer
24 May 2024 11:15am BST
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M ajor UK bookmakers are constantly working to attract customers to their betting apps and football is one of the key players for them. Many operators, large and small, tout the superiority of their apps, but we look beyond these claims. Our unbiased reviews are the result of extensive testing and analysis that cuts through the marketing noise. We conduct thorough assessments based on real-world usage, including activities such as betting and managing funds. This approach allows us to offer reliable and comprehensive reviews of the top-rated betting apps featured on our platform.
How we have selected the best football betting apps
In compiling our list of the leading football betting apps, we’ve moved beyond solely depending on our own extensively researched, expert and impartial opinions. We’ve also considered the UK Bookmaker Awards (UKBA), an annual event that recognises excellence in various categories, such as betting experience, odds and customer service. The winners of these awards are determined through monthly surveys of punters, with the data meticulously analysed by experts to provide objective evaluations of the results. This guarantees that our selection is founded on reliable and impartial considerations. You can find all the details on the awards on the UKBA website. If any relevant award was presented in the categories covered in our guide, we have included a table highlighting the top five apps at the UKBA.
Football odds
To entice prospective football bettors to download their betting apps, bookmakers need to offer attractive prices. One important thing to consider when choosing between bookies on your device is getting better odds for specific markets on one app compared with another. In the table below, you can find the winners of the football odds award at the 2023 UKBA.
| Bookmaker | Ranking |
| SBK | 1st |
| Betfair | 2nd |
| Grosvenor | 3rd |
| Coral | 4th |
| 32Red | 5th |
Betting experience
Although there is not a dedicated category for football betting apps in the UKBA, the betting experience section for each app plays a significant role. When searching for the top football betting app, the rankings of this award are an excellent starting point.
12 best football betting apps UK 2024
- Sky Bet
- Betfred
- Bet365
- BetVictor
- Virgin Bet
- Betfair
- Unibet
- Coral
- BoyleSports
- Ladbrokes
- William Hill
- Paddy Power
Sky Bet football app
Sky Bet has gained a following among English football enthusiasts, thanks in no small part to its sponsorship of the EFL. However, what has kept punters coming back is the bookmaker’s user-friendly app.
When customers click on the football tab, they are presented with a comprehensive list of the most popular matches of the day.
The app’s excellent navigational features make it easy to access in-play betting, competitions and accumulators. The app can also notify users of starting times for games around the world.
One of the notable selling points of Sky Bet is its enhanced odds, which provide punters with greater winnings potential than comparable sites.
Additionally, the bookmaker recently introduced an early payout option on its app and website, allowing customers to collect their winnings if the team they have bet on goes two goals up at any point in the match, regardless of the final outcome. This feature has come in handy many times during the English football season.
Another standout feature is the BuildABet service, which lets punters create custom punts by combining elements such as goalscorers, scorelines, cards and more.
Sky Bet offers an immensely convenient and user-friendly app that comes loaded with exciting features tailored for football fans.
Betfred football app
Betfred has a superb app for punters looking to bet on football. It covers an increasing number of matches and competitions from around the world with markets continuing to grow week by week. There are competitive odds, as well as enhanced odds that can help you to win more money with the best prices on the market. The app is easy to navigate and the top competitions are easy to find. As well, Betfred has a great in-play section for those looking for live football betting.
Once you have signed up to Betfred you will also find it easy to find and take advantage of the existing customer awards that, according to the UK Bookmaker Awards in 2023, are the very best on the market.
bet365 football app
The wide range of football markets offered by bet365 caters to a diverse customer base, covering both minor leagues and major tournaments.
In addition to the usual betting options such as over/under goals, final result and goalscorers, this platform lets punters wager on player-specific events such as cards, passes and offsides, providing many opportunities to find valuable bets.
Furthermore, bet365 offers special markets for some of the top Premier League games and unique prop markets for free kicks, throw-ins, offsides and goal kicks, allowing punters to take advantage of these exclusive markets when using the app.
The company was among the first to offer early payouts, which now extend to more than 80 competitions on the bet365 app.
As a whole, bet365 has firmly established itself as a premier destination for football enthusiasts, delivering a diverse range of markets, competitive odds and a variety of features that enhance the betting experience.
BetVictor football app
If you are looking to bet on football, BetVictor provides an extensive range of betting markets, easily navigable through its app, which is available on both Android and iOS. This feature is a significant reason why customers frequently place bets with the bookmaker.
Notably, BetVictor’s bet-builder tool is exceptional and regarded as one of the finest around. Customers can combine different selections and obtain cumulative odds. The bet-builder section is continually growing, and customers can now combine cards, goals and even corners.
BetVictor has a rich variety of markets, including some innovative selections such as the “next manager” option for Premier League clubs looking to hire or replace a boss – a popular option because of the volatile nature of the job.
You can even attempt to predict the next manager to be sacked or leave their position, which can produce great odds.
Furthermore, BetVictor offers a five-fold accumulator bonus – and although its app is not the most distinctive, it offers excellent odds and serves its purpose.
Virgin Bet football app
Virgin Bet, despite being relatively new to the industry, has managed to compete with some of the UK’s best betting apps and bookmakers.
The bookmaker’s reputable name breeds instant trust among customers and its football markets offer good depth, including unique options such as ball possession, indicating the company’s willingness to compete. If Virgin Bet continues to expand its football markets and improve its offerings, it will undoubtedly become one of the leading betting apps in the industry.
The layout of VirginBet’s website and app is attractive and user-friendly, making it accessible to customers. Android and iOS users can access the app and all the day’s football matches are available on the homepage of the app each day.
Overall, despite its relatively new entry into the market, Virgin Bet is a competitive player among the UK’s most trusted betting apps and bookmakers, with a user-friendly interface, impressive football markets and excellent customer service.
Betfair football app
Betfair has a betting app that is laid out differently to many others in the UK, and as soon as you click on a match, you are often greeted with its version of a bet builder that allows the punter to pick and choose singles and combine the odds.
Bet builders are becoming increasingly popular so if you are looking for an operator that makes it as easy as possible to create one, then Betfair would be a great choice. You can combine goals, cards and even player shots, all of which makes Betfair almost unique among its rivals.
Betfair is also becoming popular due to its excellent prop markets, where you can back individual player shots, as well as team shots not just before a fixture but also in play after it has kicked off.
The majority of the world’s leagues are available on Betfair and a lot of matches, including those from Serie A and La Liga, are live-streamed on the app once you have placed a bet on the event, giving many punters a valid reason for choosing this particular betting app over others.
A drawback to the Betfair app is the amount of text under the different matches after you tap on them. This can make it difficult to find and reach each different market.
Unibet football app
Unibet has become one of the most popular UK bookmakers and has several different apps from its popular sport markets to its casino, ensuring a broad appeal for punters.
When it comes to football, Unibet has a fantastic variety of different markets and has branched out with some opportunities on the less well-known competitions, such as the Copa Libertadores (South American Champions League), where the app was one of very few in the UK to put up the individual prices for players to be carded, allowing punters to take advantage. This unique part to the specific betting app means that Unibet can pull punters in and keep them there with various offers and promotions.
Unibet is improving and has added the popular bet-builder feature. But where it really stands out is with its in app experience. The operator ranked third in the UK Bookmaker Awards for betting experience in 2023 and it is a trend we have happily seen continue into 2024.
Coral football app
Coral has many different markets when it comes to football as well as free-bet bonuses that occur on a regular basis. A key pull to Coral’s football markets is its ability to combine anything in a bet builder, including player passes, shots and tackles, something that can prove popular in the top European leagues.
Coral has a “specials” market on its betting app in the football section, and this allows punters to bet on certain outcomes relevant to what is being discussed and is happening in the current world of football. For example, you can get a special price on Napoli to face Real Madrid in the Champions League final after the draw for the quarter-final and semi-finals was made.
The lack of markets in the in-play section can stop customers betting live, and if there is something that Coral could look to offer more of, it would be the markets outside the top five European leagues.
BoyleSports football app
BoyleSports is a bookmaker that has really upped its game in recent times and has seen a huge upturn in usability and performance. What really helps it standout is the markets on offer, especially if you are looking to bet on the Premier League. You can bet on players to have a shot from a free-kick or even a certain number of headed attempts on goal in a game.
These markets stand out from some of the other popular betting apps and BoyleSports looks set to continue its rise in popularity. One potential improvement is that it can be difficult at times for the customer to see what league they want with no long list available from the main football menu.
Ladbrokes football app
Ladbrokes is one of the biggest bookmakers in the UK, and when clicking on its football markets on the app it’s clear to see why straightaway. The availability to bet on different leagues and combine bets makes it easy to use, and the app offers bet builders for every Premier League game and for the majority of the top European Leagues, something that is gaining popularity with many customers.
The prop markets that keep coming out on Ladbrokes are readily available to use for all the top European leagues, which many bookmakers don’t have available on their sites throughout the whole season. Ladbrokes allows you to combine props such as player passes with player shots for the same game, for example, which can generate big odds.
The odds offered on Ladbrokes are some of the best around, and it has maintained a competitive environment in the footballing community by continuously looking to update and change the app in line with what punters want to see offered on its football markets.
Willam Hill football app
William Hill offers a diverse range of football markets and has different features that other bookmakers have not yet acquired or have not yet made their own. For example, their bet builders are named #YourOdds and are a great way of combining different singles for various popular football matches.
The brilliance of the market selection for William Hill was demonstrated at the UK Bookmaker Awards, in which it ranked first in the market selection category.
The app itself has a really accessible design for punters although it could be improved by allowing users to access all the different leagues from the football homepage rather than just the most popular ones.
Paddy Power football app
Paddy Power’s app has a whole host of football betting features, with its “power prices” facility on the football page, depending on what sort of matches are on.
Paddy Power has some great day-to-day offers available throughout the year and will often have even more for when there’s a big event in the world of football, such as the FA Cup final or Champions League final.
The app itself doesn’t have as many markets in each specific football match compared with other bookmakers in the UK, however what Paddy Power offers is a relatively accessible app in terms of getting to the each league, match and popular market such as overs and unders on goals.
Like Sky Bet, Paddy Power offers an early payout feature as well as some good existing customer offers such as the Paddy Rewards Club and the Beat the Drop game, which will give you good reason to be a returning customer.
How do we select the UK’s best football betting app?
There is a whole host of top bookmakers and brilliant football betting apps on the market – and with so many features and markets it can be difficult to find the specific app that suits you.
This is where we come in as we have signed up, deposited, placed bets and withdrawn from all of the bookmakers on our list, meaning we can ensure advice on the best football betting apps to use.
Football betting apps with bet builder
Bet builders have emerged as one of the most essential types of punt and have become increasingly popular with bettors as they allow combinations of several single selections into one bet.
These bets have become extremely attractive as the odds multiply with each selection to give a larger potential return.
Many bookmakers have created their variations of bet builders and named them differently, further adding to the attraction for punters.
Bet builders should be available for all football matches and some bookmakers, such as Ladbrokes, allow prop markets to be included in their bet builders, adding to the punter’s advantage, as they can combine them with other popular selections.
Another crucial aspect to consider when looking for the best football betting app is the facility to combine selections across games to create great odds. Operators such as bet365 have this facility, making them a preferred choice for punters.
Overall, bet builders have transformed the betting landscape, enabling punters to create unique accumulators by combining different betting options. It’s an exciting feature that is likely to continue to grow in popularity and further enhance the betting experience of football enthusiasts.
Football betting apps with live streaming
Live streaming is now a major part of sports betting for punters, and it’s vital for bookmakers to have a live-streaming service available to keep customers on their apps, giving them countless options to watch games from across the globe after they have placed their bets.
Apps such as Betfair and bet365 allow streaming for top leagues in Europe such as Serie A and La LIga, and that could be a potential reason for a punter to choose one betting app over another.
Football betting apps with worldwide markets
In our opinion, the very best football betting app has to offer lots of different leagues from all over the world to punters. Many people across the UK watch and follow different leagues across the world, so they should be accessible to punters via their favourite football betting apps.
Football betting apps with cash-out
The availability of cash-out is a near must for many bookmakers now, and with football being such a popular sport to bet on, the majority of betting apps must now have the cash-out availability on different markets, including bet builders, to have a chance of being of the best football betting apps.
If a punter is able to cash out a bet for any sort of profit, then a lot of the time they will look for that, especially if they have managed to find a spot of value when placing the bet. This is something that we look for when making our list of the best footballing betting apps in the UK.
Bonuses and promotions on football betting apps
The different bonuses and promotions on offer are popular and there are plenty to choose from when taking a look through each betting app in the UK. There are constantly different promotions being offered and as football is such a big sport within the UK there are often new offers each weekend. This is where we try to see which bookmaker has longevity for existing customers and not just new ones.
Does the app offer prop markets?
This is an area that we take an in-depth look into when deciding on which bookie has the very best betting apps for football, as prop markets are now a sought-after part of the football market.
Ladbrokes, Coral, BoyleSports and bet365 are few who offer the various markets on their betting apps and it means that automatically there are more options for a punter when he looks at what to bet on. Alongside this, it also allows a whole host of different statistics to come into play meaning punters can research the markets allowing there to be a bigger chance of finding value.
The prop markets continue to grow in popularity and the innovative different statistical bets on bet365, such as player shots and player passes, go down well with customers. There is even the chance to bet on throw-ins and goal kicks.
Alongside this, bet builders are getting bigger and bigger for bookmakers and very few offer the ability to combine the different prop markets into one bet builder.
Frequently asked questions about the best betting apps
Which are the best football betting apps?
In this article, we have compiled a list of the top football betting apps available in the UK. Our assessment is based on both personal investigation and data collected from the UK Bookmaker Awards.
What is the most trusted football betting app?
Every football betting app that made it to our list of the UK’s top-rated is authorised by the UK Gambling Commission. Moreover, we have tried and tested every one individually to assess their overall dependability.
Are football betting apps accessible to all?
To download a football betting app you must have an iOS or Android device and be at least 18 years old.