Many punters have found out that, to their horror, a dodgy bookmaker can suck all the enjoyment out of sports betting. To avoid such an unpleasant experience when you want to bet on your favourite team via PC or mobile, you need to find the best online betting sites.
Even faced with the vast number of online bookmakers, the task is an easy one when you know what to look for. The reputation of betting sites is built on more than just the markets they offer, and so the search for the right site for you should take this into account.
The following tips and pointers provide you with a checklist of sorts. If you apply them in your search, you are sure to find sites that are reputable, offer a fine selection of markets including some that are not sport-related, and provide secure real money banking services.
Wide Range of Markets
The heart and soul of any betting site are the markets it makes available to its punters, so that’s a good place to begin when looking for the best online betting sites.
There’s nothing wrong with checking if the site offers your favourite market, be it cricket, American football, or auto racing. However, it is worth your while to see what other markets are on offer.
The best sites offer a wide range of markets; indeed, some sites offer hundreds of sport and novelty markets. These include not only the major codes and the massive events linked to them, but less well-known markets as well.
Just some of those you would find at the best online betting sites include cricket, rugby, soccer, tennis, American football, basketball, field hockey, ice hockey, golf, darts, cycling, horse racing, and greyhound racing. Among the novelty markets usually offered are political elections and financial markets.
Secure Real Money Banking Services
Sports betting has been one of the most popular forms of real money gambling for centuries, if not millennia. In all that time, one of the primary concerns of punters is the safety of their money.
Online sports betting is no different, and you should never assume that a site is safe just because it looks as though it has been designed by professionals. The best online betting sites take their punters’ safety seriously, and have security measures in place to guard punters’ deposits and withdrawals.
This usually includes state-of-the-art data encryption technology and other anti-fraud software; a fact that is usually advertised on the sites’ banking and About US pages.
Such banking services also accept a wide range of payment options, such as bank transfers, credit and debit cards, and e-wallets.
Good Range of Bets
The best online betting sites give punters a real sense of freedom, and this includes the range of bet types they allow punters to place. Betting on your favourite team or athlete need be only as complex as you want it to be.
Good quality betting sites offer live and futures betting, and you would be able to place not only straight, standard win-lose bets, but exotic bets, multi bets, and flexi bets as well.
Download and No Download Options
Another important consideration when looking for the best online betting sites is whether or not download and no download betting options are offered.
You should be given a choice of downloading free software, or of betting in-browser. Along with these options, the site should also offer a mobile platform, optimised for smartphones and tablets.