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18+ New UK+IRE customers. Paypal and certain deposit types and bet types excluded. Min £5 bet within 14 days of account reg at min odds 1/2 = 4 x £5 free bets. Free bets valid for 4 days on sports, stake not returned, restrictions apply. T&Cs apply.
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Ladbrokes Review

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ladbrokes logo bettingsites review

BET £5, GET £20 IN FREE BETS

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18+ New UK+IRE customers. Paypal and certain deposit types and bet types excluded. Min £5 bet within 14 days of account reg at min odds 1/2 = 4 x £5 free bets. Free bets valid for 4 days on sports, stake not returned, restrictions apply. T&Cs apply.
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Ladbrokes is one of the biggest sports betting sites in the UK. It operates thousands of betting shops all over the UK and Ireland, and it has a fantastic online bookies for the UK market. The operator features almost every possible betting option that you can imagine, from in-play betting and streaming to an excellent mobile app and everything in-between. Furthermore, Ladbrokes offers incredible bonuses and promotions, like up to a £50 free matched bet, odds boosters, cash back and so on.

Pros / Cons

Trusted, massive operator

Outstanding betting options

Incredible promotions

Sometimes unreliable customer support

One of the Oldest in the Country

Ladbrokes is one of the Big Three British betting sites and one of the oldest bookmaking companies in the UK. That is why we’ve decided to analyze its offerings and present you with a Ladbrokes review of our own. In it, you’ll find an objective and unbiased report on its sportsbook, promotions, customer support, payments and so much more. Stay with us, and we’ll spice things up with a few hints on what is good and what should be avoided.

 

As mentioned above, Ladbrokes is a company with a long-standing tradition. It was founded by Schwind and Pennington in 1886. The company changed its name to Ladbrokes in 1902 when Arthur Bendir joined them with his bookmaker business.

 

It’s important to note that Ladbrokes started as a horse racing bookmaker company. It is most famous for being the prime choice of British gentlemen and aristocracy during the Roaring Twenties. However, the company lost most of its customer base after World War II. The government promoted austerity, making betting shops unpopular.

 

The company reached a turning point at the start of the 60s when, in 1961, the British government made betting shops legal once again. Stein then decided to invest all the company’s money in setting up a chain of betting shops under the name of Ladbrokes in the UK.

 

The company went through a steady economic rise during the next couple of decades. At the beginning of the 90s, Ladbrokes acquired the Hilton hotels chain in the US. Ladbrokes continued operating under the name Hilton Group until 2006 when the company was forced to sell off all of its hotels.

 

Almost like destiny, Ladbrokes quickly recovered from Stein’s bad management and entered the 2010s stronger than ever. In 2016, despite the criticism of monopolisation, Ladbrokes acquired its rival the Gala Coral Group, changing its name to Ladbrokes Coral. The last significant change that happened to Ladbrokes bettingshops occurred quite recently. At the beginning of 2018, GVC Holdings acquired Ladbrokes and included them among its roster of reputable betting businesses, including the likes of Sportingbet and bWin.

Let’s Get Acquainted

Before we hit the sportsbook, we’ll have to register for an account. The process is easy and intuitive and shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes at worst. Whenever you’re ready, hit the Join Now button found in the top right corner of the page. Once you do that, a small pop-up window will appear in the middle of the screen. If it seems complicated, don’t worry about it. We dedicated this part of our Ladbrokes review to account creation so you wouldn’t get lost.

 

The account creation is divided into three steps. The first one requires you to type in personal info such as name, gender and date of birth. In the next step, you’ll have to type in your country, address and phone number. The last step of account creation requires you to choose your password, username, security question and currency.

 

In the bottom left corner, you’ll find a small box where you can enter the Ladbrokes promo code for the welcome bonus, but more on that in the bonus section. There are also two boxes you have to tick. One is for confirming your legal age, and the other one deals with the way you want your notifications delivered.

 

Once you finish with all the typing and ticking, the account creation is over. Now, we can take a look at the bonus section and see if that promo code is helpful at all.

A Chest Full of Treasures

At this point in our Ladbrokes review, we arrive at its biggest strength, and that is the bonus section. Ladbrokes offers its punters two new customer bonuses and eleven regular bonuses. The best thing about them is that they all have perks that could give you a serious edge. However, don’t go rushing in before we go through all the fine print and T&C documents.

 

Before you go claiming them, it’s important to note that most of the bonuses on the website utilise the free bet system. The Ladbrokes free bet system is similar to the ones we find on other sites. Basically, most of the times you apply for a bonus, you get free bets that are displayed on the right side of the screen. You can use them on any match or race. However, you can’t withdraw them before you’ve wagered on them and won.

 

The first welcome bonus is ‘Bet £5 Get £20 in Free Bets’. Basically, you’ll have to deposit at least £5 and type in the promo code ‘20FREE’ on the registration page. You will then receive four free bets worth £5 each.

 

Another great welcome offer on the Ladbrokes online betting website is the acca boost. All you need to do is type in ‘ACCA’ in the promo code box on the registration page. After that, deposit £5 and make a bet of £1 on ‘Belgium, England, Austria and Greece to win 70/1’. If you win, they’ll settle your bet in cash and transfer the remaining winnings into your free bets.

Regular Promos

Next, there’s a 5 Team Acca Insurance. All you need to do is combine five or more matches and place a bet. If one of them fails, the Ladbrokes betting site will grant you £10 worth of free bets.

ladbrokes promotions bettingsites review

In the end, Ladbrokes gives you a great #GETAPRICE option where you can build your bet. All you need to do is reach them on Twitter and let them know of your combo, and they will take it into consideration. You don’t have to bet only on the match score either. Ladbrokes lets you bet on total match corners and booking points too!

 

Before you get your hopes up, be warned that you can’t claim most of their bonuses if you deposit using Moneybookers, Paypal, Paysafe, Neteller or Skrill.

Let the Ladbrokes Games Begin

Ladbrokes has an extensive selection of different sports and events you can place your bets on. There are 34 of them in total, and you can access them from a neat little drop-down menu on the left side of the home page. In there you’ll find your usual roster of popular sports like horse racing, football, tennis, rugby, cricket, baseball, basketball, golf and many, many others. On the other hand, Ladbrokes has a couple of peculiar betting options like politics, TV specials and movies.

 

If you wish to enter any particular Ladbrokes sports section, click on any of those links from the menu, and you will be taken to their dedicated pages. You’ll find all the events occupying the centre of the page. They’re organised in a gridlike formation separated by time or competition type. You can see the match time, name, buttons with odds and an optional live stream button, but more on that one later.

 

Whenever you feel like betting, you can click on the odds box, and an automatic bet slip will open on the right side of the page. From there, the Ladbrokes sports bettingsite gives you an opportunity to place your stake and boost your potential wins. Ladbrokes gives you nine boosts upon registration that you can use on any sports event you want.

 

Once you are confident with your bet’s settings, just click on the Place Bet button and your bet is ready. Note that your bet slip also lets you keep track of your previous and existing bets in the My Bets tab.

 

A great little feature you can find on their website is the Ladbrokes bet calculator. The name tells you all you need to know. In it, you can see your potential returns by entering the required parameters. Apart from being practically useful, the calculator comes with some information on bet types and punter slang. It may seem trivial to experienced users, but beginners will find it more than convenient.

Simple yet Effective

At first glance, you will be hypnotised by the modern, sleek interface and professionally tailored betting atmosphere. The website comes in bright red colours that aim to remind you of their brick-and-mortar shops.

Ladbrokes website bettingsites review

Ladbrokes’s website is chock-full of little surprises and features. For example, if you head to the In-Play category of the Ladbrokes football section, you’ll find the live-stream option. However, note that you can only activate it if you have placed a wager. If you intend on following the course of the match, there is a small screen in the top right corner. The screen has 3D flash animation that symbolically shows what is currently going on in the field. The loading times are fast, and we have never had any problems with the pages.

Collecting Your Loot

Withdrawing funds is as easy and intuitive as depositing them. All you need to do is hit the account button that has your name on it. A special Ladbrokes withdrawal page will appear where you can choose your method. The best thing about it is the fact that the minimum withdrawal is £0.01. The Ladbrokes minimum deposit is £10.

Safe and Sound Betting

You don’t have to worry about Ladbrokes sharing your info with other people because it complies with all the data protection standards. All your data is locked away and kept on offshore servers. All communication is protected by SSL encryption, and every punter’s funds are segregated across multiple bank accounts so Ladbrokes can maintain its solvency. The same goes for the Ladbrokes app.

 

The company holds a license from the UKGC (no. 1611) and the Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner (no. 010,012). If you at any point start experiencing gambling problems, Ladbrokes offers a wide array of measures you can undertake. First of all, you can set your deposit and withdrawal limits right from the start when registering. Then, you can use the budget calculator. Lastly, Ladbrokes offers time-out and self-exclusion programs that let you rest up to six months. If you need further professional help, Ladbrokes provides useful links for registering with Gamstop.

Great Support

If you get stuck at any point, you’ll be given a choice between the Ladbrokes live chat, email or phone support. Start by finding the small Help button at the top right corner of the screen. Once you click on it, you can choose your preferred method of communication. We tried out the live chat team by asking them some general questions. They literally responded within seconds with helpful advice. The downside is that you’ll have to provide your username, real name, date of birth and email before they answer anything.

 

Besides that, the experience we had with the customer support was superb. If you check out some of our other reviews and the experiences we had with their support (namely the one from the Betway review), you can see that many top-notch players could learn a lot from Ladbrokes.

To Sum It All Up

Ladbrokes sets itself apart from other betting sites with its long tradition and reputation. However, it isn’t one of those companies that just rides the wave of old glory. The updated website offers rich sports options and generous and numerous promotions, as well as professional support to back it all up.

 

The only thing that we could hold against them are the meager banking methods. Certainly, Ladbrokes and its punters could benefit a great deal from including more payment methods. With that being said, all that’s left at the end of our Ladbrokes review is to wish you all the luck!