Best bookmaker for banking

Leading tipster site bettingexpert.com considers the deposit and withdrawal options offered by 25 of the UK’s most popular bookmakers.

While it may not be the first thing punters consider, the banking options offered by operators are certainly a factor that leads them to choose – or continue playing with – one site over another.

The speed of withdrawals is especially important to players – waiting for their winnings to be transferred can be a particular annoyance to many online punters.

We’ve researched the top online bookmakers in the UK to see what options are available.

The table below displays the sportsbooks we analysed.

We tested each operator in the following categories, conducting our research in September 2019.

• Number of deposit/withdrawal options
• Number of currencies available for deposit and withdrawal
• Available payment methods
• Minimum deposit limits
• Maximum withdrawal limits
• Deposit and withdrawal fees
• Deposit and withdrawal processing time

In particular, we looked at which bookmakers offer credit card, debit card, eWallet and bank wire payment options. We also considered vouchers and prepaid cards.

Top five bookmakers for banking
After analysing our results for we determined the following to be our top five bookmakers overall.

• Bet365
• BetVictor
• Betfair
• Betway
• Unibet

Bet365 topped our list, performing well in our research for both deposits and withdrawals. Customers here have a great range of payment options, covering cards, eWallets, prepaid cards and vouchers. They also have the option to use the bet365 bookmaker card for payment transfers.

Coming in second place was BetVictor. BetVictor provides a good all-round service for deposits and withdrawals.

Third was Betfair. We found excellent payment options available with this operator, particularly the eWallet and bank wire options.

In fourth and fifth place we had Betway and Unibet.

Best bookmaker for deposits
We further broke  our review down into the best bookmaker for deposits and the best bookmaker for withdrawals. We’ll start with the former.

Overall, we found that the best bookmakers for deposits were the following:

• Bet365
• BetVictor
• Betway
• Betfair
• Unibet

Within the category, we assessed a number of factors. The first was the number of deposit options available. Here Sportingbet came out of top with 17 deposit options available.
Bet365 was in second place, offering 14 deposit options. William Hill and NetBet came joint third with 13.

In terms of the currencies available, bet365 led the way. Offering 19 different currency options, it was well ahead of Energy Bet in second place with 11 and Bet At Home with 10.

Best minimum deposit
The option to deposit as little as possible is important to many punters so we also assessed the minimum deposits required. We considered the most popular payment options of credit cards, Skrill, Neteller, PayPal and Bank Wire.

Most online operators in the UK require only a reasonably low £5 minimum deposit using a credit card.

Moving onto Skrill, Unibet required the lowest deposit at £2. Betfair was in second place here, with a minimum deposit of £6, with Coral next with a minimum of £9.

When it came to PayPal, most bookmakers only required a £5 deposit using this method. The same was true of Neteller.

In fact, it is an alternative to online casinos with a low minimum deposits in other countries.

Minimum deposits for bank wire varied wildly from bookmaker to bookmaker. The lowest deposit required using this method was with Paddy Power, which required only a £5 minimum.

Best bookmaker for withdrawals
In terms of the best bookmaker for withdrawals, we’ve determined that the following bookmakers came out on top overall.

• Bet365
• BetVictor
• Betfair
• Betfred
• Betsafe

For availability of withdrawal options, Sportingbet came out on top here again, with 17 different methods available. In joint second place were NetBet and William Hill, with 13 options each.

Bet365 offered the most withdrawal currencies, with 25 available. Energy Bet was second here, with 11 options, while Bet At Home offered 10.

Best minimum withdrawal
As with deposits, the minimum withdrawal amount varied between bookmakers and methods. We’ve listed the lowest minimum withdrawal for each payment option below.

• Credit card: Ladbrokes, £0.01
• Skrill: Ladbrokes, £0.01
• PayPal: Ladbrokes, £0.01
• Neteller: Ladbrokes, £0.01
• Bank wire: bet365, £5

As can be seen, Ladbrokes offer the lowest minimum withdrawal amount for most methods.

Best maximum withdrawal
These days most bookmakers don’t apply a maximum withdrawal amount. General terms and conditions, however, could come into play here.

The list below displays the highest maximum withdrawal for each payment option.

• Credit Card: 888sport, no limit
• Skrill: Betfair, £999,999
• PayPal: Betfair, £999,999
• Neteller: Betfair, £999,999
• Bank wire: Betfair, £999,999

Here it was Betfair that offered the maximum withdrawal amount for most methods.

Speed of deposits and withdrawals
Whichever payment method players choose, most are able to use their funds immediately after depositing at most UK bookmakers.

However, withdrawals come with extra limits compared with deposits. On most occasions, players need to wait a while before they can gain access to their winnings. Sometimes, the bookmaker will charge a fee, depending on which method they are using.

For credit card withdrawals, the fastest bookmaker was Betfred, which claims to process and send withdrawals within two hours of request.

Withdrawal times for Skrill depend on the bookmaker, with waits of between four and 24 hours typical using this method. We did find, however, that a transfer from a Betfair account to a Skrill account should be made immediately.

Some bookmakers charge a fee for using Skrill to withdraw. For example, Sportingbet charges a fee of 4.90% on all withdrawals made using this method.

As with Skrill, PayPal withdrawals can also take up to 24 hours or more to process. With Sky Bet, though, a withdrawal using PayPal is immediate.

Marathonbet offers the shortest withdrawal time for Neteller, with punters waiting only about three hours for transfers. Neteller payments, again, can sometimes attract fees.

Bank wire transfers tend to take longer. For instance, bet365 says withdrawals via bank wire will take about 10 days. Matchbook offers the quickest bank wire processing time, with withdrawals taking about one day.

Conclusion
Overall, our research found bet365 to be the bookmaker with the best banking options. It offered the highest number of currencies, along with plenty of deposit and withdrawal options.

One interesting, and somewhat disappointing, aspect of conducting this research was the lack of information available on many operator sites. All payment terms and conditions should be clearly set out, however we found that many do not abide by this.

A more positive finding, however, was that many operators are making it easier for players to make deposits and withdrawals by introducing new options. A number have released their own bookmaker bank cards, including bet365, Betfair, Coral, Paddy Power and William Hill.

We expect the number of payment options to increase further in the future. We might see more operators offering bookmaker bank cards and prepaid cards, and cryptocurrency options could also be introduced.

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