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Bookmaker of the year

| By Joanne Christie
Over the last 12 months, Betting Expert has compared the biggest brands across a range of criteria. Now it reveals the overall winner for the year

Over the last 12 months, Betting Expert has assessed and compared the biggest bookmaker brands in the betting industry, considering each across a wide range of criteria. Now it reveals the overall winner for the year

Each month we examined more than 20 of the world’s most popular bookmakers, determining which of these offered the best value in terms of odds, customer service, banking and features such as live streaming, social media and mobile betting.

The following bookmakers were considered in our analysis:

  • 888sport
  • Bet at Home
  • Bet365
  • BetBright
  • Betfair
  • Betfred
  • Betsafe
  • BetVictor
  • Betway
  • Boylesports
  • ComeOn
  • Coral
  • Energybet
  • Gentingbet
  • Ladbrokes
  • LeoVegas
  • Marathonbet
  • Matchbook
  • Netbet
  • Paddy Power
  • Skybet
  • Sportingbet
  • Titanbet
  • Unibet
  • William Hill
  • Winner Sports

Throughout the year we analysed each bookmaker across the following criteria:

Based on our analysis throughout the year, we now declare our best bookmaker for 2018.

So without any further ado, the best bookmaker of 2018 was…

First place: bet365
While bet365 ranked first just once across the course of the year, that being our July analysis of bookmakers’ banking options, it was consistently among the best performers month in month out, ranking in the top three on seven out of 11 occasions.

Overall, bet365 ranked in the top three in each of the following categories:

  • Live streaming
  • Social media
  • World Cup markets
  • Mobile betting
  • Banking
  • League winner odds
  • Sports coverage

Ranking in the top three in seven out of 11 months is quite a result for one of the world’s biggest bookmakers, especially when you consider the next best in that regard was Coral, which ranked in the top three in four of the 11 months. In addition, bet365 ranked in the top two in four of the 11 months, those being the ones where we looked at social media, banking, league winner odds and sports coverage.

While bet365 was a consistent performer, it ranked poorly in our opening analysis of terms and conditions, and only mid table for customer service, NBA odds and responsible gambling measures.

Second place: Paddy Power
The Irish bookmaking giant finished in second place overall. Paddy Power claimed first place in two categories across the course of the year, those being joint first in our March analysis of social media and in our September analysis of responsible gambling.

Paddy Power ranked in the top three in the following categories:

  • Social media
  • Responsible gambling
  • NBA odds

Paddy Power ranked in the top 10 in eight of the 11 months, including those where we covered live streaming, customer service, mobile betting and banking.

Third place: Unibet
Unibet is one of the most popular bookmakers in Europe and ranked third overall in our bookmaker of the year analysis. Unibet ranked joint first in September for responsible gambling, while also ranking in the top three on three occasions:

  • Terms and conditions
  • World Cup markets
  • Responsible gambling

Remainder of the top 10
Betfair’s sportsbook came in fourth place overall, finishing top in two categories throughout the course of our analysis – first in our February study of live streaming and second in our June analysis of mobile betting.

Coral finished in fifth place overall, coming out on top in both our October analysis of NBA outright odds and our November analysis of sports coverage, and racking up four top three finishes across the year.

Betway finished in sixth place, claiming two first place finishes, the first in our August study of league winner outright odds and the second a joint first in our September study of responsible gambling.

Popular UK bookmaker William Hill finished in seventh place, despite only claiming one top three finish through the course of our study, that being in our July analysis of banking.

Ladbrokes, another popular UK bookmaker, finished in eighth place. Ladbrokes claimed two top three finishes, the first in our January study of terms and conditions and the second in our October analysis of NBA outright odds.

Marathonbet claimed ninth place overall, but failed to claim any top three finishes. Finally, Sky Bet claimed tenth place overall, with just one top three finish, in our June analysis of mobile betting.

Most top three appearances
Bet365 claimed the most top three appearances by some distance. Bet365 finished in the top three on seven different occasions, with Coral coming in second place with four top three finishes throughout the year.

Four bookmakers claimed three top three finishes –  Paddy Power, Unibet, Betfair and Betway. A number of bookmakers claimed multiple top three finishes, including Ladbrokes, Betsafe and Betfred.

Best bookmaker for 2019
While bet365 may have won overall, in many ways it did so by being a good all-rounder. Other operators may not have fared as well overall, but rather excelled in areas that are important to certain groups of punters, for example, those that want to bet on niche sports as well as more mainstream activities.

In any case, those bookmakers that performed well in our analyses over the course of the last year are likely to do well attracting the many players looking to expand their bookmaker portfolio in 2019.

About bettingexpert.com
Providing expert tips and in depth betting theory, bettingexpert.com is the world’s biggest social network of sports betting tipsters. Its global community of experts compete for prizes by sharing their strongest tips on upcoming matches across 25 different sports to help millions of sports bettors place knowledge-supported bets, with the best odds available from a variety of bookmakers. Betting Expert is owned by Better Collective, the leading developer of educational platforms within the igaming industry.

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