Top Online Sportsbooks

When it comes to experience, there's few sportsbooks that can come close to Ladbrokes. Operating since the 1950's, Ladbrokes has over 2000 brick and mortar establishments spread across the UK, Ireland and Belgium, and has earned it's reputation as a reliable and trustworthy bookmaker.

Ladbrokes was one of the first sportsbooks to get online in 1998, and continues to be well received due to it's security, customer service, and wide range of markets. From football to Big Brother, millions of bettors know they can place their bets with confidence on just about anything at Ladbrokes.

It's not one of the oldest bookmakers around, but Blue Square has quickly developed a great reputation since it's launch in 1999; offering a wide variety of betting options and great coverage through not only the Internet and telephone, but WAP and Interactive TV as well.

While the quality sportsbook operation in itself is enough for most people to open and keep an account with them, Blue Square is now offering a £25 free betting token for new players as well on their first deposit, making it a must try for online bettors. (Please see the BlueSQ site for full bonus details)

Betfair isn't actually a sportsbook, it's a betting exchange. In a nutshell, that means it doesn't take bets directly, but rather facilitates bets between individual customers with one-another. While the end result for most is similar, the exchange concept does allow for some flexibility that normal books can't offer - such as proposing your own odds above or below the current line.

Online since 1999, Betfair is one of (if not the) largest betting facilities in the world, and it's tremendous growth and innovative platform have earned it the Queen's Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category, both in 2003 and again in 2008. A £25 free bonus offer for new users combined with low commissions (taken from wins only) makes it another place worthy of placing your bets.

Another sportsbook that's been in operation for a long time, Victor Chandler has earned itself a solid reputation; having been operating betting parlours since the 1950's with physical locations in the UK, Europe & the Far East.

On top of a solid history and reputation VC Bet has a number of things going for it; it operates in a wide variety of currencies (everything from Pounds Sterling to Thai Baht) there's a great variety of betting markets to choose from (from classic sports to television events), and there's a great bonus offer currently available to new patrons - a free £50 match stake on your first bet, and another £50 free bet after 5 more individual bets of £10 or more.

If you're after security and reliability, Victor Chandler is hard to beat!

While their .com is more geared more towards American players, Bodog has done a great job of covering European markets on it's .co.uk site - covering everything from international football matches to what might happen at the Galstonbury Festival.

Great customer service, betting options, and a 10% bonus for new registrants that may not seem that high at first glance, but with no cap on the promotion those making larger deposits can take advantage and get a much bigger freebie that most books offer.