Yahoo Sports The best betting apps for sport this December
Long gone are the days when you had to head to a physical bookies to place a wager and even the number of people betting from desktop computers or laptops is dwindling. With our phones in our pockets, it’s all about sport betting apps now when having a flutter.
All the major betting sites in the UK gambling industry take a huge amount of their custom via app but the quality of the betting experience does differ from company to company. With that in mind, we’ve rated and reviewed the best sport betting apps for you to use.
Betting apps UK: Best in class
Rather than arbitrarily ranking the betting apps from one to 10, we have broken down the best apps for each of the most popular sports such as football, horse racing, golf, and tennis. Different apps have different specialities and we’ve rated which company is best for each discipline.
To find out more about our process and gambling responsbily scroll down this page.
Best betting app for football: BetVictor
BetVictor’s app, with its white, blue and dark grey aesthetic, is clean and smart-looking. It’s well laid out, easy to navigate and quick to load, making for a good user experience on mobile. And it really shines as a betting app for football.
They have a wide range of markets available and their very competitive in-play odds help them stand out from the competition. If you’re an acca lover, their bet builder is easy to navigate with its own separate tab and has every market you could want in an easily accessible list. Their welcome offer will also be right up the street of football fans, with the new season just around the corner.
If you sign up with BetVictor, opt in, deposit and bet £10 on any football market with odds of at least evens, you’ll be rewarded with £40 worth of free bets, which are: a £10 accumulator free bet (minimum of four selections), a £10 bet-builder free bet for football, a £10 in-play free bet and a £10 free bet for any sports market (which can obviously be used on football).
Best betting app for horse racing: BetUK
BetUK may be a new betting site but there’s plenty of reasons to recommend them as a good option for horse racing betting, not least of which is their Free Bet Club. If you opt into the club and bet £15+ on horse racing between Monday and Sunday (at odds of evens or greater), you’ll earn a £3 free bet. The £15 must be a single racing bet but you can do it on two occasions during the week, so could earn £6 of free bets for placing £30 of initial bets.
Their welcome offer allows you to earn £30 worth of free bets when you sign up, deposit and bet £10 on any sport. That £30 is made up of a £10 horse racing free bet, a £10 free bet builder and a £10 football free bet.
There is a free-to-play weekly predictor game called Racing Six, where you predict the winners of six races and can win up to £50,000, and BetUK also offer daily specials on horse racing. Throw in their live-streaming service and strong cash out functionality and they’re marking themselves out as the place to go for horse racing.
Best betting app for golf: Bet365
Bet365 are an established name in UK sports betting and they’ve consistently proven themselves as one of the best. Nowhere is that more true than with their golf offering.
They are regularly market-leading in terms of golf prices due to their enhanced each-way terms around major tournaments. For this summer’s Open Championship at Troon, their each way extra market gave odds of 35/1 for Jon Rahm to win and 20/1 for Collin Morikawa (both paying out for three places at 1/5 odds) – far longer than their more widely available prices, even just to win.
Bet365 also have more extensive in-play markets for golf than many other companies, as well as shot tracker for every player at major championships – enabling you to closely follow your pick – plus live leaderboards, stat packs and hole-by-hole breakdowns. The wealth of information means golf lovers will have everything they need right at their fingertips.
Best betting app for tennis: William Hill
William Hill are one the best-known UK bookmarkers and have built a strong reputation over many years. Their app is clean and easy to use and when it comes to tennis specifically, they’re hard to beat.
They offer a huge range of matches and markets in the sport, including first-set winner and handicap betting, while they also often offer enhanced odds. William Hill provide stat packs to help mobile users make informed tennis bets and their welcome offer can be used on tennis betting.
A £10 bet after signing up (at odds of 1/2 on any sports market) will get you £30 of free bets as three £10 tokens, available to use on any sport.
Best betting app for rugby: Betfred
While rugby union and rugby league are two of the UK’s most popular sports, they often get overlooked when it comes to betting, with more focus given to sports such as football, horse racing and golf. However, Betfred are one of the companies to really take the sport seriously on their betting app, making them the go-to choice for both codes.
They offer plenty of markets on not only international matches but domestic games from around the world and have regular promotions for mobile users. Their rugby odds are also competitive in comparison to a lot of other companies. They’re already offering enhanced odds on England to win the 2025 Six Nations, for example.
Their welcome offer can also be used for rugby with £50 in free bets available when you bet £10. You just need to enter ‘SUMMER50’ when you register and deposit (using a debit card) to be eligible for the free bets. Once you’ve done that and placed a bet of at least £10 on any sports market (at odds of at least evens), you’ll be rewarded with the £50 of free bets. Those will be 3x £10 free bets for any sports market and 2x £10 accumulator free bets, all of which have to be used within seven days.
Top betting apps for alternative betting features
While some betting apps are better for individual sports, other shine when making a particular type of bet, regardless of sport. There are lots of ways to place a wager, from your standard single bets through to accumulators, where you combine selections for greater odds and all of them need to come off to win, or bet builders, where you combine bet on a number of different markets in an individual match, usually football – such as final score, number of corners, first goalscorer and a player to be carded.
It’s also important to consider different betting features when choosing an app, such as their live-streaming options and cash out facility. Cash out is when you settle a bet early, so your winnings are reduced but the possibility of the bet losing is reduced. This is not to be confused with withdrawals, which is simply taking your money out of a betting site.
We’ve rated and recommended the best UK betting apps for these alternative betting features.
Best betting app for accumulators: BoyleSports
BoyleSports offer one of the best football betting experiences and have become the place to go for putting on an accumulator. Whether you enjoy an acca on the Saturday football or picking a day of winners at the Cheltenham Festival, BoyleSports have a number of features that make them an enticing choice in addition to a wide range of markets and smart-looking app.
Their Acca Rewards and Acca Loyalty programmes, both available on mobile via the app as well as on their website, help make them an excellent choice. The Acca Loyalty is the betting equivalent of a coffee shop stamp card, where customers are awarded a £5 free acca once they’ve placed five £5 accumulators (with at least five selections and total odds of greater than 3/1).
Meanwhile, Acca Rewards allows you to either boost or insure your accumulator. In any acca bet of at least three legs (on any sport), Insure means you get your stake back as a free bet if one selection lets you down, while Boost increases your prospective winnings (from a 3 per cent boost for a three-leg acca, to a 100 per cent boost for a 14-strong selection).
Best betting app for bet builders: Unibet
Bet builders have become an increasingly popular way of betting in recent times, joining accumulators as an alternative bet type enjoyed by both casual bettors and more regular gamblers. The concept of a bet builder allows you to combine selections on specific markets for a match to provide greater odds.
What makes Unibet stand out in this sphere is their ability to combine bet builders across different matches, giving you far more options. They also allow a large number of selections on a single bet builder and offer bet builders for a large number of sports, rather than just the traditional football offering done by some.
Their ‘Uniboost’ feature is also a neat way of increasing bet builder odds. Once per day, customers receive a Uniboost bet builder token which will enhance the odds of any bet builder (with at least three selections) in a single click up to a maximum bet of £10. It’s another way to get more bang with your buck and is accessible through the Unibet app in addition to the website.
Best betting app for cash out: Kwiff
If you’re looking for a newbie making waves in the UK betting industry, then look no further than Kwiff. They’re disrupting the traditional status quo with innovative, unique features that better-known names in the betting sphere haven’t considered.
Kwiff’s purple and black aesthetic is visually arresting and their app has good reviews in general - currently having a 4.4-star rating on the Play Store. They offer plenty of free bets and these are often ‘surprise bets’ – a bet generated by their algorithm that could be on any sport or bet type. This quirky feature helps set them apart from the competition.
Their cash out offer is also unique as customers can qualify for a ‘Supercharged’ cash out. Not every cash out will be supercharged but it adds more funds to the total cash out amount available when randomly triggered. Kwiff’s cash out facility is easy to use and speedy, with transactions quickly settled, making it our recommendation for the best betting app for cash out.
Best betting app for live streaming: Bet365
Bet365 have become known as the home of live streaming among betting sites and the sheer amount of live sport they show backs that up. They often have more than 30 live streams at any one time from every sport you can think of, all available on their app, in addition to desktop.
For example, unlike many horse racing betting sites, Bet365 stream every racing meet in the UK and Ireland on their betting app, including every race from major events such as the Cheltenham Festival and Royal Ascot, even once the TV broadcasters have gone off air. They also have selected international meetings available to view.
Most sports streams are free to watch, provided Bet365 accounts are funded, but occasionally a nominal bet on an individual event may be required to enable access. The quality of their feeds is also consistent and reliable, making it one of the best horse racing betting apps for live streaming.
How we rank and review the best sports betting apps
So how did we arrive at the ratings and recommendations above? How did we pick the best of the online betting apps? There were numerous factors in play during our extensive research:
Regulation: This is a non-negotiable before we recommend any gambling app. They have to be fully licensed and regulated by the UKGC for us to even consider rating them, so you can be confident that every site above is safe to engage with. Every app mentioned on this page is UKGC-regulated and safe.
Reputation: Our recommended best betting apps are a mixture of household names and gambling companies that are slightly more new to the UK betting industry. Reputation is important and while the likes of William Hill, Betfred and Bet365 have established themselves over many years, we also considered the burgeoning renown of the newer companies generating buzz in the industry and how well-regarded they are overseas.
Being responsible: Similarly to regulation, how committed the bookmaker is to responsible gambling was important to us. Is Have they taken genuine steps to ensure their actions towards their customers are morally sound to protect them from addiction? We considered their approaches to vital tools such as deposit limits, loss limits, reality checks and self-exclusion. More on this below.
Customer experience: How good an experience the app provides for its customers was also taken into account. If the app design is smart and well laid out, if the useability is logical and straightforward, then that all makes for a better customer experience.
Promotions: Of course, a betting company can also be judged on its promotions and offers. Were these betting apps offering deals we hadn’t seen anywhere else or that really enticed us to sign up? If you feel like you’re getting more bang for your buck – be that in terms of free bets, odds boosts or one-off promotions – you’re more likely to use the app.
Responsible gambling
Quite simply, the most important thing to remember is to gamble responsibly. ‘When the fun stops. Stop’ is more than just a slogan because betting should only be considered a form of entertainment – it has not, and will never be, a surefire way to make money, no matter how much you think you know about sport.
When betting, always assume you’ll lose and therefore, only bet what you can afford to lose. Sports betting can also be addictive, so please take steps to remain in control of your time and budget.
Make sure you use the responsible gambling tools offered by betting companies such as deposit limits, reality checks, loss limits, time outs and self-exclusion. These can stop your gambling from getting out of hand.
If you have gambling-related concerns, then seek independent help. There are several UK charities and institutions that offer support, advice, and information, with a few listed below:
Best betting apps UK summary
We’ve picked some of our favourite betting apps here but while we can recommend those we think are the ‘best’, ultimately everyone is looking for something different from their bookmaker.
Some will drawn to an app that is best for one specific sport, while others will be looking for live-streaming options or individual bet types. Whatever you’re after, hopefully this information can help you make the right decision for you.
Importantly, all our recommended bookies are fully licensed and regulated by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), so they are safe to engage with, ensuring that your personal and financial data is secure. There are plenty of illegitimate gambling companies out there, so be aware.
We also regularly update our list should you wish to keep tabs on the best new betting apps on the scene.
