Ladbrokes Review
Ladbrokes are one of the biggest, best known bookmakers in the UK and with around 3,000 betting shops they are a familiar brand on the UK (and also Irish, Belgian and Spanish!) high street. The company’s roots go way, way back to a commissioning agent for horses trained at Ladbroke Hall, the original company having been founded in 1886 and renamed as Ladbrokes in 1902. Since the legalisation of betting shops in the 1960s Ladbrokes has been at the forefront of UK gambling and as well as the thousands of shops the online site covers sports betting, casino games, poker, financial betting, virtual sports, bingo and lottery.
They are based in the UK, in Middlesex, although as the online operation is partly run from Gibraltar the website is licensed and regulated by the island’s Government. Ladbrokes employs around 15,000 people worldwide and has about 800,000 active online clients so it is clear they are one of UK gambling’s true behemoths. In 2012 they made pre-tax profits of more than £200m and their size, financial muscle, tradition and reputation mean they are as safe, secure and polished as any bookmaker in the world.
What many people don’t know about Ladbrokes is that in 2015 they actually agreed a merger with one of their rivals in the Gala Coral Group. The merge now makes them part of the biggest gambling country in the world. The Ladbrokes section alone has seen its player base soar into the millions with revenue figures in 2015 hitting just shy of £1.2billion.
Their online casino can be accessed by either playing through their instant browser based version or by playing via their downloadable casino client. You can also access the Ladbrokes casino via mobile simply by visiting the site through any smartphones mobile browser.
Sports Betting
Sports Welcome Offer
The current free bet available to new Ladbrokes customers is an unusually generous 300% freebie. Just sign up and place a bet of £10 using your own money and as long as it’s at odds of more than 1/2, Ladbrokes will match it with a free £10 bet. That’s good, but a week later you’ll get a further £10 free bet and a third £10 free bet another seven days after that. The stake is not returned with the free bets for three £10 free bets for just one qualifying bet is a great offer.
Other Promotions
The fact that Ladbrokes are such a big, financially secure company means they can offer free bets, bonuses and promotions galore. Whilst they aren’t quite as good as the very best on that front, they are certainly not far behind. The type of promo you will most commonly find there is a bonus on certain bets, such as accumulators, or enhanced odds on specific multiple bets. In addition Ladbrokes offer loads for horse racing fans, with loads of enhanced each way terms, top prices on fancied horses and Best Odds Guaranteed on all UK and Irish races meaning you’ll always get the higher odds of those you take when you make the bet and the SP.
Sports Betting Features
Probably the major strength of Ladbrokes is their size and that because of this, and the fact they have been around so long, they offer just about everything you could want from a betting company. As mentioned, aside from sports they cover pretty much everything else, making them a good choice for people wanting to do everything with just one firm.
Similarly, when it comes to sport itself they cover just about every sport you could want to bet on – again the advantage being that you can find everything you want in the same place. If you like football and racing but also want to bet on Alpine skiing, what the Christmas number one will be, chess and what brand of ketchup McDonalds will use next (seriously!), then they are the bookie for you. If you like American sports, Gaelic sports and a bit of bandy too, then ditto.
Moreover, within each sport you will find a huge range of markets – 120 as standard on Premier League football matches – and the odds are also well above average. On major football matches and especially both teams to score bets Ladbrokes are consistently strong whilst they are also very good on racing odds.
Befitting a company of their size they offer a great in-play console, a top mobile site (for both their sports betting and casino products), excellent customer service and have few weaknesses. Definitely a top 10 bookie and a few more promotions would see them even higher, although the £30 of free bets for just a £10 bet is undoubtedly a great promotion.
