As is often the case when a new industry explodes into life, there are a number of online betting companies that don’t have the same name recognition as the more well-established alternatives. Pretty much anyone who has ever walked down a high street has heard of Ladbrokes or Coral. They are the ‘classic’ bookmakers that seem to have been around forever, even though it only became legal to have a betting shop on the streets in 1961. Yet less people have heard talk of companies such as 10bet.
That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t pay them any mind, however. The online betting industry is one that is growing and developing all of the time and, in actual fact, the well-known bookmakers are striving to keep up with the newer ones that have been able to adapt to this new side of the industry much quicker. 10bet was only founded in 2003, but they have come a long way in a short space of time and are very much deserving of your attention.
Key Features
You can adapt to a new industry as quickly as a fish learns to swim, but if you don’t offer the sort of features that punters want then you’re going to sink without a trace pretty quickly. So how do 10bet stack up when compared to their competitors?
Live Betting
As soon as you head to the 10bet sportsbook homepage you’ll see how highly they rate live betting as a function of their site. A look along the top bar of the page will see a quick link to their live betting section, whilst a scroll down the main page will see you stumble across all of the live or upcoming events that you can bet on immediately. As this is a section talking about the live betting it’s only fair I tell you what you can expect to find should you follow that link, so I don’t mind telling you you won’t be disappointed with what you’re greeted by.
Live events are broken up into their respective sports, with 10bet taking the executive decision that most people are going to want to place a bet on football before anything else. Interestingly they actually favour matches that are coming up momentarily over events that are already underway, so if it’s not long until kick-off in some games then you’ll have to scroll past them before you find what’s going on right now. The layout is pleasant, in my opinion, with everything nicely and clearly highlighted so you know all of the important information. That includes stuff like how long has gone in a match, what the score is and what the immediate bets are that you can place.
If you’ve read any of the other reviews on the site then you’ll know that I’m a big fan of bookmakers that tell you how many events there are to bet on within each match. If Lithuania are playing the Faroe Islands in an international cricket friendly then I don’t want to have to click into the event to discover that there are only five bets I can place. Thankfully 10bet do what I like and tell you exactly how many additional events there are to bet on in a match in the same section as where they tell you what’s going on.
As an example of what I’m talking about, I can see that there are another 74 bets I could make on top of deciding on the winning team or if the match will end in a draw as Finland take on Liechtenstein in a football friendly. There are 29 bets in addition to who will win the French Open tennis match between Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori, whilst the Montreux Masters women’s volleyball game between Thailand and Poland has just nine additional bets. In short, then, 10bet live betting section is set up in a way that I like and offers plenty of variation when it comes to what you can bet on and how many bets you can place.
Live Streaming
10bet don’t mess around when it comes to letting you know what events you can stream live on their website or via their mobile app. You’ll find a small icon that, somewhat unsurprisingly, looks like a miniature television next to any event that you can live stream. When it comes to the sports that you can watch live you’ll find the list is rather impressive, with top-tier football from across Europe, tennis, NBA basketball and more all available to you at the push of a button. All you need to do to watch them is have an account with 10bet, be logged into it and have an account balance of £1 or more.
If you can’t get the live stream for some reason, or just aren’t a fan of watching things live, then you’ll still have something to look at on most events. There’s a rather nifty little graphic that sits in the righthand corner of the screen within an event’s page and it will show you a mini football pitch, tennis court etc. On there you’ll be able to follow what’s going on, such as whose serve it is or whether a team is pressing forward. Underneath it you’ll see live stats like who’s had the most aces and which team has had the most possession. Obviously it’s not as all-encompassing as watching it live with your own eyes, but it’s not a bad alternative.
Cash Out
As is now becoming common with virtually every big bookmaker, 10bet offer customers the ability to Cash Out their bet before the event they’re betting on has even finished. This isn’t to everyone’s taste, with plenty of punters still in the frame of mind of placing a bet and then letting it see out its course. For most of those who have been using online betting for years, however, it’s become an essential part of how they go about their business when it comes to having a flutter. For me personally I can take it or leave it, having benefitted from it in the past but having also Cashed Out earlier than I should have on more than one occasion.
There are two things that I like about 10bet’s approach to the Cash Out function. The first is that they’ll let you Cash Out your single bets as well as your accumulators, something that not all bookmakers do, believe it or not. The second is that you can take either a full Cash Out or a Partial Cash Out, depending on how your events are going. Imagine, for a second, that you’ve placed a six-leg accumulator and the first five legs have won. You’ve already got a decent offer in the Cash Out section of the bet, but you’re not sure whether you should gamble and leave it on. In that instance you could take a Partial Cash Out and guarantee yourself a nice return whilst leaving the rest of the bet on in case leg six comes home. It’s win-win, really.
Football
Football is not just the most popular sport in the UK but across the entire world. Little wonder, then, that bookmakers that want to earn themselves a reputation as knowing what they’re talking about target football coverage so specifically. Here’s how 10bet do it:
Coverage
10bet’s coverage of football is, in my opinion, up there with the best of them. As I sit and write this you can bet on 43 different matches and it’s the middle of a Wednesday afternoon in the off-season. We’re not just talking mainstream events here, either. You can find up to 32 different things to bet on in a match between Juventus and Fiorentina’s Under-19 teams. There are 38 various bets to be placed on an Algerian Ligue 1 game where EL Harrach have traveled away to face Belouizdad. From the Cameroonian Premiere division through to the Czech Republic’s MSFL, there are matches from the top leagues right the way down to ones you’ve never heard of.
I don’t think that their coverage is perfect, though. For starters I’m not a massive fan of how the site is laid out, more specifically with regards to how you navigate your way to their coverage of the individual sports. When it comes to betting live it’s nice and simple, with the Live Betting tab at the top of the page taking you to all of the events that you can bet at that precise moment. Things are a touch more fiddly when you start looking at options on betting on specific events that aren’t either live or upcoming. You have to click on the football tab under all sports, select the league or competition that you want to bet on and then look for the bet.
Admittedly, none of that is to do with the actual coverage of events, but when you’re trying to find out what you can bet on you’ll immediately notice how fiddly it is so I thought I’d draw attention to it straight away. When it comes to the amount of different things that you can bet on you likely won’t be disappointed. There are six different Brazilian leagues covered, for example, or four competitions in Sweden. You can have a flutter on five competitions from Finland, should you so choose, and the same number from the US. The way you navigate to the coverage might not be great, but the depth of it certainly is.
Odds
When it comes to odds on football fixtures, 10bet are consistently average, if I’m honest. It’s not that they’re bad, often offering odds that aren’t too far off where everyone is the majority of the time. It’s just that they aren’t leading the way as often as you might like if you’re the sort of person who values net wins above all else. In the three matches I was betting on this afternoon I noticed that 10bet had the joint-best odds for the outright winner of just one of them, which is a little disappointing. Still, one is more than some other bookies I’ve reviewed on here so I supposed I shouldn’t complain.
Horse Racing
If football is the most popular sport in the world with a wide selection of people looking to place bets on the outcome of it, then horse racing is the option that more discerning punters tend to go for. Does 10bet’s coverage reflect that?
Coverage
The short answer to that question is ‘yes’. In the here and now I could place bets on races coming live from Hamilton, Uttoxeter, Wolverhampton, Wexford, Kempton, and Ripon. That’s just the British and Irish racing, too. Have a look at more far-flung destinations and you’ll discover the likes of Belmont Park in New York and Longchamp Racecourse in Paris. Tomorrow I could have a flutter on races that are taking place live in Haydock, Bangor, Leopardstown, Sandown, Carlisle and Ripon. It’s not exactly comprehensive coverage that doesn’t miss a thing, but it’s impressive nonetheless.
If you’re the sort of person that likes to place an ante-post bet on all of the big races then you won’t be disappointed, either. From the Grand National through to all of the big races from the Cheltenham Festival, I could place a bet on any of them right now in spite of the fact that they aren’t taking place for the best part of a year. If I were to be totally honest then I’d have to say that there are bookmakers with better coverage than 10bet, but there are also plenty that are a lot worse. If you’re like me and have a passing interest in the gee-gees but nothing more than I don’t think you’ll be overly disappointed.
Odds
You also won’t be too disappointed when it comes to 10bet’s odds for horse racing events. You’ll be able to take advantage of their Best Odds Guarantee, should you back a horse early in the day and discover that its price has gone long as the day’s progressed. It’s also worth keeping an eye on how things develop as the race draws closer, with 10bet often rivalling other companies for the best odds on the market. Even if they’re not the best then they won’t be outrageously off the pace, so I would say that their odds are not something you need to worry about.
Other Sports
When it comes to their coverage of sports other than those in the mainstream, there are a number of decent options even if there are few surprises in the ranks. Here are some of the more random ones you’ll be able to have a bet on:
- Futsal
- MMA / UFC
- Aussie Rules
- Handball
- Speedway
- Surfing
As you can see, there are some sports in there that aren’t exactly taking up the back pages of the tabloids on a regular basis. You can bet on most of them with the majority of bookmakers, though the likes of futsal and handball aren’t always covered. Once again, if you’re happy with a bit of surface coverage and don’t necessarily require your bets to go too deep then you’ll be pleased enough with what 10bet has to offer.
About 10bet
If there’s something about 10bet’s setup and approach that doesn’t seem to look right to you, such as the way I’m not a massive fan of how you get to the coverage of their individual sports, then you don’t need to be alarmed. The company started life by targeting the Asian betting market, so a lot of the way it now works is a hangover from those days. After all, if something works for you then why would you look at another way of doing it?
They’ve certainly come a long way since those early days back in 2003. At the time of writing they offer their services to punters in more than 90 countries around the world, with coverage of around 150 different leagues. 10bet is owned and operated by Blue Star Planet Limited, a company that is based in Malta but is licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. Their aim is to make betting as painless an experience as possible, so whether you’re a novice punter or someone who owns multiple accounts, my feeling is that you’ll be pleased with what they offer.
