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Unibet UK – Overview & Rating
Unibet operates in 20 languages including English, French, Russian and Spanish.
Unibet was established in London in 1997 and launched its first website in 1999.
At the start of the online betting revolution, Unibet was a big, high-profile player in the 2000s but has lost some of its edges after that. PCM magazine rated Unibet the best sports betting operator in 2006, 2008 and 2009. Perhaps, the awards have dried up since up to the last two years. In that terms Unibet has improved thing a lot and got abundant awards in 2019 and 2020:
- Sports Betting Operator and Marketing Campaign according to EGR Nordics Awards (2019),
- Online Gaming Operator according to International Gaming Awards (2019),
- Corporate Responsibility Programme of the Year “Player Safety Early Detection System” according to Global Gaming Awards (2019),
- Mobile Poker Product, Mobile Casino Product and Affiliate Programme according to EGR Operator Awards (2019),
- Socially Responsible Operator, Sports betting Operator and Marketing Campaign and Affiliate programme according to EGR Nordics Awards (2020),
- Socially Responsible Operator of the Year and Online Poker Operator of the Year according to International Gaming Awards (2020).
The company attracts a genuinely worldwide user base. Unibet operates in 23 different languages and dialects and claims to have users in more than 100 countries. However, a closer look at the countries currently accessible from the Unibet website suggests that at present only around 20 countries are represented. Unibet has passed the 1 million registered users mark and in 2017 it posted revenues of £751 million since renaming the parent company as Kindred Group in 2016.
Today Unibet is headquartered in Malta. Thus, it is licensed and regulated (through Platinum Gaming Limited) by the Malta Gaming Authorities. That’s good for punters in Europe, while in the UK Unibet is regulated by a remote operating license from the UK Gambling Commission.
Fans of many teams will have heard of Unibet as a sponsor or partner of their heroes. The company has linked up with the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and the Philadelphia Eagles of the NHL. Unibet is also the official betting partner of Paris St-Germain, France’s top football team, and the official betting partner of three English clubs – Aston Villa, Middlesbrough and Preston North End. Unibet sponsors training tops for Rangers FC and Warwickshire County Cricket Club and has a partnership with Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen.
The Unibet affiliate program (https://www.kindredaffiliates.com/) is united in a big package including all brands of Kindred group, the parent company of Unibet. If you want to join and benefit you should write to [email protected] email address.
Layout
If you are in the UK try Unibet’s UK service in the co.uk domain zone. For international betting, try www.unibet.com.
The Unibet site layout does not offer too many surprises. However, the size of the box advertising promotions at the top of the page is off-putting and makes it hard to see the top markets when first arriving at the site. Once over that hurdle, though, things are pretty standard. The range of sports on offer is listed down the left, top markets – searchable by sport – go in the middle and the current crop of in-play highlights appears to the right. Dropdown menus at the top of the page lead punters through the sportsbook, racing and casino options.
Live lines in Unibet can be organised rather strangely. It’s hard to imagine that a game in Spanish Second League is going to be more popular than a handful of Champions League fixtures kicking off at the same time, yet Girona vs Cartagena got top billing ahead of Lokomotiv vs Bayern.
Unibet casino offers 1431 games, including slots, table & cards games and jackpots.
Unibet Bingo includes Bingo minigames, Bingo tournaments, jackpots and Bingo loyalty.
Since 2004, Unibet offers its own app. Operating on iOS and Android, it provides the same services as the website in a mobile-friendly format. The company launched 3 different apps for each service: casino app, poker app and sports app. All apps are available for playing on the website, mobile phones and tablets. You can download them directly from the website.
Services
Unibet has the usual range of sports betting and casino, live casino options, plus bingo and poker. The sports line include such sport as
- American Football,
- Australian Rules,
- Bandy,
- Boxing,
- Chess,
- Cricket,
- Cycling,
- Darts,
- Esports,
- Floorball,
- Football,
- Futsal,
- Gaelic Sports,
- Golf,
- Greyhounds,
- Handball,
- Horse Racing,
- Ice Hockey,
- Motorsports,
- Olympic Games,
- Politics,
- Pool,
- Rugby Union,
- Rugby League,
- Snooker,
- Table Tennis,
- Tennis,
- UFC/MMA,
- Virtual Sports,
- Volleyball,
- WWE/Pro Wrestling,
- Winter Sports,
- TV & Novelty.
You can see some fairly obscure sports on offer – anyone for floorball? The prices can be competitive. For example, on October 27 Unibet was offering the best price about Manchester City winning its Champions League tie in Marseilles, and also about Rochdale pulling off a shock win against Sunderland in League 1. It was also competitive on the first goalscorer market in the Champions League, albeit helped by offering good odds on several long shots for that particular prize. On the horse racing, Unibet also scores quite well: the last race of the day on Oct. 27 saw the company offering the best price about the favourite in the 19:50 at Southwell and matching the top offers for the fourth and fifth-ranked horses in the race.
The average size of the margin in prematch is 4-6%.
Live
In-play markets in Unibet are extensive. Live betting is available a long way down the football system – all the way to Uruguay’s reserve league. You can also back Euroleague Handball online, or top-level European volleyball, among a range of other sports. Live streaming in Unibet is available for registered members on selected events, with a special emphasis on NFL action. Elsewhere it’s handball yes, Champions League no – although the size of the screen is fairly small, suggesting that it may not be easy to follow the puck while watching ice hockey, for example.
The average size of the margin in live is 6-9%.
Bonuses
The Unibet welcome bonuses are, frankly, a disappointment. If your first bet at 1.4 or higher loses, you can get a free bet credit worth up to £40. There’s also a £10 free credit in the Unibet casino within the same package. On the face of it, that’s not too bad. If nothing else, a solid bit of bet insurance. But the kicker lies in the small print: before you can cash out the £40 credit, you have to wager it 3 times, also at 1.4 or higher. So you could be placing £120-worth of bets before you can make a withdrawal. Many other offers of Unibet are far more attractive.
Once enrolled, there are some more attractive offers floating around – place a £10 wager using bet builder and get a £5 free in-play bet on the Champions League, for example. And the loyalty scheme – a free £10 in-play bet each week after placing 5 or more £10 in-play wagers at events or better – is worthy of consideration for sports punters, if not racing fans.
Unibet has additional welcome bonuses for casino and poker fans, and some free-to-play predictor games challenging punters to predict the outcome of all the week’s games in, for example, the Champions League for a share of a £25,000 prize. But that feels like a ‘just for laughs’ option, not a serious chance to win cash.
Customer support
Like most sites, Unibet starts with a help page and FAQ. The website also has a user forum, where you can share tips – both hot bets and practical advice about using the site – with other punters. If the information in the FAQs is inconclusive, users are invited to contact Unibet via live chat, email or a freephone number (in the UK). Typically, live chat gets the fastest response, often within a few minutes. Email is the slowest, with a couple of hours needed to get a response. The phone lines can involve a tedious time on hold before someone is available to answer.
Registration
Punters in the UK can sign up to Unibet at the UK version with .uk domain. For the rest of the world, the international one is the place. Restrictions apply, with the current registration process apparently supporting 19 territories worldwide. The registration in the Unibet process starts out pretty straightforward. Afterwards, the usual questions about name, age and contact details, some users may face a verification process that involves supplying scans of ID. Some online reviews on Unibet suggest that this additional verification process can be protracted and frustrating for new customers.
If you want to play in Unibet you should:
- Click on the “Register” button;
- Enter personal information (name, date of birth, sex, address, phone number, postcode);
- Create a password;
- Go through the identification process.
Financial info
Unibet supports accounts in several currencies including:
- Pound sterlings,
- Euros,
- US Dollars,
- Swiss Francs,
- the Scandinavian currencies and
- the Polish Zloty.
Deposits and withdrawals can be made in other currencies, but the customer will bear the cost of any conversions.
Deposits in Unibet can be made using bank cards, or via Netteller or Skrill. Bank transfers and other online payment services are also possible. Bank cards offer free, instant deposits but other means might incur commission charges or delays in processing your transaction.
The minimum stake in Unibet is 10p, slightly higher than most, but it’s the maximum win where Unibet lags behind. The highest ceilings are at £250,000 for the top football leagues – compared with a market best £2 million elsewhere. Lower down the leagues, and in other minor sports, the limits can drop to £50,000. That’s especially bad news if you want a big-money acca to include, say, Scottish lower division action: £50k becomes the maximum payout for the whole bet, even if the other legs involve higher-value competitions.
Reliability
An examination through customer reviews on Unibet uncovers a fair few disgruntled individuals claiming that Unibet offers poor customer service and does not honour its promises, especially where bonuses are concerned. In many cases, though, it seems likely that these issues are down to misunderstandings of the small print. Recommend you Understand the full story before committing your cash.
In general, Unibet does not make negative headlines. Its long history in the industry suggests that this is a safe option for your betting needs.
The Unibet site uses 128-bit SSL technology to secure all information sent to and from Unibet. This is certified by Trustwave. Unibet is also certified towards the Payment Card Industries Data Security Standard.
What’s missing?
There’s nothing much wrong with Unibet as a betting site and those recent awards and ones from the 2000s point to a reliable and competent service. However, over the last decade the market has moved on, and Unibet has struggled to keep up. The bonus offer is not very exciting, while low pay-out limits are a blow to high rollers looking to place high-stakes bets.
Unibet offers the users its apps operating both on iOS and Android platforms. The apps provide the same services as the website in a mobile-friendly format. The company launched 3 different apps for each service: casino app, poker app and sports app. All the apps are available for playing on the website, mobile phones and tablets. You can download them directly from the Unibet website.
Deposit
You can fund deposits in Unibet through VISA, VISA Electron, Mastercard, Maestro cards; Skrill, Neteller, WebMoney and ecoPayz e-wallets; paysafecard, Instant Banking, Interac (in CAD only), Trustly and Apple Pay payment services.
The minimum deposit sum is $10 for VISA, VISA Electron, Mastercard, Maestro and Trustly; $20 for Skrill, Neteller, WebMoney and ecoPayz; $10 for paysafecard; $5 for Instant Banking. The maximum deposit is $50,000, except Trustly($6,000), WebMoney($250), Instant Banking($10,000), paysafecard ($1,000) and Apple Pay (not mentioned). The processing time is instant for all methods except Interac (may be processed up to 30 min). The commission for the deposit is held by paysafecard(3%) Trustly(2% only for the residents in Lithuania), Instant Banking(1% for the residents in Hungary).
Withdrawal
The withdrawal can be made through VISA, VISA Electron, Mastercard, Maestro cards; Skrill, Neteller, WebMoney and ecoPayz e-wallets; Interac (in CAD only), Express Connect (in CAD only), Direct Banking and Trustly payment services and bank wires.
The minimum amount of the withdrawal sum is $10 for VISA, VISA Electron, Mastercard, Maestro, Trustly and Direct Banking; $25 for Skrill, Neteller, WebMoney, ecoPayz and bank wires. The maximum withdrawal sum is $55,000 for VISA, VISA Electron, Maestro and Mastercard; $100,000 for Trustly and Direct Banking; $15,000 for Skrill, Neteller, WebMoney and ecoPayz. The processing time is usually 1-3 days, except Trustly and Direct Banking (3-5 days), Skrill, Neteller, WebMoney and ecoPayz (up to 12 hours). No commission held for the withdrawal.
Deposit | Withdrawal | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Sum | Time | Commission | Sum | Time | Commission | |
from $10 to $50.000 | instant | 0% | from $10 to $55,000 | 1-3 days | 0% | |
from $10 to $50,000 | instant | 0% | from $10 to $55,000 | 1-3 days | 0% | |
from $10 to $50,000 | instant | 0% | from $10 to $55,000 | 1-3 days | 0% |
Unibet accepts 15 currencies incudiung USD, Euro and GBP.
as an arbitrator
Confiscate winnings
Support service operates well. Live chat responds within a minute if you are not in a queue. The email answer comes in about 2 hours. The service operates in all languages that Unibet offers.
You can learn about the feedback and opinion on sum withdrawals and betting in Unibet in the “Feedback” and in the comment to the review. Learn here about the experience of Unibet users. Share your experience with everyone.
To place your bets in “Live”, select the event you want to bet on you’ll see the bet offers and odds. To place a single bet, select the outcome you want to bet on, add your stake and confirm your bet. For an accumulator, select all the outcomes you would like to bet on (up to 12) – they will all appear in the betting slip. Add your stake, select your combinations and confirm your bet.
Sports app, Casino App and Poker App are all available to download. Follow this link to download from your PC – www.unibet.com/apps/betting – or simply visit Google Play for Android devices and the App Store for iOS devices.
Unibet offers 3 types of bonuses: bonuses in the cash balance, in bonus balance and free spins. You can use your bonuses in cash balance can be withdrawn or played, as you wish. The bonus balance bonuses can be withdrawn only after fulfilling the wagering requirements. The free spins from NetEnt games can only be played in those games.
Withdraw your money in Unibet through Bank cards, Bank transfers, E-wallets (Skrill, Neteller, WebMoney, ecoPayz), Interac E-transfer, Direct Banking and Trustly. When your documents are reviewed and confirmed your withdrawal request will be approved. This usually takes up to 72 hours.