Betfred

The Story of Betfred

Betfred is the brain-child of brothers Fred and Peter Done who began their bookmaking empire when setting up a single successful shop in Salford back in 1967. Their website now boasts of the brothers owning 1,378 licensed betting establishments as well as their popular online platform. Employing 10,000 staff, their website says that Betfred are the fourth largest bookmakers in the United Kingdom.

This Betfred website came about in 2004 just prior to the men having opened their 450th shop and a full two years after their telephone betting service was launched. It would be fair to say that the brothers were a little behind the times when it came to first setting up their online branch of Betfred - most other companies got online in 2000 - though this hasn't stopped them from becoming big players on the world wide web.

An explanation for this popularity would be that the Done brothers, alongside managing director John Haddock, have successfully capitalised on a number of key commercial deals. Their 'About Us' page on their website sees Betfred boast that they are the biggest sponsor in UK horse racing and the exclusive partner of the Cheltenham Festival's Gold Cup - arguably the biggest jumps race in the horse racing season. What's more, in 2011 they signed a deal to sponsor 700 horse races a year for seven years. This continued publicity is, of course, going to keep punters flooding through the doors of their betting establishments and clicking onto their website.

Indeed this marketing campaign has seen the firm accumulate 100% growth in new players in the past year. They offer such services as casino games, poker and bingo, these running alongside their main bookmaking commitment. The company have been praised for their innovation regarding their mobile phone services with customers able to withdraw their accumulated online funds at any of the bookies' high street stores from their portable devices.

Navigating Betfred

Log into your Betfred account by using the designated tab in the top right hand corner of each page. Pressing this button will then prompt you to enter your username and password.

Beneath this tab are a row of selectable options allowing punters to navigate to the sportsbook homepage and such other things as the Tote, in-play markets and a number of gaming rooms. Above the 'Log In' button is the time - to ensure that you don't get to carried away with your betting - and a help tab that transfers you to a glossary of key bookmaking terms.

When selecting the 'Sport' category from the row of options, you will be transferred to the sportsbook homepage where a second row of quick pick options will be present to help punters navigate the site more easily. The most interesting options in this secondary header are the 'Recently Paid Out' and the 'Double Delight/ Hattrick Heaven' tabs. These help Betfred users navigate quickly to their promotion pages, see the 'Promotions and Offers' section for more on this.

There are a number of things down the left hand side of Betfred's sportsbook homepage. The first is a series of so-called 'Betting Highlights'. These are usually events that are happening on the day in question, allowing punters to easily move to their desired event.

Beneath these highlights is an alphabeticised list of sports to aid users' movement from one sport to another. Selecting a sport will see you reveal a drop-down list from which you will have to further specify the sorts of events and bets you are looking for. Whilst this is useful for those people who have a particular event or bet type in mind, it is not helpful to those who just want to browse at leisure.

Further down this column is a drop-down box to enable users to change how they see the displayed odds (fractions/ decimals/ American), a list of services provided by the bookmaker and a selection of commentaries that the logged in punter can listen to.

It is down the right hand side where you will find your betslip. Simply select the outcome on which you would like to bet to open up the betslip. Enter your stake in the appropriate box to see the returns that you will receive should your punt pay off. Putting more than one outcome in your betslip will open up the 'Multiple Bets' service allowing punters to place such bets as doubles, trebles and trixies depending on how many selections have been made.

Beneath your betslip you will find links to up-coming events, those that are 'next off'.

Offers and Promotions

It is really easy to sign up to be a Betfred customer and one that can see you three-times better off. All new customers will receive £30 of free bets following their initial wagering of £10. Take advantage of this offer by selecting the promotions tab at the top of the sportsbook homepage. Select the sports subset and click on the welcome offer option.

By selecting the terms and conditions link you will be able to see all the corresponding small-print associated with this welcome offer, such things as customers having to bet their £10 on an outcome with odds of evens or greater. They must have settled their bets 30 days following their account being opened and must use their free bets in a two week period.

There are a number of other deals ready for registered users on this promotions webpage. They concern many different sports and markets and will satisfy everybody's needs. Let's first take the horse racing offers. Betfred promise to -

• Give you the best odds on your horse should the starting price be bigger than the early price already taken.
• Give you bonuses in accordance with the accumulator bet that you have won with. For example, whilst you can get a 100% bonus with six winning legs on a Heinz, you can get three-times the odds on a successful Lucky15.
• Give you a number of jackpots, placepots and quadpots.

Those who enjoy dog racing can also get tricast and forecast bonuses on their successful accumulators whilst also getting their money back if their greyhound loses by a head in a Sky or Racing Post broadcast race. Indeed Racing Post's Greyhound TV can be accessed and watched through Betfred, no questions asked or fees necessary to pay!

The company also have two recurring deals with regards to football. These are that users will receive their money back on correct score bets placed on televised games should the match in question end one a-piece. Their second offer sees the company give you double the odds should your first goalscorer selection grab a second and treble the odds if your selection bags himself a hat-trick.

Such 'Double Delight' offers are also available on rugby league and rugby union matches, similarly punters getting twice the price if their first try-scorer selection goes on to earn himself another.

All these recurring offers are complimented with one-off deals and promotions so keep your eyes on the relevant promotion page to grab in-play offers and accumulator insurances. It's also worth taking a look at these if your favourite sport has not been mentioned in the previous paragraphs - Betfred's promotions are far-reaching!