Sports betting has been a staple of UK culture for centuries. From days at the races to casual wagers down the pub, betting has even found its way into our day-to-day language. So, it’s unsurprising that the convenience of online betting has flooded the nation. If you’re interested in getting involved for the first time, there can be a lot of initial information to wade through. To help with that, we’ve compiled this guide to help you through the basics of betting online so you can dive in quickly and learn as you go!

Understanding Online Betting Basics

Let’s start with the extreme basics. Online betting is exactly the same as in-person betting, where you place money on a potential outcome at odds set by the bookie. If you win, you’ll gain money according to the odds you bet at, and if you lose, the sportsbook keeps your stake. The main difference is that it’s all automated online, and you can often find everything in one place rather than going to different places and people for different betting markets and sports. 

How to Place a Bet Online

Now, to get you started, let's take a detailed look at how you go about placing your very first bet! Starting with nothing, we’ll go through how to open an account, get money to stake and then even what happens when you win:

Registering an Account

First things first, to bet online, you’ll need an account with a sportsbook. The UK is home to dozens of fantastic options, and you’ll find a plethora of reviews for them right here on Livescore! Look through our reviews and find a bookie that covers the events you’re interested in, has features that appeal to you and has a welcome offer that you think is worth your time. 

Click our link to reach the signup page, and simply follow the on-screen instructions, inputting data where necessary. We should mention that online gambling sites often ask for very personal information and will later conduct background checks to ensure that you’re as legitimate as the site is. You can read through a website’s privacy policy if you’re worried, but otherwise, the signup process is dead easy. 

Depositing Funds

Once you have your new account, you’ll need money to bet with. You’ll find the banking tab in your new account (it may be called something else, like payments or the ‘cashier’), where you can move money into and out of your account. 

Making your very first deposit can be a little tricky, as you’ll need to meet all the requirements laid out by your welcome offer to ensure you qualify for it. But in the future, you’ll have a lot of flexibility in how you transfer funds. 

Placing Your First Bet

Now for the exciting part! Placing your first bet really isn’t that daunting, especially if you start off small. Going straight for the huge multiples on your first turn isn’t a good idea for anyone inexperienced. 

Do a bit of research on the event you want to bet on and consider the odds on the site. For most sportsbooks, you click on the odds you want to bet on, and this will add the wager to your betting slip, often found on the right side of the screen. Then, you input how much you want to stake, ensuring it falls within your budget. Most sportsbooks will then show you the potential winnings if your bet pays out. 

Withdrawing Winnings

If you get lucky and win a big wager, you can look at withdrawing your winnings. This is a little more complicated than making your first deposit, though. 

First, you aren’t allowed to withdraw money from a sportsbook until you’ve verified your account. This requires submitting official documentation to prove you’re a real person, and often also a KYC background check. However, once you’ve completed this, subsequent withdrawals should be simple and quick. 

Choosing a Betting Platform

There are many factors to consider when picking the online sportsbook you want to bet with. Here are the features we believe are most important when browsing bookies:

Licensing and Regulation

In the UK, all betting sites must be licensed by the UKGC or another approved regulator; this includes the MGA, AGCC and GBGA. That’s a lot of seemingly random letters, but rest assured that seeing them represented at a betting site is a confirmation of its quality. 

Gambling regulation in the UK ensures that online betting sites are not only reputable and legitimate (and free of crime) but also that they respect and uphold customer rights. When you play at a licensed gambling site, you know your withdrawal requests will be honoured, your data will be protected and that all content is fair. 

User Interface and Accessibility

This can be a very subjective issue, as you want to be using a website with a design and layout that match the way you want to work. While the basic layout of sportsbooks is mostly standardised, you’ll find different sites display odds in unique ways, have a focus on mobile adaptation, or just use colours that you prefer.

As such, we recommend you take a look at the website in general before signing up. Look for features that appeal to you and consider how well you get on with the site. Also, you might need to look for various accessibility features like multi-lingual customer support or text size variations.

Range of Betting Options

There’s no point in betting at a sportsbook that doesn’t support betting markets that you’re interested in. When we recommend a sportsbook, we aim to promote sites with lots of different betting options to ensure as many of our readers as possible will be happy with it, but you only have to worry about your personal needs. 

So take a look at the various sports and betting markets available, the types of bets you can make at the site, and see if they align with the types of bets you want to make! This isn’t just a matter of them covering your favourite sport — look at what you can bet on too, and what the site provides to make it as easy as possible to make the bet you want!

Promotions and Bonuses

While this isn’t a must-have, we all love some good bonuses to prop up our regular betting habits. This can be anything from bonus funds and free bets to cashback to insurance promos. The promotional lineup between different sportsbooks can vary wildly, and many sites will try to set themselves apart with unique deals you can’t find anywhere else.

While promotional offers can be flashy and appealing, do your best to look for a sportsbook with a range of deals that appeal to you and the things you like to bet on, especially as many bonuses are sport-specific. Additionally, look for a site with reasonable bonus T&Cs to ensure you can make the most of any promo you choose to claim. 

Payment Methods

There’s no point in signing up for a sportsbook that doesn’t support a payment method you can use. Most online sportsbooks list their payment options either at the bottom of the page or somewhere in the FAQs if you want to check them out before signing up. Look for methods you have access to and are well suited to your budget. 

Additionally, check the various transaction limits, especially the minimum withdrawal amount (some sportsbooks won’t let you withdraw unless you have at least £50!) and any transaction fees.