What is important when choosing new bookmaker?
Published on 27 Dec 2019 | Last updated on 01 Jul 2026 | Reading time: 6 minutes
For a good overall betting experience it is important to choose a good online bookmaker too. You need to choose wisely which betting company to trust with your own real money. Usually your feeling about betting at a certain bookmaker depends on a mixture of factors, such as reputation, high odds and payouts, welcome bonus and promotions, live betting and other features, etc.
This is the reason why we have made a survey that helped us understand what users value at most by choosing a new bookmaker. The survey included 1136 people and it outlines the most important criteria you need to assess when deciding whether or not to open an account with a specific betting site.
First you need to think about what your primary goal is and what to get from your betting, before you open a new account. Below are some aspects you may want to consider.
Licenses
this factor was not included in the survey, but it is very important if you by choosing your bookmaker. Does the desired sportsbook have legal permission to operate in your country? Some companies do not have a license in your country and sometimes this should not bother, but only in cases that are a well-known brand. In other situations, using non-licensed bookies can put you at unnecessary risk. So, our advice is to stick to betting sites that are legally allowed to provide you their platform for betting in your country.
Odds & Payouts
According to the results of the pool, 44% of respondents take higher betting odds as the most important factor for choosing their place to make sports bets.
New brands have a goal to develop and attract customers. High odds are one of the best ways to do this. The odds of different gambling brands of the same sports event are not always the same. Some bookies have a higher payout for you than others and respectively operate at a lower margin. This means the commission they take as a result of providing their platform to you is lower. If you want to know more about how the bookmaker’s payout is calculated, have a look at this article: “How is generated bookmakers margin”.
If the topic is about high odds, because of their strategy for attracting new customers, sometimes well-known brands cannot compete with new bookies. But in this situation, the reputation is a very important factor.
The worst case is a not so popular bookmaker which have also very miserable payout in a lot of betting markets. We suggest you avoid them and invest your money elsewhere instead.
Reputation
this is the second most important aspect to open an account with any online bookmaker. If the overall reputation of a bookmaker is good, then chances are higher. Every 5th interviewed person shares this opinion.
That does not mean that you cannot give a chance to new betting companies. Sometimes it is good to try a new one, but we also advise our visitors to open accounts in more than one betting site, because of the different betting odds offered.
Features
nowadays, additional features such as cash out, live stream, and live betting are on one side advantages for a bookmaker. On the other side, they are increasingly becoming an obligation. There are still some bookmaker’s websites out there who don’t offer their customers the opportunity to bet on in-play events or to cash out their bet. It is, therefore, no surprise that this factor occupies third place in our survey.
Interface
First impressions are vital on the web. Not only the bookmaker’s visitors but all website visitors make an instant judgment about you and your business. If your website loads fast and has nice and easy to use interface, you’ve instantly made a strong first impression. So, give the users what they want and give them fast and they will be satisfied. It’s a quick win for user betting experience.
Payments
A decent assortment of payment methods is a good sign of a bookmaker's reputation and reliability. Practically all betting sites work with debit cards, credit cards, and bank transfers. Most of them also offer their clients many other options as e-wallets (Skrill and Neteller) and local payment methods. Recently the possibilities to pay with cryptocurrencies are getting more popular too. There are even bookies that replace the traditional fiat currencies and are specializing only on Bitcoin for deposits and withdrawals.
Source: https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/ 2018
Sports and Leagues
Football is the king of all sports, but there are plenty of users, who like to place sports bets on tennis, basketball, volleyball and other sports. The same thing is with the leagues: Premier League is one of the most popular leagues worldwide, but there is also German Bundesliga, Champions League, Europa League, basketball NBA league, and many more. When talking about betting, we have the same model: football betting is the undisputed leader. Some bookmakers cover only the most popular leagues, but there are also sportsbooks, which in addition to covering the same famous competitions, also provide you with the opportunity to bet on niche sports and leagues. Depending on your betting interests find out the most suitable bookies.
Limitations
in betting forums you can find always discusses tipsters getting limited from their bookmaker. It is very frustrating to deposit money in your account and after a couple of successful bets to get limited. The most common reason is that some tipsters have tried to cheat the company. For example, they played "safe" regularly by betting big sums at low odds. This practice does not appeal to gambling sites at all, and if you fall into the eyes of the support team, your account will be restricted. This is the reason why this aspect finds a place in the results of this survey.
Promotions
One of the most important factors for all players is whether the online bookmaker offers a welcome bonus and whether it is reasonably priced. Another crucial issue is whether the company offers promotions to users who already have a registration. Every customer will be able to identify this by looking at the promotions section available on the bookmaker’s website. Of course, you can always compare the bonuses of the leading betting companies on our site. We would advise you to read the terms of the promotions very carefully. The idea is to not find yourself unpleasantly surprised at the stage where it is too late to give up the promotion. Look at the offer conditions. The most important is the rollover and minimum odds conditions. Stay away from bonuses that need to be wagered more than 10 times.
Support
Only 2% of the respondents think that good customer support is important for them. We believe that users need to pay more attention to this factor because no matter how much experience a user has, soon or later he will need to contact the bookmaker’s customer support. The practice shows that in many cases, problems can be solved if the support team is competent and responsive enough. This will guarantee a better betting experience too.
Conclusion
We have presented you with the results of our survey. It shows the most important factors when choosing an online bookmaker. It's a good idea to keep most of these aspects in mind when choosing a betting site, whether you're a sports fan or a casino fan. The choice is entirely up to you. Consider what is most important to you in your game to focus on the right brand.
