Ladbrokes Review

Ladbrokes was founded in 1886 at Ladbroke Hall in Warwickshire, England. It wasn’t until 1902 when the company moved operations to London, that the name Ladbrokes was formally established.

Today, it is known as Ladbrokes Coral after merging with the Coral Gala Group in 2016. The company was recently taken over by GVC Holdings in a deal worth an estimated £4 billion.

Ladbrokes entered the online space in 2000, although it was reported that the chief executives at that time were not convinced online sports betting would replace more traditional methods.

This allowed other operators such as bet365 to steal the lead in the digital stakes. Yet, that mindset is a thing of the past, as Ladbrokes is now rightfully regarded as one of the best online bookmakers around. It’s known for offering exciting free bet bonuses and innovative promotions combined with providing great market depth and a website packed with cool features. Ladbrokes is licenced and regulated in the UK and Gibraltar, so you can be assured this is a brand you can trust.

Before the birth of the internet and the rise in popularity of football betting, racing was the most popular betting sport - in particular horse racing. If this is your passion, then Ladbrokes is a solid option. It offers every UK and Ireland horse race, which are all streamed live, plus lots more from countries such as South Africa, the USA and France.

Other than the vast number of daily specials, promos, odds boost and best odds guaranteed; racing punters choose Ladbrokes because it has an enormous amount of pre-race information. Most of this info  is provided by the Racing post, including in-depth form guides and expert verdict and tips. 

Ladbrokes offers a fantastic range of betting markets within their horse racing section. Punters can bet win, each way, top two, top three, tricast and forecast being listed under the main tab. Other markets include betting without the favourite, to finish 2nd / 3rd and insurance on places 2 and 3 plus. In the Totepool tab there is win/place, exacta, trifecta, swinger, placepot and jackpot on selected races. Also, if you want to snap up an early price on one of next year’s classics, such as the Derby, Oaks, St Ledger or 1000/2000 Guineas, you can within the racing futures section.

Other Sports

Ladbrokes offers hundreds of live in-play betting events every day, ranging from football, tennis and basketball to volleyball, baseball, cricket and rugby. In the in-play betting stakes, all online bookmakers are compared against bet365, the benchmark bookmaker for live betting. Ladbrokes coverage is not quite of a par with this service to be honest but it’s not too far behind. In some instances market depth is a little stronger at Ladbrokes which is a clear sign of its improvement.

The platform interface is user-friendly. Placing a bet can be done in seconds by clicking on the market, your selection, inserting the stake and then clicking ‘Place Bet’. There is a smart match visualisation display that tracks the action and provides an overview of the match stats. To complement the in-play service, Ladbrokes also offers live streaming across a broad range of sports including all La Liga football plus many games from other top leagues across Europe, tennis, basketball, baseball and more.

Putting it bluntly, Ladbrokes desktop platform is not the most user-friendly on the market. It has a cluttered feel to it as soon as you open it up, which can be a bit daunting for new online punters. Half of the homepage screen is used up displaying promos and offering casino games.

Even when you delve into a sports category, there is a promo slider telling showing the specials. Whilst these are important, too much valuable web page real estate is given to them and it’s detrimental to the overall user experience. With that said, once you have familiarised yourself with the layout and your eyes have become accustomed to the promo banners, using the platform is rather easy. Page load speeds are average, though, and could be faster by removing the images we believe. 

The web-based mobile platform is much better. You still have the promo banners but they don’t affect the user-experience on smaller devices. Navigation is simple - using either the quick links at the top or the main A - Z sports menu and betting is quick and easy.

Ladbrokes sports betting apps are available for iOS and Android devices and Windows phones. They feature everything a punter needs for a complete mobile betting and sporting entertainment experience. The key to a good app is making it easy-to-use and fast. The Ladbrokes mobile app ticks this box with a simplified layout for phone screens. You can switch effortlessly between pre-match and in-play markets, the expandable menu provides a complete list of all the sports so whizzing around finding the market you want couldn’t be easier.

Getting your bet placed is a simple 3-step process. You can use the cash out feature, get your daily odds boost, enjoy the large variety of specials and watch thousands of races and sporting events live. The app also throws in several casino games, which will appeal to some punters who enjoy spinning the slot reels.

With Ladbrokes being such an established brand, there is a stack of payment options open to punters. The most commonly-used are:

Withdrawals are made back to the same payment channel that was used for depositing, with the exception of Mastercard where you must request a bank transfer. The fastest withdrawal options are e-wallets which offer same day payouts. Debit cards and VISA can take three days or longer.

Ladbrokes' 24/7 customer support can be contacted via a number of methods...

Live chat: to contact customer support, click the ‘Chat with us’ button located on the Help Centre pages

Email: contact form built into platform

Telephone: 0800 731 6191 or from outside the UK: +44 208 515 2565

Twitter: @LadbrokesCare