Best Betting Apps: Which To Use For Sports Betting?

Betting Apps Reviewed : Download Instructions & Bonuses - Written By: Mike Lovatt
Last Updated: November 3, 2022

Betting Apps have become massively popular in the last decade due to the introduction of 4G and now 5G mobile Internet, and the development in functionality and power of smartphones. Here we’ve selected the best betting apps for Android & iOS for a variety of sports and esports.

Top 10 Betting Apps

The following guides should serve as a useful starting point for those of you that are just getting started with football betting and want to learn more of the basics.

Page Contents show

Recommended Betting Apps

William HillBest Welcome Offers
BwinBest App For Markets And Odds
UnibetBest For Live Streaming
888SportBest For Asian Betting Lines
BetfairBest App With Betting Exchange
Paddy PowerBest App With Bet Builder
Bet365Best App For In Play Live Betting
BetfairBest App For Cash Out
Top Apps By Feature

OnTheBallBets Favourite Betting Apps

1. Bet365

The bet365 app is one of the most versatile and complete on the market. They offer 37 different sports to bet on through their app, along with Politics and specials such as Strictly Come Dancing, The Mercury Prize winner, and BBC Sports Personality of the year betting

Why we love it: The live streaming functionality, completed with cash out (partial and auto cash out), bet builder, 7 different deposit and withdrawal options (for 18 different currencies).

Best feature: The best thing that the bet365 app offers is their in play betting. The RBall feature that they have shows the current match stats. When betting live on football, it shows team attacks, dangerous attacks, injuries, cards, free kicks, corners and throw ins. It makes it an ideal app for betting live on an event.

2. Betfred App

Betfred have a beautiful betting app that offers 28+ sports to bet on, cash out, live betting/streaming and sporting promotions. 

Why we love it: Because it’s so user friendly and self intuitive. Finding sports, competitions, fixtures and then picking a betting market is really easy. Their money back offers and accumulator promotions are some of the best on the industry and are also offered within the app and mobile site.

Best feature: The bet builder was one of the first to arrive in the UK betting app market, and Betfred have really nailed it in terms of design and functionality. It’s ideal for betting on The Premier League and navigating via the app is so simplistic.

3. Betfair

Betfair have been at the forefront of betting for years, and their app has followed suit. Their app is easy to navigate with a good interface, they’ve got full exchange access and offer all their promos in the app too.

Why we love it: Their cash out is flawless when compared to some of the other apps. It works a treat, which is ideal, considering they were the bookmaker to first introduce the feature many years ago.

Best feature: The betting exchange is something that none of the other top betting apps have. The ability to back selections at your own chosen odds and have them matched by other punters, all via your phone, is incredible.

4. Betvictor App

The Betvictor desktop site is one of the most sleekly and modern in terms of design, and the app follows the exact same standards. One of the best for betting odds, the Betvictor app is easy to install and their bottom of the page menu makes finding what you need really simple. The betslip and cash out aren’t hidden at all – so you can quickly access your bets when required.

Why we love it: The app is pretty epic for a couple of reasons – live streaming, quick/partial cash out, and easily being able to make your own bets with the #PriceItUp bet builder.

Best feature: Certainly the partial cash out. Some bookie apps don’t have this feature, but Betvictor do – ideal for taking some acca profits and leaving the rest to run on and take the risk.

5. Boylesports App

Boylesports have been popular for decades due to their horse racing offerings, and their app allows a seamless transition of this.

Why we love it: 20+ sports available to bet on, daily live events streamed via the app, and their modern bet builder make it a really great app to have installed.

Best feature: Definitely their live streaming of horse racing events, coupled with their great horse racing odds and promotions.

6. Bwin App

Bwin’s mobile app is massive in terms of the number of active users, due to the number of licensed countries where Bwin can operate and other UK bookies can’t, such as France. The Bwin site had often been hard to navigate, but the app has a nifty little bet finder feature that makes it quick and easy.

Why we love it: Their quick bet and rapid cash out feature makes it easy to run with some profit when your bets are in play. The UI is clean and simple to use, and their odds are competitive across a range of sports.

Best feature: As mentioned, their bet finding tool is really handy for finding obscure fixtures in less popular sports. Their basketball offerings, for example, are really extensive, so the Bet Finder tool makes it quick and easy to locate the fixture that you need.

7. 888Sport App

The 888 Sport app is massively popular. The company has been around for decades, and their app has had a tonne of work put into it. Downloading it couldn’t be easier.

Why we love it: THeir betting app is a mere extension of their excellent offerings in general. Good payment options, excellent odds, tonnes of fixtures, and most importantly the 888 Sport app is one of the few with extended betting markets like the Asian Handicap.

Best feature: The 888 Sport app allows users to bet on Asian Lines, and they’re one of the only apps other than Bet365 that allow you to do this. Asian markets like the Asian goal line or the Asian handicap offer a breath of fresh air when compared to the fixed odds markets that the UK betting apps have to compete over, which makes 888 Sport’s app a really strong pick for us.

8. Virgin Bet App

The newcomer on the list of betting apps, but deserving of a place here. The Virgin bet app is packed with features like special markets, TV betting options and extensive promotions.

Why we love it: App users are greeted with a generous free bet from Virgin Bet when they download and install the app and complete the required steps to trigger it. Their promotions continue for their regular betting userbase.

Best feature: Their ongoing app promotions, such as best odds guaranteed, price boosts and of course their easy to use cash-out feature. Virgin Bet has rapidly become a staple household brand name in the world of bet apps.

9. Coral App

Coral’s app has been around for over a decade now and is one of the longest established of the apps in the sports betting industry. Packed with all of their desktop features, it’s easy to use and whilst it might not have any of the exotic features that some apps do – it does exactly what you need it to – quickly bet on sports.

Why we love it: Because they give you a free £20 when you get the app, join, and deposit £5 and use it on a sports bet. There’s some terms and conditions to abide by, but going about your sports betting business is really easy when the Coral App is so easy to browse around and add selection to the betslip.

Best feature: The “Fail To Finish” promotion, which gives app users a free bet if their chosen horse fails to finish the race and their bet loses.

10. Ladbrokes App

Another staple brand in the betting world, with high street stores still dotted around the UK. The app has had a lot of work put into it, and whilst it might not be as quick to navigate as the others, there’s plenty of good reasons to download and use it.

Why we love it: Ladbrokes offer their app users a loyalty scheme known as The Grid, which rewards them over time as they accumulate reward points for bets placed through their app and desktop site. App users are rewarded with exclusive prizes from draws, money back offers and of course free bets. 

They offer the 4 main payment options, including Debit Cards, Paypal, and Paysafecard. Cash out and bet builder are also included, along with a massive amount of in play betting events.

Best feature: Edit my acca is a feature that allows users to go and modify their accumulator bet – after it has already been placed. This is ideal for app users who are often quick to place accumulator bets without checking them first to ensure they’re accurate and contain the desired selections. 

11. Unibet App

The Unibet app is versatile in terms of its offerings, because it suits punters from around the world. Whilst some of the apps featured on this page are better suited for a UK audience, the Unibet app is popular in multiple countries due to it’s extensive licenses. 

Why we love it: As mentioned, the Unibet app targets users in various countries, which is ideal as they offer great basketball live streaming, cash out, bet builder options (although they’re ready made and not custom), and unique price boosts (known as Uniboosts).

Best feature: The ability to live stream events from anywhere in the world, specifically the NBA, which is one of the most popular of the US sports to bet on.

Types Of Betting App

We can categorise betting apps by their operating system platform. Betting apps generally fall under the category of Android or iOS (for iphones and Ipads). There are also some Nokia betting Apps and Windows betting apps.

Android 

Android betting apps are the most common type of app. Generally, the operating system is simple and cost effective to build on, so bookmakers can easily deploy their apps. 

Android also dominates the smartphone market, particularly in third world countries. With betting turnover being high in Africa and Eastern Asia, particularly Indonesia, it makes sense for bookmakers to launch their betting sites on Android.

iOS

In the big Western markets, like the UK and Canada, iPhone and iPad ownership is much higher. Smartphone contracts for the latest iPhone are generally expensive, as is the cost for a new iPad when bought new. Targeting iOS users is essential for bookmakers, as these users are much more likely to have disposable income available to gamble with and place regular sports bets. 

They’re also likely to be in social circles where they can influence their friends who also have a similar model of Apple device to join their preferred betting site and download their app. Friends like to copy each other’s bets, and recommend betting advice – so having an iOS app is essential for bookmakers.

Nokia

Whilst the Nokia share of the smartphone market is tiny when compared to Android and iOS, it still presents an opportunity for certain bookmakers to gain additional customers, particularly where competing betting sites might not have an app compatible with Nokia phones.

Windows Phone

Likewise with Nokia devices, Windows Phones present an opportunity for bookmakers to have a Windows Phone app developed and capture a tiny audience that might not be able to use their regular betting site and convert them into one of their customers.

Best Betting App By Player’s Level Of Experience

Betting apps can be categorised by the level of experience of the bettor that is using them.

Betting Apps For Beginners

Beginners, novices, rookies or newbies – whatever you wish to call them – need to be able to download and start their sports betting journey with an app that isn’t too complicated that it puts them off.

Characteristics of good betting apps for beginners

  • Easy to register
  • Intuitive to navigate
  • Simple deposit process
  • Ability to favourite preferred sports & competitions
  • Well labelled/named betting markets

Best Betting Apps For Beginner Users

We recommend the following betting apps for beginners:

Betting Apps Suited For Advanced Bettors

More experienced punters rely on more advanced features than a rookie would. Whilst features like bet builders, cash out, and edit bet functionality might seem like they would suit betting professionals, they are often gimmicky features that the bookies add to distract the user and offer them worse value.

Characteristics of a good betting app to suit experienced bettors include:

  • Asian Lines
  • Good depth of fixtures in more obscure leagues
  • Live streaming
  • Extensive betting markets for live games
  • Betting exchange

Best Betting Apps For Advanced & Experienced Sports Bettors

We recommend the following betting apps for beginners:

Best Betting App By Sport

Whilst betting apps will generally offer all sports, some are better suited to a particular sport due to their odds, markets available, and functionality – such as live streaming or bet builder capabilities. 

Football

Football betting apps need to be proficient across all areas that we rate apps upon. 

They need to have a huge amount of fixtures, competitions and betting markets to choose from. As a result, their user experience must be tip-top. 

In times of modern sports betting, their In Play betting system needs to be easy to use with lots of betting markets available. 

Bet builder, cash out, live streaming and regular promotions are also requirements to be the best of their class.

As a result, we recommend the following betting apps as best for football betting:

Football orientated apps will dominate the market at times of huge betting volume and activity, such as major International tournaments. The 2024 European Championships and the 2022 FIFA World Cup are great examples.

See more : 

  • Apps for World Cup betting
  • Apps for Euro 2024 betting

Horse Racing

With horse racing being one of the top three sports for betting upon in the UK, betting apps need to be tailored to suit horse racing bettors.

Essential features of a top horse racing betting app include: great odds, ongoing offers like best odds guaranteed, and live streaming.

Our top picks for apps for horse racing include:

See more:

  • Apps for Cheltenham betting
  • Apps for the Grand National

Tennis

Tennis isn’t one of the biggest sports to bet on, but like horse racing, it is one of the consistent with tennis bets being placed on fixtures all over the world daily. This is of course in addition to the four grand slams – the Austrlian Open, The French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. 

The top apps for tennis betting include a great depth of fixtures from obscure tournaments and countries, live streaming, cash out and in play betting. 

Top recommendations for tennis betting apps:

Basketball

Basketball is one of the biggest American sports to bet on, whether that’s from within the USA or for users abroad. As a result, betting apps have to entice app downloads with a range of features and promotions. A good app for betting on basketball includes basketball betting offers, live streaming, in play betting and a large amount of betting markets.

Our recommendations include:

American Football (NFL)

Our list of recommended NFL betting apps doesn’t just include the NFL. That’s because college sports are massive for betting turnover in the USA, so our list of best American Football apps includes those bookies whose betting markets extend to cover college football too.

Top American Football betting apps include those with high odds for the Superbowl, a large selection and range of American football betting markets, cash out, bet builder functionality and live streaming.

Our best picks for NFL/American Football betting:

Cricket

Cricket isn’t the biggest sport in the UK, but it has a big presence for betting, particularly in India and Australia. Check out our best apps for betting on the Ashes and the Cricket World Cup.

A decent range of betting markets, live streaming, cash out ability and high odds feature in our essential requirements for cricket betting apps. 

Our top picks include

Golf

Whilst golf isn’t huge in terms of regular ongoing action, the majors certainly pull in the punters. 

Golf betting is big in terms of pre-match and in play betting. With the hours of play stretching much longer than a typical sport like football, it presents the opportunity for bookies to reel in punters to bet live on the event. Good apps for golf betting include those with live streaming, cash out due to the long length of events, high odds and ongoing offers for golf punters.

Our recommended apps for golf betting fans include:

Boxing

The betting turnover that derrives from boxing is miniscule in comparison to football or horse racing, but several times a year a big fight is on the cards that really increases betting activity on the sport.

Huge fights that are broadcast via Pay Per View across the globe can bring in enourmous amounts of betting activity, with bookmaker promotions in the plenty, usually via the form of enhancements. Markets such as the final result, method of victory, and round betting are the most popular, and should be offered by the majority of bookmakers.

Recommended boxing betting apps include:

Darts

Another sport with relatively low turnover throughout the year, yet at times such as a Thursday evening for Premier League darts, the betting activity really picks up.

The majority of darts betting sites will offer a range of darts betting markets, such as most 180s, highest checkout, and match winner. 

The darts betting apps listed below are all recommended for having these offerings, along with additional odds boosts and enhancements:

Esports

Whilst esports differs massively from traditional sports, it is rapidly becoming popular for betting turnover. As such it presents a huge opportunity for bookies to attract a new betting crowd, and as such, requires their apps to have a good offering for esports. 

Good apps for e-sports betting require a great depth in the esports market, lots of regular tournaments and fixtures to bet on, live streaming where possible, and higher odds than the competition. 

Recommended esports betting apps:

Best Betting Apps By Feature

Multiple Deposit Options

You can read our dedicated guide to best betting websites by payment options, but the same applies to betting apps. The applications with the best deposit functionality allows punters multiple methods of depositing is generally going to be successful.

Sports, Fixtures & Betting Markets

Whilst number of sports and fixtures listed isn’t a feature necessarily, the betting markets available for a given sport are certainly beneficial when they’re not limited to the basics – like the overs/unders and match winner markets. A good app allows punters to browse through multiple sports, allows for betting on more obscure leagues, and offers a good selection of betting markets to bet on.

Cash Out

Cash out betting sites have been gaining popularity since the feature was first introduced in the early 2010s. Bookmakers are aware how important this feature is to their users, and as a result it features in the majority of major betting apps nowadays.

The following betting apps have cash out features:

Live Betting

Betting sites with live betting, otherwise known as in play betting, has been popular for over fifteen years now when technology first allowed it to be possible. 

Betting apps without live betting just wouldn’t take off and get used at all really, as in play betting is massively popular for casual punters.

The best apps for live betting include:

  1. William Hill
  2. Betvictor
  3. Betfred
  4. Ladbrokes
  5. Bet365
  6. Unibet
  7. 888 Sport

Live Streaming

Whilst live betting is hugely popular, it can be difficult just relying on the available statistics of an ongoing event when betting. This is why betting sites with live streaming have gained traction in the last decade, with a whole host of sports from Bundesliga football to Wimbledon tennis action being streamed live. 

This functionality has been carried over to the apps, with many of them offering a huge array of live events to stream – like daily horse racing, basketball and tennis.

Best bet apps for live streaming sports:

Asian Lines

As mentioned in our full guide to bookmakers that offer Asian Lines, they really do suit the advanced punters a little more. 

Nevertheless, whether you’re a beginner or an advanced punter, finding a betting app that offers access to these Asian betting markets such as the Asian Handicap or Asian Goal line on football is a good idea. 

The odds offered in these markets tend to be better than markets like the Match Result or over 2.5/under 2.5 markets. Picking a betting app that has Asian lines available will allow you access to better odds and better betting opportunities.

Best betting apps for Asian betting markets include:

How We Rate Betting Apps

What features do we look out for when deciding on what makes a good app?

Ease of download and usability

Betting apps are generally quite quick and easy to download, as they’re listed usually on the Google Play store and Apple App store. 

However, some apps are much harder to navigate. For beginner bettors, apps need to be easy to browse around and find what you’re looking for. Which leads us on to the next section – registering and placing your first bet.

Simplicity of registration, verification and deposit

A betting app can’t be rated highly if its barrier to entry is too high. Betting apps need to make the registration process swift and without lengthy forms to fill in, as typing on a smartphone or tablet can be tricky and laborious. 

The verification process is generally easier via a smartphone, so is certainly a place where betting apps have the edge over their web/desktop counterparts. Photographing ID and proof of address is quick on a phone, so the process of uploading these photos to verify the betting account needs to be quick too.

Depositing funds is another area for scrutiny. We prefer apps that have multiple deposit and withdrawal options, and that make it quick and easy to deposit funds.

That means saving payment cards and methods for future use, being easy to remove expired or invalid cards, and having some quick options to easily top up account balances.

Security & Safety

With betting apps being accessible to an array of users via their smartphones, emphasis needs to be placed on both security and safety. 

With users uploading details like their identification documents, proof of address, and completing financial transactions, betting apps need to have state of the art technology to ensure data is encrypted and kept safe.

An onus of safety is also required for the users themselves. The betting apps have a responsiblity to ensure that their players are of a legal age to gamble, and in the right state of mind. 

Apps must allow responsible gambling methods and precautions to be put in place, and not just have them on the website. Actionable steps like deposit limits, time outs, self exclusion and the ability to close the betting account via the app needs to be possible.

Live Betting

With live betting enabled within all betting apps, the responsibility is on the bookmaker to provide the best possible service. Simply having live betting enabled in the app isn’t sufficient – it needs to be easy to use, provide plenty in-game statistics, and make it quick and easy for players to place live bets without delay.

Live Streaming

For many years the live streaming features have been restricted to the desktop websites of the bookmakers, but now that smartphone and tablet technology has advanced, bookies can now allow their players to stream events from within the bet apps themselves.

A betting app isn’t just judged on whether it has live streaming or not, but the range and depth of the events that can be streamed. Popular apps should allow live streaming of elite football, tennis, horse racing and some of the more obscure sports for betting, like darts and cycling.

Betting App Definition

A betting app is an app (application) installed on a mobile device, such as a tablet or smartphone, that allows the user to place bets on sports. The app allows users to register with a betting site, make a deposit of cash, browse through sports, competitions, fixtures and then place a bet on a selected betting market. 

Betting apps are usually packed with the majority of the features that their web versions also have, such as depositing funds via debit card or e-wallets like Paypal, betting on accumulators, live betting, live streaming, cash withdrawals, cash outs and bet builders.

Betting App and Mobile Betting Site Differences

Is it necessary to download a betting app from the Google Play Store or iOS App Store when you can just use the mobile version of the betting site on your smartphone’s browser?

Benefits Of Using The Mobile Site

The mobile version of the betting site is great for navigating on a smaller device (especially small tablets like the Samsung Note) and smartphones. It also comes with the advantage of not taking up space on your smartphone’s hard drive as you’re not installing an app – you only need an open tab in your browser.

Benefits of Mobile Sites For Bookmakers

For the bookmaker itself, the mobile sites are much easier to deploy. Their user interface and design team can deploy a responsive version of the desktop site. It’s way more cost effective, as apps can cost hundreds of thousands in development costs and require full-time developers to maintain them with regularly updating operating systems on iOS and Android.

Benefits of Using A Betting App vs Mobile Site

Whilst the app is essentially just the same as the mobile version, it often comes with extra functionality, which can be used to the bettors advantage. 

Speed is essential in betting, particularly In Play betting. Having a dedicated app on your phone can allow you access to the sport or live event at a much quicker speed. 

The betting apps usually allow live streaming. Whilst some mobile sites allow this, the quality and functionality is much better within the dedicated app. 

Betting apps allow push notifications – which give the bettor the chance to receive match alerts, goal alerts, reminders and notifications for winning and losing bets. It makes the user experience more interactive, up to date, and keeps the user informed which allows them to make quicker and better decisions when betting.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the easiest betting app to use?

Bet365, Betfred and Coral have the easiest betting apps to use. They’re quick to download, install, sign up to and navigate for less experienced betting app users.

Which betting app has the best odds?

Betvictor is one of the best betting apps for sports betting odds, in particular odds on Premier League football fixtures. Coral, Ladbrokes, Paddy Power, Befred and Bet365 all have competitive odds in their apps too.

Which betting app have cash out?

William Hill, Betvictor, Betfred, Ladbrokes, Bet365, Coral, Unibet, 888 Sport, Bwin, and Betfair all have cash out features (partial and auto cash out) within their apps.

Betting Apps Reviewed : Download Instructions & Bonuses -
Mike Lovatt

Mike has over 14 years of experience with online sports betting, having used countless online betting sites. Mike previously provided football betting tips on goals and corners in Facebook groups before starting his own betting website. A huge football fan, Mike has been writing betting guides and football betting advice for years.

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