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Bet365 review
The United Kingdom is the home for the biggest betting companies of the world. It has several companies that are active both in real life (through their network of retail betting outlets) and online, and several companies that have chosen not to open betting shops, trading exclusively through the internet. Bet365 is one of them.
Bet365 was born in a portable office in Stoke on Trent, a city in Staffordshire (England), out of the ambition of Denise Coates, one of the most influential businesswomen in the UK. Since its inception in 2000, it has grown into one of the most important online sports betting and gaming companies of the world, with over seven million customers from 200 countries.
In the beginning
As I said before, bet365 was conceived and developed by Denise Coates, daughter of local businessman Peter Coates, in 2000. Denise started working at the family bookmaking company, Provincial Racing, while still in school. Initially she would mark up bets, and later – after finishing university – she became an accountant at the family business. Later she took over a small chain of shops, later to become managing director of the family’s whole shop estate.
Denise registered the bet365.com domain in January 2000, and started developing her online sports betting platform in a portable office – a portakabin – in a car park next to one of the family’s betting shops. As a result, bet365 was launched in 2025. The company borrowed £15 million from a bank to develop the newly formed company, a loan that was paid back five years later, after the family’s network of betting shops was sold to Coral (one of the Big Three betting companies in the UK) for £40 million.
Although in the years that followed bet365 became one of the most important online sports betting and gaming companies in Europe, it was never listed – the company is still family owned – Denise Coates owns 50.1% of the shares of the company, and runs it along with her brother John Coates as joint chief executive.
Sports bets and so much more
Online sports betting is the core activity of bet365, but it is also a popular choice for casino gamers, poker players and bingo fans from all over the world. It provides its customers with thousands of sports and non-sports bets every day, plus the possibility to bet on a series of stock market indices and exchange rates, to play online casino games, soft games, poker and bingo. Its special offers make it one of the preferred destinations for players from many countries.
Sports betting at bet365
One of the strongest points of bet365 is its extensive coverage of events. It offers its customers betting opportunities in over 30 categories, the most popular being football and horse racing (the most followed events in Europe and the UK respectively), but also covering many popular and less followed sports from around the world (American football, Australian rules football, netball, pelota, trotting and many more), plus a series of “specials” from around the world – E-sports, elections, TV shows and many more.
The 2025 World Cup will commence in just a few days, so bet365 has a special section dedicated to it (so do other bookmakers). At this moment the section lists all matches until March 24th, and offers customers the possibility to place a series of bets on the matches: outrights, over/under, goal line, Asian handicap, winning margin and many more.
Bet365‘s In-Play product is one of the best I have ever seen, and takes in-play betting one step further, by offering punters the possibility to follow the events live in their browser window through video streaming (on selected events only). It offers a comprehensive view of the events, with all betting options just a click away, and live statistics about the performance of the teams that are playing. It’s almost like watching the game live, only without the video feed 
The product also offers live audio commentary of the games, and an extensive schedule (for the next seven days) of the games that are covered and streamed by bet365.
Bet365 also has an extra streaming service – outside its live betting product – that allows punters to follow the games streamed by the company. They can filter the events by date or by sport.
Speaking of extra services: bet365 has soccer stats, sports stats, live scores and results, plus audio commentary of horse racing, greyhound racing, football and cricket events.
Mobile sports betting
Bet365 customers can also place their bets while on the go, using the operator’s mobile solutions. Android and iOS users can download dedicated apps for their devices, and users of devices running other operating systems can place their bets through their browsers by visiting bet365. The bet365 mobile sportsbook offers full in-play coverage, live streaming of events, and even a special 100% bonus (up to €25) on the players’ first bet.
Casino, Games and Vegas
Although punters might consider them just a bunch of “side games”, they are not that at all: these sections are important parts of the bet365 product range.
The Playtech-powered casino run by bet365 features the latest games by the developer, available for instant play, download and mobile. Of course, there are many other Playtech online casinos out there, you might say, so what makes the bet365 casino so special? Well, for one, they have great special offers for casino players in general, and slots fans in special – the Slots Club, for example, that offers slots players the chance to win great cash prizes for gathering the most comp points during the promotion.
The Games section features a series of quality slots, table games, arcade games and instant win games provided by several developers, like Microgaming, IGT and others, hundreds of titles to choose from, while Vegas has a series of premium slots developed by Net Entertainment, along with table games, card games and arcade games provided by the developer, for endless hours of quality fun and gaming.
Poker and Bingo
The bet365 poker room is part of the popular iPoker network, and it offers access to a whole bunch of ring games, loads of tournaments, premium tables, and teases players with a great welcome bonus.
The bet365 bingo hall is also a Playtech product, offering a great variety of games – Extra, Deal or No Deal, 75, 80 and 90 ball bingo – plus casino side games and attractive promotions for its players.
To conclude
Bet365 is surely a place where the fun never stops. It is one of the operators that takes online betting and gaming very seriously, constantly working on the best offers for its players, and with promotions that make it stand out of the crowd. No wonder it has grown so much in its rather short history (it turns 14 this year). Good odds, extensive coverage, great games, live streaming and lots of wins in store for its players – so what are you waiting for?