Hold on … there are seriously sites that let me bet on sports with real money in the EU?
Without a doubt, there are plenty of European sportsbooks on the web for you to choose from. In fact, the European Union and the United Kingdom are maybe the best places to live when it comes to the online sportsbooks that we have available to us. Thankfully, our countries understand the value and innocence of responsible online gambling unlike some of the other nations of the so-called “free world.” There has never been a better time to be a gambler in Europe than today.
Not only is the list of available European sportsbooks plentiful, but it is also populated with some of the absolute best sportsbooks that the internet has to offer, period, no matter what region of the world we are talking about. Some of the most trusted, respected, legitimate, safe, and high-quality sports betting brands are to be found here. Scratch that, all of the best European sportsbooks are to be found here. Consider this your number one go-to site for any and all concerns that are related to European sportsbooks (or any kind of betting site, for that matter).
Whether we are looking at historic and iconic bookkeepers such as William Hill, Bet Way, or Boyle Sports, or we are talking about some of the newer, thrilling (but also respected) sites such as Bet at Home or Come On!, one thing is remains true: any one of the European sportsbooks found here are sure to satisfy even the pickiest sports bettors in all of Europe.
Winning real money with sports betting has never been easier, more convenient, or better, if you ask me. All one has to do is visit one of these fine sports betting providers, find his sport of choice, place his most strategic bet, and start raking in the Euros (or pounds!). Euros and pounds, however, are not the only kinds of currency that one can bet on some of these great European sportsbooks. The best Euro sportsbooks, of course, will maximize the number of ways that players can win money and make deposits.
The future of sports betting, whether we are talking about European sportsbooks or Asian ones, if cryptocurrency. That’s right … some of the best sportsbooks will allow players to bet Bitcoin, in addition to traditional “real money” like Euros or British Pounds. Regardless of where one stands on the Bitcoin debate, it does not appear to be going anywhere. The best European sportsbooks are those that stick with the times and are flexible to accommodate all players. Bitcoin betting is the future and the present when it comes to online sportsbooks, so, as a European sportsbook player, you should not have too much trouble finding a sports betting site that will let you bet real money, regardless of what type.
How am I to know when one European sportsbook is better than another?
Although it is true that a great deal of whether one will prefer a certain sportsbook more than another really boils down to subjectivity, there are still some objective categories by which we can evaluate the quality of European sportsbooks. In fact, there are a few categories by which I tend to judge every betting site, whether it is an online sportsbook, an online casino, a horse racing site, or an eSports sportsbook … there are a few characteristics that every kind of site simply needs to have in spades in order to be considered one of the best. Let’s dive in and unpack each of them, shall we?
History and brand reputation
One could argue that this is the most important element to look at when it comes to an online betting site. Really, any site that takes your money. Betting sites need to be vetted. Especially when you take into account the number of scams and people looking to steal your money on the internet … an online sportsbook’s reputation can be everything.
In other words, if a certain European sportsbook is not in good standing, if it has been blacklisted for some reason, say, no other element about that site matters much. If a site seems to be a rip-off in any way, though, worry not, because I would never even consider including it in my list of the best betting sites. I am only concerned with the cream of the crop; I won’t waste your time (or mine) with anything less than excellent.
Furthermore, even if a sportsbook has never been accused of outright ripping off its players, that does not necessarily mean that it has a history of providing top-tier customer service. If a European sportsbook has a problematic past when it comes to customer support, this is also something that I will be sure to let my readers know.
The ideal, of course, is a live support line or chat available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You never know when the sportsbook could be experiencing technical difficulties. When it comes to matters that concern your money, you need to be sure that you can receive assistance no matter what time it is, no matter what day of the week. Thanks to my betting site reviews, you don’t have to wonder or guess whether a certain European sportsbook is there for its customers at all times – I will look into the matter and let you know ahead of time.
Site design and user experience
One thing that I have noticed in my many years of sports betting site research is the fact that sportsbooks tend to struggle with providing great site design. More often than not, online sportsbooks tend to be cluttered, chaotic, messy, and hard to read. This is most likely due to the fact that sportsbooks are intrinsically so data heavy; people struggle to fit this numerical information into an immersive and graphical user experience.
Some sportsbooks manage to do it, though. This is what separates a mediocre European sportsbook from the best European sportsbooks. Well, this is one of the things. When I am becoming acquainted with a sports betting site, I expect the site to be intuitive, user-friendly, neat, easily legible, and experiential to some degree. The best sportsbooks are those that have the best site design. Maybe this is just a given to some – which is why it is such an integral category for evaluating the quality of European sports betting sites.
Content and features
Equally important, I would argue, as site design is the list of features that the site has to offer. This comes in the form of the sportsbook itself, of course, for starters. How many sports does your European sportsbook make available? Furthermore, how many markets are there within each sport? How competitive are the odds? How many types of bets does the sportsbook allow you to place? How customizable are those bets?
Beyond just the sportsbook itself, though, the best European sports betting sites also offer a great deal of features that enhance the betting experience. The first one that comes to mind is live streaming of sporting events. This is becoming an increasingly common feature. Strike that … this is becoming an essential feature, especially for those of us who prefer the excitement that comes with in-play betting.
There are European sportsbooks out there that don’t have live streaming, sure, and they seem to get the job done well enough. But well enough does not always cut it. The best European sportsbooks offer live streams of the most popular sports for a completely streamlined betting experience.
Furthermore, you might also prefer to become a member of a European sportsbook that is more than just a sportsbook. The best European sportsbooks, in my opinion, offer a breadth of other ways to gamble. Many will also offer horse racing. Most have an online casino feature. Some offer virtual and eSports, too. Some even let you test your luck at bingo and lotteries to win real money. The best European sportsbook is one that gives you any and every possible method by which to win real money
Mobile friendliness
In today’s day and age, I find it utterly unacceptable for a sports betting site (or any kind of site, for that matter) to not have a mobile platform of some sort. More and more players are preferring to bet on their mobile devices these days. The best betting sites need to reflect that. And the best European sportsbooks do. If a site does not have some form of mobile sports betting available, there is no chance in hell that it is making it onto my list.
Naturally, I prefer it when a European sportsbook offers a dedicated mobile app that is available on both Android and iOS devices. A sleek, smooth, and intuitive app can go a long way. I want to be able to deposit money, withdraw winnings, browse bets, place bets, and track my bets all in one convenient place. This is the bar.
Some of the sportsbooks to be found here have yet to develop their own apps. Although this is always a little bit of a letdown, it is not enough for me to exclude them from my list. Some of them, after all, have perfectly adequate mobile websites that make betting from your phone and quick and easy as it should be. It may not be anywhere near as immersive or experiential as a sportsbook app, mobile betting via a well-optimized mobile site is acceptable for me. The sportsbook that you pick, of course, will depend on your own mobile betting preferences.
Which European sportsbook is the best one then?
As much as I would love to say that there is one clear winner here – that one of these European sportsbooks is far and away much better than all the rest – that just would not be true. Each of the sports betting sites to be found here excels in certain areas of our checklist and falters in others. None of these betting sites, although they are the best, is perfect.
Some, for instance, have massive, nearly comprehensive sports coverage – just about every major sport you can think of (and even the obscure ones that maybe you cannot off the top of your head, too) – can be found on these sportsbooks with plenty of active markets and competitive odds but don’t have a sparkling history of customer support.
Others are reputable, well-designed, loaded with features, and have excellent sportsbook apps available but offer relatively few sports on which to bet. It would be impossible for me to say that one European sportsbook very clearly blows all of the others out of the water. That being said, I do rate each site out of 10 (based on its performance on those aforementioned criteria), so, that might be one way to find an answer to your question. Still, though, the data alone doesn’t dictate that much more elusive quality of our preferred sportsbooks: personal subjective taste.
The best way to figure out which European sportsbook is going to be the right one for you is to read through each of my reviews, click through to each of the sites, browse around a bit, and come to a decision based on a bit of trial and error. Nevertheless, I feel totally confident that any one of these European sportsbooks would be a solid choice. Cheers!