Betting Sites → Complete Guide to the Best Online Bookmakers!

We have thoroughly checked and evaluated all the major online betting sites. Our expert reviews and bookmaker ratings will assess in detail each bookmaker and can help betting enthusiasts find the best one for them. 

How the Oddspedia bookmaker rating works

First of all, Oddspedia pre-selects bookmakers shown on the site in such a way that betting providers known to act fraudulently are not even included in the test, and the ones that have issues with the quality of their service may end up on our black list. Oddspedia then examines the other betting providers for various factors such as the odds quality (i.e. the price-performance ratio of the odds), the availability and competence of the customer support service, the time it takes for winnings to be paid out, the bonus offer, the scope of the betting offer and the legal situation of the respective bookmaker.

What needs to be considered when you choose a new betting site

Online sports betting enjoys great popularity worldwide.  On Oddspedia you will find numerous expert reviews and the user ratings of various online betting sites, all of which can generally be considered serious, as scammy bookmakers have already been sorted out in advance. Of course, it is important to do some research beforehand in order to avoid falling for an unreliable bookmaker. However, it should be noted that it is often the case that people complain about a provider because he does not act as they hoped or expected. In most cases, however, this is because the users have not read the bookmaker's general terms and conditions and/or bonus conditions. In addition, a telephone number, an e-mail address, the place of jurisdiction including the commercial register number, and the managing director of the company should be mentioned. Another important aspect is the users' reviews, which have already been mentioned. Make sure that the one betting provider has received positive ratings and this over a longer period of time.

Secure Online Gambling Sites

Of course, it would be great if you just had to choose the right website to reduce your risk. Unfortunately, it does not work quite so simply. You have to find trustworthy and reputable bookmakers, with proven track records. 

Licensed Bookmakers

Gaming authorities are taking care to ensure reliability and payment security at online bookmakers. Each bookmaker has to be licensed by at least one of the following gambling commissions: United Kingdom Gambling Commission, Isle of Man Supervision Commission, Gibraltar Licensing Authority, Curacao Internet Gambling Association, or  Estonia Gambling Regulation. Bookmakers have to comply with many rules in order to get a license.

Betting Sites with Player Friendly T&C

Of course, it is of great importance that you place your bets on a betting provider whose general terms and conditions, terms of use and, if applicable, bonus conditions are to be evaluated as user-friendly. However, as the terms and conditions of serious betting providers are very similar, it would be presumptuous in the opinion of our editorial team to highlight individual bookmakers here. Instead, we would like to point out that we have carefully checked all betting providers listed on our website with regard to their terms and conditions and you can therefore trust that bookmakers that we rate as positive have fair terms and conditions, while those betting providers that do not do so have been blacklisted by Oddspedia. 

What Do You Want from Your New Betting Site?

The bottom line is, of course, what you place particular emphasis on. For example, whether you place more value on fast and particularly competent support or whether you place more value on comprehensive sports betting offering. Or whether you see bigger importance to the bonus package or put more importance to higher odds. In principle, the positive characteristics of the betting sites can also be combined, and this is where Oddspedia comes in as your reliable and independent comparison platform. Because our comprehensive odds and bonus comparisons allow you to always get the best out of your bets and thus earn more money via better odds. On the other hand, it is of course convenient to always place your bets with the same bookmaker. At the end of the day, however, it is usually those sports betting operators who act flexibly and do not give anything away to the betting providers, who then also bet profitably in the long run. In this respect, every sports bettor should definitely consider whether comfort or profit is more important to him.

How a bookmaker can achieve a high rating at Oddspedia

Oddspedia takes various factors into account when evaluating betting providers, including the quality of the odds offered(i.e. the price-performance ratio of the odds), the customer service, the reliability, the bonus offer, the scope of the betting section and, of course, the bookmakers' licensing situation. In order to receive a high overall rating, a betting provider must have scored well to very good in all these points (and several more) in the Oddspedia test.

Why some online bookmakers are badly rated by Oddspedia

If Oddspedia gives a bookmaker a bad rating, this is always in the interest of the users of our platform. Oddspedia is not paid by the bookmakers for positive ratings and can therefore rate the bookmakers 100% objectively. This is of the utmost importance to us, because if we did not present our users with authentic ratings and the users had bad experiences with a bookmaker, then the user would rightly attribute this to our rating and Oddspedia would probably be dead to them. In order to prevent this from happening, we do not get paid for good reviews and even blacklist betting providers who try to do this. You can therefore be sure that the Oddspedia ratings are 100% in line with the real test results. In addition to possible dubious offers from individual bookmakers, there are various other reasons why Oddspedia may give a betting provider a bad rating. These include factors such as the odds level (i.e. the price-performance ratio of the odds), the availability and competence of the customer service, the period until the betting account balance is paid out, the scope and transparency of the bonus offer, the scope of the betting markets and sports offered and the licensing situation of a betting provider. If a bookmaker performs poorly in at least one of these areas, he will not receive a positive overall assessment from Oddspedia. If he performs badly in two of these areas, he will receive a rather negative overall assessment, and if he performs badly in more than two of these areas, the overall assessment will definitely be negative.

Things to consider when creating a new betting account

Before you open an account with a betting provider, you should of course first make sure that the bookmaker is a reputable provider. Oddspedia is of course the perfect platform to check this. In addition, you should first check whether the provider in question offers the sports, competitions and/or betting markets you want to bet on. You can also find this information on Oddspedia by filtering the bets according to the options available, so that only those betting providers that meet all your criteria are left. It is also worth comparing the current bonus offers to see which of the bookmakers that meet your criteria has the most attractive offer for you. Last but not least, the odds level of the various betting providers should also be included in the equation to check which of the remaining providers will pay you the highest winnings in case of a successful bet.

Depositing Money at Online Bookmakers

As a rule, deposits with betting providers are easy to make. Almost all bookmakers offer various popular payment methods such as PayPal, credit card (at least Visa Card and MasterCard), Skrill, Neteller or Bitcoin, to name but a few. Simply choose the payment method that seems most suitable to you and make a deposit after registration - optionally via a bonus link. All bookmakers rated positively by Oddspedia will then immediately credit your customer account with the balance. The process is generally very simple and can be repeated as often as required. Tip: Because of this simplicity, consider opening accounts with a number of betting companies and distributing your betting capital among the various accounts. You can then book guaranteed winnings through arbitrage betting.

How to Choose The Best Betting Offers

To get the best betting deals, be sure to follow the betting tips from our worldwide tipster community. Tipsters are professional sports bettors who comprehensively analyse a large number of bets and act as tipsters for the Oddspedia community. Not only can you find out the best odds for a particular match, you can also get a free professional analysis of the likely outcome of a match. Of course, no tipster can always be right, but if you have found a tipster who is right with an above-average frequency (this can also be checked on Oddspedia), you can benefit from this by placing the same bets frequently. Of course you should not blindly follow a tipster, but always consider whether you can follow the analysis of the tipster. If this is not the case, it is better to check further expert opinions until you have found an analysis that you can follow. Once this is the case, you should also check the various betting companies for the odds on the bet in question. You can do this right here by using the filters on the left to find the event you want to bet on and then clicking on it in the next step. There you will then be shown the pre-match odds and, if applicable, the live odds if the event has already started.

Helpful Betting Tips to Get Regular Wins and Beat the Bookmaker

You know the old saying, "The bank always wins," don't you? But is that really true? Well, by and large, it certainly is true, which is because most customers - in the betting industry, that is, sports fans - do not have a clear strategy, while companies on the other hand do, of course. However, there are various strategies by means of which you, as an individual sports bettor, are very likely to beat the betting provider over a longer period of time. These include betting strategies such as Value Bets or betting with tools such as Dropping Odds and Blocked Matches, which Oddspedia provides you with free of charge.

If you choose a betting strategy based on one of our tools, you have a very high chance of betting profitably in the long run, as you will definitely benefit from better odds. Of course, you still need to place the right bet often enough in order to bet profitably on the bottom line. This is where our tipsters come into play, who provide you with very detailed analyses of the probable results and are therefore more often correct than the average sports weather.

If you want to play it safe, you can also use the Sure Bets tool to pursue an arbitrage strategy, which makes losses impossible. On the other hand, the margins on arbitrage bets are usually not very high, so that it is guaranteed to be the safest, but not necessarily the most profitable betting strategy. In the end, every sports betting player must find the strategy that suits his personal preferences. It is clear, however, that a sports bettor who wants to bet profitably at the end of the day should follow a clear strategy and then essentially stick to it in order not to run the risk of losing his winnings through spontaneous "emotional betting". 

Frequently asked questions about bookmakers

In the following we would like to go into more detail about a number of questions that we receive frequently from our users. The following is Oddspedia's FAQ (short form for frequently asked questions) for betting providers & sports betting:

New Online Bookmakers - Which are the best ones?

The market for online betting providers has undergone considerable upheaval in recent years. Countless new bookmakers are courting customers. And many of the new companies have also been successful in doing so. There are several new providers of sports betting who have caught up with the established bookmakers. These newcomers score points above all with their very fast and professional customer service, high odds levels, new customer bonuses in enticing amounts and fast payouts.

It is therefore very clear that the new entrants in the market are making great efforts to exploit the weaknesses of the established bookmakers by paying particular attention to these points. However, the fact that new bookmakers have recently sprung up like mushrooms and are likely to continue to do so, makes it a necessity to update our list daily. 

Established bookmakers v New sportsbooks

If you are now wondering whether it makes more sense to bet on an established or a new bookmaker, you should weigh up which criterion is particularly important for you. If the security of the money you have deposited or won is an absolute priority for you, then it is probably safest to bet on one of the most renowned betting providers with a long history and published positive business figures.  

However, if you are looking for a quality feature that some of the new bookies have a special focus on - for example, 1A customer service or very fast payouts - then you are probably in better hands with a newer bookmaker. In principle, however, in our experience it is advisable to try out different bookmakers and then decide on the basis of your own experience which is the best bookmaker for you personally. A positive side effect of opening several customer accounts with different betting providers is the possibility of placing sure bets - i.e. bets with a guaranteed profit - if you have a sufficient number of betting accounts and wish to make use of this betting strategy.

Things to watch out for when choosing a new bookmaker

If you want to open a customer account with only one betting provider, the selection of the ideal bookie is naturally quite difficult in view of the numerous providers on the German market. Therefore, in the opinion of the Oddspedia editorial team, it is advisable to first decide whether you are going to choose an established or a new bookmaker. In order to assist you in this, we will now take a closer look at the five decisive criteria for selecting the ideal betting provider.

Payment methods and Fast payouts

A major advantage of new betting providers is that they often offer a variety of payment options. In addition to the usual payment options such as PayPal and credit cards (at least Visa Card and MasterCard), they often also offer other means of payment such as Skrill/Neteller, Klarna/immediate bank transfer or payments via Bitcoin (BTC) as well as other crypto currencies. In addition, many new betting operators attach importance to significantly faster payouts than their established competitors. In these points, innovative new betting providers are clearly ahead of the competition.

Safety and integrity

In terms of security and trustworthiness, the incumbent bookmakers are, by their very nature, the clear leaders. However, this does not have to remain so forever. Today, bwin is the betting provider with the world's largest customer base - even though it was only founded in 1997. That is - as of 2020 - already 23 years. Compared to the age of the bookmakers William Hill (founded in 1934) or even Ladbrokes (founded in 1886), however, this is apparently a rather short period of time. This example shows that after a few years, new betting providers can catch up with the level of awareness and reputation of bookmakers who have been active for a very long time. And this can of course also apply at any time to a bookmaker only now entering the market. In addition, all bookmakers listed on Oddspedia have been closely scrutinised by our editorial team, so there is basically no reason to worry. However, if you want to be 100% sure that you are depositing your money with a bookmaker with maximum security, then due to the experience and size of the company it is of course advisable to rely on one of the firmly established betting providers with a high reputation and published positive business figures.

Regulation and licensing

As far as regulation and licensing are concerned, incumbents obviously have much more to show for this. However, especially in view of the confusion in Germany regarding licensing law (see above the section entitled "Are sports betting services legal in Germany?"), one has to ask oneself to what extent a German licence is a good argument for a provider under the current legal situation. In principle, sports bettors in Germany enjoy a higher degree of legal security if they place their bets with a betting provider based in Germany. However, as the German market is de facto completely unregulated as of February 2020 and therefore all betting providers are tolerated, it is ultimately not really relevant whether they hold a licence from the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein (currently the only licence in the Federal Republic of Germany) or not, especially as the Schleswig-Holstein licence is officially only valid for citizens of the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein or persons with their habitual residence in Schleswig-Holstein.  

From a purely practical point of view, the Oddspedia editorial team therefore believes that it is much more important to be able to sue a bookmaker if the case arises, and this is of course much easier to do if the bookmaker is a company registered in Germany with a German business address.

Reputation

If it is important to you that you bet on a bookmaker with an excellent reputation, then new betting providers are of course no longer necessary. There is a whole range of established, i.e. for decades seriously operating betting providers, which should be mentioned here, which includes the following bookmakers.

Online ratings and reviews

However, if you are less interested in the name recognition and size of a betting provider than in the actual user experience, then it is a good idea to simply check the experience reports on Oddspedia and see which providers do particularly well. However, as already mentioned at a previous point in this article, you should also be aware of the fact that user reviews are not always objective, but sometimes spring from the pen of a disappointed sports bettor who has not read the terms and conditions, terms of use or bonus conditions of a bookmaker, but still blames the betting provider. In order to orientate oneself towards a neutral evaluation as far as possible, it is therefore more advisable to check the evaluation of the Oddspedia editorial team, which is guaranteed to be 100% independent and objective.

Oddspedia blacklist

Following on from the previous point, however, Oddspedia has not only compiled a positive list of bookmakers for you, but will also inform you about unreliable bookmakers known to cause issues with players. This makes it very easy for you to skip these bookmakers in order to avoid any risks before you have even placed a bet. Not being paid is one of the worst experiences a player can have, but there are many other risks associated with shady bookmakers. 

Why we put a bookmaker on the blacklist

As already mentioned in the previous section, we attach great importance to the fact that a betting provider feels bound by its general terms and conditions, terms of use and bonus conditions. However, a violation of his own terms and conditions is only one possible reason for us to blacklist a bookmaker. Another possibility is that the general terms and conditions, terms of use and/or bonus conditions are so unrealistic that our editorial team considers them to be an attempt at fraud. In this case, betting providers are also classified by Oddspedia as dubious bookmakers and, in order to protect our users, are not only not included in the positive list of betting providers, but are also clearly identified as fraudulent betting providers.

Is it safe to use a blacklisted sportsbook?

In the end, you are of course free to ignore our warning and still register with a blacklisted bookmaker. However, as you can imagine, not only do we advise you not to do so, but we do not take moral responsibility for any negative experience with such bookmakers as we would if a bookmaker we have evaluated positively were to commit a proven fraud attempt, which has never happened and most likely never will. In all modesty, we therefore advise you to trust our expert opinions, which are not only 100% independent and objective, but also based on the many years of experience of our editorial team.