Bethard Review - No UK Customers
Bethard left the UK in 2020, ceasing to accept registrations from 16th June and closing entirely on 6th July.
The company cited they left after “a careful review of strategic options”, in actuality they have left due to higher online gambling taxes and ever tighter regulations around customer protection in the UK.
There are plenty of fish in the sea though as they say and you can find list of recommended UK bookmakers and casinos on our pages.
Bethard is an online sportsbook and casino that may appear run of the mill at first glance. Strong branding aside, they don’t really offer anything that lots of other online bookies don’t offer as well.
However, dig a little deeper and you will find that the people driving the business are really going places, and taking into account the strides the company has already made in the short time that it has been in operation you can safely assume that Bethard will be introducing new features before long, and nestling in to claim its place as one of the best betting sites online.
They are already a real magnet for football bettors offering odds on fixtures from the furthest corners of the world, along with odds they can be proud of. What’s more, their excellent website functionality makes it a pleasure to bet there, and we can say the same about their mobile app and website.
Signing up Zlatan Ibrahimovic as an ambassador is a real statement of intent from Bethard too, so creating an account with them before they hit the big time, so to speak, could stand you in good stead for the long term.
Sports Markets & Odds
Bethard covers a lot of ground here, with a strong sports list that also contains a few select niche sports that you might not necessarily see everywhere else.
If you tend to bet on popular sports like football you will be especially well catered for – the English leagues go 6 divisions deep, if they went any further they would be offering odds on you and your mates having a Saturday kick about.
Football is definitely their major strength as they offer odds on leagues worldwide; Gibraltar, Saudi Arabia, Kenya – Azam Tigers FC are battling it out with the Kamuzu Barracks in the Malawi Super League live as we speak.
But there is more too in the way of Gaelic sports, speedway, volleyball, alongside all of the mainstream sports you would expect. Market depth suffers somewhat outside of the major sports but you are looking at a respectable 150+ for top football, dropping down to around 100+ for lower league fixtures, and 70+ for ice hockey, basketball, and things like that.
The odds are fairly competitive though, especially on big events like the World Cup – Bethard seem to use these major events to attract custom – and you will find plenty of interesting bet types to consider including Asian lines.
Odds can be viewed in decimal, fractional, or American formats.
Live Betting/Streaming
There are always so many live events being covered at Bethard that even if you log on early in the morning you are going to find 50+ fixtures to bet on, ranging from football, tennis, and basketball to handball, volleyball, and pool.
The experience itself really is one of the best on this platform too. It’s a combination of perfect design and functionality alongside experience enhancing features.
We were sad not to find any live streaming, but the game visualisation graphic contributed so much to proceedings that we didn’t miss it for long. It’s incredibly detailed and charts the progress of the game highlighting areas of the pitch that have seen key events, shows moment by moment updates, and plots goals/points, etc. along a timeline. And that’s before you take the in-game stats into account. They show possession, converted tries, serves won/lost, shots on and off target, corners, you name it, and when used in conjunction with the separate comprehensive stats tool you can really get stuck in.
Switching between the overview, event view, and live schedule takes a single second, so you can multi-task well using this interface too, making use of features like cash out and fast markets along the way.
Banking
| Banking Method | Max/Min Deposit | Max/Min Withdrawal | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debit Card | £10 | £20 | 3-5 Days |
| Paysafecard | £10 | N/A | No Withdrawal |
This is one area that shows progress on Bethard’s part.
There are now no fees on any transactions at their end and while they don’t support Paypal, Neteller or Skrill for UK customers yet, they do support Siru and MuchBetter, two e-wallets aimed at the mobile user, highlighting their push towards the modern day bettor.
Details on these payment methods are hard to come by though, which is the only reason they are not included in the table above.
Banking may not be their strongest suit but it’s definitely not a weakness either, and as the company grows this is the sort of thing that is likely to improve and grow with them.
Features
Bethard aren’t yet implementing all of the betting features that SBTech can provide – there is no live streaming for example – but they have ensured to include everything that would be considered a requirement rather than a welcome extra.
Here’s what they have got:
Stats
This is a great addition to know about for anyone who likes to study form, head to heads, player info, etc. It opens in a new window and contains an absolute mountain of data across all sports and leagues/competitions that Bethard covers.
Even things like Bandy have in depth stats available, so you will never be left without the option to do a bit of research before placing your bet, and what you find might even change your mind or inspire you to bet on something you hadn’t thought about before.
Results
Keep up to speed with the latest results for all sports using this handy results service.
You can search by time period (last 24 hours, 48 hours, etc), sport, and league within that sport.
It will give you the time of kick off, the fixture details, and the final score.
Fast Markets
Fast markets are an ideal way to add extra excitement to a game by betting on an event to take place in the next few minutes.
For example, you might bet on a corner in the next 1 minute, or a goal in the next 5. These are available on many live in-play fixtures, and because the site is so quick and responsive you can use them to try and get ahead of the game if you think you can see something developing.
Cash Out
This is seen as a necessity these days really, but there are still some bookies that don’t offer it.
Cash out allows you to end your bet early so that you can guarantee a profit – albeit a smaller one than you would get if the bet ran to conclusion and won. You can also use it to cut your losses. Essentially, you are buying your way out of any remaining risk.
It’s not available on every single betting line at Bethard but it certainly won’t be a rarity either.
Partial Cash Out
As above really, except you leave a proportion of your stake in at the original price.
So you might have a £10 bet on, cash out £5 of it if your bet is looking like winning, and leave the remaining £5 in at the odds you first took.
This way, you have hopefully covered your stake and made a little bit on it as well, and you also still have the chance to win more once the bet in concluded.
Casino
The casino at Bethard is no poor cousin to the sportsbook.
It contains well over 700 games developed by providers that any self-respecting online casino player would recognise.
There are lots and lots of slots, plenty of jackpots and table games, a live casino full of roulette, blackjack, baccarat, and poker variations, as well as instant win games.
So plenty to be getting on with in there then.
Desktop Website
If we had to choose one word to describe the Bethard website it would be ‘punchy’ – and not just because their logo is a fist.
It’s predominantly black with white detailing and then they use yellow to make certain important options or info pop. It works a treat and really guides the eye.
They use the SBTech platform so everything is very clear and laid out proportionally. The user can navigate using quick links for popular events or competitions, the search function is available if you want something specific, or you can use the sports list if you are in more of a browsing mood.
If you have chosen a specific category, tennis for example, it’s useful that the fixtures are displayed as either Popular, All, Next 7 Days, or Live; as this allows you to quickly hone in on what you are after and pick the option that best suits your purpose.
Of course live betting has its own tab that is ever present, saving you precious seconds if you want to get a bet on something that has already started or is imminent, and the site responds so quickly that you really can glide through the options and get your bet placed in just a few seconds.
Mobile Website
The mobile website/app may be a little slower than the desktop version (only just) but it is very responsive and lacks nothing in terms of design and user friendliness.
In fact, in some ways it’s a much more effective interface to bet with because there is less information on each page. The smaller screen space forces the site to come up with new ways to display everything and leaves no room for unnecessary extra’s.
This does create the issue of increased scrolling if you are just browsing, however, especially if you wanted to have a nosey through all of the various football leagues they offer, for example, but if you are trying to bet on something in particular or looking for upcoming games you will have no problems.
Everything is available on mobile that you get with the desktop site, but certain features like the stats tool are more difficult to use simply because they need to open on a different page, which obviously takes you away from the page you are on. It creates a bit of back and forth but we can hardly blame Bethard for that, it’s out of their hands.
Scrolling menu bars and drop down/collapsible menu headers help to keep things tidy and offer more options in a smaller area without causing over-crowding, and in-play betting is handled particularly well on this mobile platform.
About
Bethard is a multi-national sportsbook and casino site with 90+ employees run by the Bethard Group Limited who are based in Malta, but the embryo of the idea was born when a few friends with a lot of gambling experience were chatting in one of their bedrooms.
It was in 2012 that the company was set up by Erik Sharp, who is still the CEO today, and their mission was to create and develop a world leading sportsbook at the same time as offering a state of the art technological platform for B2B customers.
This double pronged approach means that they can generate income from multiple sources and also showcase their innovations using their own product. So Bethard is something of a calling card for the company.
As a brand Bethard have made themselves visible in a sea of competition by not only offering a premium product but also by allying themselves with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the retired Swedish striker whose C.V reads like a who’s who of the UEFA Champions League.
They hold licenses in Curacao, Malta, UK, Denmark, Sweden, Ireland, and Spain.
Why Bet With Bethard?
If you consider yourself to be a modern bettor but with traditional tastes then Bethard could well be the place for you.
It’s a stylish contemporary site but doesn’t go overboard with flashy extras that only a tiny proportion of punters would ever use. It’s a salt of the earth type bookie with decent honest odds on popular sports and plenty of them.
People who bet football especially could do a lot worse than Bethard, and although they aren’t exactly flooding the site with offers at the moment there is plenty of value here, and as the company grows regular customer promotions may well begin to feature more heavily.
If you join now you won’t exactly be getting in on the ground floor but you will be pretty close, and we have a feeling that Bethard are going to take their customers on quite a ride over the next few years.
Customer Support
On the one hand it’s great to see a relatively young online bookie offering 24/7 support to their customers. This provides peace of mind and allows the bettor to deal with any issues that may arise when it is most convenient for them, not the bookie.
However, you are limited to email or live chat because, although there are social media accounts they get less action than a white crayon in art class, and there isn’t a dedicated phone number either.
However, response times are very good and there are useful push notifications when using chat so you don’t end up missing a response if you are doing a few things at once.
Being a European bookie, support is also available in a number of different languages should you want to test your GSCE German, or.. you know, actually be from Germany.
Contact & Licence
- Live Chat – The speech bubble is always on hand to begin live chat, and they usually pick up your query in less than 2 minutes – which is pretty good, isn’t it?
- Email – [email protected] is the address you need if you want to send an e-mail. Since they are open 24/7 you should get a reply lickity split.
- Phone – Bethard prefer to keep things digital, so they don’t have a phone number you can call. Well, they must have a phone number but it’s not available to customers anyway…
- @BethardOfficial – Bethard seem to have lost interest in their Twitter account, it hasn’t been touched in months. Lazy.
- Address – Bethard Group Ltd, 6 Paceville Avenue, St Julians, STJ 3109
- UK Gambling Licence – 49386