Ladbrokes is a name that should be familiar to everyone in the UK, even those whose sole yearly punt is a go at a Grand National sweepstake. A bookmaker since 1886, this Ladbrokes review will take into account everything that Ladbrokes can now offer you, including a welcome deal that could be worth up to £20 in free bets.
Bet £5 Get £20 in Free Bets
Bet £5 Get £20 in Free Bets
Ladbrokes takes its name from Ladbroke Hall in Warwickshire. This was where two men named Schwind and Pennington founded a trained horses commission agency. The company moved to London in 1902 and became an elite bookmaker. When betting shops were legalised in 1961, Ladbrokes were one of the first companies to expand their betting business in such a way.
Massive expansion in the 1970s saw Ladbrokes UK become arguably the biggest bookmaker in England. By the 1990s, however, Ladbrokes’ fortunes began to dwindle. They purchased rival bookmaker Coral in 1998 but were told by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission to sell almost immediately. In 2015 Ladbrokes merged with Gala Coral, and in 2017 the company was sold to GVC Holdings. In 2020 GVC Holdings changed its name to Entain.
Ladbrokes has always been a firm believer in the principle of sponsoring leagues and tournaments as opposed to teams and individuals. When it comes to Ladbrokes football sponsorship, this betting site sponsored the Scottish Professional Football League between 2015 and 2020. In snooker, they have sponsored both the World Grand Prix and the Players Championship and in darts the UK Open and the Players Championships Finals. This company has indulged in plenty of Ladbrokes horse racing sponsorship, including the Gold Cup at Newbury.
Entain, the owners of Ladbrokes, set a record in 2022, but not the kind of record UK betting sites like to brag about. The company was handed a record fine of £17 million by the UKGC for regulatory failures. These failures were mainly for allowing customers to deposit large amounts in their betting accounts without checks. It was not a question of Entain doing something wrong though, it was a question of them failing to do something right, and it was for the period up to October 2020.
Since that massive sanction Entain (and Ladbrokes) has really tightened up its attitude towards safer gambling. For a start, customers are now unable to pay in more than £2,000 per deposit, and multiple ‘max deposits’ over a brief period of time are automatically flagged. Other player safeguarding measures have been put in place.
In terms of your data, Ladbrokes make sure that any data that is sent to it or is sent by it is suitably encrypted. This keeps your personal information, including any financial information you may share, safe and secure.
The new customer offer at the Ladbrokes UK site is not the most generous you’re likely to bump into, but at least it gives you the chance of quadrupling your money. All you need to acquire the welcome bonus here is place a £5 free bet using your own money and £20 in free bets will be added to your sports betting account as long as you meet all the right criteria.
First up, it is best you make that qualifying deposit using a debit card. Secondly, you do not have to place a £5 bet in its entirety to qualify. All bets, win or each way. you place with odds (cumulative or otherwise) of 1/2 (1.50) or greater will contribute. As soon as that total reaches £5 your account will be credited with £20 in free bets.
Your free bets only last seven days so make sure you use them within the allotted timeframe. Each free bet must be used on a different valid sports market. There are plenty of markets you can choose from including football, horse racing, greyhounds, tennis, US sports and both codes of rugby. You cannot use free bets on virtuals, pools or tote bets. Free bet stakes are not returned if used for a winning bet, and neither are they if your bet is voided for any reason. There are no odds restrictions or playthrough requirements.
Ladbrokes sign up offer | Offer description | Wagering requirement | Minimum Odds | Offer expiry | Min deposit |
£20 Ladbrokes free bet offer | £20 in free bets for £5 bet | None | 1/2 (1.50) | 7 days | £5 |
Let’s look now at the kind of offers available for regular customers of Ladbrokes. This site has always been reasonably generous with its offers, and they are rotated so that the promotions are kept fresh. It is always good though to check the site for any new deals, which can be done by clicking the ‘Promotions’ tab at any time. The following is a selection of the deals that were on offer at the time of our Ladbrokes review.
1-2-FREE is Ladbrokes’ free-to-play game which is available time and time again for regular customers. For each edition of the competition, three football games are selected. It is then up to you to correctly predict the final score in the game (not including extra time and penalties). If you get one score correct you win a £1 free bet, two correct awards you a free £5 bet builder or 5-a-side bet, and if you notch the hat trick you earn that £50 top cash prize. Free bets last seven days but that £50 top prize is cash that comes with no conditions, and you are free to withdraw it and spend it elsewhere!
This is an oddity we haven’t seen anywhere else. If you want to bet on something, and you don’t know what, then let Ladbrokes pick it for you with a lucky dip! You will see the contest or market and the offered odds. If you like the odds, then set your stake. Only when your bet is placed is your bet revealed! For example, you could be offered ‘FA Cup Winner 2025’ with odds of 25/1. if you like the bet then you set your stake and the team revealed could be Manchester City, Ipswich Town or even Accrington Stanley!
Each day when you log in to your Ladbrokes UK account, you will handed a single odds boost token. You can use the odds boost token how you wish, but only on offered markets which are usually centered around football and Ladbrokes horse racing. It only applies to pre-event singles and single-line multiples, and cannot be applied to system bets. If you do not use your odds boost token for a particular day, then it expires. Odds boost tokens cannot be ‘saved up’ and used multiple times on the same bet.
Let’s now take a detailed look at the main reason why we are creating this Ladbrokes review for you, and that is to take a look at the sports betting site itself. Is navigation a breeze. Is it easy to find what you want to bet on and then place your bet? Are you bombarded with ads for the aspects of Ladbrokes wyou have no interest in, such as the casino, bingo rooms or poker section? Read on to find out.
Ladbrokes is synonymous with horse racing in the UK, but at the Ladbrokes online betting site horse racing has to surprisingly take second place to football. The other most popular sports at Ladbrokes appear to be cricket and tennis, but we guess it depends what’s enthralling the world of sport at the time as to what is most prominent at the site. Here’s the full A to Z run down of sports, anyhow.
That’s a very decent selection, with nearly all sports under the sun covered. One thing – the ‘poker’ menu item is actually betting on poker tournaments such as the World Series of Poker, and not actually playing on poker yourself. Ladbrokes does have a dedicated poker section, but that’s out of the scope of this Ladbrokes review.
Despite many leading bookmakers withdrawing their ‘Best Odds Guaranteed’ offers, Ladbrokes is not a name that has joined this club. At this betting site Best Odds Guaranteed covers all UK and Irish horse racing and covers all bets made on the day of the race after 8 am. This means that after that time all winning bets will be paid out at the more beneficial (to you) price – the SP or the price at which you placed your bets. It also covers all UK Ladbrokes greyhound racing.
BOG does not cover any other sports at Ladbrokes so we had a poke around and compared their odds to those of those competitors, and we found them to be competitive enough. We made a direct comparison between Ladbrokes’ odds and the top odds offered anywhere for the 2024 Euros and our findings are presented in the table below:
Team | Ladbrokes Odds | Best Odds |
England | 11/4 | 16/5 |
France | 10/3 | 9/2 |
Germany | 9/2 | 11/2 |
Portugal | 8/1 | 8/1 |
Ladbrokes was only able to match the best odds offered by any site on Portugal, which we found disappointing.
If you prefer betting for low stakes, then we are pleased to tell you that you can bet at Ladbrokes for as little as five pence, which is low enough for most punters, we feel. The site does not set a maximum limit, but it does have maximum payouts, so no matter your stake for winning bets if your winnings breach that maximum limit, you will only get paid to the max. The highest limits are a cool one million for top level horse racing and Ladbrokes football, but they fluctuate for different sports, markets and events. You can check them all within Ladbrokes’ terms and conditions.
In terms of minimum deposits, it’s a fiver but that rises to £10 for PayPal deposits. In order to help with responsible gambling, you cannot deposit more than £2,000 with any single deposit and multiple high deposits will be flagged. You can withdraw as low as £5 automatically but for withdrawals less than that you will need to contact support.
To bet on in-play events at the Ladbrokes sports betting site, you just need to click the ‘In-Play’ button which can easily be located at the top of the main page of the desktop site, on the welcome screen of the app. You can also plan ahead by viewing which events are likely to be kicking off (or whatever) in the non-too-distant future. Football is key to live betting at Ladbrokes, but there are plenty of other markets to consider too.
The live betting listings are pretty dense, and you will only (initially) be able to see the current state of play, how long the event has been running for, and a number indicating how many markets are available for the event. Click on that number to be taken to a page dedicated to that particular event that lists the markets you can bet on. Cash out for bets at Ladbrokes is available on nearly all markets.
There is a decent amount of live streaming available at Ladbrokes. You will not be surprised to learn that all horse races in the UK and Ireland can be streamed here, and it doesn’t matter if you are viewing on the desktop site or the app. We also found via our Ladbrokes review that you can live-stream horse races in France, South Africa, the USA and Australia. Beyond that, it’s a case of ‘semi-minority’ football matches (so no EPL, EFL, La Liga, Serie A etc) and the type of sporting contests that there is not a lot of call for them to be televised.
We have now covered nearly everything that Ladbrokes has to offer. We need though to just highlight of couple of extra features that might be of interest to you.
Ladbrokes Bet Builder
We’ve briefly mentioned the Ladbrokes bet builder before in this Ladbrokes review and now we are going to cover it in more detail. The site comes with a number of pre-defined bet builders on football matches, and mainly for the day’s biggest games. You can look through them (there can be as many as eight for each individual match) or you can build your own. Just click on an outcome you want to back and then click ‘Add to Bet Builder’. Once the bet is built to your satisfaction, add your stake and then place your bet.
You cannot ‘cross the streams’ at Ladbrokes so all aspects of a single bet builder bet must be on the same game. The bet builder is also only available on football matches.
Ladbrokes 5-A-Side
No, Ladbrokes is not the only site available where you can bet on five-a-side football … well, you kind of can, so allow us to explain. Ladbrokes ‘5-A-Side’ is a fantasy side game where you select five players from the top leagues in Europe, choosing to place them in one of six available formations. Your player’s performance in their next game adds to your score – for example your ‘keeper’ scores the number of goals they concede, which your ‘chancer’ scores for shots made outside the box.
You select the number you think each player will score and the odds will be shown, and the overall odds of five players too. Set your stake and place your ‘5-A-Side’ bet … and if you’ve come to the conclusion that this is just another bet builder, then you’ve reached the same conclusion as us!
Help at the Ladbrokes online sports betting site can be a little hard to find … which is of course not at all helpful! You have to hunt right down to the ‘Help & Information’ section towards the bottom of any page and then click on ‘Help & Contact’. This will put you through to the FAQs but they are a pain in the butt too as there is no search facility – you just have to hope your particular need is addressed by these questions.
If you need further help you can send messages to Ladbrokes via Facebook, X/Teitter or Instagram, or via email. Live chat is available at all hours, but only if you are logged in.
OK, so we know what the new customer offer is, as well as the lack of a Ladbrokes bonus code, but how exactly do new customers go about creating a new account and redeeming the offer? Here is a step-by-step guide.
First off, visit the Ladbrokes sports betting site page by clicking the ‘Visit Ladbrokes’ button below.
Upon visiting the desktop site or the Ladbrokes app, click where it says ‘JOIN’ in the top right corner. Doing this will open up a new registration form where you’ll be asked to enter an email address. You’ll then create both a username and a password.
Moving on, you’ll be asked to enter now your personal details, such as first name, last name and date of birth. Once you have completed this section simply move on to the third step by clicking the green ‘CONTINUE’ button.
Lastly, you’ll be asked to enter information such as a security question and answer, as well as deposit limits. It is at this point where you can enter a bonus code. Currently there is no Ladbrokes betting promo code, but there has been in the past and that situation may change. Always visit the Ladbrokes sites before signing up to see if a promo code is required.
Once everything has been set up correctly the ‘Complete Registration’ button will change colour. Click on it to successfully obtain your Ladbrokes login.
Ladbrokes does have a betting app, but if you want to bet on mobile here you are not forced to download and install it to your device(s). The Ladbrokes desktop site is fully mobile optimised, which means it reconfigures itself automatically depending upon the size of the screen on which it is being viewed/used. You can get the full Ladbrokes experience in terms of betting and all your usual account functions by navigating your way to the Ladbrokes site on your device using any decent mobile browser.
If you do, however, wish to get fully mobile, you can download the app. Follow the process above for reaching the site on your device then head to the bottom of the screen. Here you will find the easily-recognised Google Play and App Store logos. Click on the appropriate logo depending on your device’s operating system then download your Ladbrokes app in the normal fashion.
As we have already said, the Ladbrokes bonus code did previously exist and it would be required when you wanted to load in your welcome bonus. However, Ladbrokes have now withdrawn this bonus code and your welcome bonus is added automatically once you have completed your registration and the steps needed to qualify.
Other sites do have promo codes that you need to be aware of in order to claim welcome bonuses and other promotional deals. We have listed many of the best of them below.
Given Coral’s more casino/bingo-laden past, you’d probably expect the Coral side of Entain to be more casino-orientated than the Ladbrokes side. However, in reality, it’s about equal. Ladbrokes splits its casino offerings into four sections – gaming, live casino, games shows and arcade. All these items form the menu at the top of the site, along with bingo and poker which were are not going to cover. We’re going to run through each of these sections in turn.
Gaming – gaming is not eSports (not in this section anyhow) but slots and casino games, including live casino games. The site can offer over 150 slots from Pragmatic Play, NetEnt, Eyecon and others, and has nearly 17 exclusive titles. Ladbrokes casino games include blackjack, roulette and baccarat.
Live Casino – this site has live casino games from Playtech, Evolution and others. You can enjoy casino classics alongside game shows and again, some exclusive Ladbrokes games.
Game Shows – more live casino fun, as this section has around two dozen live ‘game show’ titles including The Chase Live, Crazy Time, Jumaji: The Bonus Level Live and The Crypt of Giza.
Arcade – this is a scant selection of games which you can play for ‘Ladbucks’. Ladbucks are free tokens you can earn via bonuses and games at the site. You can either use them in the arcade or spend them at the Ladbrokes online store.
Just a quick reminder here that no matter which payment method you intend to become your regular means of depositing at Ladbrokes, it’s best to make your initial deposit using a debit card. The only accepted payment methods at this sports betting site are Visa and MasterCard debit cards, ApplePay, PayPal, PaysafeCard and Google Pay. Ladbrokes no longer accepts Skrill, Neteller or any eWallets that are not PayPal.
Deposits are processed instantly but withdrawals will take a little longer, and in either case there are no fees to worry about. All the details concerning Ladbroke’s accepted payment methods including the Ladbrokes withdrawal time can be found below.
Banking Method | Fees | Min Deposit | Min Withdraw | Ladbrokes Withdrawal Time |
Visa debit | None | £5 | No Minimum | Within 4 hours |
MasterCard debit | None | £5 | No Minimum | 1 – 3 banking days |
PayPal | None | £10 | Unavailable | Not applicable |
Bank Transfer | None | Unavailable | No Minimum | 2 – 4 banking days |
PaysafeCard | None | £5 | Unavailable | Not applicable |
Apple Pay | None | £5 | No Minimum | 1 – 3 banking days |
Google Pay | None | £5 | Unavailable | Not applicable |
Instant Bank Transfer | None | Unavailable | No minimum | Instant |
As we approach the conclusion of our exclusive Ladbrokes review, it is time for us to think about all we have found out about this well-known betting site. What saw us frown, and what saw us turning that frown upside down? You can find our summing up below.
Ladbrokes still garners a great deal of respect among UK punters and although the company has suffered its fair share of ups and downs, it keeps on rocking and rolling. We feel that Ladbrokes is a decent-enough site with a small handful of wrinkles that need ironing out. Why not do your own research, even look at other Ladbrokes reviews, and see if this betting site is the right betting site for you?
Bet £5 Get £20 in Free Bets
Bet £5 Get £20 in Free Bets
In short, no. Punters are not rewarded with cash but with free bets. A first bet of £5 bet earns punters four £5 free bets. Each of these free bets must be placed before a withdrawal can be made. Ladbrokes will debit the free bet stake from any returns. Winnings that stem from the free bets are available for withdrawal.
Very easy. As shown above, a player simply has to visit either the desktop site or the mobile app and hit the 'Join' icon. Providing that you have all the necessary information to hand, e.g. name, date of birth, address, email etc, creating a new account should take no more than five minutes.
Unfortunately, the ‘Bet £5 Get £20’ promo is for new players only, though all is certainly not lost for existing players. Over the course of a year, Ladbrokes roll out a range of promotions, bonuses and free bets for those players who already have an account. For example, existing customers can enter the free-to-play score predicting game, where all they must do is predict three correct scores to be in with a chance of winning £100 in cash.
This varies depending on the time of year, but in general, Ladbrokes tend to have 10-12 bonuses running at any one time. If there’s a major sporting event on, such as the Olympics or the World Cup, the number of bonuses and free bets is likely to increase.
Yes. Live streaming is widely available at Ladbrokes, with streams for a variety of sports, in a variety of countries, covering lots of different competitions, tournaments and leagues. Unlike some sites, the live streaming at Ladbrokes is free if you’re logged into your account. There's no qualifying bet. However, there is one small stipulation. Players must have a positive account balance of at least £1 to access streams.
Typically, punters will choose to have their funds processed via bank transfer, which usually takes between two and five days to go through. Much like payment methods and deposit types, there are other withdrawal options, such as Skrill, Neteller and PayPal.