Bet365 is a trusted gambling site licensed in both the UK and Gibraltar. Since 1974 their company has been owned by the Coates family, the same family which owns the English Premier League team Stoke City FC.
In 2001, Bet365 was the first High Street bookmaker to embrace the internet and as a result their success came rapidly. Today their website is available in 17 languages, 29 currencies and offers sports betting, poker, casino, bingo and virtual games.
Although also a fan of their pre-match, future markets and props – in this article I’ll focus only on my favorite section of their website, that being their “In-Play” betting interfaces.
Bet365 is by far the most popular sportsbook in the world for live In-Play wagering, hence the reason we have them listed as #1 here at LiveBetting.net.
As general rule of thumb, if a sporting event is “nationally televised” in any country of the world, they offer live in-play wagering on that match. To see the existing markets, log into your sportsbook account and from the top menu click the tab labeled “In Play”.
From this page you’ll see a menu on the left sidebar that is sectioned off by sport. If you see a small television icon next to the match header, this means that match is currently being streamed live right on the website. Note: whether a game is being streamed live or not – the in-play wagering options for it will be the same.
True to their domain name “365”, no matter what time of the day or night you log on to their website there will be at least a dozen football matches available for live in-play betting.
Selection of soccer gambling options in the U.K.
Their coverage includes the majors such as Barclays Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, German Bundesliga and MLS from the United States, but for the most part covers all domestic competitions from all over the globe including even the secondary leagues. The markets available on In-Play are impressive.
Here you’ll find full time results, next goal, match totals (with multiple alternative totals), Asian handicap, 3-way handicap, correct score, which team will score last, will both teams score in the match, will certain listed player score, clean sheets and more. (Read: What Is Sports Handicapping?)
This is by far the most popular site for live football betting.
Cricket is obviously a popular sport in India, Australia, South Africa and the UK. If you live in these areas you’ll be happy to know Bet365 offers Indian Rupee (INR), Australian Dollar (AUD) South Africa Rand (ZAR) and Pound Sterling (GBP) as account currencies.
Their live cricket betting coverage is massive and includes the Ashes Test Series, Indian Premier League, Twenty20 Cup, Clydesdale Bank 40 competition, and dozens of other domestic and international cricket competitions from around the globe.
There are a bunch of options for live bets. As soon as the first batter steps to the crease, you can wager on how the leadoff batter will do by gambling on batsman runs. For each ball bowled you can wager total runs scored, you can also bet First ‘X’ Overs, method of dismal and more. Of course as the match progresses the overall match odds change and you can wager on them as well.
Bet365’s live betting coverage for tennis is also fantastic. Here you’ll of course find the grand slams for both Men’s and Woman’s tennis, but you’ll find live streams of tournaments from around the globe including but not limited to Indian Wells, Monte Carlo, Rome, Madrid, Munich, Beijing and Bangkok. During each match you can wager in-play on the match winner and current set winner.
You can also wager on each individual point, next game to deuce, next game to score, race to a certain number of games, games in current set, total sets, totals in match and so much more. They have far more in-play tennis markets than any of their competitors.
Above I covered the top 3 most popular sports for live in play wagering. What you’re probably interested to know however is Bet365 also offers live bets on handball, basketball (including NBA, NCAA, European Basketball and Asian Basketball), Ice Hockey, baseball from around the world (not just MLB), gridiron (also known as American football), darts, handball, volleyball and many additional sports.
The first strategy I recommend is simple – just keep your account active. They love to push in-running wagering for Barclays Premier League and as a result you’ll get all sorts of promotional free bet offers during the season.
For example the 2011 Premier League season included a free bet offer on Manchester United vs. Chelsea. All you need to do was place a wager of £50 prematch and Bet365 matched it with a £50 risk free in-play bet. If your in-play wager lost (which mine did) the funds were credited back your account within 2-hours. Also every few weeks during the season I receive £5.00 free with no strings attached in-play bet.
Just having an account at the site is a decent strategy in itself.
If you hang around at internet forums, you’ll find all sorts of strategy related to football, cricket, and tennis. So rather than rehash a topic that’s been written many times – let me instead focus on telling you where I find the most value at this site.
That’s in-play volleyball betting, especially from remote leagues, or international qualifiers.
For example: in Woman’s volleyball Thailand continues to be underrated, but puts up a fight in almost every match. In world competitions if they’re playing a strong international team (i.e Japan) it makes sense to bet Thailand prematch at great odds.
Now understanding Thailand is a young team with less experience than Japan you can stay tuned to the live wagering screen to see if there might be a chance to lock in a guaranteed profit with a hedge bet made during In-Play.
Another similar situation is Taipei Chinese Woman – in many matches they will be dominate favorites. However, this team has a history of letting poor teams stay in the game early before dominating them later in the current game. Where you’ll find great value is not wagering on Taipei pre-match, but sitting back hoping they get off to a slow start. When they do the odds makers generally over react and you can bet them at favourable odds.
Of course if you’re from the UK or Canada, betting Woman’s Asian Volleyball probably sounds absurd. Listen I’m an American living abroad and these sports never interested me either. But the remote leagues, even Men’s African Volleyball is where I find tons of value. If you’re betting for fun, sure back your favorite team and enjoy.
If you however want crush this sportsbook for max profits, learn the markets they don’t know well. They have sick value available on remote leagues. This is true for major sports as well, for football look to India’s I-League, or even just Italian Serie B instead of A, this where you can make your money.
