Online Betting UK

The Premier League is the worlds biggest sporting competition in terms of revenue, number of people watching, wages, attendance and pretty much any other stat you want to look at; including betting, accounting for over half of bets placed on football in the UK.

Let’s face it the league is elitist and based on money, and for a long time this caused stagnation with three teams dominating the first 20 years; Man Utd, Chelsea and Arsenal. Lately, however, the league has gained a new competitive streak, most notably with Leicester winning in 2015 and then three new dominant forces arising in Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City, who look set to continue their battle in 2023-24, in the way United and Arsenal did 15 years ago – that is except the level is now much higher, as seen with Liverpool coming second in 2019 with an astonishing 97 points.

In the UK 70% of bets are placed on football and nearly three quarters of those wagers go on the Premier League, making this one event responsible for around half of all bets placed. Considering this if you bet on the PL you would be insane not to search around for the best offers and odds from our leading bookies. Read our detailed guide for more.

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It’s the pinnacle of European club football and the competition every fan wants to win and this year with no less than four English teams in the competition and this means even more attention than before. Liverpool are of course the record English side in the competition and were finalists in 2018 and 2022 and won the competition in 2019 and they will be looking do to well this year having missed out in 2024.

This year, however, it will be last years champions Real Madrid who will be the club to beat with now 15 titles to their name, winning in 2024 against a Dortmund team that were far better – Madrid just always find a way. Man City will be favourites again having now won their first Champions League in 2023 it could now open the floodgates and it is likely more wins will follow. Arsenal and even Aston Villa cannot be discounted and if they make the knockout rounds anything is possible.

Form 2024-25 the competition has expanded again to 36 teams with a new league phase replacing the group stage.  This now means 8 league matches between September and January (no winter break anymore) with four home and four away ties all against different teams.  The top 8 go straight to the last 16, those who finish 9-14 in the league contest a two legged play off in February with the 8 winners progressing to the last 16.

From that point it is a straight knockout as we are familiar with.  The top 8 league teams are seeded at the last 16 stage but country protection is removed now.  The knockout draw in February now also plots out the route to the final, as with the likes of the World Cup, which helps ensure the 8 seeded teams are more likely to make it to the later stages – as if the big teams needed anymore help.

Watch: TNT Sport

The darts Premier League takes place from February to May every Thursday evening, it moves around each week meaning that 17 different venues across the UK and Europe will be used this year.

The format changed in 2022 and now takes place over 17 evenings with 8 players competing in a series of 16 mini-tournaments before a final play-off. For the first 16 nights players play quarters, semis and a final with the winner getting 5 league points and a £10k bonus, runner-up 3 points and losing semi-finalists 2 points.

The top 4 players in the league progress to the final play-offs and the final due to be staged in late May. The world’s eight best PDC players compete in the Premier League. Michael Van Gerwen won the 2022 and 2023 versions and is record holder with 7 titles, ahead of Phil Taylor with 6 titles. MVG also won four titles in a row between 2016-2019.  Luke Littler won on his debut in 2024, only the third player to do so and the youngest winner in history.  He also managed a 9-dart leg in the final.  He seems to be the one to watch for the future.

The event was only conceived in 2005 and yet has already become one of the most high profile events on the darts calendar, second only perhaps to the World Championship.

You can find some excellent linked free bets and price boosts, especially from the previous event sponsor Unibet. For nights 1 to 16 each match is best of 11 legs, the semi-finals best of 19 legs and the final best of 21 legs.

Watch: Sky Sports

The old ones are the best and despite the proliferation of snooker globally the World Championship, at the famous Crucible Theatre, will always remain the pinnacle.

The format hasn’t changed much in 50 years, no bad thing – if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. The world top 16 ranked players are joined by 16 qualifiers who play in five knock-out rounds over two weeks from Easter weekend to the the final on May bank holiday weekend. This is a straight knockout event ranging from the best of 19 frames in round one to best of 35 in the final. This is about serious competitive matches between top players, none of this league or group stage BS that has permeated so many other sports.

Ronnie O’Sullivan is a threat as always, he failed at the first hurdle in 2019 to an amateur qualifier but then won it in style in 2020 & 2022 – you never know with Ronnie! The only person that is likely to stop Ronnie winning a record 8th title (beating Hendry’s record) is Ronnie. Should the legend of the game falter then Mark Selby, Judd Trump, Neil Robertson and Mark Allen will all be waiting for an opportunity to win the crown – or perhaps there will be a surprise like when Mark Williams stormed the competition beating John Higgins in 2018? Maybe John himself is due a 5th title having lost three on the bounce from 2017-19?

Watch: BBC

The flat horse racing season in the UK gets underway officially with the Lincoln Handicap in late March / early April each year. For many though the season doesn’t really begin properly until the Guineas at Newmarket, the first two of the traditional five English classics.

Both races are held on the famous Rowley mile at Newmarket, the home of the jockey club and seen as the birth place of elite flat racing, having been hosting racing sine the 1600’s. Predictably they are both one mile long with a prize purse over £500,000 with over £283,550 for the winner.

The 2000 Guineas is held first on the Saturday and is in fact older than the 1000 Guineas on the Sunday. The 2000 is open to three-year-old colts and fillies and for four of the last seven years has been won by Aidan O’Brien trained horses, he is also the leading trainer with 10 wins since 1998.

The 1000 Guineas is an identical race held on the Sunday but only open to 3-year-old fillies. This race has also been dominated in recent years by O’Brien horses, winning in 2016-18 and 2020-21. He is also the leading trainer of modern times for this race with 7 wins since 2005. He is favourite to win the race again in 2025.

The Guineas is a perfect time to see how the best milers are running early in the season and also a good time to see all the new bookies offers for the flat season.

Watch: ITV

The biggest race in America, and dating back to 1875 the Kentucky Derby is truly ancient by their standards. The 1 mile 2 furlong feature flat race at Churchill Downs commands an incredible prize pool of over $5M with over $3.1M for the race winner. You can see now why this race draws such a high amount of international attention from punters.

The Derby itself comes at the end of an entire festival built around it that includes two full days of high profile racing, including the 1 mile 1 furlong Kentucky Oaks on the Friday. Unlike in the UK however when they say ‘festival’ in the US they mean it, and racing is just part of a two week long event of celebrations.

As the home of horse racing and with so much going on in the summer many bookies pay little attention to foreign racing, especially for promotions and enhanced value. The Kentucky Derby is a distinct exception to this however and if wait until a day or so before the race to bet and you shop around you should be able to get some decent offers.

Watch: NBC Sports