Not many bookmakers started life as a side project for someone that was already incredibly wealthy from other sources, but BETDAQ did.
Founded by billionaire Dermot Desmond, the BETDAQ brand initially did well before being sold on and neglected, then making its way home to Desmond again.
Since then, things have improved markedly, with the exchange side of the business being supported by an online casino and of course, a fully-fledged fixed odds sportsbook.
They run and maintain their own platform and interface, which is extremely effective and couldn’t be simpler to use, and are known for offering very good odds across the board, even if they don’t always offer the greatest market depth.
This actually has the effect of making BETDAQ an excellent choice for anyone just dipping their toes into the world of online betting, or even those who are experienced working with fixed odds but have not tried a betting exchange before.
Top markets in top sports are the order of the day at BETDAQ, so there is nothing else clogging up the site and making things feel confusing.
Despite being beginner friendly and simple to use, BETDAQ now provide a full suite of online betting products, all note worthy in their own right; and so it could be the ideal place to bet for punters who don’t tend to wager on anything out of the ordinary.
- Betting exchange – BETDAQ’s flagship product, it’s rare to find a bookie/exchange combination and this one is ideal for those new to exchange betting
- Better odds – In general, BETDAQ’s sportsbook can boast better than average odds, and of course this is also true in the exchange.
- Best for beginners – A simple site, and a sports list that sticks to the popular markets make BETDAQ the ideal site for anyone new to fixed odds or exchange betting.
Sportsbook: Markets and Odds
BETDAQ’s sportsbook is very attractive to look at and to use, and this is partly because it isn’t overloaded with scores of markets you will never be interested in.
The sports list is only around 20 sports long, but far from being a negative, this is actually a really good thing for the majority of punters, who only bet on the top sports.
Bookies like to brag about offering x number of markets per month on the most bizarre sporting events you can think of, but realistically, how often do you bet on bandy and the like?
BETDAQ is not the place to go for obscure betting markets, but it is the place to go for a solid selection of the most common markets at competitive odds.
The ethos at BETDAQ seems to be offering odds that are better than most other bookies, but only to offer them on the more popular sports, events, and betting lines. There is especially good value to be found in the football, horse racing and greyhound racing, and cricket markets in my experience.
For example, looking at football you can find matches in all sorts of far-off countries to bet on, such as Peruvian football. However, in terms of betting lines, you might be restricted to the 1X2 market only.
Even in big English games, like the FA Cup, you might only get match odds, btts, corner, goal and card over/unders, correct score, draw no bet, and some half time/full time markets. I couldn’t see any bet builder options either, although accas and other multiples are possible.
So BETDAQ isn’t the place to go for the more intricate betting lines, but it’s the ideal place to go for more common bets. If you just want a set winner market in tennis or a most 180s market in darts. then you will find it faster and probably at better odds at BETDAQ than a more bloated bookmaker.
I suppose the rationale is that anyone wanting to spend more time on their bets will use the exchange, and just nip across to the sportsbook for anything quick and easy, or if they want to hedge.
Other sports available include baseball, basketball, F1, boxing, ice hockey, MMA, snooker, rugby, and a few others. Oh and there is best odds guaranteed available on horse racing and greyhound racing too, with some international coverage in these sports.
BETDAQ Exchange Betting
Arguably the main reason you would want to use BETDAQ as your bookmaker is because of the associated betting exchange.
You can find out how betting exchanges work in more detail here, but basically, you are betting against other punters rather than the bookie, and BTEDAQ just take a small commission from the winner rather than building in margins like a fixed odds bookie would do.
This was actually the original product, the sportsbook was only added in 2019, and given that BETDAQ first hit the internet in 2001, it is safe to say that the exchange has had plenty of time to be perfected.
Now it’s fair to say that BETDAQ isn’t the leading betting exchange in the UK, but the fact that it is still around is evidence that there is enough liquidity to keep punters coming back to use the service.
That only goes for certain sports though, as the more niche you go, the less likely you are to get your bet matched. This is true of any betting exchange to be fair, but it’s more evident here because of the lower liquidity in general.
That said, the majority of people in the UK aren’t interested in using an exchange to bet on baseball, for example, so it’s not really an issue, and I wonder why BETDAQ bother with these more niche sports in the first place.
If you look at their football, horse racing, boxing, greyhound racing, golf, tennis and a few others, you should be able to get your bet on assuming it isn’t gargantuan. Even then, in the more popular markets there could well be enough liquidity to instantly match a bet of a few hundred quid if you have pockets that deep.
My point here, is that most people don’t usually want to bet more than about £50 max, and for those sorts of stakes, you really won’t struggle; especially as the start of the event draws closer.
Another thing BETDAQ have over their competition is lower commissions of just 2%, and they have been known to run promotions in the past where they take zero commission on certain markets to encourage customers to use the site.
The interface is much more user friendly than their main competitors’ too, so for anyone starting out with exchange betting who just wants to dip their toe in the water, BETDAQ is a much better option than somewhere like Betfair.
BETDAQPRO – Trading Tools
I said that BETDAQ is the best exchange for newbie bettors, and I stand by that. However, that doesn’t mean it is no good for those who would consider themselves experienced or even professional bettors or bet traders.
In fact, BETDAQ offer a suite of (some free) trading tools and even an API to allow those with the know how to create their own tools and interfaces to plug into BETDAQ and use.
You can think of these tools as sitting in the gap between you and BETDAQ. They make very quick calculations and display information about the exchange and the prices available in much greater detail, allowing bets to be made with more complexity.
A lot of people use them to arb or hedge, and the trading tools are usually put to best effect as the start time of the event gets closer and there is more betting activity.
I won’t go into detail here, as I could write a whole article on each one of these tools, it is enough to know that they exist at this point, as their availability might be what makes you decide to give BETDAQ a go.
The BETDAQ Website
It’s blissfully easy to navigate BETDAQ’s website, partly because it is well designed, and partly because they haven’t overloaded the interface with markets that hardly anyone ever bets on.
It’s a bright, colourful and spacious site, with sensible product categories and well-placed menus making everything feel natural, and also helping to keep the user journey feeling smooth and fluid, with total freedom regarding how you move around the interface.
Almost everything can be minimised to make keep things that aren’t of interest out of the way, and when you add a selection to the betslip it is nice and big so there is no danger of making mistakes. This goes for the odds and markets in general actually, it’s a site with a lot of clarity.
One slightly odd quirk is that, after selecting a sport from the A-Z, the only way to get the full list back is to click the A-Z again which reloads the page. It doesn’t interfere too much but it doesn’t seem like the most innovative way of doing things.
I feel like the right-hand side of the homepage could be better utilised too, but this is the case on most bookie sites that I use or test. At BETDAQ, unless you have the betslip open, it feels like wasted space that has been filled with casino cross selling promotions which I’m not a fan of. That said, it can be minimised, and there are much more helpful links underneath such as a quick link to help and support.
Neither of these things cause a significant issue at all, not even the page reloads because the site is so fast.
The site reacts instantly and without fault as you hop from one sport to another, with markets updating in real time and no unnecessary pop ups. A few options do load in separate windows, such as racing results and the help section, but this is to be expected.
When using the exchange the site is essentially the same in terms of layout and design, but obviously the interface displays the odds differently because of the alternative style of betting. It’s still incredibly clear though, so I will reiterate, this is a brilliant website for newbie bettors or exchange bettors.
Payment Methods
| Method | Min Deposit | Min Withdrawal | Fees | Withdrawal Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debit Card | £10 | £10 | 0% | 2-5 Days |
| PayPal | £10 | £10 | 0% | Up To 24 Hours |
| Skrill | £10 | £10 | 0% | Up To 24 Hours |
| Neteller | £10 | £10 | 0% | Up To 24 Hours |
| Bank Wire | £200 | £10 | 0% | 1-5 Days |
A lot of ewallet options are available at BETDAQ, which a lot of people like because of the advanced privacy they provide, so this is a good bookie if that sort of thing is important to you.
You can see from the table that minimums are industry standard at £10 too, so there is nothing alarming to report here.
BETDAQ also keep all customer deposits in a separate account, meeting the UK regulators requirements for ‘medium’ protection. The majority of bookies, especially newer brands, don’t go this far and settle for the requirements for ‘basic’ protection.
Basically, your funds are safer with BETDAQ than they might be elsewhere, which is another big tick for the brand.
When it comes to maximum payouts, there is no maximum if you are using the exchange, but for fixed odds bets via the sportsbook, the below maximums apply.
In-Play Betting
This probably isn’t the place to come for in-play betting in general, but if you have a specific event you are planning to log on for, there is a service.
Rather strangely, there isn’t an in-play interface here like you would find almost everywhere else. Instead, when you select in-play markets you are served up with all events from all sports taking place on that day.
This isn’t very helpful if you just want to browse and see what is going on, as you have the scroll down the whole page from one sport to the next, although it does show in-play events at the top of each sporting category at least.
I’m not really sure what BETDAQ are thinking here – it doesn’t work anyway.
That said, when you look at a specific game or match in event view, it’s a totally different story.
There is a great game visualisation tool built into the interface, not to mention a lot of detailed statistics, timelines, head to heads, information about the relevant league or competition – it’s a lot to get stuck into if a bit of data research is your thing.
You can even live stream horse and greyhound races from the UK and Ireland, without a funded account too which is a nice bonus, although live streaming does not seem to be available on others sports.
When it comes to the betting lines available it’s a similar story to elsewhere on the site, you will only get the more popular markets here, but the key live betting staples should be available.
All in all then BETDAQ isn’t going to be a magnet for live betting fans, but for those who are interested in a specific event, especially horse and greyhound racing punters, it’s not bad at all.
BETDAQ App
Do BETDAQ have an app? Yes they do, and it’s a great little package too.
It’s a good one to use one handed in my experience, as all of the option buttons seem to be within reach of my thumb, and by keeping things as simple as possible navigation is hassle free as well.
It’s really easy to switch between the sportsbook and the exchange using the options hidden behind the main menu button – which is where a lot of the other site options are hiding along with a full A-Z sports list if you were wondering – and a footer menu offers an easy way back to the home page, your bets, betslip, or in-play markets at all time.
When using the exchange you will need to swipe left and right to flip between backing and laying odds, but be aware that this switches the odds for every single sports and market on the page you are looking at.
In other words, you can’t view the lay odds in one event and the back odds for the event underneath, you will need to swipe each time.
This is neither or good or a bad thing, it’s just how the app works.
When using the sportsbook you are looking at the usual mechanics such as drop down menus, scrolling menus, and a betslip that pops up as it is required rather than being ever present and ever in the way.
I used the app as my main bookie for about a week and didn’t run into a single issue, and betting in-play is actually a better experience on the smaller screen with BETDAQ. I particularly liked that the stats tool opens in front of the interface so you can use it, close it, then pick up right back where you left off.
My one tip, would be to watch how quickly you scroll. The app is ridiculously responsive so if you give it a good swipe downwards you will be at the bottom of the page in about half a second, so browsing requires a more gentle touch.
Oh, you can enable biometric login with the app too, so you don’t have to put your username and password in every time. Much easier.
Who is BETDAQ Recommended For?
It would be stating the bleedingly obvious to say ‘people who want to be able to bet on an exchange’, so let me be more specific.
BETDAQ is the right bookie for someone who wants the use of a betting exchange, but are perhaps not too confident with exchange betting yet. The site is very user friendly, and the smaller number of sports keeps things manageable.
It’s also ideal if the fee structure at Betfair annoys you, as it does me. At BETDAQ it is a flat 2%, perhaps even less when promotions are running.
As a fixed odds bookmaker, BETDAQ will work for any punter who bets on typical sports and doesn’t need much depth of market. If you place an acca and a few correct score bets each week, or you back a couple of horses for a win or a place, you’ll be grand here.
The key to their appeal is the strength of the odds in these busy markets though. Researching to find the best odds is boring, so don’t bother, just bet at BETDAQ instead and you will usually be getting better than average whatever you are betting on.
About BETDAQ and Their History
Not long after Betfair disrupted the online betting sector by launching their betting exchange in 2000, BETDAQ came along to grab their own slice of the market, forming in 2000 but not opening for business until 2001.
A man called Dermot Desmond was behind the brand. Already a successful businessman, Desmond had started in the banking and finance sector, working for some of the biggest companies in the world, so you can appreciate why exchange betting appealed to him.
The man literally owned London City Airport at the time, so BETDAQ would have been little more than a pet project for him, but the business was enough of a success to wrestle some market share from Betfair, and so it chugged steadily along as the second biggest betting exchange in the UK.
However, commission from bets is not the only place the company makes money. Despite not being the biggest exchange, they are the biggest provider of exchange betting technology in the world. This means they sell their tech to other exchanges in other countries, which could quite possibly bring them in more cash than they earn from commissions in the UK.
In fact, that side of the business (Global Betting Exchange Alderney) matches more than £75 million in bets for partner companies every single week, which is more than £7 billion each year.
BETDAQ added a casino to their site in 2011, and two years later, Ladbrokes made a bit for the company, acquiring it for £25 million and integrating the betting exchange into their own website. This meant that Ladbrokes customers and BETDAQ customers could now use the betting exchanges on their separate sites but actually be betting against each other, and the hope was that this would improve the fortunes of both.
It never really worked out – Laddies customers were more interested in fixed odds betting apparently – and the exchange was basically left to rot. This was especially true once Ladbrokes and Coral merged to create a single company, then were bought out by GVC Holdings (now known as Entain).
Hilariously, in 2021 and after doing precisely nothing with BETDAQ other than adding a sportsbook in 2019, Ladbrokes sold the brand back to Dermot Desmond. The price agreed was undisclosed, but you can bet it was a heck of a let less than they bought it for given the damage they did to BETDAQ.
Since then, Desmond has been attempting to breathe new life into BETDAQ, and it appears to be working, with the company claiming an estimated 7% of the market share in 2023, despite competing with 3 other exchange betting brands in the UK.
Customer Support
You never want to have to use it, but if you do, you want it to be good.
Customer service is a big deal to bettors these days, and it’s a generally positive experience with BETDAQ.
You can contact the team via live chat, email, and while there is a phone line I have noticed it is prone to technical errors, so it might not always be available. That’s ok though, because the live chat is easy to find and use, and it doesn’t waste your time by forcing you through a series of chat bot questions before connecting you with a human either.
That’s a big bug bear of mine so thank you BETDAQ.
Customer service is available from 9am – 7.30pm, so there is a chunk of time over night where you will be on your own if you need assistance with anything, but you can always send an email if some sort of evidence of swift action is required.
They could extend these hours a little bit if you ask me. 10pm seems to be a good time as the majority of events will have concluded by then, especially even football matches which would probably see the site get a bit busier.
Happily though, while the team might not exactly burn the candle at both ends, they are incredibly good at their jobs. I have had answers in seconds from knowledgeable chat agents whenever I have been in touch.
Less complicated issues can usually be solved by using the Help section, which contains lots of answers to questions from explaining betting promotions to talking you through responsible gambling tools and payment options. The answers are long and detailed when they need to be, and short and snappy when they don’t need to waste your time.
Contact and License
- Name: BETDAQ
- URL: https://www.betdaq.com
- UK Licence ref/No: 34865
- Registered Company Name: Exchange Platform Solutions Limited
- Phone: 0800 473 0009
- E-Mail: [email protected]
- Live Chat: Available onsite
- Twitter: @BETDAQ
- Registered Company address: Millennium House, Ollivier Street,
Alderney, GY93TD, United Kingdom