At the start of the 2020s, a company called Dribble Media were in the process of launching their new esports website off the back of folding their first product, a fantasy football app.
This esports betting site was Midnite, and shortly afterwards it became the sportsbook I am reviewing in this article. The unique start to life is a huge reason to give Midnite your attention, especially if you are a fan of esports, because this is still a main focus of the site, making Midnite arguably the best esports bookie in the UK with at least 15 different games to bet on.
Plenty of care and attention has been given to other markets though, with horse racing, boxing and football being a few other categories that are good for punters here, not to mention the casino and virtuals.
Midnite has been designed mobile first, and is very much aimed at the more modern day punter, offering an in-house platform and interface that serves the user incredibly well while at the same time providing somewhere to bet that is a little bit different to all of the cookie cutter white labels out there.
It’s not one of those bookies that is stuffed with obscure sports and markets (although there is more than enough depth for the average punter) but this means the site is blissfully easy to use and to navigate, as well as looking pretty darn good into the bargain.
- Esports specialists – If there is a better bookie for esports markets then I haven’t heard of them.
- Proprietary platform – They built their site themselves, so it has a unique vibe and is enjoyable to use.
- Outstanding mobile betting – Their app is also developed in-house and performs to very high standard.
Proprietary Website
It’s a rare thing that a brand new independent bookie comes along, isn’t a white label, and has its’ own proprietary platform and website, but that is a perfect description of Midnite.
Due to the company’s history and the founders’ knowledge of tech, Midnite is a bookmaker operating on an in house platform that has been designed to deliver a user journey that is specific and targeted.
In terms of the layout it isn’t a million miles away from what a lot of other bookmakers (or more accurately, platform providers) have gone for; a sports list down the left, the most prevalent or user selected content in the middle, and the betting slip on the right.
However, when you begin to use the site properly and explore in more depth, you notice the small things that have been included which improve the all round experience.
There are nice options like the ability to create a favourites list, drop downs to set which betting markets you would like as a default on overview pages, and a brilliant bet builder toggle that filters the betting markets for an event if you want to build your own bet. There is a similar toggle in the horse racing area to filter out races outside of UK and Ireland.
I think the thing that ties all of these things together is the ease of use. Almost everything on the site can be achieved in a single click, and it’s all 100% intuitive – I can’t think of a single time betting with Midnite that I struggled to find what I was looking for.
The soft black and grey colour scheme, peppered with lime green branding, white writing, and colourful sports category icons make the site feel very modern, polished, and stylish, but also help with navigation. This is because your eye is only drawn to important information, so despite having lots of content, the interface is very simple to use.
I suppose it could be quicker, but please don’t mistake that comment to mean the site is in any way slow, it’s really not, it’s just that some sites are a smidgeon quicker. You will see a loading wheel every now and again at Midnite, but if you blink you’ll miss it.
Lastly, the esports section of the site is managed independently, so when selected, although the layout remains the same the options available will change to only show esports related categories. This allows esports fans to use Midnite as an esports only site as it was originally designed to be, without limiting what can be bet on for punters who have more diverse tastes.
What Sports Can You Bet on at Midnite?
Midnite was always established to be an esports focussed site, only adding additional sports categories after the initial launch, but despite this there are still around 28 different sports categories to explore.
I have noticed that they aren’t all active all of the time, but helpfully, when there is no market availability within a certain sport, that sports is dropped to the bottom of the A-Z and the writing is greyed out, so you don’t waste time checking.
This only really applied to more niche markets of course, categories like football, horse racing, greyhound racing, tennis and boxing are always busy, and with plenty of market depth too; but for example, futsal, beach volleyball and American football were greyed out on my last visit (it was off season for American football).
When I talk about market depth I mean all UK and Irish racing as well as selected international races; I mean top tier football from the likes of Morrocco, Algeria, and Korea, as well as all English leagues down to the National League and the Women’s championship, plus a few second tier leagues from European countries such as France, Italy and Germany; I mean basketball from not just the NBA, but also Japan’s B1 League, the Georgian Superleague, and the Finnish Korisliiga.
You will find greater depth at bigger bookmakers, but when was the last time you bet on the 3rd tier of Belgian football, or some obscure Romania ice hockey game?
Again, in keeping with Midnite’s approach, they are going to appeal to the vast majority of regular punters, and offer just enough in the niche markets to allow those punters to expand their horizons if they should want to. There is no point overwhelming the site with options no one will bet on though, so they don’t do it.
Before I finish, I would point out that this is a surprisingly good site for alternative horse racing bet types. I have seen betting without, top 2, 3, 4 finishers, over/under on winning distance as well as ranges, and more. Of course you can create all sorts of multiples too, but this is done via the betslip.
Esports Markets
Given that esports is Midnite’s speciality, I will cover it separately.
The esports markets are actually kept apart from the rest of the sports book, but it only takes a click of the menu bar to get to them, and when you see the extent of them you can understand why they have their own interface.
There are 15 different games available to bet on, with League of Legends, Fifa, Counter Strike, DoTa2, and NBA2k being just a handful, although not all can be streamed which I found a bit weird considering this is Midnite’s USP.
Nevertheless, there is still more esports to bet on here than pretty much anywhere else on the internet, they even have specials, and with lots of betting lines too, such as overtime y/n, correct score, number of kills, over/under on total maps played, match handicaps, and more.
When matches are in-play there are stats and head to heads you can access too, as well as information on the rosters, but one of the key attractions is the fact that cash out is available on every single esports market.
You can add the different games as favourites too, so you can technically add esports markets to the sports betting interface if you want to, making for a handy little shortcut to specific games.
Odds and Offers
If shed loads of offers and promotions are what you are used to, then Midnite could perhaps seem a little sparse when you first sign up.
Remember though, it’s not all about flash bonuses and offers, there is much more to consider.
Midnite do have a nice suite of promotions, spread across the casino and the sportsbook, but they tend to take the form of loyalty bonuses by another name,
For example, best odds guaranteed is not available here (which they should introduce as soon as they can afford to if you ask me), and things like insurance offers don’t exist either in my experience.
Instead, they focus on various different bet clubs, so regular punters can definitely get value for money, but it’s more likely to be in the form of free bets rather than ‘money back if’ type promotions and the like.
There are quite a few odds boosts though, and these are worth a glance as they may well be covering something you were interested in betting on anyway, and you don’t want to leave value on the table.
The odds are about average from the sample I studied, but I did notice that esports markets enjoy better value than say tennis, and the likes of football and horse racing can be a bit more volatile depending on what is going on. For example, Midnite offered industry leading odds on some of the favourites at Cheltenham festival, but that wouldn’t be the case at the majority of races.
Live Betting and Streaming
Betting in-play is a breeze at Midnite, although it’s probably not their strongest area.
There isn’t as much live action here as you can find elsewhere, so it’s probably best used when you already know what events you would like to bet on rather than as a place to go just to see what is available.
It’s a great interface though, pretty simple when looking at the live betting overview, but much more detailed and involved in event view.
The overview is a very simple way to see what is going on, which sports have live events currently in-play, the live score, timings, and the ability to make a quick match result bet if you want to.
You can also expand each event to show some stats on the overview page which isn’t something I have seen before, but makes the interface much more useful.
Looking at a single event, you will have varying levels of information depending on the event in question; big games in popular leagues will have more than obscure matches in niche categories.
A Premier League match, for example, will deliver the best live betting experience, with a match graphic depicting the action moment by moment, and also more statistics from the game so far.
Betting markets can be filtered by category (goals, set, team, handicaps, etc.), but I have never noticed any betting lines that were overly specific to live betting, like fast markets and the like – the majority could be placed pre-match too.
There is some streaming here, although it is limited to selected horse racing and esports at the moment. However, the fact that streaming has been supported at all at such an early stage in the bookies’ journey is encouraging, so I would expect more to come.
Mobile App
If the desktop website was good, then the mobile app is truly excellent.
It looks and feels brilliant while you are using it, and although it has obviously been resized a little bit so as to be optimised for a mobile screen, it’s very similar to the desktop site so feels instantly familiar.
Midnite started out as a fantasy football betting app called Dribble, so it’s perhaps no surprise that the mobile offering is so cleverly put together, and in all probability the app was the main focus for the company in the first place.
It’s smooth, it’s cool, it’s slightly edgy – perfect for the target market of modern bettors in their 20s, 30s and 40s.
Again, the package has been developed in house, so while it has a lot of similarities to apps from other brands, there are tell tale signs that this is a product that is a little different, more unique.
The A-Z exists both within a hidden menu (under the ‘find’ option which is also a search function) as well as at the top of the site as a scrolling menu of sports icons, giving multiple navigational options to the user, while the account management options can also be found as part of this hidden menu.
I’m not sure that two of the options on the footer menu at the bottom of the screen should be casino themed, given that users of the Midnite sports betting app will be there to place bets first and foremost, but that’s not exactly a big deal. Still, it would be better to replace one of these with perhaps an esports option since that is Midnite’s USP.
The app and the mobile website both perform very well indeed in terms of power and reliability.
I love how quickly the interface responds to commands. You can scroll and stop with surprising accuracy and speed, with actions such as placing bets or selecting a sport category resulting in almost instantaneous responses.
The betslip pops up when you select a price on a market, and is easily minimised if you want to add more selections, so it doesn’t ever feel intrusive and creating accas an the like stays fluid.
There are occasions where the only option you have is to hit the back button a few times, but because the site is so intuitive it’s not an annoyance, especially not when it can perform actions as quickly as it does.
Mobile first punters should get on well with Midnite in my opinion. It never gets in your way and is genuinely enjoyable to use.
About Midnite: Company History
The story behind Midnite is interesting in a number of ways.
Firstly, the company was set up by a group of young Americans, but they chose to launch their product in the UK despite most of them not being based here.
This was back in 2015, when online gambling was really taking off in the UK and before many of the regulations that guide the industry today were put in place.
Secondly, the company actually launched as a daily fantasy football app, called Dribble.
The hugely successful American daily fantasy sports website, Draft Kings, entered the UK around the same time, so there was clearly a bit of a push by the DFS industry in 2015/2016. It was big business in America, but relatively untouched in the UK, which explains why the guys behind Dribble chose the UK over the US – they saw a gap in the market, and being one of the very first DFS brands in the country could potentially pay dividends.
Dribble allowed friends to build fantasy football teams and compete against each other for money or just for fun, but it was also possible to set up a league that others could join, again for money or for fun.
By all accounts it was a very good product, but fantasy sports never really took off in the UK in the way it did over in America, so growth was slower than anticipated.
Another niche market that was on the up though, was esports, so the guys at Dribble changed tack, closed down the fantasy football app in 2018, and relaunched as a esports bookie. This was where the name Midnite came in, with Dribble Media remaining the name of the company at the top, but as a brand, Dribble was retired.
Midnite didn’t offer markets in any other sports at this point, clearly still trying to conquer a niche rather than casting the net wider, but that strategy wasn’t profitable enough, so pretty soon it became a full sportsbook, but still with an emphasis on esports.
They secured a lot of funding with which to develop this new sportsbook product, and in 2022 Midnite went on something of a hiring spree, more than doubling their numbers in order to cope with the growth of the business.
And this is why today, Midnite is the well stocked sportsbook that it is, still running on their own in house proprietary platform, and feeling like a product that is unique and contemporary.
Payment Methods: Deposit and Withdrawal
| Method | Min Deposit | Min Withdrawal | Fees | Withdrawal Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debit Card | £5 | £5 | 0% | 2-5 Days |
| PayPal | £5 | £5 | 0% | 24-48 Hrs |
As i’ve said, Midnite is a bookie squarely aimed at the modern bettor, so as you would expect, the payment methods they accept are geared towards this type of cutomer.
Yes, debit cards are accepted as normal, but Paypal and Trustly are the two other options that might be more appealing to punters who prefer a single online wallet over passing around your actual bank details.
You won’t find more antiquated options like Paysafecard though, so if that’s your go to option this isn’t the bookie for you, Grandpa.
I suppose they could include more payment methods if they really wanted to please everyone, but I think what’s there already would be sufficient for the vast majority of people, so why complicate things by bulking out the banking area?
I’m a new customer to Midnite myself, so I have only made a handful of withdrawals, but each one has been quick and seamless so the stated withdrawal timeframes seem to be worst case scenarios rather than the norm.
The only thing you need to keep an eye on is the maximum payout values, because for most sports they are fairly low as you can see below.
Midnite aren’t trying to do you dirty here, they are an independent bookmaker who do not have the resources of the big names, so they can’t offer the same upper winnings caps without risking the failure of their business.
These will no doubt rise as the business grows, but apart from the odd high stakes punter, it shouldn’t impact you unless you have a particularly long odds acca on or something like that.
I can’t remember the last time I placed a bet which had a potential payout of £40k or more…
Who is Midnite Recommended For?
Would it be way too obvious to say esports bettors?
Honestly, if this is a market you are even slightly interested in, Midnite is arguably the best bookie in the industry. The only reason you don’t already know about them is because they don’t have the marketing budget of some of their rivals.
You can find games here that even other esports ‘specialists’ don’t cover, and they are actively trying to improve this part of their offering too. In short, Midnite care about esports as much as you do, so they will be hard to beat.
I would also recommend Midnite for anyone who considers themselves a modern punter, someone who probably bets more on mobile than on desktop but wants both products to be equally impressive, and someone who prefers an interface that is simple and easy to use rather than bloated with fancy features you will hardly if ever use.
Customer Service and Support
Like I have said throughout this review, Midnite is a modern bookie for the bettor of today’s busy tech heavy world, so all contact options are online.
That means no phone support, but the live chat and email contact options are available 24/7, so you will never have to wait for a response if you have reason to get in touch.
It would be insane if their office didn’t have a phone though, even if they don’t give the number out, so if they ever did need to talk to you about something super serious i’m sure it would be possible.
I have used the live chat feature a number of times, and it’s probably the best I have used.
This is because the intelligent AI actually answers your question in the first instance, and is often really helpful too (I know, that barely ever happens, but I promise it did at Midnite); then, you can tell the live chat that it helped, or request to talk to a human.
No messing about, no maze like journey to navigate before you get hold of a human being, just well designed and intelligently thought through solutions.
If all this tech stuff is blowing your mind, Midnite also invite communication via old fashioned letters in the post, so if you like your customer support interactions to take weeks when they could take minutes, use the address in the section below to drop them a line.
Online Casino
Just before I finish, it bares mentioning that Midnite also boast a neat little online casino and live casino.
A lot of younger sports bettors enjoy some online casino play as well, and since Midnite is a brand more likely to appeal to those between their 20s and their 40s, this could be an important factor.
I don’t know why I used the word ‘little’ just then, because the slots alone amount to more than 1200 games, and that’s before we even touch on the table games like roulette, baccarat, blackjack, solitaire, or instant win scratch games, bingo, poker, or slingo. Of course, jackpots exist here too.
These games come from 30+ of the biggest and best game developers in the business, plus another 3 who provide the live casino, which gives you a good idea of how big that part of the site is.
Casino players who have never placed a sports bet in their lives would love Midnite, so punters with a penchant for the slots will have no complaints whatsoever.
Contact and License
- Name: Midnite
- Registered Company Dribble Media Ltd
- UK licence ref/No: 42647
- URL: http://www.midnite.com/
- Live Chat: Available onsite
- Phone: Not available
- E-Mail: [email protected]
- Twitter: @Midnite
- Registered company address: 86-90 Paul Street, LONDON, EC2A 4NE, United Kingdom