Mr. Play is the moustachioed bookmaker – I’ve no idea why, but I bet Movember is busy in their Malta based HQ.
Aside from having a cool logo though, Mr. Play is an excellent all round gambling site for the modern bettor who puts the emphasis on the fun of betting, rather than endless analysis and number crunching.
That’s not to say those who enjoy detailed research can’t do that here, but it isn’t really the focus of the site.
Launching in 2017 as an online casino, Mr. Play has seen remarkable success since adding a sportsbook vertical, serving as the ideal home for punters who want to make a good range of bets across a diverse list of sports, without going into the real nitty gritty of either.
With an easy going website that is incredibly user friendly, Mr. Play will appeal to the mass market as they provide the sports and betting lines that the majority of recreational punters will be looking for and don’t bulk out the site with anything on the extremities.
This keeps things light and airy so users won’t get bogged down in markets they just aren’t interested in.
- Great all-rounder – Punters that bet fairly simply and also play a bit of casino will get a hassle-free experience here.
- No tricks – Simple, honest odds throughout, not disguised with offers and the like.
- Streamlined – Stripping away niche content makes the website a breeze to use.
Mr Play: About the Company
Using investment money from a number of different sources, Mr. Play first launched in 2017 solely as an online casino, and are one of the success stories of the industry in recent times.
After a couple of years’ worth of good progress, they launched the sportsbook in 2019 to bulk out the brand and attract a different type of customer. It worked.
One of the most telling things about Mr. Play’s short history, is that despite the fact they are a white label with no real history or niche, and despite not throwing sponsorship money around to get their name out there, they have consistently grown their customer base and also managed a strong retention rate, speaking to the quality of the site.
So Mr. Play are a great all-round sportsbook and online casino, but that’s mainly down to the white label provider they work with, Aspire Global.
The Mr. Play brand is a joint venture mostly owned by Marketplay Ltd, who also own several other gambling brands operating in the UK space, but in truth, Marketplay aren’t really a bookmaker at all, they are just a marketing company – they don’t even have a gambling license.
Instead, they work with co-founders Aspire, who provide pretty much everything in terms of what the customer sees; the platform, the odds, the betting features, the casino, the payment processing, the gambling license etc.
The Mr. Play site used to run on the SBTech sports betting platform, but in 2021, Aspire Global had a reshuffle within its sports betting platform offering.
Having partnered with SBTech for many years as a 3rd party provider, Aspire bought a sports betting platform of their own in the way of a company acquisition. The company they bought was BtoBet, and Aspire’s white label brands were quickly shifted over to this platform, giving Mr Play a fresh new look and different capabilities.
Aspire have increased their ownership of Mr. Play as time has gone on, buying out smaller shareholders so that, despite still being the minority holder, they now own just shy of 50% of the brand, with Marketplay owning the rest.
This in itself tells you that bigger things are coming from this brand, because if a company like Aspire Global wants more of the pie, things must be going in the right direction.
User Experience: Website and Interface
A combination of the white and light blue colour scheme, and the fact that Mr. Play don’t overcrowd the site with markets that only a handful of people would ever bet on, makes the website feel nimbler than some of the big brands.
It’s not sparse by any stretch of the imagination, there is absolutely loads to browse and bet on, but the website has space to breath and navigation feels easier because the eye isn’t trying to focus on a million things at once.
The BtoBet platform and interface does Mr. Play a lot of favours with collapsible menus to make things faster and tidier, and simple filtering buttons to switch between in-play, leagues, highlights, and any boosted odds when looking at the home page of a specific sport.
The interface also allows you to place all of the available bets without actually opening an event, which, if you want to make several bets on different games makes things so much easier. It’s possible to toggle which markets show up on the main page with a single click, so you can access over/unders, BTTS, 1×2, double chance, etc. on every game in the league or competition you are looking at from one place.
Equally useful, the interface stacks your choices as you go from one sport to the next. So if you were looking at the 15:10 at Southwell, then decided to see what was going on in the Premier League, the odds for Southwell would still be there below the Premier League odds if you scroll down.
The site just opens a new unit essentially, which you can close just like a webpage if you are done with it, but if you want to jump back and forth or make comparisons it’s brilliantly innovative.
You can also use a slider to set the interface to only show events happening in the next 24 hours, 3 days, 1 week, etc. Again, this simple feature has a big impact, because it helps get rid of a lot of betting content that might not be relevant to you at the time, simplifying the process for the user.
On the down side, it’s not the fastest site in the world to be perfectly honest, and I did find myself muttering “come on…” every now and again, but this only really occurs when you have to load the interface from scratch having navigated away from it.
Once on the page and looking through the different sections within it, the site is quick, sharp, and responds well, so it doesn’t slow down your flow as you move from one market to another.
In today’s industry, it’s difficult to make a ‘bad’ online sportsbook if you ask me, there are just too many brilliant platform providers doing their jobs well, but it is equally difficult to make one that stands out from the rest.
Mr. Play have managed that though in my opinion, with a few unique website features that genuinely improve the user experience.
What Markets Can You Bet On?
I’ve said that Mr. Play don’t really try to cater to the super niche end of the market, and that’s true, but there is still way more to bet on than most punters will ever need.
There are niche sports like volleyball, floorball, water polo and lacrosse, for example, but you might only have access to outright markets, or if event markets are available they will usually be limited to a handful of simple singles.
Similarly, although horse and greyhound racing are available it is limited to UK and Irish races, where many bulkier sites would also have races from the rest of the world.
There is much greater depth of market in the likes of football, basketball, ice hockey, cricket etc. though, with leagues from around the globe and loads of betting lines per event too. As a small snapshot to give you an idea, when I last looked there would 60+ markets per event on Australian cricket, the same on Israeli basketball, 125+ on Premier League and Championship football, and around 85+ of Leagues 1 and 2.
As you can see, it’s not the 300+ you get at some bookies, but then a lot of those lines are really quirky ones that very few people actually utilise.
At Mr. Spin, you get all of the popular stuff, and a little bit more, but you won’t be swamped in obscure extra options that probably won’t appeal to you anyway.
So yes, the availability of betting markets is more limited at Mr. Play, but deliberately so. If you are someone that places accas or straight forward singles, you don’t need all that extra stuff, it just gets in the way.
Actually then, Mr. Play provides exactly what the majority of people are looking for in a much more convenient way, so don’t get hung up on the market numbers or depth if it doesn’t realistically apply to you.
What About the Odds?
They seemed fair enough to me.
I feel like I’m repeating myself a lot here, but again, Mr. Play’s odds tend to be around the middle of the road compared to other bookies.
They might not be market leading but they are certainly not trying to pull the wool over your eyes and sneak in cheeky margins.
That goes for pre-match and in-play markets, they are pretty consistent with the balance of their prices.
It would be impossible to check the odds for absolutely everything, but using the Premier League as a bench mark, they were taking around an 8% margin on 1×2 markets. You will get bookies touting margins as low as 2% here sometimes, but they tend to increase the margin elsewhere to make up for it – Mr. Play just keep things simple across the board.
The received wisdom is that 10% is what bookies like to make overall, and they can muck about with different betting lines to achieve this, but at 8%ish Mr. Play are sitting nicely under that threshold.
They aren’t huge on offers and promotions, but these odds can be improved upon a little if you place accas, for example, as they often boost winnings on them, and they do sometimes upgrade odds on big markets too.
Betting In-Play
If you fancy a wager on a game that has already started, then Mr. Play has you covered.
Their interface for live betting is usefully split into what is on now, and what is upcoming, giving you a fully rounded picture of the day, and allowing you to plan.
It’s not all that impressive to look at, but it certainly does the job well, providing odds for a few major markets from the overview as well as access to some statistical information on each event, as well as the ability to ‘favourite’ fixtures so you can keep all of those you are interested in betting on in the same place.
There are a good selection of in-play markets at Mr. Play, and any changes are very clearly indicated by red and green arrows showing odds shortening or lengthening.
I liked the various different options available in event view too, such as stats, head to heads, form, ATP ranking for tennis, table standings for football and other appropriate sports, etc.
There isn’t any streaming, and the match graphic isn’t that exciting either, so it’s not the best place if you want to feel involved in the game, but you can always watch it on a different screen and take advantage of all the betting info offered by Mr. Play.
Switching between the different live betting features mentioned above is a little bit laggy sadly, but that’s a feature of the site in general. As I have said before, you notice it, but it’s not so bad as to annoy you.
Again, more than sufficient for most bettors.
Banking: Deposits and Withdrawals
| Method | Min Deposit | Min Withdrawal | Fees | Withdrawal Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debit Card | £10 | £10 | 0% | Up to 6 Days |
| PayPal | £10 | £10 | 0% | Up To 2 Days |
| Skrill | £10 | £10 | 0% | Up To 2 Days |
| PaySafeCard | £10 | N/A | - | N/A |
| Bank Wire | £10 | £10 | 0% | 2-6 Days |
One thing you certainly won’t be short on at Mr Play, is payment options.
This is one of those bookies that accept deposits by pretty much every major payment provider in the industry, and some that are less well known too.
You can see the details in the table above but there are more obscure options than i’ve listed here, all of which point to the fact that Mr Play really is a bookie aimed at the younger end of the market who are more likely to want to use ewallets and the like, those in their 20s, 30s, and 40s probably.
In my own experience using a debit card, deposits and withdrawals have been incredibly quick, so I can only imagine that transactions using ewallets will be just as fast if not faster.
The maximum win limit is a little disappointing, especially for anyone who likes to get excited about insane acca odds and the like, but considering the size of the company you can understand why they have stuck to the £90,000 cap.
Still, it’s something I hope to see increase as time goes on; I know it isn’t something that will cause an issue 99.5% of the time – how often do you make a bet with a £90k+ payout – but for those with deeper pockets, they will simply go elsewhere.
The terms are clear though, which is good, and is an indication of the company’s good standing.
Using the App and Mobile Site
As betting apps and mobile websites go, Mr. Play’s effort is probably somewhere in the middle of the rankings table.
It can stutter on big loads and isn’t always the fastest, but it’s totally useable and won’t make you want to throw your phone out of a window.
There are some pretty horrendous reviews of the app out there which initially put me off, but although speed is not one of its’ selling points, those app reviews are very outdated if you ask me, perhaps from when it first launched.
I’ve used the app for a while now after downloading it to try out, and never had any big issues. The fact that it is still on my phone is probably a good indication.
Like I said, it’s a bit jittery sometimes when things load up – you might think a page has loaded only for another unit to pop up and push the information you were looking at further down the page, for example – but much like the main site, this only really happens on the initial load.
Jumping from one market to another causes no such issues, the app is very responsive to placing bets and selecting filtering options, and in general it’s a perfectly pleasant experience.
The design could be improved, for example you often find yourself having to hit the back button rather than being able to flow through the site more ergonomically, but it’s a minor point really.
Selecting a sport from the A-Z is actually much easier on the app/mobile site thanks to a scrolling menu that you can whiz along until you find what you are looking for – I would say it’s even quicker than using the search function to be honest – and there are quick links back to home, in-play betting, your bets, and more via an extendable footer menu that is ever present.
The only other thing I would say, is that the odds are displayed greyed out for some reason, making it seem at first as though they are unavailable.
I’m not sure why they have done this as it doesn’t match the desktop site, and also makes them more difficult to decipher which is surely the opposite of what you would want, but anyway, there we are.
Is Mr Play Right for You?
I have a portfolio of betting accounts, but I tend to use Mr. Play when I want to make a bet quickly; it’s the bookie I turn to when I already know what I want to bet on, what bet I want to make, and I just want to get it done.
If faff, cross selling, and endless scrolling to find your market get you peeved, then Mr. Play will solve these problems for you.
Essentially, Mr. Play have aimed themselves at the largest part of the market; millennials who bet maybe once or twice a week for fun, using the most popular markets on the most popular sports.
So this is what Mr. Play offer, and they do so in such a way that it makes the process incredibly easy, by also offering as many payment options as possible.
They make this work for themselves by keeping payout limits lowish, but not so low that anyone will really notice, limiting extra features, and keeping customer service streamlined but effective.
It’s a model that works for everyone involved, so unless you have very unique betting tastes or are a real heavy researcher and number cruncher who does a lot of complicated hedging and the like, Mr. Play probably will be right for you, yes.
Casino on the Side
Now obviously Mr. Play launched as a casino in the first instance, so this side of things is very much under control.
If you like to spin the slots or try a few hands of cards than Mr. Play are perfectly placed to entertain you, with absolutely loads of titles to choose from, a live casino packed with tables streamed to your screen, and plenty of jackpots too.
The casino site works brilliantly, and since it is a much simpler beast than a sportsbook anyway, the interface gives you absolutely no trouble in browsing for games, switching between them, etc.
Customer Support Services
What with Mr. Play being a white label, what you get in terms of customer service is the team at Aspire Global – so they are not direct employees of Mr. Play per se.
That doesn’t matter though, because they have access to all the info they need to help you with your account, and since they are open from 8am until midnight early risers and night owls alike will be well looked after.
You are limited to live chat or email, but it’s a really good service and you can even upload documents via live chat, so if you ever run into any identification issues or anything like that it can usually be solved all in the same place, with the agent at the other end able to download anything you need to show them.
You may not need them at all if you use Mr. Play’s FAQ.
It works as a pop-up window within the interface so doesn’t take you away from the page like some others do, and although it is fairly basic in design the content is useful and to the point. I would go here as a first point of call as if your query isn’t too complicated the answer will probably be there, and it’s quicker than contacting the support team.
There are brands out there with more in-depth customer support services it’s true, but like everything else with Mr. Play, for most people, this will be more than adequate.
Contacting Mr Play and Viewing License
- Name: Mr Play
- URL: mrplay.co.uk
- UK Licence ref/No: 39483
- Registered Company Name: Marketplay Ltd
- White Label Company: AG Communications Ltd
- E-Mail: Contact form onsite
- Live Chat: Available onsite
- Twitter: @mrplaySport1
- Registered Company address: (AG Communication) High Street 135, Sliema, SLM 1548, Malta