The Virgin brand is one of the most famous in the world, but it is also one of the most fragmented, having at one point or another dipped its toe into seemingly every industry on the planet; mobile phones, music shops, train travel, air travel, insurance, wine, internet and television, and even commercial space flight.
Well, although Virgin Bet may look like it is part of the same company, it isn’t, not really.
Virgin Bet is run by the Livescore Group, a two-brand betting company with small offices all over the world, and it has only been around since 2019. They have licensed the brand from Virgin.
Nevertheless, in that time Virgin Bet has established itself as one of the UK’s brightest and most recognisable bookmakers, no doubt in some part thanks to the association with the famous Virgin brand.
Players are attracted to the incredibly simple user interface, ingeniously designed betting app, and the many regular customer offers that the company run, not to mention the wide ranging sportsbook and high payout limits.
- Great site for offers – Long running promotions, daily free games, and more.
- Excellent app – For my money, one of the best sports betting apps in the business.
- High payout limits – Up to £1,000,000 on horse racing and football.
Betting Markets, Features, and Odds
Virgin Bet boasts a diverse and wide-ranging sportsbook covering everything your typical bettor might want to have a punt on.
This includes all of your typical popular sports, greyhound racing from across the UK, horse racing from around the world, niche markets like esports, lacrosse, and hurling, plus some scattered specials too such as TV shows etc.
Niche markets aren’t really Virgin Bet’s focus though, so what is there will probably only be of interest to those who dip into them once in a while.
Instead, Virgin Bet pay good attention to big sports like football and tennis, and those that make up the second tier of popularity such as American sports, cricket, darts, rugby, etc.
Football is a good example of what I mean here.
So the brand don’t offer markets on every league in every country in the world – you won’t find Peruvian football markets at Virgin Bet, for instance. However, the major global leagues such as those in Germany, Italy, France, Turkey, Australia, Switzerland etc. are all covered, and the most popular have much better depth than you might find elsewhere.
I’m talking about 2 or 3 tiers deep plus domestic competitions, and in the UK there are markets going deeper than the National League, not to mention all of the big global competitions such as the Copa America, Women’s Champions League, African Cup of Nations and the like.
The brand enjoys dishing out price boosts on these sports too, so along with the large number of promotions at Virgin Bet, there is a lot of added value to be found.
Their odds seem fair enough across all of the markets I have used with them, although this in itself probably wouldn’t be a reason to choose Virgin Bet. It’s more a case of knowing you are getting a fair deal if you are someone who can’t be bothered shopping around.
It’s certainly somewhere I would go to make a bet if I didn’t have time to compare prices but wanted to feel confident in getting odds that were decent.
Betting Features
Cash out is readily available both pre-event and in-play at Virgin Bet, with a system that has been set up to be easy to use and understand.
You will be shown all bets which have cash out available, and each bet will display what cash out is worth to you at that point in time.
If you want to go for it you hit the button and the bet is settled instantly.
The bet builder is good here too, because you can flick between creating your own bet or browsing pre-made ones. A lot of sites have this all on the same page/screen and it clogs things up, whereas here it’s nice and clean.
Where stats are available a very obvious icon will appear, which when clicked, will reveal some basic information about the fixture so that you can make a more informed decision.
This isn’t unique, but the way it is implemented is very useful and user friendly.
Payments and Banking
| Method | Min Deposit | Min Withdrawal | Fees | Withdrawal Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Debit Card | £5 | £10 | 0% | 1-5 Days |
| PayPal | £10 | £10 | 0% | 24 Hours |
It’s a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to managing your money at Virgin Bet.
On the one hand, they have higher customer deposit protection levels than many other bookmakers, going further than they have to in order to appease the regulators which shows they are a responsible business.
On the other hand, your payment options will be limited to either debit cards or Paypal.
To be honest, this is a non-issue for me. I tend to use a debit card anyway, but Paypal as an alternative gives those with privacy concerns a viable option too. I understand that this could be an issue for some of you, but probably not many.
I would much rather have that higher deposit protection level than the ability to deposit with my phone bill, or via some obscure ewallet I’ve never heard of.
The processing of withdrawals is very fast in my experience too. They say within 24 hours but it’s never taken more than an hour when I have bet with them.
On top of this, Virgin Bet have a maximum payout of £1,000,000 on horse racing and football, which puts them amongst the ranks of the bookmakers with the highest payout limits in the industry.
Good news for acca fans or those wagering larger sums.
User Interface and Navigation
An online sportsbook is a complicated beast, so the design and performance of the website is a key element in what makes the experience appositive or negative one for the user.
Virgin Bet have certainly gone for the simplicity approach, keeping everything grey or white apart from the branding at the top of the page.
This does indeed make things clean and simple, although for my tastes they have gone too far in that direction. The site is very bland to look at, and it takes away from some of the intelligent design decisions.
I also think that highlighting certain options more obviously, such as the bet builder button or the toggle to view all competitions from a specific sport, would make navigation more intuitive for the user.
When I first started using the site there were a couple of occasions where I was struggling to find what I wanted, not for long admittedly, but not at all would have been better.
That said, in general the site is incredibly user friendly, with nice big odds displays and buttons and the ability to move through the website with fluidity rather than having to go backwards and forwards all the time.
The interface isn’t the quickest it has to be said – perhaps the platform provider, Kambi, can do something about that – but it certainly couldn’t be accused of being laggy or slow. It’s a website that focuses on getting the job done rather than flashy tech and power, and that’s fine.
I found the betting line filters very useful when looking at specific events as there are a lot of them, which really helps whittle down the expanse of markets, which would require a lot of scrolling to get through otherwise.
History of Virgin Bet
The story behind Virgin Bet is something of a tangle.
To understand it, you need to know a bit about the Virgin brand, set up by Richard Branson all those years ago.
The Virgin name has been associated with pretty much every industry you can imagine, but many of those companies were not actually owned by Branson himself, or indeed his company.
A lot are, or at least they are owned by a complicated web of offshore trusts and holdings companies that Branson has some control over, but many more are simply licensed.
This means Virgin allow the company to use their brand for a fee, although they don’t just dish it out to anyone with a big fat cheque book. The Virgin brand is powerful but needs to remain respectable, so any company wanting to license it needs to prove their worth.
Virgin Bet is one of these licensed companies, and the fact that Virgin have allowed them to use their brand is a very good sign.
(Incidentally, this also explains why Virgin Bet can exist with a casino, as well as Virgin Games who are owned by Gamesys – the two have nothing to do with each other in reality.)
Set up in 2019, Virgin Bet is owned by Livescore Group, a company formed to run Livescore, LivescoreBet, and Virgin Bet – the latter two brands being online bookies, and the first being a real time sports information service. Interestingly though, Virgin Bet and Livescore Bet both operate on different licenses.
Livescore dates back to 1998, so although Virgin Bet might have been new in 2019, the people behind it have been in the industry an awful long time, which is probably why they have done so well with Virgin Bet, winning SBC’s Rising Star award in 2021.
They have grown their customer base steadily over the years, fairly organically but with some help from a sponsorship arrangement with The Jockey Club, seeing the Virgin Bet name appear at various races throughout the year including at Cheltenham Festival.
Their retention numbers are high though, which tells you that once people sign up, they tend to keep going back rather than looking elsewhere. The sign of a quality bookmaker if ever there was one.
Live Betting and Streaming
On the face of it the live betting is fairly standard at Virgin Bet, but the more you dig into it, the more rewarding it becomes.
I’ll be honest, like the rest of the site, it is a bit bland to look at, however, the way things are structured and the design of the interface more than makes up for that.
You’ve got the basic in-play overview with sport filters and a few betting options as usual, and in event view you have a lot of betting line filters too. This is nothing new, but from here things get much more interesting.
One really cool thing about Virgin Bet’s live betting service, is that you can view the stream (virtual or live television) of any event on the overview interface, allowing you to keep an eye on a specific game while browsing all of the others.
This isn’t something I have seen much before, and I’m surprised because it makes a whole lot of sense and I use the feature a lot.
Live streaming is available on a range of sports including tennis, football, and horse racing, but you will need a funded account to watch them. You will have to settle for the match graphic otherwise, although to be honest this is pretty good with second by second updates. It certainly keeps you engaged.
A lot of in-play bettors really like to dig into the stats while they place their wagers, and I was surprised at just how deep they can go at Virgin Bet.
You can see all sorts of information both from the event itself and in terms of recent form, and although the depth depends on the specific game and sport you are working with, the more popular they are the more information you will be able to access.
You can also view more limited stats from the in-play overview interface, which again can be very useful at that stage without having to open the event in a new page.
It’s not the most attracting live betting service out there by any means, but in terms of features and the user experience it really impressed me.
Customer Service and Support
Virgin Bet is the sort of bookie that likes their customers to help themselves before getting in touch.
If this sounds like a snarky comment it’s not supposed to be.
It’s just that they have set up their support service in such a way that it is usually actually quicker and easier to find the answer to your query via the Help and FAQ section than by waiting for a customer service rep.
The FAQ goes into a lot of depth and is rich with information that is easy to sort, find, and understand, and the virtual assistant you meet first when you use live chat is actually one of the better ones I have used too.
Those things usually make my head explode but this one didn’t.
If you do genuinely need to speak to a real human at Virgin Bet you can email directly or go through live chat. The live chat virtual assistant will give you the option to connect to an advisor very quickly, you won’t have battle to find a way through.
I’ve had no complaints on the few occasions when I have needed to talk to them (I used live chat); I was connected in good time and questions were answered satisfactorily.
So if you don’t try and fight their system, it will more than likely work well for you.
Mobile App and Betting by Phone
The desktop site may feel a bit boring to look at, but the mobile site and app are anything but.
Even though nothing about the design has changed in terms of colour scheme, reducing everything down to the smaller screen leaves far less white space, making everything pop perfectly.
I really enjoyed using Virgin Bet’s app, and thought they came up with some ingenious ways to improve usability.
For instance, when looking at an event like a football match, there is one button which opens or closes all the collapsible market menus, but then you can open them all individually as well. It’s a brilliant bit of design that is immensely useful to the user.
All the usual filtering options are still present too, so there are many ways to move around the app and navigate from one place to the next.
It’s quicker than the desktop site too, jumping satisfyingly from one screen to the next, with pitch perfect response times each time you make a selection.
That live stream or game graphic I was talking about in the live section is still here, but the mobile site is intelligent enough to respond to a pinching action on the screen, so you can minimise it and expand it again as you go from watching the action to making a bet. It’s brilliant.
A combination of scrolling menu bars and an ever present footer menu make getting to the important stuff like sports markets, the in-play interface, your betslip, or your account options a one tap affair, and allow you move around the site as you wish, with no fixed journey to any one place.
I honestly couldn’t find a single thing I would change with Virgin Bet’s app, which is why if I am going to bet from my phone, it is my default brand to use.
Who is Virgin Bet Recommended For?
I think the majority of recreational bettors would get on very well with Virgin Bet.
Those who want to do a lot of analysis or take their betting quite seriously might find it to be on the light side, but if you are somebody who bets instinctively, or makes quite quick decisions based on knowledge and basic stats, Virgin Bet is ideally placed.
They have just the right sort of depth and range to make them appeal widely without becoming overloaded, which means the site remains easy to navigate so users can get on with what they want to do quickly.
The main attraction for Virgin Bet for me though, would be their app and their in-play betting service. Both are excellent, and when used together it’s incredibly powerful, so if you are a live bettor who bets mostly on your phone, check out Virgin Bet.
It’s a good site for people who like to get the most out of offers too, as there are plenty available on Virgin Bet, from regular promotions to price boosts and specials, it’s a bit like Betfred in that regard.
It’s probably not the sort of site that doubles up as an entertainment hub, so you wouldn’t need to spend ages on it unless you were betting in-play (although you could if you wanted to), but you can certainly log on and get a value bet here.
Contact and License
- Name: Virgin Bet
- URL: www.virginbet.com
- UK Licence ref/No: 54310
- Registered Company Name: Virgin Bet Limited
- Phone: Not Available
- E-Mail: [email protected]
- Live Chat: Available onsite
- Twitter: @VirginBet (inactive) @VirginBetHelp (suspended)
- Registered Company address: 01 World Trade Center, 6 Bayside Road,
Gibraltar, GX11 1AA, Gibraltar