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Sports Betting UK

Joel Kelly, Updated 2022-05-18T10:39:32+0000

Sports betting is more popular than ever, and this is mostly thanks to online betting. If you’re curious how to place a bet online, you’ve come to the right place at Bojoko! Our team’s aim is to help you bet online in the UK, which is done by aiding in the choice of a bookmaker suited to your needs.

Betting online in the UK is nowadays more prevalent than at betting booths, and if you want to bet online on mobile, nearly all sites in 2022 offer the option. Sports bets can be placed on tons of different sites, which is where Bojoko and our bookmaker tool with its filters come in, so you can choose the exact features you want on your site.

Sports betting - Contents of the page

There's plenty to know about sports betting, which is why we have covered it extensively on this page. Click on the quick links below to get straight to the point on what seems interesting to you on this page.

Bojoko - The number 1 portal for helping with UK sports bets

If you've never ventured to our site before, then as a sports bettor from the UK you've come to the right place! Bojoko's goal is to be the best help available online with choosing betting sites, and all the sites you can find here are safe, responsible, tax-free, and operating legally under the UK Gambling Commission license.

Every single bookmaker at Bojoko has to also pass our own strict criteria of operating in a trustworthy manner, as we want to provide our readers with only the best betting sites on the market. Each bookmaker has been reviewed by our experts, and all readers can also write their own experiences and thoughts on any bookie of their choosing.

The best way to choose a betting site is by using our bookmaker tools, which allows you to filter the bookmakers based on their features, such as the betting software they use, welcome offers, football betting, their rating by users or experts, minimum deposit, cashout, live streams and many more.

At Bojoko we also have plenty of pages to help you search and use for the best betting offers on the market, whether it be betting bonuses, free bets, cashback offers, risk-free bets, or even free betting money!

Best betting sites

Find trustworthy and legal betting sites through Bojoko

New betting sites

Bookmaker reviews

Online betting in a nutshell

Bojoko is the UK’s number 1 portal for online betting, but what is online betting? Betting in itself has been a part of British culture for hundreds of years, but since the turn of the millenium more and more bettors have turned towards computers, smart phones and tablets.

Betting from the comfort of your home or anywhere in the world at any time is undoubtedly fun, especially when compared to hauling yourself to your local betting booth in pouring rain. Adding to this, there are many more online betting sites than booths from different companies, giving players far better options!

It’s actually smarter to have an account on a lot of different online bookmakers, as it helps you always place your bets with the best available odds on the market - certainly easier than walking in that rain around town into different booths!

There are plenty of options on where to bet at as a British player. Practically all big betting companies from the UK have an online presence, and joining them are more international bookmakers like LeoVegas and STSBet.

Placing a bet online is extremely easy, but first you need an account on a betting site. Registering an account can luckily be done in just a couple of minutes, after which you can start your betting journey by placing your bets.

If this all still seems a bit alien, Bojoko has cooked up a step-by-step guide below on how to get started with placing your bets online!

Check out our list of betting sites from the top of this page, or any other page at Bojoko.
Use our bookmaker tool's customizable filters to only show bookmakers with the exact features that you want.
When you've found the right betting site for you from the list, click on the green "Play here" -button, which will take you straight to the bookmaker in question.
You can also first check out our review of the site, like these ones on Ladbrokes and Kwiff.
At the site you will be greeted with a landing page, and by following the instructions on it you will be able to create your account.
After this and making your first deposit, you will be ready to start betting!

Placing your first bet online on different sites

In 2022 there are dozens, even hundreds of different betting sites available to UK players. However, all of them are definitely not up to scratch, which is why at Bojoko we only feature bookmakers who are operating legally under the esteemed UK Gambling Commission license.

Whichever bookie you end up choosing through us is therefore guaranteed to be complying with regulations and safe in general, and when thinking of creating an account on new bet sites, you should always look for the UKGC logo at the bottom of the page.

Sites not operating under this license are not authorized to offer services to UK players, but you may still be able to create an account on them. This is definitely not recommended, as your hard-earned money will not be safe on these sites, and there are no guarantees of ever seeing them again.

Otherwise there isn’t much practical difference between betting sites, as you always need to create an account, make a deposit and place your bets. There are also KYC regulations to be followed, which means that you may be required to present the site with these documents when starting playing on a site or withdrawing for the first time.

Betting KYC - What you might be asked when creating an account

KYC means Know Your Customer, and there are some regulations put in place by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission concering this and betting sites. This is to make sure no underage gambling is possible, or any other sort of crimes.

This might sound like a chore, but sending documents to a betting site is actually pretty easy. It can usually be done through it's own section in your account, or alternatively via customer support. You aren't always asked for documents straight away or even when you're making your first withdrawal, but when you are the following information may be required:

Proof of your identity = A picture of your passport, national id card or driver’s license
Proof of your address = A picture of a recent utility bill which shows your full name. Bank statements and official government letters will also suffice
Proof of payment method = This is not always needed, but if asked then a screenshot from your online bank/payment method or a picture of your card will do

How to make money from online betting in 2022

For some, online betting is purely a form of entertainment, while for others it’s a profession that brings the food to their table. Everyone likes winning though, so Bojoko will now provide you with some tips and tricks to making money from online betting in 2022.

There is no magical formula however, and betting is always a game of chance. There are plenty of things you can do though to get an advantage on your chances of winning, such as:

Comparing odds - This is probably the most important thing you can do! By having an account on multiple different sites you can always find the highest odd for your bet, earning you hundreds, even thousands of pounds long term
Take advantage of welcome offers - Many sites offer new players a welcome offer of some kind. The most common ones of these are betting bonuses, free bets and cashbacks, which will all provide you with extra pounds to start your betting career with! The best ones of these can even be up to bet 5 get 30.
Stick to the sports you know - While all the different betting options available may sound enticing, if you’re looking to make money, it’s best to stick with what you know. This applies to both sports and leagues, but more so to sports. This applies especially to sports like football, where you for example understand home advantage.
Single bets over accumulators - Accumulators always look nice on your screen with massive wins available, but the cold hard truth is, single bets will yield more profit when betting professionally

How to know if a bet is profitable

If you are interested in using online betting as a venture to make profit, you need to understand how odds work. A general rule bookmakers always adher to is that odds are always in correlation with probabilities. This means that if you see an odd, there is always a corresponding probability.

Placing +EV, or profitable bets is done by making your own evaluation of the probability of a bet. After this, you compare your own evaluation to the odds, and if the probability you've given the bet winning is higher than the evaluation of the bookmaker, you have a probitable bet!

It is in fact possible to calculate the probability of the odds given directly from the odds, making profitable bets easier to analyse. This can be done with a simple equation like this:

1 / the odds x 100
So, for example if the odds on offer are 1/1 (2.00), the equation would be 1 / 2 x 100 = 50%. This means that if by your own evaluation your bet will win more than 50% of the time, it's for sure a profitable bet.
As another example, if the odds are 1/2 (1.50), the equation is 1 / 1.5 x 100 = 66,67%. So if you think that your bet will win 65% of the time, based on the odds your bet will not be profitable.

By making your bets like this, you will definitely see better results long term, unless of course you are especially bad at making judgements on probabilities! The more +EV bets you make, the more likely you are to win.

Is there a tax on betting winnings in the UK?

People from all around the world often ask us at Bojoko about taxes and betting. This is an extremely good and important question, and the answer depends entirely on the laws of your country.

Luckily for players from the UK the news is good, as there is no tax on betting winnings in the UK. This has been the case since the 2005 Gambling act. However, you must remember that this only applies to bookmakers licensed by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission.

If a bookie does not have this license, they are in fact not allowed to operate in the UK at all, so naturally you should never create an account on these sites. Like we've mentioned before, this won't be a problem when choosing a betting site through Bojoko, since all the sites on our site operate under the UKGC license.

Betting Online - Frequently Asked Questions

Placing a bet online in 2022 is no more difficult than doing anything else online, but there are a few things that you need to do first. To place a bet you need to have an account at a betting site, and Bojoko provides you with all the best and safest places to bet.

After creating your account you need to confirm your identity (sometimes address and payment method as well), after which you’re good to go!

Betting can sound dauntingly complex to some, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. At the betting site of your choosing, you can see all the matches available, with the odds on offer for each bet. After this, all you have to do is choose which match and bet to place your wager on along with the amount you want to bet.

After this, you wait for your bet to settle. If your bet wins, you will receive your wagered amount + an additional amount depending on the odds. So for example a bet with 1/1 odds means if you bet £1, you will receive you win £1+ your bet of £1, odds of 2/1 means you win £2 + your bet of £1 etc. Odds can also be shown in other forms, like 1/1 = 2.00, 2/1 = 3.00 etc.

In the United Kingdom, the age limit for gambling is 18. If you are under this age, you will have to wait before starting your betting journey. The UK is on the lower end of this spectrum, as in many countries like the USA and Belgium you need to be 21 years old to gamble. This applies to both betting booths and online gambling, and before playing players are required to prove their identity.

Making money from betting is never guaranteed, but there are plenty of steps you can take to help ensure a successful bet. First and foremost, you want to place your bet with the best odds available on a top-quality site, of which plenty of examples can be found at Bojoko. You also need to know plenty of tips and betting strategies, of which Bojoko also provides articles.

At Bojoko our goal is to be the most helpful website out there in helping people choose from the vast amount of betting sites on offer. We offer accurate user and expert reviews on all sportsbooks listed on our site, and by using our revolutionary bookmaker tool you can filter all the elements you want to find from your betting site of choice.

All of the online betting sites you can find at Bojoko are fully licensed by the UK Gambling Commission, so whatever you end up choosing from our catalogue, tax-free winnings + the safety and security of the site are guaranteed.

By playing on sites licensed by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission, your winnings from betting will always be tax-free. So, if you choose a sports betting site through us, you will never have to pay any tax on your betting wins.

Article by:

Joel Kelly

Joel has worked in the iGaming industry for nearly a third of his life, with almost a decade of experience with casinos, sports betting and poker. During this time he has had the opportunity of testing dozens of different bookies, casinos and poker sites, with his focus currently being managing Bojoko's UK sports betting content.