Betfred Sportsbook Review
by
Eric Uribe
When we talk about O.G. sportsbooks, we get easily impressed by a betting site that was born in the β90s when the Internet was the wild wild West. But what if I told you this bookmakerβs roots go as far back as 1967? Itβs true, Betfred has been a player in the game for almost 60 years now. That doesnβt happen by chance, it happens because the guys behind it know a thing or two about running a sports gambling operation.
Fred Done is the brainchild behind Betfred. What started as a small betting shop in England has become a globe-spanning enterprise, and turned Done into a billionaire.
The Betfred name carries real weight in the United Kingdom, where it remains one of the most recognizable betting brands. Football fans may recall its stint as Manchester Unitedβs official betting partner from 2006 to 2010.
Betfred once tried to expand beyond its U.K. stronghold by entering the United States, launching its sportsbook in multiple states between 2020 and 2023. However, that push proved short-lived. In early 2024, Betfred began winding down operations, and by mid-2025 it had fully exited the U.S. market. Today, Betfred is once again focused primarily on the U.K. and select international markets.
However, there is still some interest in the platform’s activity in the US sports betting market, so we’re leaving some information up on this page for reference purposes.
States Where Betfred Bet Offers Legal Betting?
Betfred remains fully licensed across the United Kingdom and parts of Europe, but our focus here is on Betfred USA Sports, the companyβs American offshoot. In the first half of 2025, Betfred had scaled back its operations and was only active in a handful of states, namely:
- Colorado (mobile + retail)
- Iowa (mobile + retail)
- Louisiana (mobile + retail)
- Ohio (mobile + retail)
- Pennsylvania (mobile + retail)
- Nevada (retail only, at Virgin Hotels Las Vegas)
However, as mentioned above, it exited the US market entirely in mid-2025.
| State | Mobile Betting | Retail Betting |
| Arizona | β | β |
| Colorado | β | β |
| Iowa | β | β |
| Louisiana | β | β |
| Maryland | β | β |
| Nevada | β | β |
| Ohio | β | β |
| Pennslyvania | β | β |
| Virginia | β | β |
| Washington | β | β |
Betfred Sportsbook Features
One thing that was immediately clear about the Betfred Sportsbook was itβs wasn’t that deep. Look, all the major sports and leagues are available for betting. That will do for the majority of casual bettors. However, for the hardcore ones out there that like digging for value in obscure sports like, say, curling or niche soccer leagues, you probably wonβt find those lines at Betfred. Here are the main sports that Betfred offered US bettors when it was active:
- NFL
- NBA
- MLB
- NHL
- College football and basketball
- Soccer (top leagues and international events)
- Golf
- Tennis
- F1 Racing
Banking is one area where Betfred still lagged behind competitors. In the U.K., customers have access to a wider set of options, but in the U.S. the choices were more limited. Most bettors could deposit with Visa and Mastercard, but popular methods like Apple Pay and PayPal were not consistently supported across states. Instead, Betfred leant on less common platforms such as Skrill and Neteller, which see limited use among American players.
Elsewhere, there wasnβt much that stood out about Betfred during its time in the U.S. market. It never offered rewards or loyalty programs, and the platform remained largely no-frills β which may have appealed to bettors who simply wanted to place wagers and move on. Still, we found ourselves wishing for more unique features, but none ever materialized before Betfred exited the U.S. market in 2025.
Betfred Mobile Betting
Betfred never had a single unified mobile betting app in the United States. Instead, it operated several separate state-specific apps (for example, Betfred Sportsbook Ohio and Betfred Sportsbook Louisiana), which created unnecessary complexity. The drawback was clear: if you traveled from one state to another, you had to download a different app to keep betting. For instance, an Arizona user visiting Colorado couldnβt use the Arizona app while there. This fragmented system was widely seen as a poor user experience, and it was one of several shortcomings that limited Betfredβs U.S. growth before the company ultimately exited the American sports betting market in 2025.
The actual apps themselves were essentially clones of one another. What you got from the Arizona app was the same as the Colorado version, with only minor differences in promotions from state to state.
One area where Betfred did earn some praise was live betting. At the time, this was the biggest draw of mobile wagering, allowing users to place bets in real time while games were underway. Betfredβs in-play system generally performed well in our tests β odds updated quickly, there was little to no lag, and placing bets was simple. Still, these strengths werenβt enough to keep Betfred competitive in the crowded U.S. market, and the company ultimately exited in 2025.
Betfred Promotions
Betfredβs sportsbook bonuses were never a one-size-fits-all offer. Instead, they varied from state to state, so users had to check their specific site or app to see what was available at the time. For example, Betfred Colorado often had slightly different promotions than Betfred Iowa or Ohio.
Across its U.S. run, the bonus we saw most consistently was a sign-up promotion β usually structured as a first-bet refund if the initial wager lost. This was the most common welcome offer encountered by US bettors.
Betfredβs most common welcome promotion was a βno sweatβ bet worth up to $105 in free play. New users would have their first wager refunded in site credit β but only if that initial bet lost. The refund matched the stake dollar for dollar, up to the $105 limit, meaning a $50 losing bet would return $50 in free play.
The offer was underwhelming compared to what competitors were providing at the time. Both the relatively low dollar amount and the fact that it applied only to losing bets made it far less appealing. Many bettors felt Betfred needed to do better with its bonuses, plain and simple.
Betfred Customer Service
Customer service also varied depending on the state. There was no single catch-all website, phone number, or email for U.S. users. Instead, each state had its own contact information, which made the process less streamlined than with some competitors.
On the positive side, Betfred did offer four different ways to reach support in each state: email, phone, live chat on the website, and even a text-to-talk option. That last feature was fairly unique in the industry and stood out as a nice touch.
In our own experience with the Arizona customer service team, response times were reasonable and support staff handled inquiries without issue. Still, the lack of consistent contact information across states added unnecessary complexity for users.
Top Sportsbooks
As just read in our Betfred Sportsbook review, the site has some clear pros and cons to it. If youβre not quite sold on the platform or donβt have legal access to it where you live, we wanted to list alternative options. Below youβll find five bookies that rated highly in our latest sportsbook reviews. These sites are all offshore so theyβre accessible to just about anyone in every corner of the world. Get started at these sites by clicking one of the βplay nowβ buttons in the table.
