Ladbrokes Review

Ladbrokes are one of the oldest bookmakers in the world and for anyone looking to build up a portfolio of operators, this is one of the first places to start. They currently offer a very generous welcome bonus up to £50 together with some excellent ongoing promos and those are further reasons to get involved.

But was it easy to sign up and claim that bonus? Here’s what I found.

Ratings

The Welcome Offer

Ladbrokes’ welcome offer is displayed in two separate places on the home page and you can either access it via the promotions tab or you can see a separate icon that details the bonus in full. As it states, there is a £50 free bet up for grabs here and the bookie makes this easy to find.

Terms and conditions are quickly accessed but perhaps these could be easier to read. As you can see from the above image, they are laid out as one complete block of text but they would be simpler to follow if all relevant points were listed down the page in numerical order.

Others may disagree but I found this hard to follow and would have liked things shown more clearly although the points are fair and there are no unjust penalties or complicated rollover terms.

Registration

The really important point to remember here is that Ladbrokes require a promotional code to be entered when you sign up. The code itself is F50 and they remind you of this at every given point so there’s really no excuse for forgetting to input it.

As for the registration itself, this is really simple with just one page of text required (see the pic on the right here).

Incidentally, the verification process is also straightforward and unlike other bookmakers who requested a copy of my UK passport within 72 hours, Ladbrokes had run some background checks and quickly confirmed that they were happy with my identity.

So, after inputting these very basic details it was time to fund that new account and start playing.

Funding

To take advantage of the 100% matched welcome bonus you must use either a debit card or Paypal. Personally, it’s easier for me to use Paypal and this was free and the funds were instantly credited to my new account.

I had a bet in mind for the weekend football markets but to be honest I found it a little hard to navigate to my pick. The home page shows that particular day’s events but for sports taking place in the future, you have to keep clicking until the right one comes up.

I wanted to take the bet that is highlighted here – Arsenal to beat Bournemouth on Sunday 7th February at Even Money. This was a quick and simple process and having clicked, the betslip appeared in the top right of my screen.

I placed the whole of my deposit – £25 – and my bet was accepted instantly.

I didn’t check on my bonus straight away but after an hour I refreshed my screen and the £25 appeared in my account so I took a follow up punt on an FA Cup replay scheduled to take place the following week. Once again, the process was simple and my bonus bet quickly confirmed.

Support

I had no need to contact support during the sign up process or when I placed my bet so I wanted to test this by sending a sample question. In this case I intended to check on the rollover terms that were associated with my welcome bonus.

The live chat facility is linked to the contact button and having clicked, I got the following window.

Unfortunately it stayed like this for a minute and a half without any response so I closed the window. That may sound like I have no patience but in my experience, most bookies reply instantly so I had all the information I needed for this test.

Instead, I sent an e-mail with the same question and got a good response within two hours.

Conclusion

Having always used Ladbrokes’ betting shops, I hadn’t personally opened an account until now but this is a logical place to be. There is a good selection of sports, some top prices and that welcome offer up to £50 is very generous as far as UK bookmakers are concerned.

Overall the experience was a good one with just a couple of annoying points: It was very easy to sign up while funds hit the account instantly. My bet was accepted straight away and my bonus money appeared in good time.

The main issues I had were with the layout of the site: I felt that the bonus ts and cs were not so easy to follow and should have been laid out more clearly. Secondly, the site itself is a little cluttered and it can be tricky to find your chosen bet if it’s for an event taking place a few days in the future.

The live chat was also slow to respond but this may have been a particularly busy day and the lack of response may have been a one off. Taking all these points into account this was a positive experience and having won with my opening bet, I intend to stay with Ladbrokes on a long term basis.