New Players Only. Minimum stake £/$/€10, minimum odds 1.5, stake not returned. 10X wagering the winnings from the free bet. Wagering occurs from real balance first. Wagering requirement is calculated on bonus bets only, wagering starts from real funds. Free bet is valid for 7 Days from issue. Max conversion: £/$/€20. Excluded Skrill deposits.
One of the best things about the sports betting industry is that it never stops evolving. New technologies, features, and ways to bet are being developed all the time. Perhaps most importantly of all, new sportsbooks are constantly opening too. In turn, this provides more choice for the bettor, and forces the existing sportsbooks to continually up their game.
Winston Bet is just such a sportsbook. Having only launched in 2020, it is the definition of a new brand. Rather than seeing them as risks, experienced punters will see newcomers like these as opportunities, often providing better value or promotions than the established brands.
In this comprehensive Winston Bet review, we’ll discover whether this young upstart is already a legitimate option. We’ll evaluate its promotions, security measures, customer service, and plenty more besides. Let’s get started.
The sign up offer is both the first thing many newcomers will look at, and a golden opportunity for a fresh sportsbook to bring in new business. It should not only be eye-catching, therefore, but deliver real value too.
The Winston Bet welcome offer is described as being ‘Deposit £10 and Get £10 Free Bet’. On the surface, that seems like pretty good value. We’ll determine whether that’s really the case shortly, but – firstly – here’s a step-by-step guide on exactly how to use the offer for yourself:
Again, so far this seems like a pretty attractive welcome offer. It’s also one, however, in which you must pay attention to the terms and conditions, particularly those regarding the rollover requirements. These are the main T’s & C’s you need to be aware of:
At a basic level, the idea of simply depositing £10 in order to get a £10 free bet is obviously excellent value. Stick to that minimum deposit, and you’re essentially doubling your initial spending power after signing up.
The obvious drawback, though, is the rollover requirement. Needing to bet through your free bet winnings 10 times is a seriously big obstacle. Even if there aren’t any restrictions on how you place those bets, when you need to win that many wagers, the odds are definitely stacked against you.
Overall then, this is a classic ‘low risk, high reward’ offer. None of your own money is on the line, and you have the potential to make up to £20 quickly. That pesky rollover stipulation, though, will make it pretty darn tricky to do so.
For the reasons noted, the Winston Bet welcome offer – on its own – probably won’t be enough to hook most newcomers. In circumstances like these, you’d hope to see some enticing ongoing promotions to pick up the slack.
While there is indeed a whole range of offers in place on Winston Bet, they all – like the welcome offer – have some significant drawbacks. Even aside from that, there’s simply very little variety from one to the other. Quite simply, if you don’t like one of them… you probably won’t like the others either!
To get a better idea of exactly what we mean, let’s take a quick look at a few of those promotions.
During the domestic football season, Winston Bet will typically have a few different offers on. Some will apply to all football matches, while others will apply to certain competitions. The only real difference between them is the code you must enter when making a deposit, which triggers the offer. At the time of writing, for example, there’s a Serie A promotion, which has the promo code ‘TIFO’.
Aside from that, the offers are all identical. You start by making a deposit of at least £10, using the relevant code. Then, for every £25 of eligible bets you place, you receive a £5 free bet in return. You can receive up to three free bets per month via these promotions.
As with the welcome offer, that sounds like fair value. As with the welcome offer, it’s somewhat spoiled by the T’s & C’s. Once again, you must bet through any winnings a hefty 10x before they actually convert into cash. With these offers, at least, you have 30 days to do so instead of just seven.
At first glance, it looks as if Winston Bet have a whole host of sports covered by their promotions. Basketball, baseball, horse racing, tennis, and more all apparently get their own deals.
Take a closer look, though, and you’ll see that – once again – they’re all basically the same. You use a specific code and make a deposit of at least £10, place a certain amount of bets, and get a free bet in return. Any winnings from that free bet must subsequently be wagered 10 times before becoming real money.
In fact, pretty much the only important differences are in the sizes of your qualifying wagers and free bets. Some, such as the basketball offer, dish out a £10 bonus in return for a £25 spend. Others scale things down, requiring only £15 in stakes, but also awarding only £5 as a bonus.
Sports League is by far the most imaginative ongoing promotion which Winston Bet currently offer.
To all extents and purposes it’s a leaderboard, which tracks how much users have won on the platform within a given month. To qualify, you must make a £10 deposit then bet at least £50 on the Premier League, Serie A, Champions League or Europa League. If you finish in the top five that month, you receive a prize. The prizes start at £50 for 5th place, and go all the way up to a mighty £150 for the winner.
Technically, Sports League hasn’t got long to run at the time of writing. It’s such a good idea, though, that we would expect and hope to see it replicated in the future.
When it comes to the sheer number of betting markets, the theory is quite simple. It’s indisputably a case of ‘the more, the better’! Every sportsbook should be looking to appeal to as many people as possible. While a couple of sports might grab most of the headlines, therefore, you should still be looking to offer as many as possible.
To their credit, Winston Bet have ticked this box with aplomb. The range of markets here is easily competitive with what you’d find on a much older betting platform. In fact, there are approximately 40 different sports markets available at the time of writing, which is impressive in anyone’s book.
Most notably these include the likes of football, tennis, cricket, golf, and rugby, which will attract the most betting action. Horse racing is also included, which isn’t always a given with a new sportsbook. Fans of American sports will be pleased to see the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL all represented too, and motorsports – including Formula 1 and Nascar – are also present. eSports – a rapidly-growing betting area – is brilliantly supported, with LoL, CoD, Dota 2 and more all present and correct. Rounding out this extensive selection are a few more niche markets, such as chess, hurling, sailing, and even beach volleyball.
It isn’t just the number of sports that’s impressive here, though, but the variety of ways in which you can bet on them. Within the more popular sections, you’ll find dozens of individual markets at a time. Naturally you can place both pre-match and in-play wagers on just about all of them, but many of the larger sports also support longer-term outright bets.
While sports betting might always be evolving in general, some things simply don’t change. Football being the dominant market is a perfect example. It’s the sport which will attract most people to a platform, and thus should be given a huge amount of attention by the bookie.
Winston Bet have absolutely nailed it here. It’s no exaggeration to say that their football section is up there with the very best of them, in all the most important areas. It all starts with the breadth of their coverage, which is outstanding. Every competition you could realistically hope to bet on is included here. That covers domestic, continental and international fare, from youth levels all the way up to the most prestigious contests in the world.
Just as important as what you can bet on, of course, is how you can bet on it. Well, Winston Bet offers outstanding variety in this regard too. Pre-match, in-play and outright bets are all viable options. The latter includes old classics like League Winner, To Be Relegated, and Top Goalscorer. As for pre-match and live bets, the world really is your oyster. Here are just a few of the bet types you can use:
On top of those, there are plenty of player-specific bet types too such as First, Last, and Anytime Goalscorer. The risk-takers among you may also enjoy some long shot bets, on the likes of card totals, goalscoring windows, or total corners.
Horse racing might be a huge betting market, but it’s also one which newer bookies often struggle to provide, perhaps due to licensing reasons. We’re pleased to report, therefore, that horse racing is indeed present here.
At the time of writing, Winston Bet have only managed to cover horse racing in the USA. Seven major racecourses are still supported though, offering you dozens of betting opportunities each day. Both Win and Each Way wagers are available, and you can choose to either take the current price, or the future starting price, for your horse of choice.
Sportsbooks who underestimate tennis as a betting market do so at their peril. It’s a hugely popular sport, and – thanks to its incredibly long tours – offers betting opportunities more or less all year round.
Winston Bet have certainly shown tennis the respect it deserves. They provide genuinely worldwide coverage, with events in Australasia, Europe, and North America all included. The depth of that coverage is seriously impressive too, with plenty of pre-match and in-play markets on offer. There are even outright markets available for the biggest tournaments, allowing you to pick an overall winner long in advance.
Whatever your personal preferences for sports betting, you’ll almost certainly be satisfied with what you find at Winston Bet. Within their dozens of supported sports, you’ll find literally hundreds of individual ways to place bets. Pre-match bets are the most common type here, as you’d expect, with there being over 1,200 such markets available at the time of writing… which is pretty ridiculous! The in-play section is naturally slimmer, but – depending when you log on – you should still find dozens of bets available at the very least.
As noted in our introduction to this section, these markets cover an exceptional range of both real and virtual sports. From old British favourites, to bombastic American contests, to exciting eSports, you’ll be able to wager on just about whatever you please with Winston Bet.
Rather than being a ‘special feature’, live betting has now become a basic expectation. We’re pleased to say that this is yet another area in which Winston Bet excels.
It is incredibly easy to access their in-play markets, which sit neatly alongside the pre-match ones. As noted, these cover not only the prestige sports – like football – but a range of other sports too, from major markets like tennis, to eSports, to the likes of volleyball and table tennis.
While there’s no live streaming of ongoing matchups, Winston Bet still do a good job of keeping you informed about the latest goings-on. A variety of constantly-updated statistics are available at any given moment, and there’s also a solid visualisation tool which approximates the experience of watching along live.
We’ve generally been extremely positive in what we’ve found so far during our Winston Bet review. Here we have one area, though, in which this young bookie really lets itself down.
For starters, there are no apps whatsoever available, for either iOS or Android users. Given the experience of Winston Bet’s operators, ProgressPlay, this is both surprising and disappointing. There’s no good excuse for not having an app up-and-running at the time of launch, and we’d hope to see this fixed sooner rather than later.
Without an app, of course, you’re entirely reliant on the mobile website for your on-the-go betting needs. Unfortunately, that’s pretty lackluster here too. It’s not a disaster, by any means, still giving you the features you need to bet, make deposits and withdrawals, and generally manage your account. Both visually and functionally, however, the interface lags behind what we’ve come to expect from a modern bookie.
As we’ve touched upon a couple of times, Winston Bet generally executes the fundamentals extremely well. If you’re particularly interested in exciting special features, however, this might not be the bookie for you.
We’d class certain features as being more important than others. Live betting, for example, is clearly vital in today’s betting landscape. And, in terms of the breadth of markets on offer, and sheer quality execution, Winston Bet’s own in-play features are extremely impressive.
Aside from that, however, there’s really not too much to write home about when it comes to Winston Bet’s features. As mentioned, streaming is completely absent, although live stats and a visualisation tool help to make up for this. There’s a definite lack of exciting promotions too, with the ones which are present being pretty uninspired. On top of that, even some pretty standard modern-day features – like a bet builder for your multiples wagers – are missing here.
While it’s always nice to have as many banking options as possible, the most important thing is really to have all the major methods available to you. Winston Bet have definitely achieved this fundamental goal.
Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal are all eligible payment methods. Backing those up are Paysafecard, MuchBetter, Payviaphone, ecoPayz, and Trustly (which facilitates bank transfers). The minimum deposit is either £10 or £20, depending on your chosen method, all deposits are processed instantly, and only Payviaphone incurs a transaction fee.
Aside from Paysafecard, the same options are available for making a withdrawal too. All such requests are subject to an annoying three-day pending period, and can take anywhere from 4-8 days to go through thereafter. Another annoyance is the transaction fee of £2.50, which is imposed on all withdrawals.
At a basic level, a bookie’s sign up process only needs to achieve one thing: it must get your registration over with as quickly and easily as possible! We were pleased to see, therefore, that speed is clearly the priority for Winston Bet here. The entire process consists of only two main stages, and can be completed within a couple of minutes.
You start off by heading to Winston Bet’s website, and hitting the ‘Join Now’ button in the top-right. You’ll now see the first stage presented to you as a form, in which you must input three pieces of information: your email address, a password, and your phone number.
Once you’re done there, hit ‘Submit’ to progress to the second stage. You’re asked to provide a number of further details here, including your name, date of birth, address, and – strangely – your occupation. This is also the point at which you can set your preferred currency and marketing preferences. Once everything is in order, simply agree to the main T’s & C’s and hit ‘Submit’ again.
Winston Bet will now send you a four digit code, via both email and text message. Just copy that code back onto the box provided on their website to verify your account, and you’re done!
Needing to verify your ID is certainly an annoyance. It’s also a legal obligation for legitimate sportsbooks, however, meaning that neither you nor they have any choice in the matter!
Fortunately, Winston Bet make it nice and easy to go through this process, with these being the steps you need to take:
And that’s it! The whole process really is incredibly straightforward, and shouldn’t take you more than a few minutes to complete.
Visually, Winston Bet won’t be the most attractive betting website you’ve come across. Much more important, however, is its actual functionality, and in this regard the platform truly excels.
All the main non-betting sections are easily accessible via the top menu. These include the customer support, cashier, promotions, and account management areas. More informative pages – including those on deposits and withdrawals – are housed in the bottom menu.
The actual betting-related areas are intuitively split into four sections. The first houses all the available sports and competitions, which themselves are nicely divided into Live and Pre-Match varieties. To find the competition you’re looking for, you can browse through this list, or use the search function.
Select a competition, and its upcoming matchups will be displayed in the next section, along with some of the most popular odds. Select one of those fixtures, and its individual prices will then be displayed in a further section. Finally, to add a selection to your betslip – housed on the far-right – simply click on it, then set a stake and place the bet as normal.
While they may naturally have fewer resources than the more established sportsbooks out there, when it comes to customer support, Winston Bet more than hold their own.
If you have a query during your wagering on Winston Bet, there are two easy ways to get it answered. Both live chat and phone support are in place, with each offering a swift solution to whatever problem you might have. The coverage is good too, running from 08:00 – 00:00 each day.
The indirect support does not manage to maintain this high standard. While an FAQ is technically in place, it’s exclusively concerned with the casino section of the site, therefore offering little help to sports bettors.
Winston Bet are a completely fresh addition to the sports betting scene, having only launched in 2020. As such, they obviously don’t have a track record, nor are there many details available about them yet.
We do know, however, that the platform was created by ProgressPlay, who also continue to operate it. Since they were founded in 2012, ProgressPlay have done an impressive job of building up both their reputation, and their own range of casino and sports betting sites. In fact, they’ve launched several sportsbooks in the past couple of years alone.
Like many gambling-related companies, ProgressPlay – and by extension Winston Bet – are based in Malta.
The extent to which Winston Bet will appeal to you depends on what you’re looking for in a sportsbook.
If flashy features and mouth-watering promotions are a priority, Winston Bet probably won’t have enough firepower to satisfy you. A mobile app and live streaming are the most jarring absences, when compared to a premium bookie. The range of promotions is decidedly uninspired too, with a lack of variety between the ongoing offers being a particular problem.
We would argue, however, that all of those are secondary concerns. Basically, you can live without those types of features! And if you want a solid, fundamentally sound sportsbook instead, Winston Bet is already a legitimate option. From the intuitive interface, to the selection of payment methods, to the customer support, this young bookie really does nail the basics. On top of that, it excels in certain areas, with its range of both live and upcoming markets being genuinely outstanding.
Overall, if you value substance over style, we’d highly recommend checking out Winston Bet now. Sign up, stick some money in your account, use their low-risk, high-reward welcome offer, and take things from there. You may well be pleasantly surprised with what you find.