Our bookmaker matcher asks you seven questions about how you bet, then prices up 16 UK bookmakers against your answers and shows you the three that suit you best. It takes about thirty seconds, and you don’t need to give us an email address.
Most “best betting sites” lists rank bookmakers in one fixed order for everybody. That order is wrong for almost everyone reading it, because a punter who backs each-way horses at 10am needs a completely different account from someone building five-leg bet builders on a Saturday afternoon. This tool gives you an order built around you.
Quick answer
| What it does | Matches you to UK bookmakers based on how you bet |
| Questions | 7 |
| Time to complete | About 30 seconds |
| Bookmakers assessed | 16 |
| Scoring factors | 12 per bookmaker, rated 0–10 |
| Email required | No |
| Results shown as | Fractional odds, favourite first |
| Cost | Free |
| Who it’s for | UK punters aged 18+ opening a new account |
What does the bookmaker matcher do?
It replaces a fixed list with a personal one.
Every bookmaker in the tool is scored out of 10 across twelve separate factors — things like the size of the welcome offer, how competitive their odds are, whether they’ll close your account if you win, and what time their Best Odds Guaranteed starts. Your answers decide how much each of those twelve factors matters, and the bookmakers are ranked accordingly.
The result is that two people using the tool five minutes apart will usually get almost completely different answers. That’s the point. A racing punter who takes early prices gets a very different list from someone who only bets accumulators on the Premier League.
How do I use it?
Answer seven questions. Each one changes the weighting of the final result, and here’s exactly what each one does.
1. What do you bet on most? Sets the balance between our racing and football scores. Answer honestly rather than aspirationally — pick what you’d back with your own money this weekend.
2. What does your betting slip usually look like? Singles push weight towards raw odds. Accumulators push it towards acca insurance and boost offers. Bet builders push it towards the firms that price them best. Each-way racing bets push it towards racing depth and extra places.
3. What actually matters to you? The heaviest question in the tool, and the only one where you can pick more than one answer. If you tick “not getting restricted if I win”, that becomes a dealbreaker rather than a preference — bookmakers with a poor record on restrictions get pushed a long way down, however good their offer is.
4. How much do you want to stake to unlock an offer? This is the qualifying bet, not the free bet you get back. Choosing £5 heavily favours the firms with a low entry point and penalises the ones asking for £20 or £40.
5. How much does Best Odds Guaranteed matter? If you answer “essential”, any bookmaker without BOG is effectively removed from your results — including some very good ones. That’s deliberate. If you take early prices on horses, an account without BOG costs you money every week.
6. Do you need to watch what you’ve backed? Only a handful of UK firms stream properly. Answering “essential” narrows things sharply.
7. How fast do you want your winnings? Withdrawal speeds vary far more between bookmakers than most punters realise — from same-day to five working days for the same debit card.
You can go back and change any answer, and “Change my answers” at the top of the results takes you straight back into the questions.
How does the scoring actually work?
We think you should be able to see this, so here is the whole model.
Every bookmaker carries twelve scores out of 10:
| Factor | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Offer value | Headline size of the welcome offer |
| Low entry | How cheap it is to qualify for that offer |
| Racing | Horse racing strength — depth, extra places, specials |
| Football | Football market strength |
| Accas | Acca insurance, boosts and Lucky 15 terms |
| Bet builder | Bet builder quality and, more importantly, pricing |
| Odds | Raw price competitiveness across the board |
| No restrictions | 10 means they’ll happily keep laying you if you win |
| App | App quality |
| Payout | Withdrawal speed |
| Streaming | Live streaming of racing and football |
| BOG | Best Odds Guaranteed, rated on start time and restrictions |
Your answers assign a weight to each factor. Every bookmaker’s score is the weighted average of its ratings, so a firm that’s brilliant at the things you said you care about finishes top even if it’s poor at everything else.
Three answers behave differently. Picking “not getting restricted”, “essential” on Best Odds Guaranteed, or “same day” on withdrawals applies a multiplier rather than just adding weight. A bookmaker scoring zero on that factor has its final score cut by around two thirds, which is usually enough to push it out of the results entirely. These are the three things punters tell us are genuine dealbreakers rather than nice-to-haves.
The scores are our judgement, not facts. They come from twenty years of betting and from running accounts with all of these firms. Someone else would score them differently, and reasonable people disagree — particularly on the softer factors like app quality. What we won’t do is change a score because a bookmaker asks us to.
Why are the results shown as odds instead of percentages?
Because “87% match” doesn’t mean anything, and 4/6 does.
Once the scores are worked out, we convert the gaps between the top six into a betting market. The bookmaker that fits you best becomes the favourite, and the rest are priced relative to it. A short-priced favourite at 4/6 with the second pick at 6/1 means the tool is confident. A tight market — 5/4 the favourite, 7/4 the second — means several bookmakers suit you nearly equally well and you should read the reasons rather than just taking the top one.
That’s information a percentage hides. It also happens to be a language you already read every day.
These prices are a measure of match strength. They are not betting odds and there’s nothing to bet on.
Are the results affected by commission?
Yes, we earn a commission when someone opens an account through our links. No, it doesn’t change the order.
The ranking comes entirely from the twelve scores and your seven answers. There is no field in the system for what a bookmaker pays us, so it can’t influence the result even if we wanted it to.
The clearest evidence is in the tool itself. Star Sports scores 2/10 for offer value — the lowest in the tool — because you have to stake £40 to get £20 back, and the free bets expire in 24 hours. Midnite scores 0 for Best Odds Guaranteed because it doesn’t offer it. bet365 is marked as quick to restrict winning accounts. All three are firms we’re paid to promote.
Every bookmaker card shows its negatives alongside its positives for exactly this reason. A tool that never says anything bad about anyone isn’t a tool, it’s an advert.
We can only include bookmakers we have a commercial relationship with, and that’s a genuine limitation worth knowing about. A few good firms aren’t in here for that reason.
What the tool can’t tell you
It’s a starting point for choosing an account, not a substitute for reading the terms.
- It can’t see today’s prices. Odds move constantly. Our “odds” score reflects a firm’s general competitiveness, not what they’re offering on the 3.15 at Goodwood right now.
- It can’t predict how you’ll be treated. Restriction scores are based on the pattern we and our readers see. Individual accounts vary.
- Offers change. We check them regularly, but always read the terms on the bookmaker’s own site before depositing.
- It won’t stop you losing. No bookmaker choice turns a losing punter into a winning one. The right account reduces friction and costs; it doesn’t change whether your selections are any good.
If you’d rather see everything in one place and make your own mind up, compare every bookmaker side by side instead.
Best Odds Guaranteed start times
BOG is the single factor that changes results most for racing punters, so here’s the underlying data the tool uses. If you take a price in the morning and your horse drifts, this is what you’re actually choosing between.
| Bookmaker | BOG from | Restrictions |
|---|---|---|
| bet365 | 08:00 | None. Also price-matches six rivals on ITV races from 10:00 |
| Betfred | 08:00 | Excludes Lucky 15, 31 and 63 |
| BoyleSports | 08:00 | UK and Irish racing |
| Coral | 08:00 | UK and Irish racing |
| Ladbrokes | 08:00 | UK and Irish racing |
| William Hill | 08:00 | Win markets only, £25,000 daily cap |
| BetVictor | 09:00 | Maximum benefit applies |
| BetMGM | 09:00 | Selected players only |
| BetGoodwin | 10:00 | UK and Irish racing |
| LiveScore Bet | 10:00 | Win and each-way singles |
| Midnite, SBK, Kwiff, SpreadEx, Star Sports | — | No BOG offered |
The 08:00 books are the ones that matter if you like to get involved early. Our Best Odds Guaranteed guide explains how it works and where it’s worth most.
FAQs
Is the bookmaker matcher free? Yes. It’s free, there’s no sign-up, and we don’t ask for an email address.
How many bookmakers does it cover? Sixteen UK bookmakers, each scored out of 10 across twelve separate factors.
How long does it take? About thirty seconds. There are seven questions and you can change any answer afterwards.
Do bookmakers pay to rank higher? No. We earn a commission if you open an account through our links, but there is no field in the scoring system for what a bookmaker pays, so it cannot affect the order.
Why are the results shown as fractional odds? Because the gap between first and second tells you something a percentage hides. A short-priced favourite means one clear winner; a tight market means several bookmakers suit you almost equally. The prices measure match strength and are not betting odds.
Can I use the tool more than once? Yes, as many times as you like. Changing one answer — particularly the Best Odds Guaranteed question — often changes the results completely, which is a useful way to see what each factor is worth.
Which bookmaker is best for horse racing? It depends on how you bet, which is the reason the tool exists. If you take early prices, the 08:00 Best Odds Guaranteed firms come out on top. If you want a bookmaker that won’t restrict you, the answer is usually an exchange or an independent.
What if I already have accounts with all of them? The tool is aimed at new customers, since most of the value sits in the welcome offer. If you’re already signed up everywhere, our existing customer offers are more use to you.
More from us
- Compare all UK betting sites
- Bookmakers that don’t restrict accounts
- Fast withdrawal betting sites
- Best Odds Guaranteed explained
- Best betting apps in the UK
18+. New customer offers only. We earn a commission from bookmakers listed on this page, which never affects our rankings. Offers and terms change — always check the bookmaker’s site before depositing. Gambling should be fun, not a way to make money. Please gamble responsibly. GambleAware.org
