BetCruise Sportsbook Review

BetCruise Summary

BetCruise Features

• Stylish and intuitive website
• Huge choice of betting markets
• Great mobile app

Layout & Design

The first thing that hits you when delving into BetCruise is that it’s minus any bells and whistles… and is grey! Not fifty shades, but at least three. Yet, it looks good and there’s even something oddly comforting and reassuring about not being bombarded with fancy graphics and all the colours of the rainbow.

Even better, when you look closely at its wares, it’s actually good. Its no-nonsense approach delivers the basics plus more, and all in a confident, understated manner befitting a sportsbook that is comfortable in its own skin.

Having spoken of the virtues of its greyness, when you enter the site – before deciding where to head off to – you are actually greeted with two, rotating, colour in-house ads. It’s an enticing homepage in fairness with, in addition to the two big ads, some one-click tabs to some of its ‘play now’ services, plus some featured games, some last-minute bets and an informative news feed. It works well, it draws you in.

The main menu – where you find the ten main BetCruise options – is in a horizontal format at the top of the homepage. The ten are Live (sports), Sportsbook, Skill Games, Casino, Live Casino, Fantasy Sports, Finbet (financial betting), Virtual Sports, Poker and Apps. Each section of the site has merit in its own right, but, of course, we’ll concentrate on the sportsbook.

The first thing to note is it follows the norm in terms of layout – IE. Left side-bar, main body and right side-bar – and while grey in its presentation, its outlook is anything but. In terms of layout, it’s not unpleasant on the eye and is, in fact, extremely well designed.

The left sidebar offers clicks for ‘Live Today’ and ‘Popular Events’ – both of which with one click will fill the main body with a whole host of best bets available under that umbrella – and is followed by a list of the sports on offer; an exhaustive list that we’ll look at closely in the ‘Sports Markets & Odds’ section (suffice to say the word exhaustive is a good clue).

A single click on any of the sports listed, opens up a pull-down menu for each sport and offers up a list of countries for which there are markets, and also populates the main body with a ‘Live Overview’ – giving details of matches that are either in progress, imminent, or are scheduled to begin within the next 72 hours. Cleverly, there is a row of tabs at the top of the main body that offers matches and markets due in: 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 6 hours, 12 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours and 72 hours. Take your pick!

Once you’ve decided on the fixture or match you’re betting on, the range and depth of bets available is staggering, and each line is beautifully designed to make it an easy and enjoyable experience for the bettor. As ever, any bet is just a single keystroke away and just one click on your chosen bet takes it instantly to the betting slip, where you can then add your stake. It’s intuitive and slick.

For those who know their way around a sportsbook, it will come as no surprise to learn that heading the right-hand sidebar is the betting slip. Interestingly, BetCruise sportsbook offers a few options, so you can tailor your default betting slip to suit your own betting requirements.

Finally, having gone to great length to describe BetCruise’s default sportsbook settings, at the top of the right sidebar is an innocuous looking button that changes everything! The layout we have described is known as ‘combo’ and, as described, follows the traditional norm, but another pull-down menu offers the punter the same info but in different formats, namely: Modern, Classic and Asian. A click on any changes the layout of the screen completely, in line with that theme, while using the same base data. It’s clearly a question of personal preference, but ‘Combo’ works for us.

There is also the option of having your odds presented in American, Decimal, Fractional, HonkKong, Malay and Indo.

Also worthy of note is that the main body format we have described is the default one. Others available at the click of a tab at the top of the page are Dashboard, Live Overview, Live Overview, Live Multiview, Live Calendar, Results and Statistics. In summary, there is enough information, and different ways to present it, to satisfy the requirements of every punter out there.

Sports Markets & Odds

As alluded to above, the numbers of markets and different sports available is absolutely huge, so too the depth of betting options. There appears no specific target market, other than an inclusive worldwide one, and almost every sport imaginable is available to the punter, including some we had never heard of!

At the time of this review, there were over 44,000 football markets alone, ranging from the big, well-known, European leagues – such as the English Premier League and Bundesliga – through to domestic leagues in Senegal, Malaysia and Venezuela. There are also ante-post markets available for major events such as the World Cup.

In terms of the range of sports, it’s as vast as its array of football markets. It caters for those who wish to bet on the more traditional sports – basketball, baseball, tennis etc – but arguably even more interesting are markets for ‘pesapallo’, freestyle wrestling, hurling, biathlon and handball. To coin a phrase, you name it, it’s likely to be there, and each contest will have a wide range of bets on offer.

In addition, there are other markets available for online e-gaming – Dota 2, League of Legends and Overwatch among them – plus a selection of specials and entertainment bets.

In terms of offering value, BetCruise sportsbook is, in truth, a little hit and miss. With the industry standard odds being compiled to between 105% and 106%, at the time of this review we found some football fixtures equating to as low as 104% and some as high as 108%. In other words, there is value to be found here, but it may take a bit of homework to find it.

Bonuses

While there are no regular welcome bonuses for new customers on their sportsbook (at least there weren’t at the time of this review), BetCruise do periodically offer existing customers special bets and promotions. We suggest bettors regularly check the small ‘promotions’ tab at the top of the home page where these deals are shown.

Responsible Gambling

BetCruise sportsbook takes its duty to ensure responsible gambling seriously and has an extensive and detailed Responsible Gambling Policy on the site, along with some clear and unequivocal guidelines. In addition to some dos and don’t’s, they list the signs one should look out for if you fear yourself or someone you know is developing a gambling problem. Their list of rules for responsible gaming is well worth a read and their stance on this issue is to be applauded.

Customer Services

We tested out their live chat facility, which is a 24/7 service, and found it to be swift and helpful. If you are registered with the site then there is an Internal Mail System (IMS) that can be used to engage with customer services and also there is a help email address, available for any questions or queries. What there isn’t, is a telephone hotline, which may not be ideal for some, but in our view, the fine live chat facility more than makes up for this.

Mobile & Tablet

BetCruise is a mobile-optimized site and if you prefer to bet on the go, on a phone or tablet, you are presented with a configuration that is essentially a mini-version of the desktop site. It works nicely for both iOS and Android and offers an excellent betting experience in terms of navigation, responsiveness and detail. There is also an Android app, although as yet there is no iOS version.

PayOuts

Cash-out is an automated process on BetCruise sportsbook and so this is at the speedy end of the scale, withdrawals generally processed within 24 hours.

Final Verdict

BetCruise sportsbook is minus many of the thrills and spills that are typical of many of their big-name rivals but in terms of what it actually delivers it is very good. It may lack colour, but it does carry a punch when it comes to offering variety and depth.

There is an understated but nevertheless pleasing style and feel to BetCruise’s sportsbook, but it’s one that still recognises the importance of substance over style.

The only obvious omission compared to said big-name rivals is a live streaming facility, and in truth, they may be a little light in offering data and stats to inform those who enjoy a live bet, but there’s so much good on BetCruise it feels a little harsh to make this a big negative.

Most of the boxes are ticked and, in most cases, ticked in some style.