YouBet Bookmaker Review

YouBet Summary

YouBet Features

• Classy website
• Great range of markets
• Excellent in-play betting

Layout & Design

If first impressions matter to you, then YouBet bookmaker gets off to a flier. The site’s default home page is its bookie and at a glance you can see it’s well designed and has a touch of class. It has black and grey background which, for no obvious reason, gives it a look and feel of quality. Fortunately, there is substance to match its good looks. The layout is the traditional left and right sidebar with a main body in between, and YouBet utilise the space very well.

As mentioned above, the bookie is automatically the first port of call when you go to the site, but the page is headed by links to ‘Live Betting’, ‘Casino’ and ‘Live Casino’ – each offering a layout and design akin to the bookie. But we’ll concentrate on their sports betting.

Before we get into the meat of the page, it’s worth noting that there is an interesting little horizontal menu of goodies tucked just beneath the main menu, in such a small font it’s easy to overlook. But we recommend you have a peek. Firstly, it offers you the chance to set the site’s clock to your time zone – a small thing but useful nonetheless – but then offers quick links to ‘campaigns’ (bonus promotions), statistics (provided by sportradar.com), live scores (also provided by sportradar.com), a comprehensive results page and two direct links, should you wish to download YouBet’s iOS or Android apps. While this may all sound fairly straightforward and standard, it’s neat and is so subtle it could easily be accidentally missed.

The left sidebar will have a very familiar look and feel for seasoned punters. It begins by offering a quick link to ‘today’s matches’ and then offers a link to each of what it terms the popular sports. A single click on any of these links opens a page of betting lines in the main body of the page. Again, it’s well designed and slick and, while it defaults to the standard win/draw/lose line, it also, by virtue of a single clink on a number at the end of the line, offers the punter a whole host of other betting lines for that same fixture. In some cases, it offers hundreds – from the most basic through to obscure specials.

Intriguingly, at the bottom of the list of popular sports is a tab entitled (in English) YouBoost – Extraordinary High Odds. And it does what it says on the tin! What YouBet bookmaker do is look ahead to the next couple of days, select a few specific fixtures or events, select a single special bet (e.g. Derby – Fulham: a draw with goals) and offer the bet with some extraordinarily generous odds. It’s certainly worth a look, even if this this does fall into the ‘fun bet’ category.

A link to the ‘live now’ events also forms part of the left sidebar and, predictably, it is followed by an exhaustive list of all the sports for which YouBet have betting markets. The sidebar is completed with a series of ‘information’ links; standard stuff like how to contact them, their privacy policy, game rules etc.

The main body of the page is headed by a couple of in-house ads for bonus bets (more on those later) but what follows is standard, albeit with a certain elegance to it – at least as elegant as it can get on a betting site. Three tabs offer the bettor events of varying degrees of imminence – live, upcoming and ‘most played’.

The live events are offered sport-by-sport and, once selected, are presented in the traditional way – with a single line for the win/draw/lose bet and a link to open all the other markets available. Better still however, once you’ve clicked on a specific fixture, is YouBet’s match tracker, which is great. In addition to the standard stuff, like goals, shots red and yellow cards etc there is a fascinating little graphic that allows you to follow – using football as the example – where the ball is on the pitch. Minus a live stream – which YouBet don’t have – this is most definitely the next best thing.

The ‘upcoming’ and ‘most played’ tabs offer the same format of betting lines but, of course, without the corresponding in-play facilities; all of it nicely presented and suitably intuitive for the experienced or newbie bettor.

The right-hand sidebar also has a very familiar look – topped by the betting slip, or coupon – and is followed by series of in-house ads for, among other things, multi-bet and cash-out promotions, and links to their live roulette and blackjack rooms. It’s competed with a useful tips blog from an acknowledged Danish betting aficionado, who examines in depth an upcoming event and offers advice on where your money should be going.

All in all, it’s a format that follows the conventional norms but does so with a hint of style and big dollop of logic.

Sports Markets & Odds

YouBet bookmaker may not offer the extensive range of sports that some do but it covers the core sports well and still finds time to extend to some of the more obscure ones. Unsurprisingly, football is their biggie and, wait for it, they cover over 200 different leagues and competitions! Truly staggering.

They have markets from the Armenian Premier League through to the Vietnam Cup and almost everything in between, among their more obscure offerings being the Gibraltar Premier League and the Ukrainian Under-21 Championship. Given their worldwide coverage of football, whatever time of the day or night you prefer to bet, there will always be a live football match to bet on.

While their range of sports may be more limited than some, they still cover over 30, including sports like speedway, darts, netball, MMA and the Gaelic sports. In short, more than enough variety for the even the most experienced bettor to get his or her teeth into, each sporting event covered in similar levels of detail and depth.

In addition, there are several markets available for E-Sports – Dota 2, League of Legends and Counter-Strike among them – plus a good selection of specials and entertainment bets.

In terms of offering value, YouBet are, it has to be said, at the less generous end of the spectrum. With the industry standard odds being compiled to between 105% and 106%, at the time of this review we calculated the upcoming football fixtures to be averaging around the 110% mark – just about within acceptable levels but not great.

Bonuses

YouBet were, at the time of this review, offering a generous looking 100% bonus for opening bets, up to a maximum of 500 DKK – an offer that’s about as good as it gets in terms of welcome bonuses.

In addition, they were also running a series of other specials, including a 60 DKK free bet for the upcoming Ice Hockey World Cup, a ‘multi-boost’ – when making accumulator bets – and an ‘Add 2 Bet’ promotion for their live betting service.

Responsible Gambling

While there is nothing specific on the front face of their site about responsible gambling, a quick look at their ‘accountability’ section shows that YouBet do, in fact, take this issue seriously. They offer a helpline, via Danske Spil, for anyone who has, or knows someone, with a potential problem, and ask punters to sign up to their ‘caring call’ programme – which permits him or her to be contacted if YouBet identify any concerning trends.

Customer Services

YouBet handle this part of the operation well and offer a live chat facility. While it’s not the 24/7 type offered by others, each day it is open between 09.00 and 23.22 (CEST). We tested out their live chat facility and found it to be helpful and efficient.

There is also an email helpline, designed for those whose queries are not urgent or if the live chat is busy. While there is no telephone hotline, which may not suit some, in our view the efficient live chat facility makes up for this.

Mobile & Tablet

YouBet bookmaker is a mobile optimized site and if betting on the go is your thing – either on a smartphone or a 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. As mentioned earlier, there are also iOS and Android apps available.

Pay-Outs

Cash-out is an automated process on YouBet and so this is, generally, at the speedy end of the scale, with pay-outs usually processed within 24 hours.

Final Verdict

There’s no doubt about it, YouBet bookmaker is good. Very good in fact. Despite being new, it has hit the ground running and already gives off the air of a site that been around for years. As a part of Denmark’s state lottery provider, it operates from a solid base and has clearly benefitted from being supported by some quality software. Also, it’s clear that those compiling the site have drawn on the best ideas from the market leaders and put together something that ticks virtually all the boxes.

In terms of design, navigation and responsiveness it’s very good, and gives the punter a pleasant and intuitive betting experience. The one gripe we had – and there’s no getting around the fact it’s a biggie – is the value for money it offers, or rather lack of. Odds compiled to an average of 110% are at the upper end of the scale but, in mitigation, this is not unusual for a new site that is still looking to recoup its set up costs.

Overall however, YouBet bookmaker is a very good site; one that Danish bettors should definitely try.