SPONSORED REVIEW

SPONSORED REVIEW

• who are Boylesports?

The largest independent bookmaker in Ireland, Boylesports has built its reputation as a customer-focussed organisation who offer fair odds and extensive markets. Founded by John Boyle in 1989, they offer their services through betting shops, their Fon-A-Bet service and online.

As well as the sportsbook, Boylesports also offer poker, casino, lotteries, games and bingo and have also added a mobile betting service to their suite. They have also been putting evermore emphasis on their in-play betting options in recent years.

Horse racing live streaming

Boylesports offer a simple and effective live streaming service for horse racing using At The Races coverage. In order to make use of the 'free' video streaming you must place a minimum bet of £/€1.00 on a selection in the race in question. Once the bet is placed, click on the 'Watch Race' button located at the top of the racecard and you can view the coverage.

For the races we watched the streaming was smooth but there was one minor freeze, though whether that was the streaming itself or another technical blip is impossible to know. Given all the other races we watched were fine, we will give them the benefit of the doubt.

Horse racing bet types offered

Boylesports offer all the multiple bets you can think of, and them some. Whether you're after a Goliath, a Superheinz, a Permutation Patent or a Yankee, you simply add your selections to the betting slip and the options will automatically appear for you to select. Each also has an information box explaining the finer points of the particular bet when you hover over the corresponding icon.

One slight disappointment is that forecasts and tricasts are not available on all races. When asked for a list of races on which tricasts can be placed I was told there wasn't such a list. If a forecasts and/or tricasts are permitted on a particular race, they will be noted on the racecard when selected and will also come up automatically on the betting slip when you make the necessary number of selections.

Website usability

The site itself is clean and well proportioned using various shades of blue. The option to change to the 'classic site' gives those used to slightly simpler layout the chance to go back to what they know. The newer version does give more information to customers, however, and also looks less cluttered.

The betslip is particularly user-friendly and, as mentioned, automatically brings up all possible multiples based on the selections you make. There is also a handy bet calculator contained in the mini-menu in the top right of the site, which is great to stop you confusing you Trixies from your Lucky 15s.

Reviewer's verdict

Overall Boylesports is a solid bookmaker who offers decent prices and a wide variety of markets. To get better marks from us, however, they would need to increase the initial free bet offer and also introduce more horse racing-specific offers and bonuses.

There is also some room for improvement in the backend in terms of increasing the number of deposit/withdrawal options and ensuring the response time for the live chat is consistently good.

Having said that, the staff members are knowledgeable and website and live racing streaming are very good, and with the competitive odds on offer, we would have no qualms recommending Boylesports to punters.

Promotions, free bets and bonuses

The standard offer for new customers opening sports betting accounts with Boylesports is a 100% matched bet up to £20 (or 20 Euros). On occasion the bookmaker have been known to increase their offer to £40 or even £80. While there are plenty of larger free bet offers with some of their rivals, in contrast to many other bookies, there are no minimum odds for the qualifying bet with Boylesports . This means you can place your initial £20 on a massive odds-on favourite, and still get the £20 freebie without much risk.

There is not a great array of horse racing-specific offers from this Irish bookie. Like some of the other popular bookmakers, Boylesports have a Best Odds Guaranteed offer on all UK and Irish races. So if you take an early or a board price and the starting price (SP) is drifts to a better price, they will pay at the higher amount (bets placed online or Fon-A-Bet only).

What are their prices like?

When comparing the starting prices between bookies, Boylesports right up there, tending to more or less the same odds as the other market leaders. But when we assessed the ante-post prices for a decent number of big National Hunt and flat races, Boylesports compare favourably to many in the industry. They tend to be there or thereabouts in terms of the best odds at the top of the field and edging ahead of some of the big boys further down, making them a great bookie to check out if seeking out the each-way value.

Customer service and contact methods

Boylesports puts itself on a pedestal when it comes to customer service. So the question is: do they live up to their own hype? The answer is that I was mildly satisfied.

They are easy enough to contact of course. As one would expect, you can contact the customer service team by phone, email or live chat 24/7, where you will find knowledgeable staff who are as comfortable explaining the intricacies of a Super Heinz as they are adding a debit card to your account.

When using the live chat, however, I did have to wait a little too long when asking about combination tricasts, and even had to prompt them to make sure they were still there. The customer service operative didn't apologise and for a company who goes out of their way to sing their own customer service praises I expected a little more.

Email - care@ Boylesports .com Phone - 0800 22 00 66 / +353 42 939 3168 Post - Finnabair Industrial Park, Dundalk, Co. Louth, Ireland

Deposit / withdrawal

Deposits are accepted on major debit and credit cards, as well as PayPal, Neteller and one or two other online money transfer companies. Deposit by bank transfer is possible but customers must contact customer services to organise it.

While there are no fees for withdrawals, there are fewer options than others (for instance bet365) this is an area that could be improved for Boylesports.