Betway Review

Betway Summary

Betway has earned plenty of Canadian fans while operating in the grey market for years – and supporters from Ontario now have a regulated version to call their own.

While this book won’t wow you with its design, you won’t find many apps more straightforward to navigate – or with the sheer volume of sports markets Betway offers. Combine that with one of the best eSports betting experiences in the province, and you have a global sports betting brand that deserves to be mentioned among the top options in Ontario. 

Betway Quick Facts

Betway Locations

In addition to operating as a "grey market" sportsbook in the rest of Canada, Betway is live and legal in Ontario, having been approved by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario and iGaming Ontario.

Sports Leagues to Bet On

Make yourself comfortable, intrepid sports betting fan: This could take a while.

Having established itself across the globe before its foray into North America, Betway has built one of the most impressive sports market coverages of any sports betting app on the planet. If people play it, it’s probably here.

The list includes the major North American pro sports, along with NCAA football and basketball, soccer (called “football" in the app, FYI), tennis, MMA, golf, boxing, lacrosse, cricket, Aussie Rules Football, cycling, darts, auto racing, horse racing, and rugby.

And if all that wasn’t enough to whet your wagering whistle, Betway offers these sports: Greyhounds, handball, snooker, table tennis, and Gaelic sports like football and hurling (yes, the sport where you toss the giant telephone poll-sized log.)

Betway tops it off with a robust specials market that includes comprehensive wagering on politics, movies, and select British TV shows like Doctor Who and The Apprentice. Whew.

NFL Betting

Betway offers a wide range of betting options for NFL wagers, including moneylines, spreads, totals, quarter- and half-specific betting options, in-game wagers, and a decent selection of player props each Sunday during the season.

NBA Betting

There’s no shortage of betting options for the NBA fans, as Betway offers moneyline, spread, and total plays for every game on the schedule. You can also wager on quarterly or halftime options and daily player props.

College Football Betting

If it’s NCAA football markets you seek, you’ve come to the right place. Betway offers moneyline, spread, and total plays for most Division I games on any given Saturday during the season, along with a large assortment of quarter-by-quarter or halftime plays. You can also wager on team props, though player props aren’t available.

College Basketball Betting

While you won’t see as robust a market for NCAA basketball as you would find on larger U.S. sites like FanDuel, Caesars, BetMGM or DraftKings, Betway does have a presence here. Marquee games during the regular season are covered, while Betway follows the lead of the majority of Canadian sportsbooks by ramping up the betting markets ahead of March Madness.

NHL Betting

Betway does well to appeal to the puckheads that preside in Canada’s most populous province, offering a healthy number of hockey markets every day during the season and into the Stanley Cup playoffs. In addition to moneyline, puckline, and total plays, bettors have access to team and player props and period-specific betting markets.

MLB Betting

How do you make a summer afternoon even better? By firing up your Betway account and placing some baseball wagers. Betway offers comprehensive MLB markets, both for pre-game bets (moneyline, runline, total) and in-game action (five innings moneyline/run line, player props, team props).

Other Sports Leagues

Betway has a strong golf foundation, with outrights, top-5 and top-10 results markets among the most popular. Betway is also a strong provider of soccer odds, covering dozens of leagues worldwide while providing deep pre-game and in-game betting markets for most.

Other sports featured on the Betway sports betting site include Aussie Rules football, badminton, baseball (international), basketball (international), boxing, cricket, cycling, darts, floorball, Formula 1, Gaelic sports, greyhounds, hockey (international), MMA, Rugby League, Rugby Union, snooker, table tennis, tennis, and volleyball.

Online Betting Experience

Betway offers users three ways to engage with their platform: Via desktop, mobile web, or app (available on both Google Play and the App Store). I'm not a fan of the hum-drum, black-white-and-grey-with-hints-of-green choice Betway made for its interface, but that’s a minor quibble when you consider how wonderfully functional it is for players of any experience level.

Website Experience

The sports Ontario residents are most likely to bet on have quick links at the top of the main page, with an easy-to-navigate list of the remaining sports listed on the left. Making a bet requires just a few easy steps, and tracking those bets is also a breeze.

If I could make one change here (aside from the color scheme), it would be to minimize the amount of space devoted to promotions on the home page. Player can access all of the site's promotions via two different smaller tabs at the top of the screen, and there are also prominent promotion sections in the middle and down the right side. That's ... a lot.

Mobile Betting & Betting App

Betway has mobile betting apps for both iOS and Android, giving it a massive advantage over other notable Ontario sports betting sites like Sports Interaction and Pinnacle. And while the same minor issues that plague the desktop version are also present on the app, this is one of the top interfaces of any Canadian operator.

Apple users have given the app a 4.7 rating based on more than 36,000 votes. The Android version has a 4.3 rating based on nearly 8,000 responses.

Live Betting

Betway’s live betting offering has been finely tuned thanks again to its global expertise – and it arrived in Ontario with one of the best in-game experiences in the market.

In addition to offering a healthy number of live betting options across a wide variety of sports, Betway’s live streaming game is also on point. You’ll find occasional high-quality live streaming for specific in-play betting markets, though in some cases, players are required to have action on an event before being able to stream it.

Even if you’ve wagered on an event that doesn’t include a live stream, Betway features some of the best live tracking in Ontario (and let’s face it: You haven’t lived until you’ve followed a darts match via Betway’s animated dartboard.)

Casino, Poker & Gaming Options

A strong sports betting product isn’t the only feather in Betway’s cap. You’ll find a wide range of slot machines on both the app and the desktop and mobile websites; they’re sorted on the Casino page, where you can divide the listings up by those recently played, new games, and those featuring Jackpot prizes.

You’ll also find a wonderful assortment of live casino games on the Betway app, from blackjack and roulette to Baccarat and even its own version of Deal or No Deal. Esports odds are also broken out into their own section, which is a nice nod to fans of the rapidly growing market.

Unfortunately, Betway does not have any live poker or bingo action, which is a strike against. Even a modest poker presence would elevate this app to new heights.

Betway History

Betway was founded in 2006 and quickly became one of the top regulated gaming operators in the world. Headquartered in Malta and with additional offices in Guernsey, England, and Spain, Betway has put its stamp on the sports world with prominent signage across several leagues.

Betway is licensed in various larger European markets, including Sweden, Denmark, Italy, and Belgium, and is the official betting partner of several teams and events, including Bundesliga powerhouse Werder Bremen and Belgian soccer club RSC Anderlecht.

Customer Ratings & Reputation

Betway might not have the brand power of a FanDuel or a DraftKings in North America, but the reviews from users have been overwhelmingly positive to date.

As one of the market leaders in European sports, bettors will find the quality of odds for those sports at or above the industry standard. This is particularly true for marquee global sporting events since Betway’s reach is so expansive for these competitions that they don’t need to juice the lines to make a solid profit.

Betway’s odds for North American sports are also strong, but it’s the European and Asian sports markets where this operator really makes its bones.

Not all is rosy, however. Players occasionally see their bet maxes limited, an unpopular practice undertaken by virtually all North American sportsbooks. That might not have as big an impact on beginner bettors, but more experienced wagerers might want to look elsewhere.

There’s also the matter of both the site and the app logging players out much more quickly than most Ontario sports betting operators. It’s a weird quirk and one that can send you tilting when you’re forced to log in 10 times in an hour. No matter your level of expertise, this is sub-optimal.

Customer Service

Betway takes its customer service seriously – perhaps because it wasn’t always a strength of the company. Past complaints about the quality of Betway’s CS team likely prompted an overhaul – and the result is impressive, with Betway offering an on-site help section with a detailed FAQ and video assistance in some areas.

Best of all, the various forms of contacting Customer Service are all effective. The 24/7 live chat is the best option, with CS representatives being cordial and helpful (with little wait time for an agent). There’s also the option to reach out via email, phone, or Twitter.

Betway Contact

• 24/7 Live Chat
• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: 1-877-811-2604
• Twitter: @BetwaySupport

Betway Legal Betting

Betway is regulated in Ontario by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario and iGaming Ontario.

Responsible Gambling

Here's a list of recommended responsible gambling resources available to Betway Ontario players:

• ResponsibleGambling.org: The Responsible Gambling Council (RGC) is a respected, independent non-profit organization. They have been a leader in preventing problem gambling in Canada and globally for more than 35 years. Operators in Ontario are required to register with RGC to operate in the province.
• ConnexOntario: ConnexOntario provides service information for people experiencing problems with gambling, drugs, alcohol, or mental health. Helpful, supportive system navigation specialists answer all calls, emails, or web chat requests 24/7. Call 1-866-531-2600 for more info.
• BeGambleAware.org: offers free, confidential help and support to anyone worried about gambling for themselves or others.
• Gambling Therapy: a global service provided by Gordon Moody offering free emotional support and advice to anyone affected by gambling.

Why Choose Betway?

It’s going to take a truly great product for sports betting sites to compete in Ontario's increasingly crowded market – and Betway has come through in spades.

Once you work past the annoyance of the far-too-frequent logouts and accept the fact you’ll have to get your poker fix elsewhere, you’re left with an app that excels in functionality, user-friendliness, and sports market selection – three important factors to most players.

You don’t earn a worldwide reputation like Betway’s by settling for an inferior product. And Ontario players would be wise to get this app downloaded on their mobile devices.