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| For players migrating to online gaming from the UK's traditional bricks 'n' mortar betting world, Bet365 is a name, like Ladbrokes, William Hill and Littlewoods that should bring a cosy sense of familiarity, especially if your past history of betting has included a little (or a lot of) sports betting. Founded in 1974 from the merger of two smaller partnerships, Bet365 steadily built its UK bookmaking business from its Stoke-on-Trent base to become a global player in today's online gambling industry, now employing over 700 people and serving 1.5 million customers in over 100 different countries. Indeed, so successful has Bet365 been in its Internet betting operations, that it decided to go exclusively online in 2005, selling on its network of old-school, high-street betting shops to Coral in the process. The bottom line of this history lesson is that you can be sure you're betting in safe hands with Bet365, using secure systems in rigorously licensed environments. So, all's fair at Bet365, but does it make the grade with the quality of its online casino gaming? |
First steps to getting into the Bet365 casino experience involves a trip to its website to check out the wares and sign up to play. Arriving, as we did, at Bet365's Landing Page (http://casino.bet365.com
/LandingPage/) we were initially a bit underwhelmed by the rather humdrum, static welcome, but don't be fooled - click the invitation to 'Play Now' at the casino and you |
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find this is a curiously pointless staging post to Bet365 Casino's proper Home Page where everything gets a whole lot more groovy. Suddenly you're in a very fresh, nicely presented site with ready access to the gaming you're interested in, plus very clear navigation to answer all your newcomer queries and guide you through the necessary steps to get stuck into some hot chip-flinging action beyond 365Bet's virtual lobby. The more we poked around 365Bet's website the more it charmed us. Bet365 have done a grand job designing a casino site that lets you easily and happily explore what it can offer, without pressurising the newcomer into signing up until they're ready to go. Hell, you can even try out some Free Play games without signing up to see if you like the cut of 365Bet's jib. We certainly did, so signing up was a straightforward pleasure to grant us access to the full Bet365 experience.
Click here to play at Bet365 Casino |
| Our warm feelings towards Bet365 Casino continued on investigating its gaming software selection. Covering all bases, Bet365 offers its customers both a full-fat download suite of casino games and a Flash-based Instant Play casino too. The former, as with all download casinos we've experienced, requires a Windows PC to run, but the Instant Play casino is far more platform agnostic and worked perfectly on an |
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Apple Mac computer we threw at it to test its non-Windows ways. Good work fellas. Bet365 have teamed up with casino-software specialists Playtech to deliver its games, and we can't fault that decision on close acquaintance with its offerings. If you can run the download casino do so, since this is the full-ticket experience with a fantastic selection of single, multiplayer and private group, chat-enabled games rendered with beautiful attention to audio and visual detail. The download file size isn't bloated (we got it very quickly on a typical domestic broadband connection speed) and installation was drama-free. Although more limited in its features, the Instant Play casino is no also-ran. It easily competes with the best of Bet365's Instant Play rivals, with quick loading times and smooth, satisfying recreations of the real-world game mechanics. Our only gripe with Bet365's core games (and it is a minor one) is that, as UK players, we do like to have British dealer / croupier voices. OK, we know it's not the be-all and end-all of great online casino entertainment and - yes - you can switch off the dealer voice if it doesn't suit you, but some rival UK online casinos do use British voices and it is a little detail we're suckers for. Moving on, we can't conclude our coverage of Bet365's complement of casino games without also mentioning its option of Live Dealer games covering Roulette, Baccarat, Blackjack and Sic Bo. Live Dealer games are an increasing trend in the leading online casinos and whilst we're a little ambivalent about their appeal over and above their entirely graphics-driven brethrens, it's kudos to 365Bet for including this option to cover all tastes and for keeping pace with innovations in the industry.
Click here to play at Bet365 Casino
With membership comes rewards in the online casino world, and Bet365 aims to keep its customers happy with a goodly selection of competitive bonuses, sizeable progressive jackpots and promotions. Loyalty leads to Royalty in Bet365's world and we were sneakily pleased to be anointed 'Dukes' and 'Duchesses' on joining this casino. It's all a bit of titular fun, but with it does come useful player privileges and, if you are a keen player, further levels of VIP advantage follow accrual of specific amounts of comp points (although hitting the heady heights of 'Emperor' is by invitation only!) which can usefully augment your account funds. We should also point out that Bet365 casino membership also creates an account you can use across its full range of betting entertainment, so if you like to mix up your Blackjack with a bit of Bingo and betting on Bolton Wanderers this could be the only account you'll ever need.
Click here to play at Bet365 Casino
Bet365 have clearly baked a very tasty online gaming cake, and thankfully (if you'll excuse our extended metaphor) you'll also find it has done a proper job with the icing of its customer support. Although the quality and comprehensive nature of the Bet365 website's published help means resorting to its human-staffed support channels could well be a rare occurrence, the company has not skimped on this important detail. Support is on hand at all times via e-mail, Call Back, freephone, fax, snail mail and live chat channels, and on the occasions we put it to the test we always received a quick and courteous response whichever path we chose. As we said at the start of this review, you are betting in safe hands with Bet365.
Bet365 Casino impressed us no end. It is a quality act, looking after its customers with consistently high levels of service and an excellent selection of online gaming entertainment delivered in a choice of formats that should cover pretty much all player and computer predilections - what's not to like? Whatever your level of interest in playing a UK online casino, you will not be wasting your time by taking a good look at Bet365.
Click here to play at Bet365 Casino |
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