BoyleSports Review

Ireland’s largest independent bookmaker, BoyleSports first hit the High Street in 1982 with the opening of its first shop by the founder and current owner John Boyle. 38 years on it is still going strong with over 300 high street shops across Ireland and the UK to complement its online Sportsbook offering.

While it may lack some of the personality and glamour more associated with it’s chief rival Paddy Power, BoyleSports has still built up a loyal base of customers over the years with its no frills approach as well keeping a relatively low profile in the media. Over the years it has sponsored a succession of events such as its current deal with Championship side Birmingham City as well as being the headline sponsor of the biggest race in the Irish calendar, the Irish Grand National.

Recent times have seen respected TV pundit and former Republic of Ireland international Kevin Kilbane become a regular contributor to the website, joining former Irish Grand National winning jockey Robbie Power as one of BoyleSport’s brand ambassadors.

Getting started with BoyleSports

Heading over to the BoyleSports website reveals a relatively low key and non-threatening website. No immediate new customer offers become apparent, in a change from what we normally find on our first visit to an online bookmaker.

However if you scan the left hand navigation, there is a promotions tab lurking there and we duly found a new customer offer available, although certainly not the most straightforward at first glance:

Hitting the Sign Up button kicks off the registration process for new customers in the shape of a pop up window, and it was reassuring to see a Live Chat option also available in the top right corner along with contact support numbers. The first step is to fill in all the usual personal details and choose a username, password and security question/answer. There is also an option to set a deposit limit, either daily, weekly or monthly.

A successful registration leads to something of a public service announcement, with the following pop-up confirming that funds deposited with BoyleSports are held separately and not accessible by the company.

BoyleSports Deposit Options & Terms

With registration now successfully completed, it’s time to deposit some funds and get playing! BoyleSports offers the following options for depositing funds:

• Debit card
• PayPal
• Paysafe
• Skrill
• Neteller

Simply click add on the preferred payment type screen to start the process of depositing funds:

We decided to deposit £5 with our debit card following the easy on-screen prompts:

And with our details submitted, our funds were duly accepted, ready to place our first bet!

With all the payment options set out above, the minimum deposit amount is £5, regardless of the method used. All deposit methods attract no fees and BoyleSports claim on the deposit page that funds should be available immediately to play with. We also further found on the BoyleSports App there were options to deposit with Apple Pay and Google Pay, which should resonate with mobile wallet users.

BoyleSports Withdrawal Terms & Conditions

Customers should be aware that the minimum withdrawal BoyleSports permits is £10, and only if the withdrawal method selected is the same as the original source of the deposit e.g. if you deposited with PayPal your funds will be sent back to your PayPal account. In addition withdrawals can take up to 24 hours to process and a further 3-5 working days before you receive your funds.

The one exception to the above is a new Same Day withdrawals feature, available in the UK for Visa debit card customers only if issued from AIB UK, Nationwide UK, Barclays, HSBC or RBS.

Customers should also be aware when making a withdrawal that any bonuses credited to your account must have satisfied all wagering requirements and qualification criteria before it can be released as cash. BoyleSports however do advise if the cash balance on its own meets the minimum withdrawal requirements, you can withdraw your real cash balance at any time without affecting your bonus balance.

BoyleSports Sportsbook Bonus Offer

In order to welcome new customers, BoyleSports have a ‘Get up to £25 in free bets’ offer available, beginning with a ‘Bet £10 Get £5 free bet’, then up to four more £5 free bets. After the initial £5 free bet customers will receive a matched free bet equal to a 50% average of your next 3 qualifying bets up to £5. This is not one of the more easy to decipher free bet offers we have seen from online bookmakers, so the below is a practical scenario in which a customer may obtain the full £25 in free bets.

Example:

1. A new customer registers on the website, places a £10 or above qualifying bet on the market of their choice e.g. Football, Horse Racing, Cricket etc. Regardless of whether you choose a winner or loser, you will receive the first of five potential £5 free bets.
2. Place another £30 of wagers for your next three bets, for example 1 x £15 and 2 x £7.50, and receive a further £5 as a free bet (50% average of 3 bets = £5).
3. Repeat step 2 again.
4. Repeat step 2 again.
5. Repeat step 2 again.

Not the most easy process to follow! In total 13 bets would have to be placed to qualify for the maximum of £25 in free bets, with a total real cash money of at least £130 wagered (free bets earned do not qualify in steps 2-5). Some customers may find this rather onerous in terms of outlay and to keep a track of free bet status.

Bonus Terms and Conditions

If you do manage to follow the above, the following T&Cs also apply and should be kept in mind when exploring the opportunity to obtain the full £25 in free bets:

• Maximum free bet received from 3 qualifying bets is £5 (must place an average of £30 in 3 bets to qualify for the full £5).
• You may stake under £10 as your first bet, but the free bet will only be applied once you place a bet £10 or over.
• Free bet stakes do not contribute towards the customers qualifying bets.
• Maximum first free bet of £5.
• Minimum odds of 1/2 or greater required to qualify.
• Qualifying bets must be placed on sportsbook markets.
• Cashed out bets will not qualify towards your average stake.
• All acquired free bets gained through other promotions will be removed from this offer.
• Bets placed on the same selection multiple times will not qualify for this offer.
• Free bet cannot be used over the same selections.
• Free bets will expire within 7 days.

Additional Bonuses & Promotions

Heading over to the promotions tab, there are a number of other possible bonuses that could be unlocked, some of which are event specific, whereas others look to be more regular offers:

For example, there are free bets available in the form of a refund if a customer’s selection in selected upcoming races finishes 2nd to the SP favourite, up to a maximum of £20. In terms of backing a potential outsider rather than the favourite, this free bet could become particularly useful. There are also Acca loyalty and insurance free bets available, all of which warrant further investigation.

BoyleSports Sportsbook

With registration and deposit taken care of, it’s now time to hit the markets and place your first bet with BoyleSports! The first thing that is apparent is the impressive range of sports available to choose from. We counted 32 sports available to bet on, with additional markets on offer for Politics, E-Sports and TV/Film events – fancy a flutter on Conor McGregor being the next James Bond perhaps?

The range of events covered also looks to be comprehensive – a look at the upcoming Football fixtures for example showed markets being offered on games from Germany, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia and Israel to name a few.

Betting & In-Play Markets

Drilling down further into an upcoming Bundesliga fixture, we found a perfectly respectable 171 markets being offered:

Whilst the number of markets is slightly short compared to a competitor such as 888sport who are offering a rather daunting 406 markets on the same fixture, customers should find all their requirements covered off. Standard markets for win-draw-win, goalscorers, yellow and red card count, corner counts and so on are all catered for and should prove satisfactory to the vast majority of punters.

In-play fans are also taken care of, with all the standard markets available should a customer wish to cash out during the game. Markets that are eligible for cash out are clearly marked with helpful icons on the betting coupon page:

BoyleSports has a helpful stats centre available to call upon which can help punters analyse the two opponents and aid their bets. All the usual data is available such as previous head to heads and current form guide for both teams.

Daily Specials

Along with the vast range of markets to choose from, BoyleSports also offers a number of ‘Daily Specials’ which can found on the left hand menu on the homepage:

Placing a bet

After conducting some research via the stats centres, we decided to plump for a win for Eintracht Frankfurt against Werder Bremen at odds of 6/4. Clicking on the selection opens up the betting slip on right hand side, with details of the bet in terms of odds and potential returns on offer should the pick be a winner:

Hitting the Place Bet button triggers a slightly ponderous two step verification process, the first step below confirms the exact same details in the betslip as the previous step:

Clicking Confirm Bet will finally make this bet live, at which point the betslip turns green, and again confirms the selection and potential returns:

The two step process to confirming a bet is definitely out of step with other online bookmakers, and may prove annoying to punters used to one click confirmation. Customers are advised to check their bets carefully to ensure they have been placed, as they may be used to other online bookmakers and clicking just once to confirm their betslip!

Live Streaming

Live streaming is an increasingly important feature for any leading bookmaker, particularly with the in-play enthusiast in mind. Luckily BoyleSports caters for this with a number of live streaming events readily available.Football, Tennis, Snooker and Horse Racing are some of the sports on offer:

The only drawback is a large majority of the action shown as live graphical visualizations such as below. A choice of in-play markets should offset any annoyance of not seeing live pictures all the time, although the actual live stream looks to be rather limited in the below example:

BoyleSports also offers live streams on a vast number of Horse Racing events, all of which can be accessed by a customer placing a minimum of a £1 bet on any selection in the race they wish to watch. Alternatively they can follow the action via the radio channel provided.

BoyleSports VIP & Loyalty Schemes

BoyleSports are currently running a loyalty and rewards program via their ‘BoyleXtra’ multi-channel card. Customers can earn points and get access to exclusive offers each time they place a bet on desktop, tablet, mobile or at a BoyleSports retail shop.

The card is offered free of charge to customers and prizes according to their website include free bets, exclusive money back promotions, invites to events and more.

We took a look across their website and found the follow offer currently available to BoyleExtra cardholders:
‘For every FIVE £5 Accas placed in-store or online, you will get a FREE €5 Acca added to your online account!’

There is currently no VIP program running for BoyleSport customers.