- Jackpot slots
- Interesting promotions
- Free chat and phone customer service
- VIP Club
Talking about Betfair is talking about one of the greats of the game at a European and even worldwide level. Its origins date back to the year 2000, and it only took a decade for it to hit the markets. Since 2010 it has been listed on the London Stock Exchange, and although its initial activity was sports betting, the then bookmaker followed the path of many other bookies and diversified its business to open it up to casino games and the world of poker, completing thus an interesting offer.
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Betfair is one of the first operators to obtain its licenses to operate in the Philippines thanks to the gambling regulation of 2012, and despite its British origin, it has its headquarters in Malta, a common practice in many companies in the sector. In 2015, it merged as Paddy Power in an operation where the Irish group acquired 52% of Betfair's capital, giving way to the largest gaming operator in the world.
Our experience at Betfair Casino
With these credentials, our expectations for Betfair Casino are very high. Will it meet them or will we be disappointed? The first thing to note is that Betfair Casino has the same domain as its sports betting, poker, or exchange betting sections, a hallmark of the group, so to access the casino we will have to go to the Betfair website and click on the Casino section. Although there are also sections for Slots or Live Casino, the result is practically the same.
This is because in all three cases we have a small menu with the different options offered by Betfair Casino, so we can easily identify what types of games are available: live casino, tables -where roulette appears-, cards, and slots. We see that at first glance the selection of games included in the casino is in line with what we are used to. We also find tabs for quick access to jackpots -slot machines with a jackpot-, new games, promotions, or the Return to Player of all their games, which is always interesting information.
Design is probably not the area where Betfair has invested the most. Under its traditional yellow header, the action takes place on a gray background where games appear as banners. We can play directly by clicking on one of them, although if we click on the "i" icon that appears in the lower right corner, we get detailed information about the game and the option to play in demo mode. In jackpot games, we also have real-time information about the jackpot.
Furthermore, we have interesting promotions, we can manage our funds through the usual payment methods, there is a VIP club for top players, a customer service that meets the minimum requirements we can demand, and a mobile application... although with the peculiarity that it is only available for iOS.
Games offer
Betfair Casino's game offering is structured into tables, cards, and slots. Although they have other points such as live casino, jackpots, and "new" games, we see that the live casino section only includes live roulette which appears in tables, and the jackpots are within slots. One advantage of this casino is the ability to try out different games in demo mode that allow Philippines to test the games before starting to play with real money to get to know them better.
✅ Slots
Betfair Casino offers Philippines a hundred slot machines, generally with 5 reels but different paylines. There are slots with a pot, slot machines with progressive jackpots, and conventional slot machines without a pot. The only filters that Betfair Casino offers Philippines are between the slots with a jackpot and the latest additions to their slot catalog, as well as a search engine, but they cannot be filtered by theme, paylines, etc.
✅ Roulette
Within the roulette section, we can find several tables, partially conventional and partially live dealer roulette which we will discuss later. We have premium versions of French and European roulette, a conventional European roulette, Penny Roulette, and a Quantum roulette that allows Philippines to take advantage of multipliers.
✅ Card games
The last point in the chapter on games is about cards. Betfair Casino offers up to 10 types of blackjack, becoming one of the casinos with a greater offer of this casino classic. We have premium blackjack, surrender, American, super 21, buster, multi-hand... Beyond blackjack, Betfair Casino's card game offering is completed with Spanish Pontoon, a game with similar characteristics to blackjack.
✅ Live Casino
Betfair surpasses a dozen live roulette games, although it's worth noting that those with croupiers are always European roulette. French roulette is only available in the automatic version. If we focus on the croupier roulette games, the Quantum, Express, Lightning, and especially the exclusive Spin & Win live roulette stand out, a game obviously not available in other casinos.
VIP club
Betfair Casino has a VIP program, which can be accessed when we reach 1,000 points. From there, we continue to earn points that allow Philippines to move up the VIP club ranking from Aruba, the initial level, to Monaco, the 5th, passing through Atlantic City, Macau, and Las Vegas first. Each level has a minimum number of points to stay in and comes with its advantages for the user.
Payment methods
As we mentioned earlier, the variety of payment methods offered by Betfair is nothing out of the ordinary, but it does have the advantage of including the most common methods. When making a deposit, we can use Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards, PaySafeCard or PayPal prepaid cards, and Skrill and Neteller, the three most popular e-wallets. However, users who deposit via Skrill or Neteller will not be entitled to the welcome bonus.
When it comes to making a withdrawal of funds, we can use the same methods, with the obvious exception of PaySafeCard prepaid cards. Nevertheless, before requesting a withdrawal, you should know that you will have to withdraw at least the amount deposited through a payment method in order to withdraw additional funds with another. For example, if you have deposited $20 via PayPal and want to withdraw $40 with your card, you will have to withdraw $20 through PayPal and the rest with the card.
Security
One of the essential issues in any casino is security, and Betfair Casino meets all the security requirements that we can demand. As you know, otherwise, the AGCO, responsible for granting, extending, and withdrawing licenses in the sector, would not allow them to operate in our country. Betfair is a completely safe operator and has its own systems to protect players' data and deposits and prevent fraud.
The endorsement of licenses from the AGCOis the best indicator of security in any online casino or gaming operator, but it is worth noting that if we scroll down to the bottom of the Betfair website, we find the usual quality seals, which remind Philippines that we are dealing with a completely safe website: 18+, Self-exclusion, Safe Gaming and Play Well. Along with them, the Gambling Therapy logo appears.
Betfair Casino Mobile App
One of the aspects that stands out when talking about Betfair Casino is that it only has an app for iOS, so you can play its games from the app on your iPhone or iPad, but not on an Android device. This is surprising, especially considering that the Betfair Sports and Betfair Exchange apps are available on both operating systems. So, if you want to play at Betfair Casino from your Android device, you have to open it in the browser. The games are adapted to these devices, but it is always preferable to have the app.
Customer Support
If you have any issues, you can contact the Betfair customer support team through an online chat, the toll-free phone number 800 90 60 40, email, or on their Twitter account @Betfair_US. According to their data, the average wait time for a response on chat and phone is one minute, while on email we have to wait around 8 hours. Therefore, it is advisable to use either chat or email, available between 10:00 and 23:00, and use email outside of these hours.
- Email via web
- Phone: 800 90 60 40
- Chat online
Customer service emails are sent by filling out the form that appears on the Betfair Casino help page. Like many online gaming operators, if you go to the "Help and Contact" section located in the lower white strip of the page, there are a series of questions and answers organized by topics with the most common doubts of Betfair users. Perhaps the answer to your problem is among them, so you can save yourself sending your query, especially outside of telephone or chat support hours.
Betfair Casino: Opinions and conclusion
It's time to take stock of Betfair Casino, and at first glance it can only be positive although as usual there are some aspects to improve. Navigation through Betfair Casino is simple and intuitive, although it is also true that the menus are more like search engines, for example those of the jackpot slots, the news -which are generally slot machines- or the live casino, with only one roulette. However, few casinos, if any, explain in such detail everything related to the games they offer, which is appreciated.
In the section of games, we see a great variety of blackjack and European and French roulette in both conventional and premium modalities. These are the great classics of the casino, and in this sense, Betfair Casino is superior to the competition. The gap comes in the slots. Although the catalog of slot machines exceeds 100 titles, there are online casinos with a significantly larger number of machines. Moreover, we miss some of the world's most prominent slots because Betfair Casino does not work with their developers, and that penalizes them. At least, there are slots with a jackpot.
We can deposit using the most common payment methods, and we have a free phone - always positive - and a live chat to solve problems, although it is also true that closing them at 23:00 seems a bit early. This service could be extended until midnight.
A top casino with all the games we could ask for and an interesting VIP club.
- Jackpot slots
- Interesting promotions
- Free customer support chat and phone
- Club VIP
- Betfair Casino app only for iOS