Unibet Review

A great range of markets and live streaming options are the standout features of this international bookmaker.

My rating: 4.4/5

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Unibet as we know it has been around since way back in 1999, but it wasn’t until 2012 that they made their way down to Australia. Since then, they’ve remained a popular choice for punters even among the throng of new betting sites popping up on a near-monthly basis, and for pretty good reason.

The main feature of Unibet, as is often the case with bigger, international bookmakers, is that they have a ridiculous number of different things to bet on. A virtually unmatched range of sports betting markets, coupled with great odds in both sports and racing, means that there is always going to be a place for the Unibet bookmaker in the Aussie sports betting industry.

Of course, that isn’t all they do well, though they do also have some areas for improvement. Among their other strengths are the availability of live betting and an excellent live streaming platform, and there are some decent Unibet bonus bet offers as well.

The Unibet desktop site does, however, leave a little to be desired, and while it’s improved in recent years it still does lag – quite literally, a lot of the time – behind most other high-profile betting sites. The app is not much better, and could use some work to match it with the best as well.

Still, neither platform is unusable, and the presence of such an impressive range of markets and such good odds means that plenty of people are more than willing to look past these relatively minor inconveniences. In this Unibet Australia review, we’re going to dive into each of those aforementioned strengths and weaknesses of the site in greater detail, so let’s get stuck right in.

The Unibet racing platform is formatted a little differently to many other betting sites – as is the website in general – but once you get your head around where everything is, it’s pretty straightforward to use. To access it, simply click on the ‘racing’ tab at the top of your desktop site or bottom of the Unibet Australia app.

Once there, you’ll be greeted with a couple of quick links through to ‘Featured’ races, as well as those next to jump, with the win odds for each of the favourites in those races available to immediately add to your betslip. You’ve also got a ‘My Bets’ link which you can click on to see your pending bets – a handy little addition – as well as a link to the streaming platform which broadcasts select races.

The Unibet Australia racing platform also has quick links to thoroughbred, harness or greyhound betting markets, while upcoming thoroughbred races – with domestic races at the top – are all available to click through to directly lower down the page.

Once you do click through to a particular race, you’ll find a brief analysis of the race alongside some horse racing tips, as well as the standard info on each runner – such as form, flucs, weight and so on. A nice feature here is that for certain races you also have a button next to each runner which says ‘Yard’; clicking this enables you to have a look at the runner in the mounting yard.

And as for the odds? Solid but not spectacular, would be my summary. I mentioned earlier in this Unibet review that they have great odds, which is certainly true for sports and can be at times for racing. Overall, however, they generally come in around industry average or perhaps marginally better – an upcoming favourite which is $3.40 to $3.60 elsewhere is $3.50 at Unibet, for example, while some of the longer odds runners are slightly longer than average here.

The Unibet app is formatted a little differently to many other Australian betting sites, and while change, as they say, is as good as a holiday, sometimes it’s not a very good holiday. The Unibet betting app isn’t without its charm – I actually quite like the layout and when it’s functioning well it can be a really good platform – but it does certainly have some work to do in terms of functionality.

Reviews of the app are at times relatively scathing, and many of the issues called out by other users are things that I too have experienced. A continual need to log back in after exiting the app is one, and is something that really slows down the whole Unibet betting process, while the opening up of new windows for certain links also tends to make the process of doing much at all with the app a little tardy.

Having said that, it does appear to be getting better. I used to have all manner of issues with the app being faulty, not least its tendency to just shut down randomly, but that seems to have been resolved. Still, there are clearly issues with how slow this app can be as well as a few glitches that happen all too often. It is uniquely laid out in a platform that I quite like and there is, of course, the bonus of having a great range of markets at your disposal when using it, but for such a high-profile betting site Unibet really needs to iron out the issues with its betting app.

As for the desktop site, this section of the Unibet betting review is probably going to read relatively similar to the previous. Because like the app, the Unibet desktop site is uniquely designed and if a few issues were ironed out, would be a really good one, but unfortunately they really do need to get the ironing board out.

When you first get to the Unibet desktop site, all looks good. You’ve got a nice, sleek appearance, with ‘Sports’ and ‘Racing’ tabs up top alongside ‘Promotions’ and ‘Features’, while your own account details and a quick link to deposit are easily accessed on the other side of the top banner.

My main gripe with the site is that things just don’t load all that quickly, and it tends to make my computer sound like an aeroplane taking off. There’s quite a lot going on when you click through to ‘Sports’, for example, which can feel cluttered, though I don’t actually mind the fact that you can immediately click through to anything you want. The issue is, it doesn’t always get there that fast.

Partially that may be to do with impatience – it’s not as though it takes a minute for every page to load – but when you’re clicking through multiple links to different pages and each of them takes a second or two extra to load, it can get frustrating. This has got a little better over the last couple of years, but Unibet would benefit from continuing to work on speeding up the loading times on the site.

Overall the potential is there, and the layout of the site is one that I quite like. If it was accompanied by a high level of functionality, all would be well, but for the moment this is still an area in which Unibet has room for improvement. 

Special features that help a betting site to stand out aren’t always that easy to find, but that’s not the case with Unibet, because they quite literally have a ‘Features’ tab at the top of their home page. Not all of those listed features are made equal, but here are a couple of the best of them.

Live streaming

At Unibet, the selection of live streaming options available for punters is just about as good as it gets. There are a massive 30,000 events streamed annually on the platform, or more than 400 every week, and they’re not just any old events. Along with a plethora of racing, Unibet TV live streaming includes major global leagues like the NBA and NFL, while you’ve also got live streaming and live tennis betting options, major European soccer league options and more. In order to watch Unibet TV, you simply need to have a registered Unibet account, and have either placed a bet in the last 24 hours or have $1 or more in your account.

Fast withdrawals

If you’re lucky enough to be in a position to make a Unibet withdrawal, their fast withdrawal platform enables you to have the money in your account within an hour. The fast withdrawal option is available for PayID as well as bank transfer, and means that rather than having to wait at times up to two days in order to see the funds in your account, you’ll have them in there close to immediately.

This is where Unibet really shines. Many major international bookmakers that have opened up Australian branches excel in their range of markets, and Unibet is no exception.

At the time of writing, there is an enormous 31 different sports available to bet on at Unibet. Obviously you’ll find the standard ones like Aussie rules football, rugby and basketball, but if you’re after something a bit more niche, how does lacrosse sound? Hurling, anyone? Whether you’re looking for something mainstream or the exact opposite, you’ll find it here.

Hurling events, as an example, do not have a massive range of markets, though that’s to be expected. But for the big leagues, Unibet might just have the most options for you to bet on of any betting site in the country. An upcoming AFL game has a ridiculous 718 markets available to bet on, a number bulked up by a huge range of player props which includes obscure markets such as ‘Anytime behind scorer’ and ‘Fantasy points’.

So if you’ve got any niche AFL tips or NRL tips up your sleeve, Unibet is a good place to start, and likewise if you want to bet on less popular sports. With a massive range of sports available and a selection of markets for those sports that is hard to beat, you could very easily spend hours perusing your options and still hardly put a dent in them.

Earlier in this Unibet Australia review, we touched on the odds available on Unibet’s racing platform. We won’t go over that again, in this section instead focusing on the odds that are available for the plethora of Unibet sports markets on offer.

In general, Unibet is renowned for having really competitive odds, with their lines at times up to in excess of $1.90, which is just about as good as it gets. This isn’t always the case though; the aforementioned upcoming AFL game has a line of just $1.88, which is only around industry average, so there clearly can be some variance.

As for the less common markets such as player props, for which there can be an enormous difference in odds at different bookmakers for the same market, Unibet is generally in the upper tier. It’s always worth shopping around when betting on these kinds of markets because of this variance, and while a particular betting site might have the best odds for one particular player prop that doesn’t mean they will for all of them. On average, however, Unibet is very competitive across the board.

You can easily access Unibet’s promotions and betting bonuses from the home page, simply by clicking on the ‘Promotions’ tab – who would have thought! This will give you a list of all current promos, which you can also split into ‘racing promotions’ and ‘sport promotions’.

We can’t tell you exactly what bonuses are on offer, but generally they are pretty standard at Unibet. You’ll find bonus back offers, a few price pushes here and there and occasionally some early payouts – nothing outstanding, but enough to keep most punters happy.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a betting site in Australia for whom it takes more than a minute or two to sign up, and Unibet is no exception. You can do it either on the Unibet app or desktop site by following these simple steps.

1. Locate the ‘Register’ button and click on it.
2. First, you’ll be asked to select whether you mostly bet or racing or sports. Make your pick and click continue – note: if you bet on both don’t stress too much, this doesn’t impact your ability to do that.
3. Enter your personal details including name, date of birth as well as your email address and desired password.
4. After that, simply enter your address and phone number, accept the terms and conditions and then click ‘Confirm Registration’.

Considering that they are a large, international betting site, the selection of payment options available at Unibet is relatively limited, though it should still cater to the needs of the vast majority of punters.

As with just about every betting site, the most popular deposit method is debit/credit card, which will see your money deposited instantly into your Unibet betting account. Other instantaneous deposit methods available at Unibet Australia are PayPal and PayID, while you can also use bank transfer – though this could take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two.

You can withdraw money directly to your bank account via bank transfer, or alternatively withdraw to your PayPal account. Note that both of these methods will take up to a day or two to complete. The minimums for each of these methods for both depositing and withdrawing is $10.

The customer support platform at Unibet is reasonable enough, though they could make it a little easier to find on the app. On the desktop site you simply click on the ‘Help’ link in the top right-hand corner of the page; on the app, however, you have to scroll right down to the bottom to find that ‘Help’ link. Once you know it’s there it takes just one click to access the platform, but it’s certainly not as an intuitively placed as on many other betting apps. 

Once you do, however, it’s generally a relatively good platform. You’ve got all three of the commonly used support methods available here; live chat, a phone number and an email address, and importantly the live chat is available at all hours of the day.

As we near the end of this comprehensive Unibet review, check out our answers to a few of the most frequently asked questions about this betting behemoth below.