Bookies who are no longer serving the UK betting market

Over the last few years the online betting landscape in the UK has changed dramatically. With many takeovers, mergers and firms going bust there has been numerous bookmakers come and gone.

We decided it might be worth listing some of those bookies that used to be listed here at online-bookies.org.uk and give a brief explanation why you can no longer place your bets with them.

Two bookies we used to work with and have listed on our site are 12bet and 138.com. Both of these sites are powered by TGP Group software and had their own affiliate program software attached to their sites. In 2019, they both closed their affiliate programs, so advertising partners could no longer work and advertise their site, so they had to be removed. The same happened with Star Sports who struggled with compliance guidelines from the UKGC (United Kingdom Gambling Commission).

In recent years the UK gambling market has not only become a crowded marketplace but also an expensive one to operate. Firstly the UK Government introduced a Point of Consumption Tax (POC) in 2014 which added a 15% tax on all remote bets placed in the UK. Following that the UKGC have really tightened their rules and regulations meaning a lot of extra costs for operators to make sure they are compliant, as are their advertising partners, to avoid huge fines and penalties. A number of operators decided the costs just weren’t viable and simply left the UK market.

One of the first to leave the UK betting market was Malta based bookmaker ComeOn who decided they were better offer concentrating their products in the core markets away from the UK. Another online bookie, UKK8 were also quick off the mark in 2019 to leave the UK betting market for many of the same reasons as ComeOn. This was a slight surprise as UKK8 had invested a lot of money trying to get a foothold in the UK by taking part in some high profile sponsorship deals including Manchester City Football Club.

One betting site that had quietly been going about their business in the UK, and seemingly getting by quite well was Jetbull. However, in 2019 their operator, Everymatrix, had their UK licence suspended, which they decided not to contest and instead withdrew from the UK.

One slightly different betting site that you may have noticed no longer listed is Totesport. After Betfred bought Totesport from the UK Government in 2011 it is safe to say they never really knew how to take the brand forward and seemed to almost get stuck in 2 minds what to do. In October 2019 Betfred sold on Totesport to new owners who are in the process of relaunching a new Tote site, so we will see in the future if they start working with advertising partners again.

Unfortunately some bookies end up facing hard times and never get through the storm. BetSid were one company who were struggling and were in trouble when their shops were sold to another betting company and took their website offline for a long time. It has since relaunched, but they still haven’t said if they will be working with advertising partners again.

One new online bookmaker that seemed to come flying out of the traps were MoPlay. When they launched they seemed to be everywhere, even becoming a betting partner of Manchester United Football Club as well as others. They seemed to have some serious backing but unfortunately alarm bells started to ring when they started to pay advertising partners late and slowly in the summer of 2019. Then in September 2019 Manchester United took action against agents of MoPlay for unpaid sponsorship income. They were seeking compensation for €9m! The writing was starting to appear on the wall until the obvious happened, they were declared insolvent in February 2020.

Another one of the online bookies that didn’t last the test of time was BlackType. Having launched as a white label bookmakers in 2016 they were slowly making a name for themselves but the company was pushed into administration in 2020. FSB have since taken over the running of the website however have closed their affiliate program so are no longer working with their advertising partners.

In challenging times we do unfortunately expect to see more bookmakers come and go from the UK sports betting market. We will keep updating this, so you can see any latest bookies that no longer operate in the UK for whatever reasons they have, but we do hope we won’t have to update this too often.

It didn’t take long though for us to unfortunately have to update this post, and it came as a surprise to us that we have had to add Betway. In April 2020 they decided they wanted to reduce their exposure with affiliates targeting the UK market and closed many affiliate accounts. This has now left only a very small amount of websites advertising Betway, what this means for them in the long term only time will tell. Over the years though in this industry we have seen many bookies try and cut costs this way, and it has resulted in some leaving the UK betting market or worse, completely folding.

As 2020 rolled on, being one of the strangest and most challenging years seen by many, it got tougher for some gambling companies as well. In July 2020 we saw Bethard become the latest bookmaker to withdraw from the UK betting market. This follows Royal Panda, who exited the UK in January 2020.

As 2020 drew to a close there was still time for another exit, this time from the Betsson Group. The company decided to withdraw most of their brands from the UK market to leave just one, Rizk Casino, available. This meant Betsson, Betsafe, Racebets and Guts Casino were no longer available to UK customers. For people closely watching the gaming industry in the UK, this really came as no real great surprise as their market share was very small and had already started to drift away by closing their UK office back in 2018.