James Pacheco
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Author, Betting enthusiast

November 16, 2023

James started working in the betting industry a few weeks before Roger Federer won his first-ever Grand Slam and a few months before Greece shocked Europe’s elite at Euro 2004.

Coral info & Score

Info

info

Customer Support

question

Bottom Line

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Coral is very much your one-stop-shop for sports betting in that you’ll find everything you’d want under one roof.

Rating

percentage
Sign Up offer
80%
Ongoing Promotions
80%
Betting Markets and bet types
80%
Betting Odds
70%
Betting Features
80%
Mobile App
70%
Customer Support
80%
Deposit/Withdrawal Options
70%

Our Verdict:

It will particularly appeal to the horseracing fan, who can take advantage of the Best Odds Guaranteed ongoing promo and plenty of other Coral promotions revolving around racing.

But with over 45 other sports to bet on, good offers to go with them, competitive odds, endless live betting markets and plenty of livestreaming on them, you can say safely say all sports are well covered.

Their #YourCall service means you can request bets on markets that aren’t available, giving you greater control and freedom.

As you’d expect, you can count on them for all the other modern-day features including a strong mobile app, Bet Builders and Cash Out, while a big supply of FAQs and an efficient customer service allow you to solve any queries quickly and without hassle.

They’ve benefited from being under the same umbrella as Ladbrokes in that they’ve learnt from each other, while they work in partnership with the likes of Microgaming (software) and Opta (stats) to provide the best possible levels of quality.

Intro

Coral was founded by Joe Coral back in 1926, who began a bookmaking business based at horse racing events and later extended it to speedway meetings as well. Joe Coral opened his first licensed betting office in 1961.

Since then, it’s gone through plenty of mergers.

It was the Coral Leisure Group in the 1970s after diversifying to other businesses such as hotels, restaurants and casinos.

There was a short-lived merger with Ladbrokes in 1998. Then, in 1999 it acquired Eurobet and became known as Coral Eurobet.

There was then a second merger with Ladbrokes in 2016 and this time it stayed that way, with the company renamed Ladbrokes Coral. They were then bought by GVC Holdings, who later became Entain.

Coral owns just under 2,000 land-based betting shops in the UK and together with its online business, is one of the major players in the UK betting industry.

It was one of the first to go online, offer livestreaming and create its own app. The Coral betting app is available on iOS, Android and Windows and is considered one of the best in the business.

Sign Up offer

The Coral sign-up offer is pretty good compared to the competition, offering more bang for your buck. Whilst the standard sign-up offer these days is generally Bet 5 Get 10 or Bet 10 Get 20, Coral are going Bet 5 Get 20. Here’s what you need to know.

New UK customers can get a £20 free bet when depositing and wagering just £5. A Bet 5 Get 20 offer is also what you get at Ladbrokes, perhaps not a surprise given they fall under the same umbrella of being owned by Entain.

However, the difference is that at Ladbrokes the free bet(s) are divided into 4x£5 bets and here it’s just one big £20 free bet.

Notable Terms and Conditions

  • Your £5 qualifying bet must be placed at odds of at least 1.5 as a single, each-way bet (in this case for a total of £10) or as an acca. If it’s an acca, every leg must be at odds of at least 1.5.
  • Deposits must be made using VISA or Mastercard in order to receive the Coral Welcome offer.
  • You must place the free bet as one £20 bet, without breaking it down into several small bets.
  • The free bet can be used on any sport and must be placed within 7 days of being awarded.
  • Only winnings generated from the stake are paid out; the stake isn’t returned.

How to claim your welcome bonus

  • Register an account at Coral and deposit at least £5, remembering to avoid certain payment methods.
  • Place a single or acca for at least £5 at odds of at least 1.5 within 14 days of opening the account.
  • Use your £20 free bet within 7 days of being awarded it.

Registering an account

    1. Click on the Join button.
    2. Enter your country of residence, E-mail, choose a User ID and a password.
      Coral sign up
    3. Enter your name, surname and date of birth.
      Coral sign up
    4. Make sure you enter your home address correctly, including the Post Code as this will be needed to verify your account. It’s also here that you choose if you want to receive notifications about Coral promotions by e-mail, phone, SMS or post. It’s good to stay updated about these offers so make sure you choose one that keeps you informed but isn’t too intrusive.
      Coral sign up
    5. Your account will be instantly verified to make sure details like e-mail and home address actually exist. At this stage, you can choose to set limits on deposits if you wish, though this can also be done at a later date.
      Coral sign up

Ongoing Promotions

There are plenty of ongoing Coral promotions beyond just the welcome offer. Here are some of the ones to look out for:

Football and racing bet bundles

Every week you can claim one football or racing bet bundle, or both.

In each case you can buy either £5 worth of bets for just £2 (5x £1) or £10 worth of bets for £5 (5x £2).

Football bundle bets can only be used on football, racing ones just on racing.

Though you can claim both offers (football/racing) within the same week, you can only claim one of each within that period; the greater value is to get the bigger bundle for each sport. It’s just a way of having more money to play with, albeit the amounts are relatively small.

Extra Places paid every day

This is a racing offer where customers can get better ‘place’ terms than usual on up to 10 selected races every day; the races can be from the likes of France or Australia, in addition to the UK and Ireland.

Here’s an example of the improved terms:

19:00 Southwell – 1/5 the odds 1-2-3-4 (enhanced from 1/4 the odds 1-2-3). Standard place terms will apply if 10 or fewer horses run.

In this case, you’re getting paid out on four places rather than just three, albeit at slightly shorter odds. But it’s still a good option.

Rewards Grabber

This is a free-to-play offer available to anyone who has made a deposit at Coral before. You choose when you want the Rewards Grabber to stop and can win free spins, casino bonuses and other prizes if you land on something.

You get to play for free every day. Given the Sportsbook and Casino are available under the same account, you don’t need to regularly play casino in order to be eligible.

Betting Markets and bet types

There are over 45 different sports you can bet on at Coral. But given that the bulk of the business comes from the Big 5 of sports to bet on, let’s see what the advantages are when it comes to playing on those.

Sport Major competitions covered Good features
Football Premier League, Serie A, La Liga, Champions League, Europa League, Ligue 1, FIFA World Cup, Euros, Copa Libertadores.
  • In-play free bet for £5 to be claimed every week when you place a £5 pre-match single or Build your Bet wager the day before.
  •  170+ pre-match markets ahead of any big game.
  • Odds Boosters every day on the biggest matches.
  • Interesting selection of football specials markets such as teams remaining unbeaten or next manager markets.
Tennis AT Tour, WTA Tour, Challenger Tour, Davis Cup, Ante-post Grand Slam markets.
  • Lots of Livestreaming of both men’s and women’s tournaments on a daily basis.
  •  60+ live betting markets on just about match available in-play.
  • Useful live score and top-level live stats to help you with your betting.
  • All Grand Slams have outright markets available months in advance.
Cricket Test matches, ODIs, T20Is, IPL, CPL, BBL, PSL, The Hundred, T20 World Cup, County Championship.
  • Real-time scorecards available mean you don’t have to leave the site to know what’s happening in the game.
  •  Request your own odds with #YourCall.
  • Player-specific markets like: Player X to score a 50, hit a certain number of sixes, be man-of-the-match, take more wickets than Player Y etc.
Horseracing All UK and Ireland daily races, Cheltenham Festival, Aintree Festival, US racing, French Racing, Dubai racing, Australian racing, South African racing.
  • Extra places on selected races on a daily basis.
  • Best Odds Guaranteed on all UK and Ireland races.
  • Free-to-enter ‘Racing Super Series’ competition where you can win a share of a guaranteed £25k every week by correctly picking 7 horses who place on a Saturday.
  • Build your own Racecard.
  • Virtual racing available.
Golf PGA Tour, DP Tour, LIV Tour, LPGA, The Majors, Ryder Cup, Solheim Cup.
  • Request your own specials markets.
  • Odds Boosters ahead of the biggest tournaments.
  • Good specials markets ahead of al tournaments such as: Top 10, First Round Leader, Top English Player, Top American Player, Dual Forecast.

 

Other sports

So that’s the five most popular ones covered but here are some cool features of some other sports to look out for, from the 40-45 to choose from.

  • eSports – If Poker’s popularity has been bigger in the past, then that of eSports has never bigger than right now. Fans of eSports can bet on the biggest matches on a daily basis with big games on the likes of DOTA sometimes having as many as 28 markets to bet on.
  • Snooker – Another sport on the rise as greater TV coverage, more sponsors and more prize money have given it a real boost. And speaking of boosts, Coral are one of the very few bookies to offer Bet Boosts on snooker matches for greater value. They also offer more in-play markets than most, so you have plenty of choice.

 

Betting Odds

So how is Coral betting when it comes to the generosity of their odds?

The answer is it’s pretty much bang in the middle. Occasionally they’ll offer the best price and occasionally it will be a couple of ticks shorter than some others. But for the most part, they’re pretty standard.

However, one way to consistently get better odds is to take advantage of Bet Boosts that give you that extra 20% or so on selected bets.

Betting Features

Now to the part of our Coral betting review where we look at all the special features that just add that little extra to your experience at Coral.

Before we get to those, it’s worth pointing out that heir Sportsbook and all other aspects of their site are powered by Microgaming, so you know you’re in safe hands.

In-Play betting

At Coral you can bet on over 15,000 events every month across all of those 45+ sports mentioned.

The average pay out across live betting is 93%, which is competitive. There are a few bookies going a bit higher and others going a bit lower, which is sort of the story with Coral in general.

One of the positive aspects of Coral’s in-play product is that bets in live betting are processed very quickly, rarely taking more than 3-4 seconds to be accepted.

Another is that Coral are quick to get their in-play markets reopened after suspending them. For example, when a goal is scored in football.

Cash Out Betting

Coral has the Cash Out feature available on most sports, in most cases in live betting, as well.

At Coral, you can use the Cash Out feature to secure a profit before the event is over if your bet is going well.

Or get some of your stake back, rather than losing the lot, if it’s not going so well.

Or you can use the partial Cash Out feature.

In this case, you get your stake back or stake back plus some profit, while letting the other part of the bet ride.

What Coral doesn’t currently offer is the Auto Cash Out feature where you determine certain odds in the future at which you want to automatically Cash Out. In other words: all Cash Outs need to be manually processed.

Bet Builder

At Coral it’s called Build Your Bet and allows you to combine different selections within the same football match into one acca/multiple.

The great thing about the Build Your Bet feature at Coral is the choice of markets that can be included in one.

From mainstream ones like match betting, correct score or total goals. To less mainstream ones such as how many tackles a player will make, whether a particular player will get a card or even how many passes they’ll make.

Best Odds Guaranteed

If you place a bet on UK or Ireland horseracing after 8am on the day of the race and it wins, you’ll get paid out at whichever price is biggest; the one you placed it at, or the Starting Price it went off at.

Coral is one of a very select group of bookies who has extended the offer to greyhound racing, as well.

Live Streaming

Coral stream up to 2,000 events every week across horseracing, greyhound racing, football, tennis, snooker, darts, ice hockey and baseball, to name but a few.

The frequency, selection and quality of the live streaming (pictures) itself is right up there with the very best in the industry.

To watch any event, you just need to be logged in and have an active account. The definition of which is that it either has funds in it, or a bet has been placed from it within the last 24 hours.

The exception is Irish or international horseracing, where you need to place a bet of at least £1 in order to watch the race.

Mobile App

The Coral betting app is simple and quick to use and allows you to enjoy your Coral account on the go. It’s available for Android, iOS and very rarely for a betting app, Windows as well.

iOS users can download straight from the Apple Store, and Windows users from the Microsoft app store. Android users will need to download the Android app directly from Coral’s website instead, but it’s fast and easy to do.

For more info on downloading betting apps, visit our mobile betting app page.

Customer Support

Your first port of call for queries should be their FAQ section. There are dozens of questions set out with clear and helpful answers, many of them accompanied by short videos.

Most of your queries will be answered right there and then. But if they’re not, you can get in touch with Coral in the following ways:

  • E-mail: customerservice@galacoral.com.
  • Phone: +44-208-507-6410.
  • Live Chat

Or by sending a direct message to their Twitter, Facebook or Instagram account.

Their customer service team is available 24/7 and at the moment just in English, though that may change in the future.

The waiting time was low in terms of getting a response and the quality of the customer service was high, with agents helpful and knowledgeable.

Deposit/Withdrawal Options

For such a big bookmaker, the number of payment options is somewhat limited and there are more available withdrawal methods than depositing ones, which is rare.

It’s also surprising that you can’t use Skrill or Neteller, though you can use PayPal.

But as you can see below, the processing times and minimum deposits/withdrawals aren’t bad at all.

Method Minimum deposit Deposit Time Minimum withdrawal Withdrawal Time
VISA/Maestro/Mastercard £5 Instant £5 1-3 working days
VISA Fast Funds N/A Instant £5 Instant to 4 Hours
PayPal £10 Instant £5 3-8 hours
Paysafecard £5 Instant £3 3-8 hours
Bank Transfer N/A Instant £5 2-4 working days
Apple Pay £5 Instant £5 1-3 Working Days

Coral in the Media

Coral part of a strong start to 2023 for Entain

Coral is alongside Ladbrokes and BetMGM contributing to a strong start to 2023 for parent company Entain.

All three brands are owned by Entain, who reported a 15 per cent rise in net gaming revenues in the first quarter, with a big contributing factor being the huge number of bets placed on the Superbowl, particularly with BetMGM, 50% of which is owned by Ladbrokes.

Another part of the success was down to Coral and Ladbrokes betting shops reopening over the past year after the pandemic. (Reference: Here)

Coral Sport UK Betting Review

FAQ

Yes, at Coral you can both deposit and withdraw using PayPal. Like with most e-wallets, it’s one of the fastest ways of getting your money in and out of your account.

Yes, Coral offers daily betting markets on big eSports events such as DOTA and League of Legends and in some cases, as many as 25 different markets per event.

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