Independent Bookmakers 2024

Kwiff 🥇

Kwiff’s big differentiator is its supercharged odds boosts.

Any bet you place at Kwiff stands a chance of getting accepted at boosted odds offering hundreds of times more value than the price you originally took.

The Kwiff sportsbook is packaged in one of the more slick and modern-looking interfaces on the market and I think the mobile apps are particularly good. Kwiff also accepts PayPal as a deposit method, which is useful.

Kwiff was founded by Anders Ström and Karl Engström, who sharp eyes may recognise as the founders of gambling megabrand, Unibet. However, Kwiff remains stoically independent.

Spreadex🥈

At MyBettingSites.com, we review every UK sports betting site worth reviewing. We all agree that the only sports betting site worth considering for spread betting is Spreadex.

There’s also a first-rate sportsbook and an online casino packed with all the usual games (and a few more besides). All of this is accessible via a desktop browser or iOS/Android apps.

It’s one of our top picks for football cash out and scores highly for horse racing, too.

Spreadex was set up over 20 years ago by Jonathan Hufford, who remains the managing director.

Betfred 🥉

Betfred is probably the biggest independent online bookmaker in the UK.

Fred Done opened the first Betfred shop in Salford in the 1960s and has built an impressive shop and online empire in the half century since then.

If you like being able to pick from a wide variety of betting site offers, then I think Betfred is one of your best options.

It comes into its own on horse racing, with no fewer than eight racing promotions on offer at the time of writing.

BoyleSports

BoyleSports is another great option for offers and promotions across a truly impressive range of sports. The live streaming catalogue is extensive here, too.

I mostly use BoyleSports for its regular extra places promotions on large-field events like golf majors and F1 races but it's a solid all-round option for your regular betting, too.

BoyleSports was established in 1989 and has since opened more than 300 shops across the UK and Ireland. Founder John Boyle is still chairman of the company today.

I think it has the best mobile apps of the more old-school, shop-first brands.

Midnite

Midnite is a specialist esports betting site, but that's not to say that it doesn't do a decent job across (at the risk of sounding like yer da) 'proper' sports, too.

While it doesn't offer quite the range of football markets as some other bookies, I have been using it a fair bit recently for betting on asian handicap lines.

London-based company Dribble Media Ltd runs Midnite. It's successfully raised tens of millions of dollars in funding over recent years since commencing operations in 2018.

Independent online bookmakers are companies that offer digital sports betting services and have full control over their own operations. They are privately held, have no affiliations and do not operate additional white label brands.

On this page listing the top UK independent bookmakers, we’ve only included those who are properly licensed and regulated in Great Britain by the Gambling Commission.

Here’s a bit more info on the key features of the independent bookies we’ve picked out:

Privately held

All the betting sites on the lists above are privately held.

Being privately owned isn’t a requirement to be considered an independent company. However, I felt that for the purposes of this list it didn’t feel right to include the likes of bet365, which is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange.

While a publicly traded company can be considered independent provided it’s not controlled by another organization, its decisions are ultimately guided by shareholders who are often external.

Plus, I don’t think one of the world’s largest betting sites is really what you lot are looking for when you search for ‘independent bookmakers’.

Single-brand focus

For the lists above, I exclusively selected bookies that drive a single online betting site.

That rules out independently owned betting companies like BetVictor, which is privately held but has affiliations with Parimatch and talkSPORT BET.

Offer online sports betting

Kind of an obvious one, but an independent online bookmaker must offer betting services via a website or mobile app.

Mostly, this means that you can log in, deposit, place bets, and withdraw money all on the same online platform.

However, there are a couple of bookies I've included that run a slightly different model where punters can browse markets online and then send their proposed bet and stake to the trader by email (Ken Howells, for example).

The reason it’s worth making this distinction is that there are plenty of other types of UK independent bookmakers that operate on different models.

You can read more about them in the box below, if you want to.

Independent bookmakers may take bets on a more specialised selection of markets, offer better prices to punters, and deliver an overall more personalised service. However, this could come at the expense of the breadth of options and more reliable customer service typically available at larger bookmakers.

👍 Unique offering

Independent bookmakers have the freedom to offer markets on whatever event they want. That means some of these bookies dive deeper into certain sports or niches than the mega-corp high street brands.

Take DragonBet, for example. As you might have guessed by the name, this is an independent online bookie with a focus on Welsh sport - it offers markets on more Welsh football fixtures than most, if not all, of the competition.

👍 Potential for better odds

If you’re using some of the more exclusive services, like invite-only bookmakers, you may be able to negotiate better prices on certain events that you would typically get elsewhere.

To be honest, this point is only really applicable to the high-rollers and VIPs but it’s worth noting nonetheless.

Sites that run unique services, like Spreadex’s sports spread betting platform, also offer better value options on many events than a traditional sportsbook.

👍 Personal service

One of the clearest benefits to using an independent bookmaker instead of a brand that’s part of an international gambling portfolio is the personalized services that can be offered.

This is especially true of the smaller brands, like BetGoodwin, who have made their name in the industry by giving punters a personal touch both on the telephones and now online.

👎 Fewer markets overall

The downside of a bookie being specialised in a specific market - like Midnite in esports, for example - is that they may lack the breadth of coverage that can be found at more mainstream bookies.

For example, at the time of writing, in-play betting is available on five different football matches. In comparison, leading football betting sites like bet365 and Ladbrokes have 17 and 11 matches open for live betting respectively.

If you’re someone that likes to spread your betting activity across a wide variety of events, then independent bookmakers are probably not as good as something like bet365 or Betway.

👎 Potentially less reliable

One of the advantages of betting with big brands owned by multinational companies is that if you or they mess something up, they’re often easy to contact at any time of the day.

There’s also a degree of safety that comes with spending your money at a household-name brand as compared to a small independent operation.

That’s why I’ve only included fully licensed and regulated independent bookies on this page.