Betfair Casino Review

Betfair has been around the online gaming block for quite some time now. The company was founded in 1999 by Sporting Exchange Limited. They have not spent their time idly and have consistently worked hard to make sure that their offerings are a cut above the rest. In fact, Betfair’s solid reputation for delivering a secure user friendly environment is one of the best in the business. They were in fact the ones to first launch the idea of a betting exchange. In this system, punters have the opportunity to chose their own odds and bet against their peers rather than the house. This innovative attitude has lead them to a point where they feel it is time to launch their very own online casino. Many people expected this move much sooner, but Betfair chose to sit back and wait a bit rather than diving head first into the unknown. Now we get to see if they are capitalizing on all that experience or just hoping for that their name will be enough.

Upon entering the site we decided that we really liked the feel of the place. This was not some cheesy casino, but a very upscale joint. For those of you who already bet on Betfair’s network, you will find access to the new casino neatly located in its own tab at the top of the regular home page. A feature that we felt as being particularly helpful is that players are able to choose the language they want the site to run in, but only if you don’t want French. This opens the door to a much broader scope of people. While we had no trouble whipping our way through for the most part, we did find one confusing area. On the main casino page you will notice a list of what appears to be links running down the left hand side of your screen. Clicking on some of the choices will do nothing as they proved to be nothing more than graphics, but others are working links. You just have to roll over them to figure which is which.

Luckily for us joining did not throw up the same road blocks as our link quandary. Betfair rolls out a simple, straight forward process that will have you on your way in minutes. We love this as it just gets us to the games that much faster. The games themselves have some real muscle under the hood as they are powered by Chartwell software. This is a package that we have come across several times in the past, and it continues to be one of our favorites. Chatwell uses a non-downloading format that still delivers top quality end results. This is all well and good, but what really got us excited were the Zero Lounge games. In this unique area, Betfair has worked things out so that there is no house edge on any of the games offered. Players can pick their poison from Baccarat, Roulette, Blackjack, and Jacks or Better Video Poker. By offering Zero odds is allows players to plan their gaming strategies based on the true odds of the game rather that figuring in house odds. We looked and looked but couldn’t find a catch to this option. Players do need to note that games played in Zero Lounge will not count towards any promotions Betfair is currently running. We will cover this in more detail shortly.

The promotions structure is pretty simple with no welcome or new player bonus at this time. What they do have is a point system where players can build towards extra rewards. This perk is only offered on play in the Main Lounge, so remember to keep that in mind when you find yourself in Zero Lounge. When we looked through the news and promotions page we did see signs of some good things to come, so just keep your eyes peeled.

No matter how well a site is put together eventually you will find that you just need some extra help. Betfair brings you its customer support options in the form of Phone, e-mail, and fax. We are very happy that support is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week as problems never seem to crop up during normal business hours. We would like to see the addition of freephone for UK customers as that is one option not currently supported.

While Betfair is an undeniably late entry into the online Casino race, they will be leading the pack in no time. They have put together a solid site that looks every bit as good as it plays. The fact that the new casino is located right on the virtual grounds of Betfair’s existing site is a nice touch for those of us already fans of their product. We did find a few areas that could use some work, but we had to look to find them. There was simply no glaring faults that we could find. And when you pit the strengths against the weaknesses you end up with an out and out winner. Betfair casino is one place we strongly recommend you take the time to go visit. You will find great games in a positive environment, and isn’t that just what it’s all about?