BoyleSports

From its roots in Ireland, BoyleSports has spread across the UK both physically and digitally. It took a very long time for the brand to reach the British mainland after opening its first branch in Dundalk in 1982, but after a slow start in the Midlands, it’s now almost everywhere. The online version of BoyleSports does more business than the brick-and-mortar version, though, and has helped the brand get some high-profile football sponsorships under its belt to boost awareness, including its current deal as principal partner of West Ham United. The brand has also had a makeover since our last visit, with a new capitalised BOYLE Sports logo and a “Back Yourself” slogan greeting you on the homepage. How is the sports betting-based BoyleSports website – the focus of the company’s operations – faring these days? Let’s check in and find out.

BoyleSports Welcome Promotions

BoyleSports is still very indecisive on the topic of welcome bonuses, but the indecision has taken a new form. Rather than switching its welcome promotion on and off from one year to the next, it now runs two completely different offers at the same time, and which one you get depends on whether you sign up on a phone or a computer. New mobile customers who deposit £10 (again, e-wallets and prepaid cards don’t count) and place a £10 bet at evens or greater get a single £20 free bet once that bet settles. That one’s easy enough to understand.

Desktop customers get the free bets bundle we complained about the last time we reviewed the site, and it hasn’t got any easier to follow. Deposit £10 (e-wallet, Paysafe and prepaid card deposits don’t count here either) and bet £10 at the qualifying odds, and you get one free £5 bet. After that, you get a free bet worth half the average of your next three qualifying bets, up to £5, and that happens four times over, so you need thirteen settled bets in your first thirty days to collect the full £25. The terms can’t even agree on the minimum odds – the summary says 1/2, while the full terms say evens. If you’re going to give us a free bet package, just give us the free bets – we still shouldn’t be having to run a spreadsheet to work out where we’re up to. Unless you’re desperate for the extra £5, we’d take the mobile offer. Free bets from both offers expire after seven days.

Other Promotions

You can rest assured that there will always be promotions available each and every time you visit BoyleSports, but the precise nature of those promotions will change depending on what’s happening in the sporting world at the time of your visit. Many of the promotions at the site are “specials” and price boosts that apply to specific events, whether that’s a race meeting at Newmarket or a darts tournament that BoyleSports happens to sponsor. That’s fairly common practice for sports betting websites, but it means that you’ll never know quite what’s waiting for you at BoyleSports until you get there.

That being said, plenty of the promotions at the site appear to be available long-term. BoyleSports still pays out football bets early if the team you’ve backed goes two goals ahead, and there are similar Early Payout deals if your team goes 17 points ahead in basketball, rugby union or the NFL (16 in rugby league), if your darts player goes four legs clear, or if your tennis player takes a one-set lead. Horse racing and greyhound bets come with Best Odds Guaranteed, and you’ll get your stake back as a free bet of up to £10 if your selection finishes second to the SP favourite. The Ultimate Acca boosts accumulators of three or more legs by anything from 5% up to 100% for twenty folds, or insures five-folds with a free bet of up to £20 if one leg lets you down, and Sub Swap moves your player bet onto the substitute if your man is taken off. Newer additions include Squad Builder, which lets you combine the stats of up to five players from different matches, and a free-to-play Matchday Challenge with a guaranteed prize pool.

What are the Pros and Cons of BoyleSports?

Top Games at BoyleSports

Asking what the top games are at BoyleSports is missing the point. Games are what the BoyleSports sister sites are for. Between Boyle Casino, Boyle Live Casino and Boyle Bingo, you can play casino games to your heart’s content without ever having to worry about how your favourite sports team is getting on. Here on the main BoyleSports website, though, it’s all about sports betting – and it’s a topic that the website has more than well covered.

As is so often the case with Irish sports betting companies, horse racing is the main attraction at BoyleSports, with a best-odds guarantee, extra places on selected races every day, and a Smart View race card powered by the Racing Post. Football takes second billing, with greyhound racing close behind and golf, NFL and tennis further down the menu. That makes BoyleSports feel like a traditional bookie and links back to what we said earlier about the “family-run” feel of the site still being there despite all of its success. The full A-Z of sports and betting opportunities at BoyleSports includes oddities like speedway, futsal and padel as well as all the traditional favourites and a large Gaelic Games section, and there are also markets on politics, entertainment and reality TV. Pre-built Smart ACCAs and Bet Builders are available on the bigger football matches, and all odds are shown in fractions. BoyleSports covers at least as much as the bigger-name brands do and possibly even more than some of them.

Withdrawal Processing & Support

It’s always a pleasure to see an iGaming company that does right by its players when it comes to withdrawal processing, and BoyleSports still does better than most, although it isn’t quite as quick as it was the last time we looked. BoyleSports says it aims to process every withdrawal in less than six hours, but after that, standard withdrawals can take between two and five working days to reach your bank, and the help centre asks you to allow the full five days before chasing. You can withdraw to Visa or Mastercard debit cards, Skrill, Neteller, PayPal, Apple Pay or by bank transfer, or collect cash from a BoyleSports shop. The minimum withdrawal is £10, whichever method you use; a closed-loop policy means your money goes back to the method you deposited with wherever possible, and BoyleSports won’t speed up a withdrawal just because you ask it to. Deposits by card, e-wallet or mobile payment are free and instant from £5, but credit cards are no longer accepted.

Customer Services & Licensing

Customer care has always been one of BoyleSports’ strengths, and that hasn’t changed. Live chat is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and so is telephone support on 0800 220 066 for callers in the UK and Northern Ireland (or 1800 220 066 from the Republic of Ireland). If your query isn’t urgent, you can use the webform or email care@boylesports.com, and BoyleSports aims to answer emails within 12 hours.

When it comes to licensing, BoyleSports holds UK Gambling Commission licence number 39469 in the name of Boylesports Enterprise. It’s a clean licence with no regulatory actions against it, and it covers all the BoyleSports sister sites under the Boyle brand. Customers in Ireland are served by a separate company, Boylesports (Gibraltar) Limited, which is licensed in Gibraltar and by Ireland’s Gambling Regulatory Authority.

BoyleSports – The Verdict

BoyleSports isn’t quite as sharp as it was the last time we reviewed it, but don’t read too much into that – we’d still put it ahead of the vast majority of betting sites we look at. The makeover has given the website the freshen-up it badly needed, the everyday promotions are among the most generous in the business, and round-the-clock phone support is becoming a rare treat. What holds it back is a welcome offer that has gone from indecisive to downright confusing, and bank withdrawals that no longer land as quickly as they once did. If you’re looking to move on from your usual sports betting website, you could still definitely do a lot worse.