Betclic bookmaker review: rules, support, sign up, free bets, site

Betclic, founded in 2005 by Nicolas Beraud, is a French online gambling company with offices in Bordeaux and Malta.

Betclic is licensed  by the GB Gambling Commission and registered for gambling in France, Italy, Sweden, Portugal and Poland.

Within five years of their existence, they held 35-40% of the market share in France for online gambling, thus becoming the largest online bookmaker in France at the time.

In 2016 they became the first company to be awarded a sports betting licence in Portugal, with many other well-known brands such as Betfair opting not to apply at that time.

Football fans may be familiar with Betclic as their logo has been sported across the shirts of big European clubs such as Lyon, Marseille and Juventus. Since 2018 when they obtained a Polish gambling licence, they have also been the shirt sponsor of Piast Gliwice and Lechia Gdansk.

Betclic offers an affiliate program which involves all brands under the Betclic Everest umbrella where you can earn a minimum of 30% commission. If you want to join, you can find out more at their website beaffiliates.com.

There is no public information to show how many customers use Betclic.

Layout

Navigation of Betclic’s site is easy. In the UK you can gamble at www.betclic.com. As they have their own specific promotion section, they don’t overload the screen with special offers, leaving plenty of room to advertise a range of opportunities on the main screen. On a Tuesday night, there is everything from Football, Handball, Tennis, Basketball. The main screen also covers a mix of in-play opportunities, as well as early morning betting action and the next evening’s German Bundesliga action.

The wide range of sports Betclic offers to bet on is down the left of the screen with plenty of space down the right for your selections.

Services

Betclic offers the usual range of sports and casino betting, with slots and table games.

The variety on offer here is vast with obscure sports such as Floorball and Bandy. And while MMA is arguably one of the fastest-growing sports, Betclic’s coverage of this is expansive, offering to bet on Polish MMA promotions as well as UFC. Great for the bettor in the know about who the next Joanna Jedrzejczyk or Jan Blachowicz is.

Betclic’s prices are competitive with top bookmakers. Looking at the recent Liverpool versus Burnley Premier League match, Betclic were top price on Liverpool to win, though of course this is balanced out by offering the lowest odds about Burnley to win.

Looking also at La Liga, Betclic were the top price for an Atletico Madrid win away to Eibar while also offering better odds about the draw in comparison.

The average size of the pre-match margin is between 6-9%.

Betclic offers an app for its customers. It offers casino and sportsbook services. The app is available for both Android and iOS platforms.

Live

The in-play betting options on Betclic are comprehensive with up to 95 live betting markets available on in-play Football matches ranging from the English Premier League to Argentinian Amateur Football.

You can also place bets on various European Basketball leagues and Ice Hockey.

Live streaming is available to customers on a range of sports though this isn’t as vast as other companies.

The average size of the margin on live betting is 6-8%.

Promotions

The Betclic welcome offer is good as they will match your first bet (minimum odds 1.50) with a free bet – win or lose – up to €100. Winnings from your free bet are instantly withdrawable, unlike some other sites that have wagering requirements.

However, residents of the UK, Finland, Malta, Norway or Canada, are not eligible for this welcome offer.

For casino bettors, it gets even better as Betclic’s welcome offer is a 100% deposit bonus up to €500 which Betclic says is “the highest bonus in the market”. Again though, the countries above are not eligible. As expected with casino bonuses there is a wagering requirement. For Betclic it is 35 times the bonus amount before any winnings can be withdrawn.

Betclic doesn’t advertise any loyalty scheme but they do have a loyalty department who monitor accounts and contact customers directly. However, there are other promotions on offer such as The Sports Smash Challenge, where every Euro you win earns you points. The more points you earn, the higher the free bet you will achieve. You can win up to €1000 in free bets, but the catch is you must be good at betting, as losing bets don’t count.

Bonuses and promotions can be found at www.betclic.com/en/casino/promotions.

Customer Care

There is a help centre link at the bottom of the page, but when you click it, it just takes you back to the top of the page. The same also happens with the contact us link. This was tested on two browsers and still the same result, unfortunately. As with all gaming sites, there is the Terms and Conditions page and the FAQ page, so if the problems with the help centre are long-standing, hopefully, you can find answers here. However, this does not help customers who may be in dispute on winnings or may not know how to place certain bets.

Registration

Signing up in Betclic is quite simple, you click “Register” in the top right corner and go through the steps such as name, address, country, currency. Before withdrawing any money you will need to validate your account by uploading a valid ID such as a Passport or Driver’s Licence and a proof of address less than six months old. This can be done in the “documents” section of your account, but they also advise if you have any difficulty with this you can email it. Verification takes up to 48 hours.

Financial Information

Betclic supports deposits in several “permitted currencies” though there is no exhaustive list. Withdrawals can also be in multiple currencies though they bear no responsibility for fluctuation of exchange rates.

You can deposit by debit card, credit card (excluding the United Kingdom) as well as Neteller and Skrill.

The minimum deposit is £8 which is slightly higher than most gaming companies. The minimum stake is 10p. There is no specific maximum bet, but high stakes could be subject to restriction.

It is the maximum payout that really lets Betclic down though. This is set at £200,000 on the sportsbook which is poor compared to other well-known sites offering £2 million. The casino maximum win is set at €500,000.

Reliability

Out of 15 Betclic reviews on trustpilot.com, 93% are bad.

Common complaints include restricting bets when you start winning, verification process difficulties when registering an account or withdrawing winnings. Some also say that the welcome bonus offers advertised don’t get credited to the account.

Betclic is regulated and registered with the GB Gambling Commission, among others, meaning they are a reputable gambling firm, despite the poor service comments.

What’s missing?

The site is attractive with easy navigation. However, when you dive into the T&C’s you notice what is lacking. Betclic should increase their maximum payout somewhat as these days £200,000 isn’t a life-changing sum of money.

Betclic also alienates the British gambling market by not making their welcome offers available there. There may be technical reasons behind this, but when the average gambler looks for a betting platform one of the things they’re most drawn to is what free bets or bonus offers they will get.