When a brand launches with a name like ‘Hollywoodbets’, it’s fair to say that they’re looking to make a splash in any way possible. With its flashy purple-and-gold colour scheme, and ‘Hollywood star’-style logo, Hollywoodbets definitely ticks this box. Is this a classic case of style over substance though, or can Hollywoodbets provide a serious, modernised betting experience?
That’s exactly what we plan to find out, in this comprehensive Hollywoodbets review. En route, we’ll be covering all the most important mobile features, including the special offers, betting markets, and customer service options which are available, and plenty more besides.
Hollywoodbets actually have a respectable track record, as we’ll cover later, but they’re still relatively unknown in the UK. Like most new betting apps, one of the ways they’re seeking to change this is by providing a welcome offer.
The welcome offer for the Hollywoodbets app in the UK is simply called ‘New Player Bonus’. It promises you £10 in free bets, in exchange for betting £20 on the sportsbook. Here are all the most important terms and conditions for the offer:
Overall, this isn’t exactly the best value compared to some of the best new customer betting offers. With the biggest brands around, you can often get a 2:1, or even 3:1 return on your investment from these deals. With Hollywoodbets, by contrast, the ratio is only 1:2.
The trade-off for this is an extremely fair set of T&Cs. The qualifying odds for your qualifying wagers are extremely low, giving you a great shot of turning a profit straight away, and all markets are eligible. We also like that your free bets are split into two tokens. While market restrictions are applied here, there are no minimum odds requirements at all, meaning you still have plenty of freedom in how you use your tokens.
Hollywoodbets have actually been around for over two decades now, making them an experienced and successful company. Even if they were operating outside of the UK for most of this time, they’ve still been serving British punters since back in 2015.
It’s both surprising and disappointing, therefore, to find that they still haven’t managed to provide a mobile app to the UK market. This is true for both iOS and Android devices. Instead, you’ll be entirely reliant on using the mobile version of the main betting website. This mobile website isn’t exactly the best we’ve seen, but it’s certainly good enough to get the job done.
Visually the purple, gold, and white colour scheme looks fairly appealing, and the font for both text and numbers is extremely clear and easy to read, even on a phone screen. The layout has also been skilfully adapted to suit smaller screen sizes. All the main sections of the site – including Sports, In-Play, Racing, and Virtual Sports – are housed within a collapsible menu, which you can access at any time in the top-left of your screen. Hollywoodbets also make good use of scrolling menus, which you can use to browse through the available promotions, sports markets, and so on. Crucially, you can also access the live chat support at any time via an icon in the bottom-left.
Functionally, we must say that the Hollywoodbets mobile site works extremely well. All the pages loaded quickly during our testing, and we experienced no crashes or significant lagging at all. This was true when using a mobile data and WiFi connection, and both with and without a VPN operating. The most important tools and features also work smoothly, including live streaming and the placement of in-play wagers.
In addition to the sportsbook, Hollywoodbets also provide you with a fully-featured casino section. There’s no standalone mobile app here either, so you’ll also be reliant on the mobile website instead. Again though, the quality here is certainly respectable. Navigating through both the regular and live casino sections is easy enough, there are hundreds of slots and table games to choose between, and casino users also get access to their own range of special offers.
Like all mobile betting sites, Hollywoodbets’ version has both its good and bad points. We’ll get onto some of the most important examples further into this review, but – for now – here are five of the very best things about the Hollywoodbets betting app.
Considering it’s a relatively small brand, we were extremely impressed with the market selection that’s made available on Hollywoodbets. There are well over 30 different markets in place in total, which is an impressive number in anyone’s book. These range from the very biggest sports of all – like football and horse racing – to far more niche offerings.
It’s not only the breadth of the coverage here which is excellent, but the depth too. We’ll get onto that in full detail within the ‘Hollywoodbets Markets’ section later on, but – for now – just know that the selection of bet types is almost as impressive as the variety of markets.
Live streaming is typically reserved for only the very biggest betting brands. We were both surprised and impressed, therefore, to see that Hollywoodbets have actually managed to put it in place.
At the time of writing, it’s only actually available for horse racing. That’s obviously a massive market though, with a huge number of betting fans, and live streaming can really add to your enjoyment of wagering on this market. The streams are also of an extremely high quality, even when you view them on a mobile device rather than on your desktop computer.
We’ve already covered Hollywoodbets’ welcome offer in some detail, towards the start of our review. This is ably backed-up though, by a whole series of ongoing promotions.
This genuinely is one of the better selections of deals we’ve seen at a non-premium sportsbook. There tend to be around eight available at any one time, and these can generally be used on a few different sports. Not only that, but they serve several different purposes too, finding ways to help you both avoid losing money and make bigger profits.
A bookie can provide all the markets it pleases. If the actual odds are rubbish though, then it will never be able to hold onto its customers.
We’re pleased to say this is not the case with Hollywoodbets. Its prices can’t quite match those offered by the biggest bookies around, but they’re certainly still competitive. Better still, their prices are boosted extremely regularly. At the time of writing, for example, there are a whopping 200+ different boosted markets to choose between, many of which apply to some of the top football matchups in Europe.
Some bookies make it difficult to actually access their contact options, as if – in reality – they don’t actually want you to use them. This is particularly common on non-premium sportsbooks, but – once again – we’re happy to say that Hollywoodbets bucks this trend.
Hollywoodbets don’t only provide a good range of ways to get in touch, as we’ll see later. They also make it very easy to access these options whenever you please, and get in touch with a customer service representative shortly afterwards.
The Hollywoodbets mobile site still isn’t well-known in the UK, but it has been around for a little while now. This has given its developers plenty of time to put a series of features in place to serve their punters. Some do so by genuinely improving your chances at winning wagers, while others simply help you to have a fun time. Below, you can check out some of the most noteworthy features on Hollywoodbets.
The rise of live betting truly revolutionised sports betting, opening up a whole new world of opportunities for serious and casual punters alike. Like all respectable bookmakers, Hollywoodbets have not only put live betting features in place, but made them available to their mobile users too.
You can easily see which live markets are available to you whenever you please, by heading straight to the ‘In-Play’ section of the mobile website. Picking both a matchup and a bet type is just as easy to do as with regular, pre-match wagers, as is actually placing your bets. Crucially, the live betting tool is highly responsive, meaning that – when you see an opportunity you like – you can pounce on it before it disappears.
Actually placing in-play wagers is only one of the main benefits of the live betting revolution, of course. Many would argue that cashing them out is just as important, as this is also very straightforward to do on Hollywoodbets.
Seeing which of your live wagers are eligible to be cashed out is an absolute cinch here, as is actually requesting and executing a cash out. The prices you’re offered for doing so tend to be very fair, and – as with placing live bets – your requests are usually processed very quickly indeed.
If Hollywoods’ extensive selection of regular sports markets isn’t enough for you, or you simply want to try something new, you can head to the virtual sports section of the mobile betting site. This will provide you with a steady stream of new markets, with fresh matchups kicking off every few minutes throughout the day.
There are several different virtual sports you can bet on here, including horse racing, greyhound racing, football, and tennis. Both the graphics and animations (which have been provided by Leap Gaming) are excellent, and you tend to get a surprisingly good selection of bet types available to choose between.
While many betting brands have let their blogs fall by the wayside, or simply not bothered to create one in the first place, Hollywoodbets has continued to provide an excellent blog for its users.
This focuses on the two biggest sports for betting – football and horse racing – and is updated extremely regularly. You’ll find a good mix of breaking news, betting tips, and event previews here, and the articles actually tend to be pretty well-written.
Multiples betting remains extremely popular with punters, and it’s not hard to see why. These wagers might be tricky to win, but your rewards for doing so tend to be very lucrative indeed.
Hollywoodbets makes it easy for you to place same-game multiples on its mobile betting site, thanks to the inclusion of a handy bet builder. As you’re browsing an event’s markets, you can look out for a ‘link’ icon above its odds. This indicates that the selection can be bundled into a same-game multiple, and you can continue to add and remove these picks – and see your odds update – as you please.
As touched upon earlier, the range of markets you can choose between on the Hollywoodbets mobile betting site is impressive to say the least. There are literally dozens of different options here, meaning that – regardless of your betting preferences – you’ll be able to find something that tickles your fancy.
Let’s take a closer look at several of the biggest markets of all, before getting a more general overview of all your other choices.
Football is the biggest market for online betting in the UK, which is why so many bookies make it their main priority. Hollywoodbet have smartly chosen to do so too, with extremely impressive results.
The football section on this mobile site is packed to bursting. There were almost 1,000 different pre-match markets to choose between at the time of writing, with more available within the In-Play section. Every professional competition you could realistically expect to find is covered here, and there’s even youth football to wager on too. The football section also includes the widest range of bet types, with plenty of options for both outright, pre-match, and in-play variations.
The ‘sport of kings’ is the second-most popular online betting sport, after football. It’s a frequent omission from non-premium sportsbooks for licensing reasons, unfortunately, but we were pleased to find that this was not the case on Hollywoodbets.
In fact, racing is given its very own section on the mobile website here. The vast majority of events are taken from UK courses, but you can also bet on some races from Ireland, South Africa, France, Dubai, and other countries too. Both Race Winner and Each Way wagers are available, there are several promotions in place to help you make a profit, and – as noted earlier – you can also stream many of the races on your mobile device for free.
Over the past decade or so, eSports has easily been one of, if not the fastest-growing betting market. The popularity of both playing and watching online games has skyrocketed, and – like many bookies – Hollywoodbets have smartly chosen to capitalise on this trend.
Like horse racing, eSports is actually given its very own subsection on the Hollywoodbets mobile site. Many of the biggest titles of all are available to bet on here, including Dota 2, CS:GO, and LoL. There’s also an impressive amount of variety in bet types, ranging from outright winners of an entire tournament, to round-by-round in-play betting.
In addition to the three markets above, Hollywoodbets gives you around 30 more options to choose between. In short, if you enjoy betting on a particular sport, you’ll almost certainly be able to do so on this mobile sportsbook.
All your old favourites are in place here, including tennis, golf, rugby, and cricket. There are also both combat sports and motorsports, and American leagues like the NFL and NBA are available to wager on too. Rounding out the collection nicely are a few more niche markets, including surfing, futsal, gaelic sports, and handball.
Given that your £10 free bets from the welcome offer needs to be used within only seven days, you’ll be looking for new ways to get some bonuses pretty darn quickly here. Fortunately, Hollywoodbets provides an outstanding range of ongoing promotions to help you out here.
These are impressive regarding both their quality and quantity, and provide genuinely appealing rewards for your ongoing loyalty. Let’s take a closer look at some of the most enticing options.
One of the most popular promotion types of all among sports bettors is the ‘free bet club’. Loyalty Bonus is essentially Hollywoodbets’ version of this.
To qualify for it, you must place at least five wagers of £5 or more within a given week. These should be at odds of 4/5 (1.80) or greater, but that’s just about the only restriction. Fulfil this requirement, and you’ll be given a £5 free bet. If you manage to go on and place 10 x £5 free bets within the week instead, you’ll get a further £5 bonus. This deal can be triggered each and every week, and you’re always given seven days in which to use your bonuses.
The accumulator might not be the smartest bet type around, and certainly isn’t the easiest to win, but it certainly is incredibly popular. Hollywoodbets pay multiples fans plenty of attention, with not one, but two separate acca deals in place.
The first is called Acca Bonus, and – as the name suggests – increases your winnings on successful accumulators. To qualify, you’ll only actually need two selections in your wager, with minimum odds of a mere 1/10 per selection. The more legs you add to your acca, however, the bigger your bonus will be if it wins. This starts at 2% for a doubles bet, but increases to 4% for a trebles, 6% for a four-fold, and so on, all the way up to 30% for a monstrous 25+ selection acca.
This is the other acca deal you can use on the Hollywoodbets mobile site. Again, it’s basically their own take on a classic accumulator-based offer type.
To qualify here, you’ll need at least five selections in your acca, with combined odds of 4/1 or greater. If just one leg of your acca lets you down, you’ll receive a full refund of up to £10 on your stake. If you choose to add 8+ or 12+ selections instead though, your refund will actually be 2x or 5x your initial stake, meaning you can actually make a profit on a losing acca.
As noted earlier, horse racing is clearly a major priority for Hollywoodbets, as shown by it getting an entire subsection to itself. In addition though, Hollywoodbets have actually put several promotions in place exclusively for the ‘sport of kings’.
Some of these are simply their own versions of very common deals. There’s a ‘Best Odds Guaranteed’ offer, for example, which will automatically give you the SP on selected races if it’s higher than your original odds. ‘First Past the Post’ is also in place, which pays out your wager as a winner if your horse crosses the finish line first, even if it is later disqualified or the result is otherwise amended.
There are also a couple of other highly intriguing options for racing fans.
The first is ‘2nd Place Free Bet’. Place a Race Winner wager, and – if your chosen horse actually finishes second to the pre-race favourite – your stake will be refunded as a free bet of up to £10.
Finally, there’s also the ‘Boosted Double’ deal. This offer kicks in if you stake at least £10 on a ‘Boosted Double’ at the weekend. If you do so, and only one of those legs wins, you’ll get £5 back as a free bet.
This isn’t exactly the area in which Hollywoodbets most excels, and it certainly can’t compete with the biggest brands with its range of payment methods. There are a decent number of choices, however, and the vast majority of punters should be able to find at least one or two suitable options.
Both Visa and Mastercard debit cards can be used here, as you’d expect. If you prefer the speed and convenience of eWallets, then PayPal, Skrill, and Neteller are also supported. Alternatively you can make a bank transfer via Rapid Transfer, a prepaid card via Paysafecard, or pick from a handful of other choices.
Payment Option | Fee | Time | Limits (£) |
Visa/Mastercard | 0% | Instant | £5 |
PayPal | 0% | Instant | £5 |
Skrill | 0% | Instant | £5 |
Neteller | 0% | Instant | £5 |
Paysafecard | 0% | Instant | £10 |
Rapid Transfer | 0% | Instant | £5 |
Payment Option | Fee | Time | Min. Withdrawal (£) |
Visa/Mastercard | 0% | 3-5 days | £10 |
PayPal | 0% | Up to 24 hours | £10 |
Skrill | 0% | Up to 24 hours | £10 |
Rapid Transfer | 0% | 3-5 days | £10 |
Neteller | 0% | Up to 24 hours | £10 |
As with payment methods, this is another area in which Hollywoodbets gives a decent effort, but can’t really compete with the bigger brands out there.
Technically, both of the main avenues for direct contact – live chat and email – are in place here. While these do let you get in touch directly with a member of the customer service team, 24/7 support is not provided, with contact hours instead being limited to 07:00 – 22:00.
Elsewhere, there appears to be no Help Centre, FAQ, or any other indirect form of support available on Hollywoodbets. This is basically unheard-of, even with smaller brands, making this both a surprising and disappointing oversight. That’s particularly true considering that the direct support ends at 10pm every night, meaning that – if you encounter a problem after then – you’ll need to wait until the following morning before you can get help with it.
It’s pretty common nowadays for bookies to be reluctant about revealing too much information regarding their security measures. For better or worse, Hollywoodbets falls into that category too. The T&Cs feature almost the only mention on this subject, which is that all data is ‘housed in a secure data centre and remains confidential’. No further details are given about how this is achieved.
With all that said, you can still rest assured that Hollywoodbets is a safe and legitimate brand. That’s because it is fully licensed and regulated by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission, which will have thoroughly analysed it for both security and fairness.
Hollywoodbets have an interesting and unusual history. They’re actually a South African brand, originally, and claim to be ‘South Africa’s leading betting operator’. They certainly have plenty of experience, having been founded all the way back in 1999, and have achieved considerable success in South Africa, currently operating over 80 brick-and-mortar betting shops alongside a thriving online sportsbook.
Like all ambitious bookies, however, Hollywoodbets weren’t content to simply rest on their laurels. Instead they began to expand outwards, first to other countries in Africa like Mozambique, and then into Europe. In 2015 they made their big move into the UK market, and nowadays provide a whole separate mobile betting platform for their British customers.
Hollywoodbets are almost unknown in the UK, despite having operated there since 2015. They’re hardly an inexperienced company though, since they’ve been providing betting services in other countries for over two decades now.
As such, some of Hollywoodbets’ shortcomings are a little hard to understand. The complete lack of an FAQ or Help Centre to aid users, for example, is simply baffling. We’d also expect direct support to be provided 24/7 by a company this successful, and – of course – there’s the complete lack of any standalone mobile apps to consider.
For our money though, these cons are more than outweighed by the many pros. In several key areas, Hollywoodbets do indeed compete with much bigger British sportsbooks. The range of betting markets is absolutely massive, and the odds for the vast majority of these are solid. There’s a nice selection of payment options to choose between too, and we were impressed to find premium features like live streaming in place.
Overall, we’d certainly say there’s enough here to make trying out the Hollywoodbets mobile website worth your while. The ‘Bet £20, Get £10’ welcome offer is hardly spectacular, but the ongoing promotions are absolutely fantastic, and will do a brilliant job of rewarding you if you do indeed decide to continue using Hollywoodbets.
Hollywoodbets is a highly successful South African sportsbook, which expanded into the UK in 2015. The developers have provided a modern and feature-rich offering, for both mobile and desktop users.
Yes. Hollywoodbets have a track record stretching back to 1999, and operate in several different countries. They are also fully licensed and regulated by the UK Gambling Commission.
Hollywoodbets provide over 30 different sports to wager on. These include both football and horse racing, plus the likes of tennis, golf, rugby, motorsports, combat sports, and so on.
No – there is not a standalone Hollywoodbets app, for either iOS or Android users. Instead you’ll need to use the mobile version of the main website, but we’re pleased to say this is actually very good.
New customers can take advantage of the ‘Bet £20, Get £10’ welcome offer. After that you can choose between a wide range of ongoing promotions, including a weekly free bet club, an acca insurance deal, and more.