Bet365 Sportsbook Ohio Reviews as Site Overtakes DraftKings in Buckeye State

Bet365 is making waves in the USA, becoming one of the top five in terms of overall market share.

This shouldn't come as much of a surprise.  Over a decade ago, Bet365 operated in the U.S. "gray market" where it achieved plenty of popularity, including among sharps.

Gambling911.com had an opportunity to visit Bet365's new headquarters in Colorado and got a small taste of how good this company is at marketing.

From our own Thomas Somach:

"The back of the building faces a major highway, and building tenants are allowed to post signage for their companies on the building’s backside.

"According to the leasing company that handles the building, approximately 300,000 vehicles a day pass by the building on that highway and see the signs.

"That likely means that more than half a million people every day will view what amounts to a giant bet365 billboard, once the signage is put up."

Surpassing DraftKings in Ohio

Blackmrprophet74, CPA on Twitter broke the news New Years Eve. 

"In the state of Ohio, since the start of the football season, @bet365 OSB has started to achieve market cannibalization on #draftkings with respect to Handles excluding promo spend. Something to focus on if you are a $DKNG investor, still earning innings."

This is big news for Bet365, considering the tight competition in Ohio.

In the state of Ohio, since the start of the football season, @bet365 OSB has started to achieve market cannibalization on #draftkings with respect to Handles excluding promo spend. Something to focus on if you are a $DKNG investor, still earning innings. @stevebrubaker pic.twitter.com/qiYKPGGKnf

— Blackmrprophet74, CPA (@Blackmrphophet) December 31, 2024

Another observation from Blackmrprophet74, CPA:

"Ohio, Nov 2024,@FanDuel was the clear leader over #DraftKings in all key metrics NGR 1.36X higher. Excluding hardrock and BETR, Year over Year, all vendors obtained NGR increase lead by @bet365 @BetMGM and #fanduel @ESPNBET massively cutback on Promo spend."

She's Uber Rich and Kept Her Word

Denise Coates, founder of UK-based Bet365.com, is one of the richest women in the world and the richest woman in the United Kingom. 

Reports suggest Coates took in £2.3billion in 2014.

In 2010, we reported how Coates made it clear that Bet365 would never float the way that rival Betfair has. 

Betfair would go on to become a part of Flutter, which also owns U.S. rival FanDuel.

“We don’t want to think every day, ‘what does the City think of this’ or ‘I have to do things’, because that’s what the City would like you to do or the City think well or badly of you if you do this or that,” she told EGR Magazine at the time. “We don’t want the pressure; we just want to get on with running our business. We don’t need it.

Betfair had gone public on the London Stock Exchange the month prior.  The initial public offering was valued at $2.84 billion. 

"Betfair could be just what the doctor ordered for the UK's IPO market, which badly needs a dose of confidence," said David Wilkinson, IPO leader at Ernst & Young in the UK. "The pipeline of companies looking to float remains strong, but many UK companies are holding back until volatility reduces and valuations improve. The surge of IPOs everyone is waiting for is unlikely to appear until mid-2011 and 2012."

Bet365 was founded in 2000 in a portable building in Stoke-On-Trent by Denise Coates. Denise developed a sports betting platform and trading team to launch the business online in March 2001.

Not that it was some rags to riches story.  Dad, Peter Coates, was chairman of Stokes Football Club. He still serves as chairman of Bet365.

Bet365 Reviews

Go to TrustPilot and the reviews of Bet365 are downright awful.  This is surprising but could also be a result of growing pains in the U.S. regulated market.

We clicked on the 5 Star reviews (there are plenty of those too, and some recent).  Some of these appear to be from European users.

*Some spelling errors appear in quoted reviews not fixed by Gambling911.com.

David writes:

"Surprised to see such awful reviews, my experience has always been good, has an account for 15yrs and today was first time I had a issue with a unpaid winning bet, they sorted it and paid me within 3hours of me informing them, granted I am only a fun gambler with small bets."

Trevor writes:

"Been using Bet365 for many years.

"Win some, lose some that's the way it goes with betting... But importantly never had a problem withdrawing winnings or bet settlements etc

"I even won £1500 on an acca once, withdrew it to my debit card and was there in my bank within 5 minutes. No mess or ridiculous request for selfie ID and payslips.

"Good honest service (unlike William Hill and Sky Bet) Date of experience: October 16, 2024."

And Giorgos Simakou offered: 

"For the negative reviews: Go try Betway etc and you'll appreaciate Bet365

"Bet365 is BY FAR the best online gambling website out there. For those who write negative reviews, please go try Betway and the likes and see the difference, you will come back and update to 5 stars once you get an idea of how unregulated and scam the industry really is. If you want a safe and enjoyful gambling experience Bet365 is the best. I know over 50 people using it from my cycle and no one has had any issues. Please think twice before writing up a bad review."

As for the bad reviews, we prefer the three stars.  These are typically fair as they can be critical but without agenda.

Jason in November writes: 

"Reviewing this to give some shine on customer service agents named Kate Ta and Kirsty H; they helped me with my case very thoroughly. Customer service is either very good or very bad, so if someone doesn't help you, you have to keep contacting them until they do. The overall user experience isn't bad, but the verification process can be tedious."

"Great odds, many live games but limited to fast. Overal I don't know how to describe my experience. Nowadays you expekt.  that you can bet big on bookies, but after I won some serious money, they decreased the limits for me. All my withdrawals were paid, but some of them took a bit to long in my opinion ( +12 hours).

"To bad they don't accept crypto at the site."

Bet365 wins the week for their responsiveness on Twitter in regard to directing customers to the site rules pertaining to player props.  This happened after Luka Doncic went down after playing for just a few minutes on Christmas Day.