Last updated January 14th, 2022
Welcome to Just Bookies, the only website you need to discover the best UK online bookmakers in January 2022. It is a month that sees the continuation of the Premier League and Championship football action. Plus there is the ongoing Ashes Test Series (a disaster for abysmal England), the Australian Open tennis and FA Cup action. If you want a bet on any of that, read our independent, honest and straight-talking reviews of the top betting sites.
We also have odds comparison tables on the major sports fixtures to make sure you get the biggest prices about your selections. Our betting tips section works to beat the bookies with comprehensive sports previews. Further down this home page we highlight the latest sports welcome bonuses and free bets from our top recommended betting websites.
If you just want to sign up with an honest and trusted firm without delay, then in the following section are our top five recommended bookies. They are listed in order of preference and all offer a fair free bet welcome bonus.
Just Bookies’ Top 5 Recommended UK Bookies for January 2021
January 2022 is packed full of high level sport. In football, the Premier League and Championship keep kicking this month, with Man City massive favourites with the bookies. Then there is the Australian Open tennis, more of the failed Ashes cricket test series, horse racing and FA Cup football. There is plenty more to wager on as well. So January is a busy time for sports betting. If you want to join a top bookmaker to bet on those events, then look no further than this list of trusted bookies:
In our opinion Bet365 deserves to be the most popular online bookie in the UK. Our experience of using their site suggests that they offer one of the widest range of betting odds, the most efficient and friendly customer service plus lightning quick withdrawals when you want your winnings. We found they did not start limiting winning players’ bets the moment you bet on several winners. Bet365 is Just Bookies’ No.1 rated bookmaker as we believe that they are a class apart from the competition. Details of their welcome bonus for new players can be found in the section below that details the bookies’ free bets that are on offer.
Go To Bet365 | Our Bet365 Review
William Hill is one of the largest names in UK bookmaking. They are visible on every high street in Britain and have a great online betting website. As a corporate Goliath of the industry, they can be trusted to play fair with your money and your bets. For the latest welcome bonus from William Hill, please see below. If you are having a wager on football, horse racing, F1 or any other sport then William Hill is well worth a go.
Go To William Hill | Our William Hill Review
Another online bookmaker that has impressed us, particularly more recently is Paddy Power. This well-known and established brand has a good and user-friendly website. They cover all sports and entertainment betting. Just Bookies has bet with Paddy Power quite frequently so we know they do a good job for their punters and can be trusted. If you want to know the details of their current sign-up offer then please see below or just click through to them.
Go To Paddy Power | Our Paddy Power Review
Older punters will recall the former brand name of BetVictor was Victor Chandler. It was a family bookmaker then, albeit a big one with a reputation for taking lofty bets. They may not accommodate four figure stakes as easily nowadays but they are a solid option for the rest of us. The website is fast and easy to get to grips with. Payouts are quick and the betting markets are plentiful. Now owned by Michael Tabor, a billionaire and racehorse owner, BetVictor has never had such sound financial backing. BetVictor has a good reputation within the gambling industry and competes favourably with the other top sports betting websites. They do plenty of TV advertising: you’ll have seen those unfunny ads featuring Harry Redknapp. Of course this firm does offer a decent sign-up bonus (full details of their current welcome offer can be found here). We can recommend BetVictor.
Go To BetVictor | Our BetVictor Review
Coming in at No.5 in our list of preferred online bookies is the famous Betfred. They compete well with their rivals on all fronts. Their free bet for sports, detailed just further down this Just Bookies’ home page, is very enticing. Bonuses are worth having, but joining a bookmaker that won’t mess you around is far more important: Betfred provide a solid and honest service. It is a particularly good place to bet on the Scoop 6 horse racing bet on a Saturday because they sometimes boost the prize fund for Betfred customers only. Just Bookies has been very impressed by their telephone customer service.
Go To Betfred | Our Betfred Review
Compare Free Bets & Bonuses From Top Rated Online Bookmakers
In this section Just Bookies details the free bets and welcome bonuses from all our recommended sports betting sites. We provide an ‘at a glance’ review of each of the online bookmakers. Plus we include those crucial bonus terms and conditions for their welcome offers. We urge you to read that smallprint to ensure you get the best from the free bet offers:
This is Just Bookies’ idea of the best online bookmaker. In our opinion, Bet365 is the top choice if you are looking for a bookmaker for any sports event. They have a great ‘Bet £10 Get £50’ welcome bonus. The way it works is you must sign up and deposit between £5 and £10 to your account and Bet365 will give you five times that value in free bets, which are paid as Bet Credits (see other T&Cs just below). To discover all their current promotions and offers, we advise you click through to their website as there are just so many of them! We reckon that this firm is brilliant for big and little punters: in Just Bookies’ tests across all the bookies, Bet365 accepted a bigger bet than any of its rivals. There is no delay getting your winnings back either, as in our personal experience their payouts are faster than the competitors too. Choosing a bookmaker is more than just getting bribed by the biggest welcome bonus, but Bet365 win on that score as well. Our recommendation for Bet365 is based on years of betting with them and they are our No.1 rated bookmaker.
One of the most recognised brand names in the business thanks to their presence in almost every UK high street, William Hill gives newbies £30 of free bets (as 2 x £15) when you bet a tenner. You need to use promo code H30 to take advantage of it. The bonus is given upon settlement of the qualifying wager. William Hill give best odds guaranteed on horse & dog racing. They are one of the most successful online bookies for a reason – they keep players happy with a wide range of betting markets, fast payouts and an easy to use website. They have been voted Online Operator of the Year.
Respected Irish-based online bookmakers Paddy Power will give you £/€20 cash as a refund of your first stake if that bet loses. The bad bit about this is that you need to lose to get it. The good bit is that at least they match your initial bet in cash rather than free bet tokens. This welcome bonus boils down to: ‘Get it Back if it Loses’. You can also get weekly free bets with Paddy’s Rewards Club. Paddy Power offers a good, fun betting location, as befits a publicly listed company. We like having a bet with these masters of the PR stunt. Our punting experience is that they are right up there with the best.
Place a first bet with BetVictor of a fiver or more, at odds of evens or higher, and you will receive £30 of free bets. This is allocated as 1) 1 x £10 sports bonus (not virtual sports) to be used on a selection at odds of evens or more; 2) 1 x £10 sports bonus to be placed on an accumulator bet (must be of at least five legs ie: 5+ selections in the acca wager); 3) 1 x £10 slot bonus in the casino with a 20 x wagering requirement before you can withdraw your winnings from it and a maximum of £250 winnings from it. BetVictor is an impressive site to use and we really like the simple but comprehensive software they use. If you follow horse racing then you may know of the billionaire owner Michael Tabor. He bought out former-owner Victor Chandler’s majority share and now owns BetVictor. This bookie has always had a good reputation as a fair, reliable and solid place to play.
Betfred is an ever-expanding and trusted brand with a good sports betting welcome bonus. If you bet a tenner or more as your first sports bet then Betfred will give you an extra £60 of free bet bonuses. Make sure that you bet on a selection at odds of evens or more and bets need to be settled within seven days, so avoid ante-post / long-term markets for this. They also give 50 free spins (as part of this offer) and you need to use promo code: BETFRED60. For full details of how to claim all £60 available, please see the terms in the smallprint below. Moving away from that welcome deal, Betfred also offers ‘best odds guaranteed’ on horse racing. This is another firm that we have bet with regularly and Just Bookies is impressed with the excellent customer service, the huge choice of events and their lightning-fast payouts. We have found that they will generally accept a reasonable sized wager, though there is room for improvement. They are also the best firm to place the Scoop 6 bet with. They sometimes add big bonuses if the Scoop 6 winner placed that wager with Betfred.
Betfair started as a betting exchange where you match bets against other customers. They still have the exchange section but now also have a great traditional fixed odds bookmaker section. They call this ‘Betfair Sportsbook’ to differentiate it from their betting exchange. So in the sportsbook you are betting against Betfair (just like with any other bookmaker), not other people. The sportsbook’s standard new customer offer is as follows: Place £50 or more bets to receive £20 in free bets. Repeat up to five times to receive the maximum £100 bonus. Just Bookies is impressed by their sportsbook, which is better run and takes a bigger bet size than most of the other bookies on this page. Betfair also offer ‘Best Odds Guaranteed’ on all horse racing, so you don’t lose out if you take the odds and that price then drifts to a bigger SP. Their betting exchange section suits more experienced punters and has more volume than any other person-to-person betting site in the world. Once you get comfortable with their sportsbook you can always try out the exchange too and see how you like it. We tend to use a bit of both, cherry picking the best odds for our selections.
BoyleSports is a large Irish-based online bookmaker. This bookie is ok for punters who bet smaller stakes – the founder of Just Bookies was very quickly closed down on the sports side of the site, without backing any winners. They didn’t like the look of the way he was betting ie: taking best price about selections. It seems they only want mugs and losers. When he questioned the decision, the customer service was abrupt, bordering on rude, and dismissive. We did loosely recommend this brand once but overall we think it is quite poorly managed across all its departments and we no longer rate them. Our dealings as an affiliate of theirs has been a frustrating experience too. Our recommendation is not to bother with BoyleSports, you simply don’t need the hassle given there are far better firms (listed above) that you can join.
Bookies’ Offers, Bonuses & Free Bets Explained
The first question we at Just Bookies have to answer for you is: “Are bookies’ free bets actually free?” The honest answer is that with the exception of perhaps one type, these offers do all carry conditions.
We detail the terms and conditions alongside all the latest welcome bonuses on this Just Bookies home page.
If you truly want to get the best out of these offers then read the smallprint. It will inform you of the hoops to jump through to claim the full amount. Don’t make any assumptions!
The bookies’ bonuses tend to fall into one of these categories:
- Match Of Deposit: You get a free bet that is a match of the amount that you initially fund your betting account with. However there is always a limit to how much a bookmaker will match, and that is the freebie figure, which might be say £50. So if you deposit a tenner into your brand new betting account then they will give you £10 to play with. Do watch out for little pitfalls as they may insist the freebie is wagered on a selection at odds of evens or above. Also it is only the winnings from your wager with these funds that are returned to you. You can not ultimately withdraw the stake amount that was gifted to you. Different firms have a slightly different take on it, but the key thing is to read their terms via the ‘promotions’ or ‘bonuses’ link that will be somewhere on their home page.
- Match Of 1st Bet: This works identically but it gives you the offer in relation to the size of that initial wager.
- No Deposit Bonus: This is the one that I would call the mother of all free bets. You get this merely for joining up and filling in the registration form. It is a rare animal and tends to be for a very small amount, maybe a tenner or fiver. That is because it really hurts the bookmaker. It is a true giveaway and so an excellent deal for you. Unfortunately there are currently none of these ‘no deposit bonus’ offers currently available from the UK sports betting sites.
So why do the bookies even make these offers? It is to persuade you to join them rather than a rival. Our advice is not to have your head turned purely by size.
There are more important things to consider if you plan on betting regularly at a company than just free bets, and that is how good they actually are.
On this page Just Bookies ranks the online bookmakers not only by the headline bonus figure, but more importantly by their overall service to their players.
We suggest that you pick the bookie that will offer you the best long term experience, irrespective of the free bet amount.