Marathonbet are a fairly new bookmaker to me, but the website states that they have been about since 1997. I will be honest in that until about 2015 I had never heard of the bookmaker and even then, they just seemed like yet another bookmaker who were trying to make a name for themselves. Throughout 2016 and especially over the last few months I've seen the name kicking about more and more. The company are official sponsors of Manchester United for the 2016/17 season, along with affiliations with both Hibs FC and Malaga FC. The sheer number of times that I have seen the brand has prompted me into making this review. As a lot of you will already know, I tend to keep the range of bookmakers that I use fairly tight, so to add any new ones to the existing portfolio is going to have to prove well worth my while. Exclusive Offer Alert! As a reader of What Acca, you are going to be able to get your hands on an exclusive offer which comes in the form of a free bet worth up to £20. All you need to do is click the link below to reveal your unique bonus code to claim your £20 free bet! Main findings: Amazing Pricing! My research into new bookmakers generally tends to lead me down one path, and that’s pricing. I know that many offer loads of features, a cool design, live streaming and so on, but as I’ve been in the industry for so long, I’m a little bit numb to all that. I want to be able to place my money on the bets that I choose and in return, I want the best price! The pricing (odds) on offer is actually what prompted me to write this review. I use an odds comparison site most days for my accumulator bets and I kept seeing Marathonbet right at the top of the pile. To be completely honest, I though it was the odds comparison site simply pushing the brand harder than others and the odds were potentially inflated somewhat to what the true price was once you got into the bookmaker. After so many times of seeing Marathonbet come out as best priced for my acca, I decided it was time to investigate what was going on for myself. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust the odds comparison site by the way, it’s just I like to do things for myself! I jumped across and quickly started throwing in some random accumulator bets. Not necessarily bets that I was going to place, but I just wanted to get a feel of the prices that were on offer. I put in 5 random international fixtures to start, all favourites for their game. They didn’t actually come out best price, for this, paying 7.76 for the 5-fold, compared to Betfred’s 8.08. Very close in price though and easily within the top 5 in the industry. I changed my focus for the next bet and added 5 Premier League matches. Boom! This time Marathon bet come out at best price paying 80.01 for the bet. Next best was BetVictor at 76.86 but what shocked me most was that bet365 – my most used bookmaker in the industry – came in over 11 points shorter in price. So for every £1 that I would have bet, I’d of received £11 LESS than if I used bet365 over Marathonbet. A fluke? Maybe! So, I went again. This time the first 5 Championship Games from the upcoming Saturday’s matches. Marathonbet come out on top once again! This time paying out at 33.04 for the bet, with next best priced being that of Betway at a lowly 30.57. If you are wondering, bet365 were paying just 26.99 for the same bet! I went and did the same random acca bet about 10 more times and the results were the same. Best priced for 8 out of the 10 bets and the other 2 they were well in the top 5. I was in shock to be honest as they weren't just coming out on top, they were the best bookmaker for accumulator betting by a country mile. It was at this point that I knew I had to make an account and get these guys in the running. The value was there for all to see and I for one, am not missing out! Do they have a free bet offer? I love a bargain and I know that pretty much all bookmakers like Marathonbet will have some sort of offer to get you through the door. I was right! What you can get is a £20 free bet, which is a 100% match on your opening deposit. It states that you need to wager throughout the deposit amount 4 times prior to the free bet hitting your account and you must use bonus code: The promotion I thought was fair, but it’s not the best in the business due to the fact that you need to wager 4 times your deposit before getting the bonus. But, that being said, I knew that I would be using these guys a lot and I knew that it wouldn’t take me long to wager that with them. Check out the caption below if you want to find out more info on this offer: Click here to open a Marathonbet account and claim your £20 free bet! Credibility As I mentioned earlier in the article, I was sceptical about using Marathonbet. I’d never really heard of the brand before so I wanted to know a little bit more about who they were before registering an account. The first stop was the ‘About Us’ section on their website and it’s here where they note they were formed in 1997. They also state that they are have a license issued by the Government of Curacao, the Alderney Gambling Control Commission and the UK Gambling Commission. Good start! I know that licenses from all these commissions are not easy to come by with dozens actually being rejected each day, especially from the UK Gambling Commission, so these eased my mind somewhat. I then moved onto the Manchester United affiliation to see if I could find some more info on this set up. Whilst I didn’t think it would be a hoax, I was sceptical as to the role they would play with one of the biggest sporting clubs in the world. Scrolling through their fairly substantial list of ‘Official Partners’ and there they were…. "The Official Global Betting Partner of Manchester United". There’s a nice little write-up about the company on the Manchester United website as well, which highlights how the company have moved forward and why United have chosen them over the rest of the field. I’m sold at this point and happy to sign on the dotted line. Who’s Marathonbet best suited for? As you might know, I recommend bookmakers for different types of punters. For example, if you’re looking for an all-round bookmaker that can literally do it all, from odds to live streaming, then bet365 would be your best bet. If you like to take advantage of exiting player promotions, then someone like Betfair or Paddy Power would be my recommendations. Marathonbet is for the punter that is looking for the best possible price, all of the time. It’s their odds that have drawn me in and it’s this that I think is the bookmakers USP. It’s probably a little unfair to call them a ‘no-frills’ bookmaker, because in all honesty, they are better than that. But, they don’t really compete feature wise compared with the likes of bet365. I’ve found that not to be an issue though. The site is there for the punter who knows what they want to bet on and to get in and out in the shortest amount of time possible. They want to jump across on to the bookmaker and get crazy good odds, before quickly withdrawing any winnings and moving on with their day. This bookmaker was almost made for me! Downsides It’s been tough for me to really pick out any glaring downsides to the bookmaker so far. But, that’s because I came in to it with very realistic expectations of what I want. I keep banging on about it but, I want the best odds and that’s pretty much it. I don’t need live streaming, I don’t need a massive live betting section (although, they have one!), I don’t need a ton of niche sports (again, far from shy here either), I don’t need a flashy design and I don’t need a huge statistics section. I need the best price I can find in the industry and Marathonbet do this, potentially better than any other bookmaker I have seen! If you do need all that, then maybe Marathonbet might not be for you. Don’t forget, you can get all that elsewhere, but the bottom line in betting is about making as much money as possible and the best way to do that is by placing bets at the highest odds possible. Conclusion Marathonbet have kind of caught me off guard somewhat with their ability to offer ridiculously priced bets. I thought I had my set of bookmakers tied down, but it just goes to show that anyone can improve and still make a name for themselves. I truly believe that Marathonbet should be part of every punters betting armoury, if only for their pricing structure. Choosing the best price for your bets maximises the profit you can make, which is what the game is all about, isn’t it? I’ve gone on a lot about Marathonbet’s pricing, but the site does have much more to it than that. I hope I haven’t done it a disservice this way, but it’s the pricing that has most definitely stood out for me and is the main reason why they have been quickly added as one of my go-to bookmakers for this season.
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