Best gambling sites in the UK

Play at the best gambling sites. Our experts hand-pick the best online casinos in the UK, sports betting, poker and bingo sites. Save time searching and sign up to our best gambling sites below for a generous welcome bonus.

All our sites are fully licensed in the UK, are safe and secure – and offer fantastic games and odds. Click ‘Play now’ below and grab your offer.

How we select the best gambling sites

At Smashing Life, we know how hard it can be to find a reputable and exciting online casino, sports betting site, poker site or bingo site. That’s why we have put together a team of industry experts to bring you our choice of the best gambling sites.

Save yourself time and enjoy your online gambling in the UK by signing up for the online casino sites that we recommend. You will get a cool welcome bonus and know you are playing on a trustworthy platform.

UK gambling site licence

All the best gambling sites we recommend are licensed by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC). This means the operators stick to strict rules to protect you, the player. Your funds are safe and your personal data is secure. Bonuses are straightforward and easy to release, and each of our online casino sites, poker rooms, bingo sites and sports betting sites have fast and friendly customer service.

Licensed sites follow strict advertising and marketing rules and promote responsible gambling. Each platform must opt-in to GAMSTOP, where players can self-exclude for as long as they wish.

Variety of payment methods

The best gambling sites will offer many options for depositing on and withdrawing your cash from UK online casinos and sportsbooks. Our review team expects fast, hassle-free and encrypted transactions so that you can begin playing safely and fast – and enjoy any winnings.

Next, we look at deposit and withdrawal limits to make sure they are likely to suit your needs. Every UK gambling site has different limits, but all those we recommend should fall within your expectations.

Popular online casino payment methods include:

• Skrill
• PayPal casino
• Debit cards
• Neteller
• ecoPayz
• Bank transfer
• Bitcoin
• paysafecard
• Apple Pay
• Neosurf
• Rapid Transfer
• Boku
• EntroPay

Number and quality of casino games

For UK online casinos and bingo sites, we look for a large catalogue of the latest and most exciting games for you to enjoy. From the best slot games, live casino dealers and multiple bingo rooms, we only seek the best gambling sites.

Whether you prefer traditional casino table games like blackjack and roulette, or know how to win baccarat games, you will find plenty of options when you sign up to one of our recommended online casinos.

Sports betting sites must offer an exceptional range of sports and markets to make our top gambling sites list. From the usual football, cricket and golf to eSports, basketball and NFL, we want you to be able to bet on the games you love.

It’s not just the number of games on offer, we demand the best games software providers. For slot games and table games that will be the likes of NetEnt, Microgaming, Playtech and IGT. For live dealer games – the closest you will come to experiencing real-life casino play – then good quality providers include Evolution Gaming.

Online bingo platforms are great fun, and we like to see a variety of games, busy rooms and a thriving player community for you to enjoy.

Cool promotions and rewards

UK gambling sites are highly competitive, each trying to sign new players. They do this by offering generous casino sign-up offers, casino bonuses, sports betting free bets, casino and poker reload bonuses and more.

While this all seems well and good, we act for you by ensuring all online casino promotions and bonuses are fair and easy to release. What do we mean by that? If you are offered a deposit bonus or free spins, there will be wagering requirements attached. You must play a specified amount before your bonus funds or spins are released to you. We insist these conditions are fair and that you will benefit from your loyalty.

Smashing Life also likes to see UK gambling sites offering rewarding bonuses and promotions to existing players, not just those they are trying to sign up.

By studying the online casinos we recommend on this site, you will see a wide array of casino bonus offers. It’s worth signing up to more than one site so that you can bag more freebies.

Great gambling site customer service

Everyone loves good customer service. You are the customer, and you expect star treatment. Our recommended UK gambling sites must offer exceptional customer service. We expect at least two of these options for players:

• Live chat
• 24/7 email support
• Telephone support
• Extensive FAQs and guides

Best online poker sites in the UK

Online poker is still one of the most popular online gambling activities in the UK. Giant brands like PokerStars and PartyPoker emerged from the online poker boom of the early noughties and are both still a force today.

Playing poker online can be extremely rewarding. But the game is a little like golf in that it’s easy to learn but difficult to master. Yet there are opportunities to win cash for players of all abilities. UK online poker sites, like all the best gambling sites in the UK, offer generous promotions and bonuses to attract new players. We have identified the best UK online poker sites, so sign up to one of our recommended site in the table above, and claim your welcome offer today.

How do we recommend online poker sites?

Smashing Life is owned by an online poker veteran, who worked at the coal face of the industry for over ten years. We care a lot about the game and understand the importance of players getting the best possible experience. We use the following factors in our comprehensive reviews of UK online poker sites.

Security and Fairness

Most important for players is knowing that the poker site is fair and secure. Secure in that their data is encrypted and their funds are safe. We only recommend sites licensed by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), and that means all player funds on sites are ring-fenced and kept separate from day-to-day operations accounts.

A licence also means players can trust games to be fair. You want to be sure you can not be cheated by rogue employees or players colluding. Our recommended sites have tremendous security measures in place to protect players. You can enjoy the thrill of the turn of a card without worry.

Online poker site liquidity

No matter how food an online poker site is, if there are not many players online, it’s no use. If you are a tournament poker, you want lots of liquidity as more players mean bigger prize pools and more tournaments kicking off. Cash game players, too, benefit from lots of table being in play.

Software and user experience

There’s nothing worse than playing online poker on clunky software that’s likely to freeze or kick you out of the room at the worse possible moment when you have aces and two players betting into you. Our best online poker sites have decent software that gives you, the player, a good overall user experience.

Variety of poker games

One of the bonuses of poker is the variety of games. In our review on the best online poker sites in the UK, we expect to see games offering:

• Texas Hold’em
• Omaha
• 5-card draw
• Poker cash games
• Poker tournaments
• Poker Sit and goes
• Fast speed poker

Promotions and bonuses

There are fine margins to being profitable in poker. A good UK poker site will improve your poker profits by forming a genuinely rewarding promotions and players rewards scheme. We expect the best online poker sites to offer generous rewards to all players. Sign up to one of our recommended sites in the table above and claim your welcome bonus today.

Customer support

Finally, the best online poker sites look after their players. To do so, they offer exceptional customer support, through live chat, 24/7 email support and extensive FAQs sections.

It’s also nice when a poker site offers educational material to engage players and help them improve. PokerStars does an excellent job in this regard, with its PokerStars School.

How we find the best sportsbook sites

Most important to our team of experts is that every sportsbook we recommend is licensed. Licensed sportsbooks protect you, the player, by ensuring all your financial and personal data is safe and that the bookie acts in a fair way at all times.

For a UK sportsbook to make our recommended list, it must be safe, fair, offer great sports betting promotions, multiple markets and competitive odds.

Sportsbook promotions

The best UK sportsbooks offer an exciting range of promotions, bonuses and offers to players.

Sign up to one of our recommended sportsbooks above, and you will receive a generous welcome offer. It might be in the form of a deposit match bonus or free bets. Perhaps a combination of both.

The best sportsbooks will keep offering engaging promotions to existing players to make sure there is always something fresh. We only recommend sports betting sites where the promotions are easy to take part in, and any bonuses are easy enough to release.

Large list of sports

Our recommended UK sportsbooks cover a huge list of sports. Naturally, you will find the popular UK sports betting events like football, horse racing, cricket, tennis and golf.

But to get extra good marks in our extensive sports betting reviews, sites should cover many other sports so that every customer is catered for. This will include NFL, basketball, motor racing, eSports, virtual sports and much, much more.

Many betting markets

When you pick a sporting event to play on, for example a particular football game, you want as many markets as possible. There will be the usual win, lose or draw, correct score forecasts and first goalscorer markets. But we expect to see many more, including bookings, corners, penalties and sending off and, of course, in-play live betting opportunities.

A greater choice of betting markets give you complete flexibility to bet how you want, even during a match.

Competitive sportsbook odds

There can be nothing more frustrating than winning a sports bet, only to discover that you could have got better odds somewhere else.

Winning a sports bet is a real thrill, but your skill at selecting a winner should be respected by the sportsbook in the shape of competitive odds.