Wetten Bookmaker Review

Wetten Summary

Wetten Features

• Generous welcome bonus
• Easy-to-use layout
• Great choice of sports

An Introduction to Wetten

Unlike many of its rivals, Wetten launched with no immediate intention of branching out into poker and casinos, instead preferring to concentrate on offering an intuitive betting experience to new German punters who are looking for easily-to-understand, uncomplicated betting markets. They have, however, recently added a casino to their list of products.

Their stated aim is to ‘create a product that is tailored to the needs of German sports fans – one that is local, visually simple, modern and intuitive.’ And they succeed, as they do in their other stated aim of offering their customers an ‘enjoyable betting experience that they can bank on’.

Layout & Design

As a fairly new site, Wetten have learnt from those who have gone before and as a result have produced something that is very good. Admittedly, they have dispensed with the bells and whistles that have become the norm for many of their big-name rivals, but in our eyes that’s a good thing.

Like all the sites who we rate highly, Wetten do the simple things and do them well, and have avoided the trap that’s caught out many of plastering their site with fancy graphics and gizmos before getting the basics right. They have the basics covered and therefore work from the most solid of bases.

The basic layout is in line with most betting sites in that there is a left and right side-bar with a main body crammed full of goodies – a sight very familiar for the regular bettor. It’s the industry standard for a reason – it works.

The left side-bar lists the sports available alongside the number of betting markets on offer for each – in both cases the numbers involved are huge. A single click on each opens another menu that then lists the countries for which Wetten has markets for that sport, and then there is a further sub-menu that lists the leagues and competitions. The final drill-down takes the punter to the individual games and betting lines. And here’s where it all gets interesting.

Each match/event is listed with a date and start-time and, on the face of it, the line offers the bettor the basic three-way – win/lose/draw – bet. However, at the end of the line is a box with a number. That number, if clicked on, opens up all the various other bets available, the digits indicating the number of variables. The sheer volume of options, especially for the high-profile competitions, is staggering, with some – taking the Bundesliga for example – having up to 80 markets on offer for a single match. These cover the full gamut of bets, ranging from the traditional handicap, Asian handicap, over/under, double chance, bets without draw, accurate result, total goals and loads of other specials. You name a bet and it will likely be there, with everything for the occasional bettor through to the serious, big-time punter.

In addition to the betting information, each betting line has a stats tab. One click takes you outside of Wetten and into a new page provided by stats providers, Betradar.com. It offers a whole host of data to help you make your bet, including current form indicators, recent form guides, previous meetings and goal stats. In fact, no stone is left unturned when it comes to assisting the bettor in making their decisions.

The main body of the homepage heads with the live events, the betting lines being consistent with those described above under the various leagues and competitions, but with added data pertaining to the state of play in the match: minutes played to date, latest score etc. The different markets available, even for the live events, also follow the same format as above.

Underneath the live markets is a section that translates to ‘Betting Highlights’. It defaults to upcoming soccer matches but, cleverly, there is a snazzy horizontal menu that offers the punter the chance to populate the page with betting options for other sports; the options being in line with the numbers of sports/entertainment events listed in the left side-bar.

Again, the options on offer are plentiful and are presented with an understated style that runs throughout.

The right-hand side-bar is par for the bookmaker course and is headed by a very neat betting slip. It’s followed by a few in-house ad blocks – including one for the casino and another for a ‘Fantasy Bundesliga’ competition – and at the foot of the column is the @wetten.com Twitter feed.

Sports Markets & Odds

As we mentioned in the ‘Layout & Design’ section, there are huge numbers of markets and different sports available, as well as a very good depth of betting options. Also, as mentioned and as you would expect, the site talks predominantly to German, Austrian and Swiss bettors and, taking soccer as the example, not only focuses on the Bundesliga and Bundesliga II but also the lower divisions, regional divisions and amateur leagues. But there is also an extensively wide coverage of other sports – even minority sports, like cricket, in which the Germans do not participate on a world level.

The site is also very strong on international sports, and tournaments like World Cups and European Championships will be given prominence leading up to and during the events.

As a guide to the wide range on offer, at the time of this review there were betting markets available on Bulgarian and Greek domestic handball and Russian bandy.

Other major international sports like the NFL, golf, motor sport, tennis and basketball are also very well covered, with, typically, soccer leading the way in terms of the sheer number of markets available and the number of worldwide leagues on offer.

In addition to sport, there are also some online gaming markets available for Call of Duty, Dota 2 and League of Legends, amongst others.

In terms of offering value, Wetten are there or thereabouts with, at the time of this review, their upcoming Bundesliga fixture odds compiled to an average of just over 107% – just above the industry standard of between 105% and 106%. Not unreasonable, given that they’re relative newbies to the bookie arena and are likely still in the period of covering set-up costs.

Welcome Bonuses

At Wetten.com, new customers can claim an enticing three-element welcome bonus package:

Part one is a 100% deposit bonus up to €100. The minimum deposit is €10, and the bonus balance a maximum of €100. The total balance – deposit amount and bonus balance – must be placed on sports and live bets, each bet with minimum odds of 2.0, at least five-times within the first 30 days.

Part two is a no-risk bet without deposit of €10. It will be paid out one month after the initial deposit, provided it is at least €50 Euro. The risk-free bet must be wagered three times with minimum odds of 2.0 before a pay-out is possible.

Part three is also a risk-free bet without deposit of €10. The risk-free bet – worth €10 – will be paid out two months after the first deposit, provided it totals at least €50.

Customer Services/Responsible Gambling

Wetten have an ethical approach to gambling and as an increasingly popular bookmaker are acutely aware of their social responsibilities.

All staff have been trained ‘to observe the gaming behaviour of the users in daily customer contact, so they can recognise any irregularities immediately and take action if necessary’, and another stated aim is to is to ‘sustainably establish responsible gaming behaviour among their users’. That they take this so seriously is to be applauded.

Customer contact is limited to between 10am and 10pm (CET) but, as the above suggests, the quality of help and assistance on offer is excellent and can be done via email or live chat – which can be accessed by the ‘Live Chat’ (orange) icon on the bottom right of the home page

Mobile & Tablet

It is a mobile optimized site and if your preference is to bet on a phone or tablet then you are presented with a configuration that is essentially a mini-version of the desktop site. It works nicely for both iOS and Android and offers a very pleasant customer experience in terms of navigation and responsiveness.

There are no Apple and Android apps available but given the quality of the optimization this presents no problems, other than the inconvenience factor of having to use a browser.

Withdrawals

Cash-out is an automated process on Wetten and so this is generally at the speedy end of the scale, with pay-outs usually processed within 24 hours.

Final Verdict

Wetten have produced something that is very good. They have crucially avoided the pitfall of having all the bells and whistles without a sound base to work from and have engineered a rock-solid platform on which to build their bookmaker. In turn, it does the basics very well indeed and offers a pleasant betting experience, all underpinned by an understated and intuitive design.

In addition, as a company they have taken their ‘safe gambling’ responsibilities very seriously and their aim to help those they identify as potentially having a gambling problem well and truly sets them apart from the pack. All in all, a super package.