Opening multiple betting accounts is perfectly legal. In this guide, we will be taking a look at the how and the why of opening multiple bookmakers accounts across different bookmakers in the UK. Doing so is not just simple, safe and easy, but can have benefits for the more casual player alongside more dedicated betting experts.
7 Reasons To Sign Up To Multiple Bookmaker Accounts
If you have a bookmaker that you are happy with, you’re probably wondering if it is worth the bother signing up to more sites. Well, that depends on what you’re looking for, but we think for a lot of people, it is.
In this section, we go through the advantages of having multiple betting accounts across different bookies, leaving it up to you to decide whether to do so or not.
1. Welcome Offers
A good welcome offer isn’t just a great way of greeting new customers; it can also be very profitable. There’s a reason why bookmakers generally make these a one-time deal, and why they don’t like you having more than one account with them. However, if you have multiple accounts across different betting sites, you can enjoy as many of these offers as you please.
2. Special Offers
What we said above regarding welcome offers also applies to promotions in general. Having more accounts means more access to various promotions, and although often bookmakers have plenty for you to choose from individually, some are simply better than others in terms of the value they offer. With more than one bookmaker, you get to choose the best of the best.
3. More Choice
If you’re mainly interested in betting on major sporting events, this perhaps won’t be too much of an issue for you. However, if you’re after something a bit more niche, or something that's not sports-related (such as bingo or other casino games) then more betting sites means you have a wider variety of products to choose from.
4. Odds Comparison
One of the frustrating things about betting sites is there’s not one we can definitively say consistently offers the best odds. If you choose a dozen sporting markets, there’s a solid chance that the best odds will be different on most occasions. And those few percentage points can make all the difference between a high and a low-quality bet.
More choice means you get the pick of the finest odds across all the betting markets. Think of it like how different supermarkets may have better prices on certain items, but not others. Betting with multiple accounts is like being able to choose the best prices from all of them from the comfort of your laptop or phone.
5. Account Limitation
While opening up multiple accounts with the same bookmaker can lead to your account being closed, multiple accounts across several bookmakers can prevent this from happening amongst successful punters.
The truth is that bookmakers are there, just like you, to make a profit. If you are winning too much, they may simply decide that they no longer want to do business with you. Having multiple accounts allows you to fly under the radar more and avoid being penalised or limited.
6. User Experience
This one is a little less personal and a little more practical. There might simply be things about one site that you enjoy more, such as mobile experience, for instance. Another bookie may offer access to certain markets and promotions that you may not get access to otherwise. When all is said and done, remember that betting is supposed to be all about improving your sports experience,
7. Arbitrage Betting
While arbitrage betting is not considered to be illegal as such, this is something that is taken very seriously by bookmakers – if caught, you will almost certainly have your account suspended and very possibly terminated. With that said, we’re going to explain what arbitrage betting means for the purposes of covering everything to do with multiple accounts.
To understand what this, is you must first understand the meaning of the word arbitrage. This is a term in economics where you take advantage of a price difference between different markets. In the world of betting, the price difference, is of course, referring to different odds. Therefore, arbitrage betting is where you have a set of outcomes, which means that the full odds would come to less than 100%. As a result, you gain a profit no matter the outcome.
Let us put it this way. Bookmakers have something called an overround, which is the amount above 100% all possible odds come to. In other words, if you have team A to win with translated odds of 52.1% and team B to win with 52.2%, you have a percentage above 100% of 4.3%. That’s the overround, otherwise known as the bookmaker’s margin.
Let’s say that, for the same match, we keep those odds for team A at 52.1%. However, another bookmaker is offering odds on team B to win at 47.3%. This adds up to a total percentage of 99.4%. Not only does this shift the advantage to you, but makes profit theoretically inevitable, because you can decide how much is wagered on each.
Keep in mind that bookmakers are very good at keeping their odds in line in order to prevent this, so successful users of this technique work extremely quickly. Since the percentage amount of profit is so small, you'll generally have to place very high bets to make this worth your while. Once again, if a person is caught, they will very likely have their account terminated.
How To Open Multiple Betting Accounts
People often ask this question imagining some kind of grand scheme where people employ tricks to opening multiple bookmaker accounts.
However, what is really important to remember is that there is no rule, nor any law, to prevent you from signing up to as many betting sites as you wish.
Is It Safe To Open Multiple Accounts?
The short answer here is, yes.
The only issue would be if you were betting with multiple sites that were run by the same company, and even then, it would only really be a problem if they deemed you irritatingly successful.
Of course, being irritatingly successful is what you want, so being aware of sites that have that kind of relationship is important to avoid having multiple shutdowns at once. This is unlikely, but far from impossible.
You’re probably wondering why you would have to worry about your accounts getting shut down if there’s no rule against it. Well, this remains true. However, as businesses, betting sites have the right to refuse whoever they wish, and some may even have in their rules and conditions that signing up to multiple bookmaker accounts, even beyond that individual betting site and stretching into other sites that the company owns, is grounds for them terminating your account.
Think of it like how a restaurant can refuse to serve someone based on a dress code. They are well within their rights to do that, but that doesn’t mean trainers and a pair of jeans have suddenly become illegal.
Sticking with the restaurant analogy for a moment, just like being able to go to dinner wherever you like, you are just as free to gamble in as many establishments as you choose. Much of the confusion comes down to how adamant betting sites are that you can only have one account. However, this refers to having multiple bookmaker accounts on the same betting site – which is a far riskier strategy, and not what this article is about.
The Practicalities
Signing up for different accounts across various bookmakers more or less involves the exact same procedure, depending on the site itself.
The details you will usually be expected to give include the following:
-
Username: Your name on the site and often part of your log-in process. Often this will have to be unique to you, meaning you’ll have to find a name no one else has taken. Many sites will suggest similar names that have not been taken if yours is rejected.
-
Password: Each site has their own rules on passwords, with restrictions generally there to ensure a certain standard of security. These include things like a minimum/maximum amount of characters, the use of upper- and lowercase characters, and the refusal to accept a password, which includes things like your name and date of birth. Speaking of which…..
-
Date of birth: This is to verify you are above the legal age for gambling, which in the United Kingdom is 18.
-
Mobile number: This contact detail is required so that the bookmaker can contact you if there are security concerns regarding your account, as well as provide you with promotional details. However, you can opt out of the latter function if you so wish.
-
First name/Last name: Not much to elaborate on here – simply enter your full name. You may also be asked to provide your gender at this point.
-
Address: Your address, among other things, assures that you are from a country where the bookmaker is licensed to operate. Good bookmakers make this nice and easy with you only needing to type in part of your address or postcode before the site guesses the rest.
-
Currency: Choose your preferred currency. This will also, if it hasn’t already been made clear by this point, show you what restrictions are in place in this regard. At this stage you may also be asked to place deposit limits, although this could also be requested during the deposit process instead.
Finally, you’ll be asked to confirm that you've read the site's Privacy Policy and terms and conditions, as well as opt into receiving any bonus offers. After this, click on the button saying ‘Register Now' or ‘Create Account' button to move forward and complete this process.
The banking process is now often kept separate from the registration form, likely to keep people from being put off by an immediate request for money and to allow people to check out the site before adding any funds. However, it’s possible that deposits would still be part of the registration process; but being unable to skip it is now quite rare in our experience.
And that’s generally what you can expect. Other than that, there’s not much else to know about the practicalities of signing up for multiple sites. It really is that simple – you just do it as many times as you need for as many sites as you want.
Organisation
The only real complication to signing up to multiple sites is keeping track of them all.
Obviously, how much of an issue this depends on how many betting sites you plan on signing up to. If you have two or three, then things should remain quite simple. However, if you sign up to every new UK online bookmaker and get past that half a dozen mark and you have multiple bets on each, you may need to have a system in place.
And when you start to lose track of your bets and strategy, that’s when you can start to make unwise betting choices and end up losing more money.
One idea for getting organised is setting up an e-mail for your betting site accounts. This means that you don’t need to worry about dozens and dozens of betting e-mails clogging up your day-to-day mail, and makes all the bonus offers easier to sift through.
Some even create documents and spreadsheets to keep on track of things. However, it can be just as easy as writing down the bets you have made. It’s whatever works in this regard. But we will say that you should never be in a situation where you forget which wagers you have on.
Why Not Open Multiple Accounts By the Same Bookmaker?
Whether you can have more than one betting account with the same operator is a question that intrigues many bettors.
This is known as “gnoming”, and is often done to multiply winnings and get past maximum limits, as well as take advantage of one-time-only promotions.
While this practice is somewhat of a legal grey area, make no mistake that bookmakers take it extremely seriously – just like arbitrage betting, in fact. Like the latter, your accounts will all be shut down if you are caught. Not only that, but you may also find issues opening accounts with other bookmakers down the line.
Finally, the closed accounts will also wipe out the winnings within them, and because you are operating against strictly set out terms and conditions, there’s very little you’re going to be able to do about this. And the ways in which you can be caught are sophisticated, even going so far as blocking accounts from the same IP address. That’s right – you could even get in trouble for simply using the same bookmaker as someone else using that address.
We’re not making any kind of statement on opening multiple bookmaker accounts; we’re simply giving you the facts and letting you know that this is risky behaviour which can have long-term consequences.
Opening multiple bookmaker accounts with different bookmakers, however, is an entirely different, and much safer, story. Doing so will allow you to enjoy the benefits of having multiple accounts without the fear of getting caught and facing any repercussions.
Matched Betting with Multiple Accounts
In short, matched betting is a strategy used by punters which focuses on making a profit simply by using betting promotions. Instead of having to pick a winner, or a desired outcome, you can cover all bases and ensure you receive some winnings no matter the result. What's more, it's entirely legal.
There are two components to a matched bet: a back bet and a lay bet. With the back bet, you are predicting a desired outcome with, ideally, a free bet you’ve earned, while the lay bet involves you backing the opposite outcome to your back bet.
For example, if you back Manchester United to beat Liverpool with your aptly named back bet, you could back a Liverpool double chance with your lay bet to ensure all bases are covered.
To maximise profits, punters must place their lay bet with real money at a different bookmaker – hence why multiple accounts are required. This works best with a betting exchange where you can ‘sell’ bets.
It’s worth working out what odds are needed and the stakes you need to place to ensure your matched bets are worthwhile.
Bookmakers with the most generous welcome offers are best for matched betting.
Matched betting with various accounts is entirely legal, but gnoming, which we’ve already discussed and involves opening multiple accounts with the same bookmaker, can cause some issues.
The PuntersPage Final Say
So, to sum things up – can you make multiple betting accounts? Yes – as long as it's across different platforms and operators. Doing so can increase your potential winnings through exposure to more promotions, markets and more competitive odds, while maximising your enjoyment of the UK betting scene by allowing you to try out much more of what's out there.
What you can't do is create multiple accounts with the same operator. This is often, if not always, a direct breach of terms and conditions, so tread carefully there.
Treat the online world as your personal betting buffet for the finest online experience – one with real, tangible benefits. And in a betting scene as superb as what we have here in the United Kingdom, it would be rude not to indulge in the incredible amount of variety and quality available!
Multiple Account Betting Resources
You can refer to the below resources to learn more about betting in the UK.
-
1.
UK Gambling Commission: Official UK gambling regulator
-
2.
UK Parliament Gambling Act 2005: Legal framework for gambling in the UK
-
3.
GambleAware: Charity committed to minimising gambling harm
Multiple Bookmaker Accounts FAQs
Absolutely not. Just like you are free to shop in as many places as you want, you are also free to bet in as many properly licensed gambling sites as you like.
When bookmakers say one account per person, they are referring to one account on their betting site. As we said, they cannot prevent you from taking – or expanding – your business elsewhere. While they have the right to limit your account for whatever reason they see fit, this would not be breaking those terms and conditions.
Of course you can – in fact, it’s one of our favourite perks of having different accounts at various betting sites.
One of the key benefits of having multiple betting accounts with different bookmakers is being able to shop around for the best odds, as well as a wider variety of betting markets and products to choose from. You'll also be able to spread out your bets to avoid getting your account limited for being too successful.
Generally speaking, no. It’s up to you how many bookmakers you choose to use. The only issue might be if they are run by the same organisation, but even that is a grey area. Beyond that, you can register and sign up just as normal. Once again, you are not doing anything against the rules or anything illegal, so you shouldn’t have to take any additional precautions.