Ladbrokes sports review for New Zealand | 2024

Regarding Ladbrokes online betting bonuses, there’s a lot to say here. I was impressed that there are two bonuses on offer, though you need to pick which one to use. You don’t need a promo code, though.

However, it was somewhat irritating that I had to create an account and log in to see what Ladbrokes promotions were available. I’d much prefer the more transparent option of Bet365, which lists all options.

Further, it was very unclear what the wagering requirements were when claiming the bonus at the other end. However, after some digging, I discovered that youd’d need to turn over your deposit amount before withdrawal, similarly to what we can see at PlayUp.

Other Ladbrokes promotions were less obvious again. For instance, any odds boost to depend on what you’ve been doing as a player, which I don’t want to see from a sportsbook of Ladbroke’s calibre.

I was impressed by the selection of sports available at Ladbrokes. With 28 sports, this is one of the more well-rounded options. Sportsbet, an Aussie-owned site, beats this with 35 sports on offer.

Okay, so it’s got nothing on TAB sportsbook regarding horse racing, but who does? There are many racing options, including the Melbourne Cup and the ability to bet on greyhound racing.

I couldn’t give this a high rating, though, despite the 20+ betting markets on offer. And this was solely due to the lack of more unusual sports. Water polo, motor racing and so on were absent.

That being said, these aren’t found on many other sites either. And, there are novelty bets and politics to use, which is better than many other NZ betting sites.

Unsurprisingly, rugby (both league and union) features heavily here. For Kiwi players, one of the biggest competitions is Super Rugby, and when the season kicks off, you’ll find plenty of options.

Horse racing is also hugely popular on Ladbrokes and does have the added advantage of offering the Ladbrokes Easy Form to get started. With over 12 different clickable bet options such as favourite, second up, and top jockey, you’re almost spoilt for choice from the off.

I had no choice but to give Ladbrokes some major points here, and for the most part, they do deserve it. After all, they’ve gone above and beyond to make things usable.

The Easy Form is a standout feature and perfect for beginners in sports betting for the first time. It does make it easy to place a wager, particularly for racing, and I was a big fan.

I also liked that it was possible to cash out, something that not all betting sites in NZ allow — I am looking at you, Fansbet (it only offers partial cash out).

But I was disappointed that live betting is impossible on the site unless you do so by phone. When you do get in touch, there are several live bets available. I would like to have online access, preferably with live streaming capabilities similar to those of William Hill.

Because of this, I did score the site down a notch or two, as this is something I feel should be a staple on most betting sites by now. It’s a big miss for Ladbrokes.

Additional features: when it comes to betting features, Ladbrokes more than ably has you covered. On top of the Quick Form, there’s a super easy search function and the ability to filter different betting markets within each sport to whittle down options. Essentially, Ladbrokes offers all you could want here, and it’s just missing the betting exchange found on the UK version of the site.

So, if I am honest, this was a hard category for me to rate. On the one hand, Ladbrokes has a solid, consistent record regarding odds, but it’s not doing much to keep up with the competition.

Overall, the odds are decidedly average. If you want better odds, heading to PlayUp sportsbook is the way. That site is impressive, with some of the highest fixed odds.

That being said, Ladbrokes does make it easy to ensure you’re getting the latest odds available. The site refreshes automatically, so I didn’t need to do it myself.

However, the payout percentages are a huge disappointment here. At the very least, I’d expected a mid-range set of options, but 93.5% is supremely underwhelming. It’s better at almost all other sportsbooks.

To make it worse, as can be expected, the live betting percentages are even lower, though not relatively as low as the disappointing 88.97% at LeoVegas. Yes, there are odds boost promotions here at Ladbrokes, but this does little to mitigate things for me.

I don’t have much that’s bad to say about Ladbrokes and its payment options. It’s all pretty standard, so my main grumble is that it could have a few more options available.

What is a standout is the fact that Ladbrokes does offer PayPal. This seems to be one of the few e-wallet options many NZ sportsbooks provide. BetVictor, for example, supports Skrill but not PayPal.

I was happy to see that there are no fees for any payment options, though. I did appreciate this. However, it is important to note that the sportsbook does change NZD to AUD, similarly to other sportsbooks such as Neds.

As I would have expected, all the deposit methods are instant. Like other sites, withdrawals are a bit slower with a top wait time of three days. However, take on the Ladbrokes card, and you get instant withdrawals, which is well worth it.

I couldn’t help but give Ladbrokes a genuinely high score here. It’s generally pretty hard to get a near-perfect score regarding security, but Ladbrokes has nearly managed it.

I usually only look for 256-bit encryption, such as that offered by bet365, but Ladbrokes far exceeds this. It has an impressive 2048-bit encryption putting it head and shoulders above the rest.

This sportsbook comes from the UK and has a strong licence background. Okay, so this one is specifically licensed in Australia, but it’s all under the same umbrella, so essentially is run by the UKGC. This puts it streets ahead of sites like MyBookie’s and its Curaçao licence.

Finally, many responsible gambling tools ensure you’re helped out every step of the way if you need it. In short, if you need to take time off, the site makes it very easy.

I have little negative to say when it comes to site support. In fact, Ladbrokes does everything I could wish for and does it well to boot.

Unlike LeoVegas Sport, live chat is available around the clock. And, when I did drop a quick message, I didn’t have to wait very long, under two minutes.

It was very easy to get in touch, and the staff were very friendly and helpful, and overall I was really pleased. Although I would have given an even higher score if I could have gotten in touch via social media, an option offered by some other sites, such as Betway.

It was also thoroughly pleasing to see two different phone numbers. Yes, one is for placing bets, but there is another direct line for customer support. Phones are often overlooked in sportsbooks these days, so this made me happy.

As is becoming the norm when it comes to Ladbrokes, I really don’t have much to find fault with on this site. The usability is truly excellent.

And this is translated well to both the mobile browser version of the site as well as the betting apps. The only thing I found was the browser version isn’t quite on par with the high-quality LeoVegas mobile website. Nevertheless, you can find all the same things on the mobile platform, including odds boost options, bonus bets and more.

The Ladbrokes app for iOS or the app for Android can be downloaded via the main website. Android seems to be the general issue with many NZ sites, though, as it can’t be accessed via the Google Play store. That being said, it’s still strong, beating out 888Sport’s weak Android app with ease.

I found everything to be very intuitive too, and most features were available to the casual viewer as well. What I will say, is that the How To guides are only available to members, and I would have liked to have seen what they offered before signing up.