TonyBet Review
Antanas Guoga aka Tony G is a well-known poker player from Lithuania. In 2009, he managed to leverage his success at the poker table into the purchase of a sportsbook known as Omnibet. The new purchase was quickly rebranded TonyBet and saw an almost immediate bump in users due to the brand name draw of its namesake. Today, it’s a major online betting presence in the Baltics and is also enjoying steady growth in other markets. TonyBet has also opened a series of brick and mortar betting shops and generally improved the online offering with a GUI upgrade and improved markets.
It has to be mentioned that TonyBet was downgraded by the Online Sportsbook Rating Guide a couple of years ago. It was actually added to their blacklist due to persistent complaints from a number of users about payout problems. Although, these issues seem to have been resolved, and as of this writing, we’re not aware of any fresh allegations against them. Let’s hope they’ve closed the door on that chapter of their history.
TonyBet Website
TonyBet is an attractive if unremarkable website, which is fine. They do use the old ‘pretty girls giving the come hither look’ photos to try and lure those who are lured by such things. We don’t go to online betting sites to ogle the pictures, though. We go there to bet and wagering through TonyBet is, thankfully, a pretty straightforward affair. TonyBet puts a little added emphasis on their basketball offerings, and that’s understandable if you know how popular the sport is in the Baltics. TonyBet also offer an array of other sports, though, including:
- Football
- Basketball
- Tennis
- Golf
- American Football
- Ice Hockey
- Volleyball
- Baseball
- Golf
- Formula 1
- Rugby League
- Rugby Union
- Australian Rules Football
- Cycling
- Biathlon
- Snooker
- Futsal
- Alpine Skiing
- Ski Jumping
- Darts
- Cricket
- Boxing
- Martial Arts
- Handball
TonyBet also have a mobile app that makes it convenient to take part in all the action wherever you may be as long as your smartphone is Android or iOS compatible. Why they would ignore Windows phones is a bit mystifying.
In-Play Betting
TonyBet offer a wide array of in-play betting options. When you navigate to the live betting section, you’ll be greeted with your sports options on the left. Clicking one will bring up relevant odds, markets and more in the centre column and you’ll see your betting slip waiting for you in the right column. TonyBet offer in-play action on nearly all their pre-event sports and their odds are typically competitive. Not always the best mind you. But usually competitive.
What they don’t offer is live streaming, and this is a shame because for the most part their in-play section is engaging and would benefit from having live streaming available. That said everything is updated in a timely fashion and our experience of live betting with TonyBet was fun and incident-free.
TonyBet Bonus, TonyBet Free Bet Offers and TonyBet Sign Up Offer
TonyBet to their credit offer a nice selection of bonuses and promotions. Starting with the TonyBet sign up offer.
- TonyBet Sign Up Offer – TonyBet offers you the chance to have your initial deposit increased by 100%, up to a maximum of £/€200. That means if your deposit £/€60 you receive an extra £/€60, but if you deposit £/€500, you’ll receive £/€200. Thankfully there’s no requirement that you wager this entire TonyBet bonus immediately.
- TonyBet Free Bet – You can earn a weekly TonyBet free bet worth €10 by entering the TonyBet bonus code FREE10 into your account’s bonus field. To qualify you must wager at least €10 at odds of 1.85 or higher each week.
There are also a slew of other TonyBet bonus offers that pop up on a regular basis, as well as those associated with big individual sporting events, so don’t forget to check the ‘promotion’ tab on the website each time you log in.
Deposits and Payments
Another area where TonyBet gets it right is in the large number of ways they offer to transact business with them. As of this writing the officially approved methods for making deposits and collecting payments are:
Deposits
- VISA debit
- MasterCard debit
- Neteller
- Skrill – Moneybookers
- UKash
- Paysafecard
- iDeal
- Giropay
- Poli
- Euteller
- Sofort
- Przelewy24
- SafetyPay
- AstroPay
- Boleto bancário
- QIWI Wallet
- TrustPay
- EPS
- Bank Transfer
Payments
- VISA debit
- MasterCard debit
- Neteller
- Skrill – Moneybookers
- UKash
- Paysafecard
- iDeal
- Giropay
- Poli
- Euteller
- Sofort
- Przelewy24
- SafetyPay
- AstroPay
- Boleto bancário
- TrustPay
- EPS
- Bank Transfer
Things We Like About TonyBet
We like the number of sports TonyBet accept action on. We like the number of markets for the individual events. We like the in-play live betting section. We like the TonyBet sign up offer, the TonyBet free bet offers and the other various TonyBet bonus offerings and promotions. We like the emphasis on basketball which is one of our favourite sports, and we like the web app, which is easy to use and lets you take the experience with you wherever you go.
What We’re Not Crazy About
We’re not crazy about the design of the site, and by that, we mean the adolescent hottie pics. Do people still fall for that stuff? Whatever. We’re not crazy about the paucity of contact vectors. That may be why they got into trouble a few years back. Perhaps customers had small issues that grew into big ones because they couldn’t get in touch. We also don’t understand why a company would ignore the millions of Nokia owners whose smartphones use the Windows operating system. Regardless of what you think of Microsoft, you are automatically shutting off potentially large segments of your market by making your mobile app only usable with iOS and Android phones.
TonyBet Bookmaker Conclusion
TonyBet seem to have put their recent difficulties behind them, as today they offer a professionally run sportsbook that has lots of upsides rather than downsides. They’re a real success story, and we love a good success story. They probably attract more of an experience clientele at this point, but that’s okay because those punters are any site’s bread and butter.