The landscape of online gambling can be tough to navigate in South Africa, even when it comes to trustworthy virtual casinos like Vpbet Casino Online sportsbetting is, fortunately, exempt from that list! It’s completely legal to place real money bets on sporting events in South Africa.
With thousands of sites offering online sports betting, Africa has no shortage of places for residents to place bets. The real key is finding the most reliable places to play, and those with the best odds so you can get more bang for your bucks.
Top rated sports books with a huge catalogue of games to bet on
Safe and reputable websites for your enjoyment
Choose from a wide range of payment and withdrawal methods
How sports betting works
The best online betting sites keep things fairly straightforward, provided you understand a few essential bits of information that we’ll outline below. When you place a bet with a casino, sportsbetting website or bookmaker you are, in effect, opting in to a contract with them. This means that, even if in-play bets are offered or the odds of the event you’ve wagered on change during the course of it, the odds on your betting slip dictate the prize you’ll receive if you win.
Different ways to read odds
Depending on where you are in the world, odds are displayed in different ways. It can initially be confusing to get your head around the different ways sports betting sites list odds, but the best online betting sites often have a helpful feature that allows you to preview your winnings based on the amount you intend to bet. Nevertheless, it’s still useful to have an idea of the different ways odds are listed:
Decimal – This refers to the ratio of the full payout (i.e. including original stake) by sports betting sites to the stake. For example, if odds of 1.50 are offered, a bet of R1 would yield R1.5 total payout. R10 would result in winnings of R15 and so on.
Fractional – This provides the ratio of the amount won to the stake, i.e. if the odds are 1/2, a bet of R2 is needed to win R1 (not including original stake). An even bet is listed as 1/1 – a successful bet will result in R1, plus your original stake of R1.
U.S – U.S format odds are given as the amount won on a stake of 100 when positive or, when negative, the stake needed to win 100. So, if the odds are -200, a bet of 200 is needed to win 100 (not including original stake). If the odds are +200, a bet of 100 will yield 200 plus the original stake. An even bet is given as +100, because a stake of 100 is required to win it.
Confused yet? Don’t worry – after a couple of bets you’ll soon get the hang of the different ways sports betting sites list odds.
Types of bets
The most common type of bet, and the best for beginners, is a single – as the name suggests this is a single bet on one outcome, such as the winner of an event.
Accumulators or parlays are made up of a number of single bets – for example, you might bet that three teams will win the games they’re playing. If the first wins, your winnings are automatically bet on the second team by the online sports betting provider. If that team also wins, those winnings are placed on the third team and so on. This can be a great way to make some real money! But be warned; if the final team (or any other team you’ve bet on) loses, then so do you!
Prop bets are placed on specific parts of the game. For example, you might choose to bet on anything from the first player to score to something obscure like the number of penalties given up by a team!
Online sports betting in South Africa
There are many other types of bets, but the above are definitely enough to get you started! If you want to try gambling with real cash somewhere other than a casino, South Africa sports betting is a top choice, so take a look around.
Top South Africa Online Bookies
There are a number of licensed bookmakers in South Africa. We’ve scored some higher than others and naturally, we have our favourites.
Although you may disagree with the scores we give some bookmakers, hopefully you’ll find that our bookie reviews provide full information to betting with one of the various operators in South Africa.
Our reviews tell you about the best betting sites in South Africa overall, and also tell you about the best South Africa bookies for free bets, as well as those scoring highly for customer service, offering a wide range of payment methods, and much more.
For a South African bookmaker to be considered one of the best, they need to offer betting on a wide range of sports, and we’ve got lists of the sports available at each betting site. Our guides provide you with a full rundown on the various payment options available – from traditional banking methods such as bank transfer and credit cards through to e-Wallets such as Neteller, plus we’ll tell you which South Africa bookmakers are fastest to pay out your winnings, which offer the best odds, and which have other features such as Cash Out, which is popular with punters around the world.
