Coral Betting Site

Coral are one of the most popular bookmakers with betting shops dotted around high streets across the UK. New online customers who deposit and bet just £5 can enjoy £20 in free bets! You must be aged over 18 to open an account at the Coral betting site. Betting promotions open to UK & Ireland residents only. Looking for a brand new betting site? Look no further! Betiton is very possibly the newest betting site on the market, having been launched in January 2020. Knowing that online gambling is a tough and crowded market, the folks behind Betiton knew they had to go pedal-to-the-metal with their bonuses in order to draw pundits in.

• Coral Betting Site Review
• Coral Betting Site Website
• Coral Betting Shops

Coral is a chain of betting shops in the United Kingdom, owned by Entain. The Coral business was established by Joe Coral in 1926. It grew into an entertainment conglomerate before undergoing a series of ownership changes starting in 1981. As of 2015, Coral had 1,845 shops across the country.^[1]

History[edit]

Joe Coral (born Joseph Kagarlitski, 11 December 1904 – 16 December 1996^[2][3]) began his bookmaking business in 1926 and, although primarily concerned with operating betting pitches at racecourses, together with his friend Tom Bradbury-Pratt, he ran speedway meetings at Harringay and opened a credit office in the West End of London in 1943.

He had greyhound racing pitches at Harringay Stadium and then White City Stadium followed later by Clapton Stadium and Walthamstow Stadium before branching into betting offices.^[4][5]

He was one of the first to take advantage of the new legislation and opened his first licensed betting office in 1961. The new law was not intended to encourage betting and therefore shops were unattractive in appearance and devoid of any comforts.

Coral arranged a merger with another bookmaker, Mark Lane in 1971. By 1979, the company had become the Coral Leisure Group and had diversified to include a variety of other businesses, including casinos, hotels, restaurants, Pontins holiday camps, squash clubs, bingo clubs, and real estate.^[6]

In January 1981, the Coral Group was acquired by Bass plc and although it continued to retain the Coral name it became an integral part of the growing Bass Leisure.

In September 1998, Bass sold Coral to the Ladbroke Group for £363 million.^[7] The UK Government, however, ordered Ladbroke to sell Coral after the Monopolies and Mergers Commission found that the acquisition was anti-competitive.^[7] The Coral business, except for 59 shops in Ireland and Jersey, was sold in a management buyout financed by Morgan Grenfell Private Equity for £390 million in February 1999.^[8][9]

In November 1999, Coral acquired Eurobet, an online betting operation based in Gibraltar, for £7.1 million.^[10][11] The company changed its name to Coral Eurobet in May 2000.^[12] Coral Eurobet was then sold in a further management buy out in September 2002, which was backed by Charterhouse Development Capital.^[13]

In October 2005, Coral Eurobet was acquired for £2.18 billion by casino and bingo firm Gala, which changed its name to Gala Coral Group, creating the United Kingdom's third largest bookmaker and largest bingo operator.^[14] Coral and Eurobet continued to operate as divisions of Gala Coral.^[15]

Coral Betting Site Review

In July 2009, Coral announced the relocation of their broadcasting department to Milton Keynes to a purpose built studio to manage the inception of its new television channel, Coral TV.^[16]

In May 2010, Coral bookmakers launched the Coral Dugout which was designed to offer in-depth football knowledge from ex-Premier League referee Graham Poll and sports presenter Jeff Stelling during the FIFA World Cup 2010.^[17] In November 2011, Coral announced they had signed for 30,793 sq ft of offices at One Stratford Place at Westfields £1.45bn Stratford City scheme opposite the Olympics stadium in east London.^[18]

In November 2016, Gala Coral was acquired by Ladbrokes, which changed its name to Ladbrokes Coral.^[19] Coral and Ladbrokes shops continued to operate under their respective names.^[20] GVC Holdings acquired Ladbrokes Coral in March 2018.^[21]

Marketing and advertising[edit]

As part of their experimental marketing campaign strategy, Coral engaged in the ‘RUN 4 IT’ campaign, requiring brand ambassadors dressed in trademark robber costumes, to physically ‘steal’ customers from competitor bookies. Over the course of this three week campaign, punters were encouraged to change their betting habits with the lure of a guaranteed win loyalty card and then walked by the ambassadors to the nearest Coral. This campaign saw a 7% conversion rate and 2,447 customers were ‘stolen’ from 900 bookies.^[22]

References[edit]

1. ^John-Paul Ford Rojas (24 July 2015). 'Betting giants Ladbrokes and Coral merge to create UK's biggest bookmaker - but will it close stores and axe jobs?'. The Daily Mirror. London. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
2. ^Rubinstein, William D.; Jolles, Michael; Rubinstein, Hilary L. (2011). The Palgrave Dictionary of Anglo-Jewish History. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 182. ISBN978-1-4039-3910-4.
3. ^''Joe Coral'. The Times London, England, 19 Dec. 1996'. The Times Digital Archive.
4. ^Genders, Roy (1975). The Greyhound and Racing Greyhound. Page Brothers (Norwich). ISBN0-85020-0474.
5. ^Genders, Roy (1981). The Encyclopedia of Greyhound Racing. Pelham Books Ltd. ISBN07207-1106-1.
6. ^Limited Report and Accounts 1979 (Report). Coral Leisure Group. 11 June 1980. pp. 8–20 – via Companies House.
7. ^ ^abFrancisco Guerrera (23 September 1998). 'DTI bars Ladbroke from buying Coral'. The Independent. London. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
8. ^Eibhir Mulqueen (23 December 1998). 'Irish Coral shops not part of Ladbroke sell-off'. Irish Times. Dublin – via NewsBank.
9. ^Listing particulars (Report). Ladbroke Group. 10 March 1999. p. 47 – via Companies House.^{[permanent dead link]}
10. ^Daneshkhu, Scheherazade; Rivlin, Richard (25 February 2000). 'Coral aiming for £1bn flotation'. Financial Times. London – via NewsBank.
11. ^Report and Accounts (Report). Coral Eurobet. 24 September 2000. p. 27 – via Companies House.
12. ^Report and Accounts (Report). Coral Eurobet. 24 September 2000. p. 2 – via Companies House.
13. ^'Coral chain bought in MBO for 860m pounds'. The Scotsman. 3 August 2002. Archived from the original on 1 August 2017. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
14. ^'Casino group Gala snaps up Coral'. BBC. 7 October 2005. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
15. ^Annual Report for 2007(PDF) (Report). Gala Coral Group. pp. 10 & 16. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
16. ^'New systems integration team builds state-of-the-art production facility for UK bookmakers'. SIS News. 27 October 2009. Archived from the original on 4 November 2011. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
17. ^'Will Rooney Rule the World Cup? Will Messi Make His Mark? The Coral Dugout Will Be Full of World Cup Insight and Excitement This Summer!'. Market wired. 24 May 2010. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
18. ^'Westfield books Coral for Stratford HQ'. Costar. 1 November 2011. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
19. ^'Ladbrokes Coral Group – Completion of Merger' (Press release). Ladbrokes Coral Group. 1 November 2016. Retrieved 2017-12-27.
20. ^Barber, Bill (31 October 2016). 'Coral-Ladbrokes merger completes on Tuesday'. Racing Post. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
21. ^Davies, Craig (29 March 2018). 'GVC Holdings completes long awaited Ladbrokes Coral acquisition'. SBC News. Retrieved 31 March 2018.
22. ^'Coral Experiential Marketing Results'. iD Experiential. Archived from the original on 2012-03-13. Retrieved 2018-03-31.

External links[edit]

As one of the world leading bookmakers, Coral is going to be a betting home where you aren’t going to get any unwilling surprises. They are solid in every sense of the world, right from the number of sports that they cover, down to the features that just add extra layers of class.

What’s great about using such a bookmaker is that you are getting everything under one roof. They might not be the best in every department, for example pricing, but they’re never far away. They are the ideal standalone bookmaker, meaning that if you are the type of punter that likes to just use one site to keep things tidy, then Coral is going to be a great shout.

Sports Bonus: Bet £5 Get £20

Screenshots

The Coral Website

The site is one of the best looking that you’re going to find in the betting industry. The blue, yellow and green colours make the site look vibrant, modern and above all else, very functional. The downside to the design has to be the inclusion of the marketing offerings in the far right and left borders, which does make it look a little cluttered.

The mobile betting app is one of our highest rated on site and its design is almost flawless. The ability to use Touch ID to log in scores massive bonus points for us and we feel that this should be a standard feature in the industry. The app can be downloaded on both iOS and Android devices, whilst other mobile devices simply need to visit the bookmaker from their smartphones browser and they will automatically be redirected.

All this praise comes on the back of a solid foundation that they have been able to achieve since starting out 1926. The merger with the Gala Group in 2005 saw them as one of the biggest gambling firms in the world, bringing in astonishing revenue figures of around £1.2 billion in 2013. The Gala Coral Group subsequently joined forces with Ladbrokes in 2015 creating Britain’s biggest bookmaker.

Betting Markets

As you would expect from such a big brand, there is no let up in the range and size of the betting markets that are on offer. With them you’re going to be able to choose from dozens of sports as far fetched as Australian rules, E-Sports, volleyball and even water polo.

The bulk of the markets, and the main reason why so many people flock to the site, are on football and horse racing respectively. When the football season is in full flow there are few places that are better to use than Coral. They are able to offer over 200 betting markets per match, with a range that is rivaled by very few.

Horse racing is a little lower key, but is much more consistent with dozens of races on offer almost 365 days of the year. What’s great is that Coral don’t just cove races from the UK and Ireland, but also include racing from South Africa, Australia, France, United States, United Arab Emirates and many more. The race cards have also seen a bit of a make over in recent years, with the introduction of information from the Racing Post to help you improve your choice in selection and hopefully win more frequently.

Pricing wise, Coral are very consistent. We’ve tested dozens of different markets from a multitude of sports and often found that Coral are right in mix with some of the best odds. We touched earlier about many bettors using an operator such as them as a one stop shop for online betting and the pricing on offer has to play a massive role in their decision to do so.

Live Betting & Streaming

Live betting hasn’t always been Coral’s strongest point if the truth be told but it’s seen massive improvement recently. The standout feature for us has to be the inclusion of their ‘Match live’ section, which enables you to see what’s going on in a match at any given time. For football you can determine which team is in possession, if they are on an attack and it also highlights when goals have been scored, throw ins, free kicks, corners and yellow/red cards.

The multi-view is another great feature as it allows you to pick several matches to bring those games and their respected markets into a more condensed view. It’s perfect for if you are betting on more than one match when tracking your bets.

The lives streaming platform is another feature that is fairly new and gives you access to a good range of sports from around the world. With it you are able to watch these games on your PC, iPhone, iPad or aAndroid device via the Coral app. It will include over 2,000 streams every year on sports such as football, tennis, snooker, rugby, darts, basketball, badminton, handball, ice hockey and volleyball. It’s wroth noting that for football they have access to some of the biggest leagues in Europe, such as La Liga, Serie A, French League 1 and the Dutch Eredivisie.

Casino Games at Coral

Coral are actually one of the few casinos these days that are run in house, by the Gala Coral Group. Whilst brands like Gala and Eurobet are now part of the group, the casino has been able to flourish on a pretty unique design and layout, which is rare and welcoming to see given how many sites look very similar these days.

Whilst we wouldn’t go as far as saying that the online site is no frills, it’s one of the more simplistic casinos that we have tested and one that we think works as well as any. The site is able to create a really cool gaming opportunity for its players and the ability to jump between games and different game types is an area that Coral perform particularly well.

The app follows a similar trend to be honest and whilst we think it’s probably the preferable platform of choice between the two, there really is very little between them. The mobile app is available to download on both iOS and Android devices or alternatively you can just visit the casino via your smartphones browser to access is, allowing for a more streamlined version on tablet devices as well.

Game Variety

Coral really hit a sweet spot in terms of the number of games that are on offer, with over 300 throughout the casino in total. We think that this number is just the right amount between being overwhelming and too thin on the ground for a wider variety of casino customers. Given that they utilise software developers such as PlayTech, NetEnt and Ash Gaming, the casino has a much larger library of games to choose from, which highlights that they don’t just add games for the sake of getting more impressive game numbers, a trap that many casinos fall into these days.

The slots section is the HUB of the casino for us and also where you are going to find the majority of games. The one downside to this part of the casino is that the quality of games can vary somewhat, at least from the games that we tested. A few standout titles that we wanted to make you aware of included Man of Steel, Green Lantern and White King, all of which offer a great range of features and bonus rounds. Throughout the site you will see that there are a lot of branded games, which is good as it’s often these games that are the ones to add that extra layer of quality throughout.

Table games are made up predominantly with blackjack and roulette, which comes as little surprise to be honest. There are over a dozen variations of each game, each having their own unique twist. On top of that you are going to be able to enjoy games such as Pai Gow, 3 Card Brag, Red Dog, Sic B, Baccarat and Caribbean Stud Poker, to name just a few.

Live Casino

The live casino is compact, but all you are ever going to need from this section of a casino. Games include roulette, blackjack, Hold’em, baccarat and Hi-Lo, with each table being specially designed to work seamlessly with these games.

We weren’t actually able to determine which developer these games come from, but they do differ slightly between location so we would assume that they are selected from a variation of software providers. Games are all available in HD and each comes with a good chat feature, be it chatting to the dealer or other players at your table.

Jackpots

The jackpot section has over 40 games to choose from, which is one of the biggest that you will find. They range in terms of jackpot amounts, with games such as Jackpot Giants, Monty Python’s Spamalot and Gold Rally all consistently being well over the £1million mark. You will also get to choose from a few jackpots games outside of slots, such as progressive blackjack and Caribbean Stud Poker.

Banking

With Coral you are going to be able to grab a huge range of banking options, which include debit card, PayPal, e-wallets and bank transfers. Minimum deposits start from just £5 and processing times are instant. Withdrawals also incur no fees and will start from just £5 taking anywhere between just a few hours for e-wallets and up to 5 days for debit cards.

Coral Connect

Players at Coral are also going to be able to take advantage of a Coral Connect card. This allows you hook up your account to use in Coral betting shops and with your online account. You can get your cash over the counter from your account if you wish or alternatively load your account with cash ready to use either in store or online.

Coral Betting Site Website

Useful Info

Coral Betting Shops