UNIBET NJ SPORTSBOOK WEBSITE REVIEW
Like some other New Jersey gaming operators, Unibet NJ is part sportsbook and part online Casino all packaged into just one website or mobile app. Which one it is depends on whether you are using your laptop or your smart phone
And as is the case with some of the other dual Sportsbook/Casino operators in New Jersey, the two forms of gaming entertainment are no more than a click away from each other on the Unibet interface.
This means of course that if you grow weary of sports wagering or hit a losing streak, you can take a break and switch to playing Casino Games which are many and varied.
Unibet is new to America and New Jersey. Internationally, though, it is an old hand when it comes to gaming entertainment. It has been around for more than two decades and knows what it’s doing, both as an online Casino, and as a mobile sportsbook
THE ORIGINS OF UNIBET
Unibet was founded in 1997 by Swede Anders Ström who initially operated his start-up out of his home in Earl’s Court, London.
After securing a license to operate a betting business, he began taking bets over the phone. From those humble beginnings, Unibet, driven by Ström’s passion for gaming, has grown into an international giant.
Today it provides a platform for sports betting, online casino, bingo and poker to over 11 million customers in over 100 countries.
The company has over 1,500 employees and outside of the US it has offices in Malta, London, New York, and Gibraltar.
Unibet launched its first international online website in 1999, added live betting in 2003 and then brought its first mobile app to the market in 2004.
It’s now part of the Kindred Group, an online gambling operator made up of 11 brands. Along with Unibet, Kindred includes, among others, Maria Casino, Stan James, 32Red, and iGame.
In its 3 months so far in New Jersey, Unibet NJ has been operating out of and is licensed by the Hard Rock Casino in Atlantic City. Since November, 2019, it has also been active in Pennsylvania.
INTERFACE AND HOME PAGE:
I’m not sure I liked what I saw when I clicked on nj.unibet.com to open its New Jersey home page.
The rather plain green, white, black and grey interface that popped up was neither a sports book nor a Casino, but a mix of both.
Initially dominated by a random bearded individual with a horrified look on his face (has he just lost a fortune, perhaps?), its home page quickly morphs into a split, interface that is clearly meant to show that it is both an online sportsbook as well as a casino.
Its sports betting promotions slide across the top half of the page in large moving windows packed with sports action. Meanwhile the bottom half is occupied by brightly-colored blocks with cartoon graphics depicting the many slots, Table, bingo and poker games its online Casino has to offer.
Not before you go to the top of the page and click on either the ‘Sports’ or ‘Casino’ buttons do you start to see what both are really about.
I say start to see, because your first view of the sportsbook is not the traditional one that along with promo adds, includes a sports menu, a betting ticket and a host of info buttons taking you to things like Customer Help.
Most of the page is filled instead by a list of its current live, in-play bets which, at the time of this review, were mostly on the Australian Open Tennis Championship.
The info buttons are there, okay. if you look carefully you will find them at the bottom of the page. But you need to click on the three-stripe bar in the top left corner of the home page to get to the sports menu.
Mind you, if you know what sport, event, team or even individual you are looking to make a bet on, Unibet has a real standout feature that in a flash will take you right there without you having to go anywhere near the sports menu.
It’s the search button situated next to that striped menu bar and this I like very much as I am sure other Unibet users do or will do.
I also like the fact that the button changing the betting odds from American to decimal or fractional odds is also immediately prominent. Too many betting sites tend to hide them away.
SPORTS BETTING MENU
It’s when you get into the very centre of the Unibet sportsbook with its sports menu running down the left side of the page that you begin to see how its international experience and general know-how have influenced it.
Its sports menu with 15 items is not the longest in the business, but it carries all the sports that really seem to matter to American punters.
All the biggest US sports are there, including NFL and College football, NBA and College basketball, MLB Baseball and NHL hockey.
Soccer from every corner of the globe and featuring hundreds of teams and thousands of betting markets associated with them, gets the best treatment of the major international sports which also include golf, tennis , boxing, cycling and motor racing.
British and Commonwealth specialties like Rugby, Cricket and Australian Rules are dwarfed in popularity in the US by grid-iron football, basketball and baseball, but they are certainly not neglected by Unibet
Nor are the various types of bets. The traditional Money line, spread and totals bets are all there together with futures, prop, Round Robin and the highly popular Parlay bets where high risk is countered by the chance to make the largest returns from the smallest of bets
No sportsbook worth its salt these days can afford to be without live, in-play
Betting and Unibet is keenly aware of it. You can see it by the space and prominence it devotes to this exciting, fast-growing type of wagering.
Another impressive betting tool is its Second Chance Multiplier. It enables you to place bets even if there are changing lines and half-time totals.
The best sportsbooks do more than merely make available wide, diverse and interesting betting programs. They use design and technology to make it easy for their customers to fund their accounts and make their bets – and schooled Unibet do it better than most.
Deposits and Withdrawals
Unibet also makes the depositing and withdrawing of funds from their customer’s accounts pretty simple, straight-forward and safe from hackers.
Their payment options are not as extensive as some of their rival New Jersey sports betting operators, but they are adequate and secure.
Here were their payment options at the time of this review (January 2020)
Masters Card or Visa credit or debit cards could be used to make deposits. So could bank transfers, Pay Pal, ACH by VIP Preferred, Pay +, Pay-Near-Me or with cash at a cashier cage at the Hard Rock Casino in Atlantic City
Credit cards could not be used to withdraw your winnings. However, you could do it with bank transfers, Pay Pal (if you used them to make your deposit) ACH by VIP Preferred, Pay+ or from a cashiers cage at the Hard Rock Casino
Please note that a bank transfer is the slowest method of payment and can take as long as five days
Customer Support
Like so many of the well-established international sportsbooks Unibet is well aware of the importance of a strong customer support system – and this they have.
For starters, you can contact their 24/7 live chat, email or toll-free telephone services any time, day or night.
To go to Live Chat look for a Greenie-yellow ‘Support ‘ button at the bottom of your page. Their toll-free telephone number is 1-855-655-6310.
Other support features Unibet customers can enjoy are the log tables that come below the latest odds on offer in all the major soccer nations.
Better still is the chance Unibet give you of watching some of the action as it happens via video streaming when you are betting live. You will need a positive balance on your Unibet account, however, to get access to this excellent facility
I could not find a FAQ button, but there are a host of information buttons running along the bottom of this sportsbooks home page that serve the same purpose.
Bonuses and Promotions
Some of the first things Unibet hits you with when you open their home page are their bonus offer to new members. They come in big moving windows that flash across the page
Here are two of their sportsbook offers
- On signing up, new players will immediately get two free bets of $10 each they can use even before funding their account.
- On making their first deposit, they will also be offered a bonus matching the amount of the deposit up to $250.
The Unibet Casino also offers similar bonuses which all sounds very welcoming , but as is the case with most sign-up bonuses currently being offered by US sportsbooks, they come with a catch – wagering requirements.
It’s best you read Unibet’s fine print re this subject before you decide on how much to spend on your first wager.
Meanwhile in brief what ‘wagering requirements’ mean is that you have to spend as much and often a lot more than the bonus amount (and in a specific period) in order to actually be able to withdraw any money made with it.
The requirement can be anything from 1x the bonus to many times more – and it can cost you a fortune..
Wager requirements apart, Unibet is known to offer some good ongoing promotions, some of its latest being a ‘Daily Odds Boost,’ a ‘Profit Boost’ and ‘Weekly Parlay boost’.
Summing-up:
Unibet’s online sportsbook/casino combo is one of New Jersey’s and Pennsylvania’s newest . Not so in Europe and the rest of the world.
There it has been around for two decades and can rightfully claim to be one of the largest and most respected international operators in its field.
As I’ve said, I’m personally not so sure about the design of its home page and I’ve never liked “wagering requirements, ’ but otherwise it comes with all the right bells and whistles and quite a bit more, notably in soccer
It has a large and extensive betting book that is easy on the eye and even easier to operate; a well-informed and friendly 24/7 customer service; a dependable deposit and withdrawal system and attractive, on-going promotions.
Its professionalism and apparent keen market perception makes it a standout for me and I can highly recommend you pay it a visit.