Ladbrokes vs Coral: We help you make your choice!

As two heavyweights of the UK gambling market, many people are stuck when presented with the choice of Coral vs Ladbrokes. So – which one should you choose? Just read on.

Welcome offers – Ladbrokes or Coral – it’s a tie

The merger was completed on 2 November 2016. To effect the merger, Ladbrokes acquired the Coral Group and then changed its name from Ladbrokes plc to Ladbrokes Coral Group plc. In December 2017, GVC Holdings agreed to buy Ladbrokes Coral in a deal that could be worth up to £4 billion.

Ladbrokes – 5/5

As one of the major categories related to the choice of Coral or Ladbrokes, the welcome bonus can be a significant turning point. But as it happens, it is impossible to pick one over the other here, as the welcome offer is identical. With just a £5 initial wager, you will unlock £20 in free bets with Ladbrokes, which can be used on whatever sport you like. The minimum odds required for the qualifying wager is just 1.50 too, which gives you a decent shot at grabbing a win on the qualifying offer and with your free bets.

18+. UK + IRE customers only. Certain deposit methods & bet types excluded. Min first £5 bet within 14 days of account reg at min odds 1/2 = 4x £5 free bets. Free bets valid for 7 days on sports, stakes not returned, restrictions apply. T&Cs apply.

Coral – 5/5

By joining Coral as a new customer, you can go ahead and get the exact same welcome bonus as the one that’s offered at Ladbrokes. Following a £5 wager, which must be placed on a market with odds above 1.50, you will unlock £20 worth of Coral free bets. This offer is identical to Ladbrokes, which means that this category won’t ultimately have that much impact when settling the Coral vs Ladbrokes debate.

18+ Eligible UK + IRE players. Paypal & some deposit & bet types excl. Min first £5 bet within 14 days of account reg at min odds 1/2 = 4x £5 free bets. Free bets valid for 7 days, stake not returned. No cash-out, restrictions & T&Cs apply.

Sportsbook offerings & overall odds – Ladbrokes wins

Ladbrokes – 5/5

The Ladbrokes sportsbook is significant; every punter in the UK knows that. After all, you don’t get to become one of the largest betting brands without a major offering, so we’ve given Ladbrokes such a high score here. But besides the 40+ sports listed in the sportsbook and the range of enhanced odds that you can often find here, there is a secret weapon behind Ladbrokes’ 5/5 score. This secret weapon is the betting exchange that Ladbrokes has also developed, where you will get incredible odds across the board, and you can also make back and lay bets – something that regular sportsbooks don’t provide.

Coral – 4.5/5

Although we’ve given Ladbrokes the win in this particular category, it’s not like Coral is a subpar sportsbook – not by any means. This site also offers more than 40 different sports for you to wager on, with respectable odds for all major sports like horse racing, football, tennis, rugby, and much more. For these key sports like football, Coral is not too shy on the market front either – with almost 200 markets and even more available, depending on the teams involved. Truly, Coral deserves the grade we have provided here, although since they don’t have the added boost of a betting exchange, we had to give Ladbrokes the victory.

Existing customer promotions – Coral wins

Ladbrokes – 4/5

While the first step in considering whether Coral or Ladbrokes is better is always the sign-up bonus, the next is arguably the range of ongoing promotions. After all, once you’ve burned through the sign-up bonus, there isn’t much else other than continued promotions to get free bets, cashback incentives, and more. As it happens, Ladbrokes has more than 10 ongoing promotions right now, with options like daily odds boosts, a chance of £100 in free cash each week, and the 5-a-side competition. This is respectable, and it’s a way that Ladbrokes is able to keep members entertained and interested in the sportsbook at all times.

Coral – 5/5

Coral is incredible in the ongoing bonuses department. Some prime examples would be £100 worth of free bets credited after winning accumulators, Correct 4, smart boosts, free bets for certain sporting outcomes, and so much more. We believe that Coral offers better value through these bonuses, not only in terms of the overall variety but also the overall monetary incentives. And these are just the fixed ongoing offers – Coral has many others popping up weekly for certain events. So in the Coral vs Ladbrokes debate for existing player bonuses, Coral definitely takes it.

Ladbrokes vs Coral – additional site features

Site design and aesthetics – Coral wins

Ladbrokes – 4.5/5

Both of these sites have a very good layout and overall design. Ladbrokes has a simple yet effective sportsbook structure, with all of the available sports fixed on the left of the screen and important tabs to the many subcategories listed in the header. It’s a super easy site to use, but in our experience, Coral is a slightly quicker site regarding response times. Coral has a more rapid set-up, whether this is making bets, flicking between sports, or whatever else.

Coral – 5/5

One of the first things you’ll notice on the Coral site is that the fonts are larger, and the overall layout is a bit more spacious than that of Ladbrokes. Sure, this won’t impact seasoned online bettors much, but for beginners, this can make all the difference. And as mentioned above, the key difference when comparing Ladbrokes vs Coral is that Coral is incredibly quick in all aspects. This keeps things running smoothly and avoids wasting time waiting for pages to load, bets to register, and whatever else. Another cool aspect is that Coral has a direct link to a news and blogs section, which gives you a one-click solution to get involved in the Coral community.

Available payment methods – Ladbrokes wins

Ladbrokes – 5/5

Ladbrokes and Coral have quite a similar range of banking options, but we think that Ladbrokes is marginally better due to the convenience of many of the options. Firstly, you can successfully process a deposit for just £5, which means that the barriers to entry on this site are very low. And when answering the Ladbrokes or Coral question here, options such as Apple Pay, instant banking, and debit cards mean that it is incredibly quick and easy to fund your account. All of these methods are also supported on the mobile app, so you can sign in and fund your account while on the go, as and when you please.

Coral – 4.5/5

Coral is far from disappointing in the banking options department. In fact, Coral is still very good concerning the flexible options and overall ease of making transactions on this site. Coral supports most of the major payment options you’ll find at other reputable bookmakers in the UK, with Paysafe card, debit cards, Maestro, and even their very own prepaid card which can entitle you to additional rewards. This is certainly unique, and we’ve only given Ladbrokes the victory due to a better range of methods.

Customer support – Coral wins

Ladbrokes – 4/5

As you’d expect from a major betting provider, Ladbrokes has all avenues covered in the customer support category. Players can pick from standard options, including email, phone, and live chat, all of which are monitored on a 24/7 basis. Therefore, we’d say that it’s fairly evident that Ladbrokes takes great pride in being as accessible as possible. However, there are two reasons that we have knocked a point off here. Firstly, Coral is a little more modern in its approach to customer support, allowing members to contact them through Twitter. And to add to that, we didn’t find the Ladbrokes support agents quite as efficient as the operators at Coral – which means that resolving an issue could take a bit more time than usual.

Coral – 5/5

Customer support is a key area in this Coral or Ladbrokes debate, and we cannot give Coral anything but a 5/5 here. First of all, the support channels provided by Coral are available around the clock, 7 days a week. You'll get an answer in under a minute when you contact them through the live chat or phone line unless it’s a strangely busy time. This is efficient, quick, and removes any frustration. In addition, Coral has enabled agents to be contacted through major social media platforms like Twitter. Of course, this is a widely used platform in 2021, meaning many members can do down this roulette to reach a representative.

The mobile app – Coral wins

Ladbrokes – 4.5/5

Of course, Ladbrokes has a top-level mobile app that is available for download on Android and iOS right now. This app is very good regarding the options you can access, as it includes all of the sports listed on the desktop site and other features like boosted odds and additional bonuses. You can even enjoy live betting, cashouts, and streaming from the app. It all looks rather promising, right? So why have we knocked half a point off? Well, it comes down to usability and aesthetics. The Ladbrokes app can occasionally be a little slow when switching between sports and markets, and when you make a bet in the live section, there seems to be a long delay at times.

Coral – 5/5

Flawless would probably be the best way to describe the Coral app. It can be installed for almost any tablet and smartphone device, of course, for both iOS and Android. Once you’ve downloaded the app, you are immediately exposed to the full 40+ range of sports that Coral offers, with the same great odds, market depth, and aesthetics that Coral has on the main site. This can make an enormous difference regarding the overall enjoyment levels when using the app, especially when you are looking to try and get a wager placed as quickly as possible before the odds are no longer available – especially with live betting.

Pros & Cons

Ladbrokes		Coral
Pros	Cons	Pros	Cons
Sportsbook & exchange supported	Slow loading times in some sections	40+ sports in the sportsbook	No option of an exchange
Daily enhanced odds	Instant withdrawals not supported	Great odds	Cashouts can be quite low at times
24/7 customer support	Stringent verification process	Top-notch native app available	Fewer markets than Ladbrokes
Plenty of deposit options	Ongoing promotions not overly varied	Decent ongoing promotions	Closed-loop withdrawal system

Final review – Coral takes the win overall

This has been a very close contest, with both sites scoring highly in almost every department we have covered. Then again, it’s common knowledge that when punters ask whether Ladbrokes or Coral is better, you are debating two of the top bookmakers in the entire UK market. We would consider both sites to be inside the top 10 in the UK, if not the top 5. The sportsbook offerings at each site are sensational, and you won’t mind too many other sites with more than 40 sports available – as Coral and Ladbrokes have. And specifically for Ladbrokes, it’s pretty cool that you can get the same great welcome bonus that Coral has and that once you’ve opened your account, you can go and explore the Ladbrokes exchange at will.

This puts Ladbrokes in direct competition with some other major brands such as Betfair and Smarkets, two online betting exchanges with fantastic reputations. But then when we zone in on each category we’ve covered in this Ladbrokes vs Coral comparison, it’s clear that Coral has edged it in most of the main departments. This is seen through the victory regarding the mobile app, ongoing promotions, customer support, and overall site aesthetics. Of course, this is all a matter of opinion, but having looked at the facts for each category, we truly believe that Coral deserves to take the win in this debate.

But before you start to think that Coral is significantly more appealing than Ladbrokes, we’d like to remind you of how close this contest has been. Coral has rarely blown Ladbrokes out of the water in any category, so even if you ultimately decided to join the Ladbrokes site, you are still guaranteed an enjoyable online betting experience.