WellBet Review

WellBet Australia is a new player in the Australian betting market having only launched in 2022. WellBet is the trading name of WellBet Pty Ltd and is a Victorian based bookmaker which is Australian owned and operated. The WellBet bookmaker is a member of the Victorian Bookmakers' Association and adheres to the Victorian Bookmakers' Association Responsible Gambling Code of Conduct and WellBet claim you can therefore “bet well” with WellBet.

WellBet Australia claim to be “a new wave coming for Aussie punters looking for a chill take on betting.” This cool approach is so obvious when, wherever possible, the visuals are of a laid-back summer lifestyle trying to engage with the Australian psyche. Just look at the pictures included in this review.

The WellBet website has a well-structured clear layout. There is extensive use of summer hues with blues, fawns, greens and red tones to certainly visually differentiate themselves from other betting sites. The WellBet Apps have been developed for mobile users and the WellBet Android App has been downloadable since October 2022, plus there have been updates during 2023.   

The WellBet bookmaker is a very difficult company to find information about. There is very little information on the WellBet website or the WellBet Apps. I could not find any links to the large Asian betting organisation of the same name, which has a different logo. 

There is discussion on the internet regarding online betting with Betcloud from BetConstruct and Cirrus Betcloud from Softconstruct, no matter WellBet is an innovative new player. There is only one WellBet bookmaker telephone number listed and this is when you first register. To me this all seems very secretive.

The WellBet Australia website homepage uses a variation of the three vertical panels view. 

Here is a view of the top part of the homepage:

On the website, depending on where you place your mouse, you can scroll down the left 1/5th panel and separately you can also scroll down the middle 3/5th panel. 

So below, I have included:

• a view of the lower part of the left 1/5th panel showing the Contact Us and My Account options
       as well as
• a view of the lower part of the middle 3/5th showing Quick Links to the online documentation as well as Deposit Funds, Help & Support and (again) My Account.   

The overall effect is relaxed sunny beachy feel in bright colours with sun hats, deckchairs, sand, water, sun umbrellas and palms. Straightaway this is a different site from any other I have seen before, being so novel in appearance. 

The main body of the page is three sections (as with many other new betting sites), the left 1/5th being the navigation panel to whatever sport is of interest, plus as mentioned previously, Contact Us and My Account, the middle 3/5th lists the next 3 races (irrelevant of type of race). The last 1/5th shows the Bet Slip.

Note the left and middle panels (see above) contain more than a screenful whereas the right panel does not. If the left panel has the slider towards RACING the middle section will display the next 3 races of whatever runner, a Feature race and 3 columns with a list of the next 7 Thoroughbred, next 7 Greyhound and next 7 Hardness races all with countdown times if less than an hour or the race start time.

There is a banner across the top of the webpage with all the Up & Coming Thoroughbreds, Greyhounds and Harness racing with countdown timers which can be further refined to any 1,2 or all the runners and (domestic) AUS/NZ and/or International racing. This banner remains even if the SPORTS slider, rather than RACING is selected.

Click on Thoroughbreds in the left panel and today´s races are presented in the middle panel with the first 4 place numbers in each race (if the race has already finished) or the time the race starts.

Click on the race and you will either see:

• the runner names, the WIN, Place and Exotic dividends (lower left)
  or
• details on the up & coming race including a sliding button of Insights which is additional comments from the WellBet team (lower right)

Live chat is available by selecting “Contact Us” in the lower left Navigation Panel or clicking on the yellow box in the top right of the homepage (this usually shows Account Balance and Bonus Bets total available) and then selecting “Support”. A new window opens and allows you to send a message (WellBet claim to usually respond in a few hours) plus if the WellBet helpdesk is open there is the option for “Live Chat”. 

If you are looking for WellBet promotions then Promo can be selected from the lower section of the left panel.

WellBet contains many sports betting options, the Terms and Conditions document lists at least 30 (including Politics). Nevertheless, WellBet cover racing options extremely well with an enjoyable intuitive website and of course this WellBet review will only focus on racing.

As I said WellBet do offer an extensive range of race options, but it could be improved if they offered some of the advanced features available from their competition. If, though, you are looking for a straightforward, not overly complex racing experience, then please keep reading.         

🐴Betting Markets - 7/10
WellBet provide the commonly available WIN, Place & Exotics betting markets but if you are looking for niches including Favourite v Field, Odds v Evens, Head to Head, Jockey Challenge, as well as the Totes and Same Race Multis then I have not seen them, but before making judgement take a look at the WellBet Racing Markets section later in this review.

💳Banking Options - 5/10

This is a simple section to cover off, as deposits can only be VISA and Mastercard, Debit and Credit Card, whereas withdrawals can only be to a Bank Account. If this suits your needs then great.

📱Mobile Experience - 8/10
I enjoyed the mobile experience, I was using Android, it is exactly the same look & feel as the website. With one click you can head straight to Racing (or Sports), then once in Racing you can further select Thoroughbreds and/or Greyhounds and/or Harness in Australia/New Zealand and/or International.   

💸​Withdraw Speed - 9/10
WellBet offer Electronic Funds Transfer, which is fairly fast. WellBet state the transfer can take between 1 and 3 days (depending on your bank).

🧩Overall User Experience - 8/10
WellBet provide great access via website and mobile devices for people on the move. Access to customer service could be improved, there is no telephone number, there is not a lot of information (unless you have time to read a 120-page Terms and Conditions document) and the Q&A has only 5 entries.  

🔒Security - 10/10

WellBet is fully licenced by Racing Victoria and strictly regulated by the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission (VGCCC). You should feel that security is taken seriously. WellBet are “fully committed to ensuring betting is a fun and entertaining experience. We take the protection of our customers very seriously and protect those with potential gambling problems”. 

WellBet is a new bookmaker and comes to the table with website and Apps with a refreshing look & feel. In the times I have been reviewing, the WellBet Odds on offer are comparable with the more established players, sometimes better.

To date the offerings are only WIN, Place and Exotics. So it will be interesting to see whether more markets become available.

In terms of coverage of race meetings, I have seen most, if not all, of the thoroughbred, greyhound & harness races listed for Australia & New Zealand and as far as international race meetings, I have seen odds for races in France, United Kingdom, South Africa and Ireland which is less than other bookmakers. 

The WellBet website is excellent for planning your racing schedule as across the top row (assuming today is Monday) you can see and therefore navigate to races YESTERDAY, NEXT TO JUMP, TODAY, TOMORROW, WEDNESDAY and FUTURES. 

Next To Jump will list row by row (with a countdown timer) the races that are next to start, whereas Today will display a table of all today´s races by racetrack and race number, each entry shows the winning number (international or first four for domestic) or it will display a countdown timer for a race still to start . Any race about to start within the next 5 mins is shaded in red (4m 7s) or in yellow (59m) for a race due to start within the hour, otherwise the time of the race start is displayed.

It is interesting to note that a 1 dollar bet is accepted, the system accepted even smaller amounts, but I did not go further and place the small bet.

The WellBet iOS and WellBet Android Apps have a consistent look & feel with the website as the screenshots above demonstrate. 

There are obviously space constraints between a webpage and an App screen, but the basic information is available with straightforward intuitive navigation.

To navigate to Racing instead of a Racing-Sports Slider on the homepage, in the WellBet Apps there are 5 buttons at the bottom Home – Racing – Betslip – Sports – Profile. Obviously select Racing.

The one thing that needs a little practice is knowing when something is or is not selected. At the top of the Racing panel, for example, there are 3 icons for Thoroughbred, Greyhound and Harness and 2 icons for Aus/NZ or International Markets. On the website you simply tick what you want to select but on the Apps it is different. An icon with a yellow background means selected and an icon with blue background means not-selected. So here for example I am only interested in thoroughbred racing in Australia/New Zealand (that are Next To Jump). 

Another trick is that for any race, there is the ability to sort a runner by increasing or decreasing WIN or PLACE odds. If selected a down or up arrow is displayed next to WIN or PLACE. But, it is also possible to sort the RUNNER number by decreasing or increasing number and then the down or up arrow moves to RUNNERS. 

(However at times on the website, I got the system into a pickle where I could never get the Runners to sort by increasing numerical order (The heaviest weight would be listed first) and without doing anything the order of the list of runners would just change randomly, it was not into an increasing or decreasing, Win or Place odds order, it was very strange. I repeated this exercise many times on different races. I had to leave the race, pick another race and then return to the same race, to fix the problem.)

Everything described for the WellBet website is visible in the WellBet Apps, with a few clicks a bet can easily be placed.

At time of writing, it is not possible to extract the same information for both iOS and Android App platforms:

• There have been over 1K downloads from the Google Play Store, with a rating of 4.7 from 12 reviews. WellBet state “We're a new wave coming for Aussie punters looking for a chill take on betting.”
• There have been 7 releases of the WellBet App in the Apple App store with a rating of 3.7 from 35 reviews. The first release 1.0 was in February 2023, the latest 1.7 in September 2023.

WellBet provides a number of features that enable a great experience. Here are some examples:

24/7 Customer Service

There are 2 options to make contact for support, send a message and if during normal service hours (not published) there is the ability to interact in real-time with customer support. 24/7 is oversimplifying the situation, but yes you can ask a question/make contact 24 hours a day, but the response may be a little slow depending on when you use the facility.

Extensive Use Of Colour and Insight

The blues and yellows tones are very calming colours on a screen and match the beachy feel of WellBet.

For almost every race WellBet will highlight in yellow some of the following:

• BEST RATED runner in the race
• LAST START WINNER
• STRONG FINISHER – finishes strongly in the home straight
• ROUGHIE – has won at long odds before
• CONSISTENT PERFORMER – 6 Top 3 finishes from 7 starts

This is information you could research but it saves a few seconds, or more, if WellBet have already done the hard yards for you.
The WellBet website and Apps are missing some of the features of the more established players including black books, form guides, speed maps and any form of commentary on the runners.
At present other than the above yellow-coded indicators, WellBet also do not offer any sort of tips, but if this is something you are interested in then please take a look at Free horse racing tips.

I have only ever seen WellBet offer the WIN, PLACE or the Exotics range of markets, which if these are all you want then WellBet is a good choice of bookmaker. 

However, in the Terms and Conditions document there is a section under Other Racing Products which states that WellBet operates:

• Best Tote – the best of the 3 Australian TAB Win Tote Prices 
• Racing Derivatives, including, Head to Head, Favourite Out, Favourite v Field, Inside v Outside, Half v Half and Odds v Evens
• Top fluctuation – Best price declared by the Official On-Course Bookmaker
• Best of The Best – the best of either the Best of 3 Australian TAB prices or the
• Official On-course Top Fluctuation. 
• Fixed Odds – Fixed Win and Place odds at time of placement
• Starting Price – SP is the official bookmakers price

In Australia, there are stringent regulations governing online bookies regarding advertising bonus bets and other incentives. Because of this, WellBet cannot advertise any sign-up bonus bets to punters who do not already have an account.

Once you have registered, make sure in your WellBet Account overview you have the “Yes, I would like to receive promotional offers” boxes ticked for Email and/or SMS.

I found at least 7 references to Bonus Bets in the WellBet Terms and Conditions document.

To learn more about WellBet promotions and offers, visit their website: http://www.wellbet.com.au or to sign up for a WellBet account: https://wellbet.com.au/signup

If you want to know more about Promotions and Bonus Bets it is also worth reviewing the Horse Racing Promotions and Bonuses page which goes into more detail.

To sign up at WellBet, simply select the SIGN UP icon from the WellBet website or WellBet App or go straight to https://wellbet.com.au/signup

Enter your personal details including:

• Title (select from the options)
• First Name
• Middle Name (optional)
• Last Name
• Mobile Number
• Residential Address
• Date of birth 
• email address

Agree to “receive promotional material via email phone and other means” (which is strange as you can change later to email or SMS or both, so I have no idea with “other means” what WellBet intend).

You will also need undertake Identification and Verification, to comply with the Australian Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006. You must provide a minimum proof of your full name, date of birth and residential address within seventy-two (72) hours of opening an account. 

The WellBet system will automatically try and verify your account through GreenID during the registration process. GreenID verifies your details against Government databases securely, while protecting your privacy at all times. To be successful, you may have to use one or several forms of government issued IDs such as Driver’s License, Australian passport, Medicare card, etc. Once your account is verified, you will be able to withdraw money won and make deposits into your account.

If automatic verification does not work for some reason, then WellBet have a system to manually undertake the verification. 

WellBet Deposit – complete one panel to make a deposit

WellBet Withdrawal – complete one panel to make a withdrawal

WellBet banking is fairly simply to use, firstly once registered you can deposit funds by MasterCard or VISA, credit or debit card. The minimum deposit is 10 dollars.

You can make a withdrawal by adding (and saving) your bank details. WellBet quote all withdrawals take between 1 and 3 days. In the small print you may just be able to see that only turned over funds can be withdrawn.

WellBet customer service is provided, in 2 forms, you can leave a message and WellBet claim to respond within a few hours or if you are attempting to make contact with WellBet Customer Service in normal service hours you can open a conversation window. 

There are 2 documents that can be reviewed online:

• The 7 page WellBet Responsible Gambling Policy
• The 120 page WellBet Terms & Conditions & Rules of Betting

Neither document contains a datestamp, so it could be difficult to know if either document gets updated in the future. Both documents are a nightmare to search while viewing online, but if you download these pdf files then later searches are far easier to undertake.

There is also a Privacy Policy webpage (which does have a datestamp at the end), which contains a lot of valid information but there is a really confusing section on the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) of the European Union, I have no idea why anything regarding the EU is present as currently WellBet is only available for Australian residents. Did someone make a copy and paste error?