A walkthrough guide to placing your first bet
By now you should have read the betting basics, giving you an understanding of the way betting odds work, what types of bets can be placed and how they can be combined into multiples. You are now ready to place your first bet, this walkthrough will guide you through the typical process, ensuring you are happy and confident with what you are doing.
For the purposes of this guide we will be using screenshots taken from Ladbrokes. If you are yet to sign up with Ladbrokes we recommend you take advantage of their new customer offer, which you can claim using the Ladbrokes promo code!
Logging in
Go to the Ladbrokes website and click “Bet Now” to start the registration procedure. Remember to enter the appropriate promo code, more about which can be found under our bookie reviews section. If you already have account you can click at the top right of the page where it says “Existing account.”
You will now be at the main Ladbrokes website, the next task is to login using your unique customer ID and password. The login box is at the top of the page:
You should enter the details into the appropriate boxes, then click “Login.” Once done you will see the window change to confirm you are logged in:
Finding and placing your bet
Typically you’ll find that the bookmakers websites have dedicated sections for each sport they cover. In the case of Ladbrokes, there are a couple of favourites available at the top left – by default these are Football and Horse Racing, although you can personalise this if you like. Below the favourites you’ll see a full A-Z of other sports.
Lets assume you fancy a bet on a football match later in the day. Click football at the top left to be taken the the football section. At the top of the screen are “Upcoming matches by date and time”:
The top match is a Europa Cup match between Shamrock Rovers and Tottenham. To the left you will see the start time of 18:00, to the right (underneath the columns “1” “X” “2”) are the match odds.
This is typical bookmaking notation for a football match, with “1” representing the home team (Shamrock Rovers), “X” the draw, and “2” the away team (Tottenham).
So the odds for each possible outcome are as follows:
Shamrock Rovers 8.00
Draw 4.50
Tottenham 1.40
As you might expect, Tottenham are strong favourites! If you have read the earlier betting help sections you will know that you multiply these odds by your stake to find out the possible return for each result. To recap with an example, a £10 bet would have possible returns of:
Shamrock Rovers £80
Draw £45
Tottenham £14
Lets say we fancy something of an upset, and we are going to back the game to finish in a draw. You would click on the 4.5 underneath the “X”:
Once clicked, this selection would then be added to your betting slip, which appears at the top right of the screen. You should note that the betslip confirms the match, the odds and the selection:
Next you need to enter your chosen stake into the appropriate box. Continuing from the example above, we are going to stake £10 on this bet, so we enter “10” into the box:
Once you’ve done this, you should check the top right of the betslip, where it confirms the value you have typed. In our example, it shows “Stake (£10.00)” which is correct.
Now you need to click on “Check bets” which takes you to a final confirmation screen before you commit to placing the bet:
Check over the details a final time, and once you are happy, click “Bet now”
This will place the bet and the betslip will update to show “Bet receipt,” confirming that the bet has been placed:
That’s it! Pretty simple really, but hopefully this guide will assist you in making your first bet. If you require further assistance, please refer to the other betting guides in the Betting school.
Finally, please remember that all the online bookmakers have extensive help and support sections, so you can always refer to this if you have any questions or problems. In addition to the written help, they also run “live help” sessions, where you can chat in real-time with an operator. They are always online and ready to help with whatever issues you might have to ensure your online betting is an enjoyable experience.