NAME: Playa Bets
STARS: 4.8
WEBSITE: http://www.playabets.co.za
ESTABLISHED: 1990
LOCATION: Durban, KwaZulu-Natal
PROPRIETOR: Playa Brands
LICENCES: KZN Gaming and Betting Board; Western Cape Gambling & Racing Board; Eastern Cape Gambling and Betting Board.
MINIMUM DEPOSIT: R2
DEPOSIT OPTIONS: Deposits can be made by MasterCard and Visa credit and cheque cards, by PayU, by EFT to FNB, Nedbank, Standard Bank, Investec, ABSA, and Capitec Banks, by direct deposit to any of the above banks’ branches or in cash at one of its nine retail stores.
SOFTWARE: Proprietary
PROS:
- Best sign-up bonus in the business
- A large number of betting markets
- A clean, bright, easy-to-use interface
- Mobile app available
- Large range of live-in-play betting
CONS:
- Customer service is not 24/7
- No Sports blog
MAIN REVIEW
Playa Bet is a Durban-based online sportsbook which is owned by Playa Brand and has been operating in the bookmaking business since 1990.
It has recently launched a mobile app and replaced its widely-used Bettech software with some revolutionary new proprietary software that has helped it and grow and brighten-up its sports menu and its number of betting markets to such an extent, it is now able to offer one of the biggest and most entertaining ranges of betting options in the business.
It claims on Linkedin to provide its members with more than 12 000 live sport betting events, 378 000+ live betting markets and a total of 3 663 000 betting opportunities every month – and that’s not counting the scores of world-wide Lotto draws and its own Keno numbers games it also gives you access to.
That’s really something to write home about, to be sure, but perhaps what does the most to make Playa stand out from the crowd is its sign-up bonus.
When you make your first deposit after registration, Playa will match it with a 100% bonus of up to R2 000.
Now while that’s pretty competitive as it stands, it is by any means the biggest. One of its rivals offers as much as “up to R10 000”.
The thing about the Playa bonus that makes it such a standout and so much more attractive to would-be punters than anything else in the South African sportsbook market is the fact that you only need to wager the bonus amount ONCE before you can start making withdrawals, not the FIVE and TEN times that its rivals insist on .
In the case of that R10 000 bonus offer; the wagering condition is 10Xs which means you will need to wager R100 000 before you can even start to get any money back.
But to get back to Playa’s interface; the major logo decorating its home page is a large digital Lions head, the page’s colours are African green, black, white and grey and although, it is clean, simple and easy to use (regardless of whether it is with a PC, laptop, mobile phone or tablet) it is certainly not dull and it does have its own personality.
The football player wearing a white unicorns head and pointing to that 100% sign-up bonus promotion on its main front page banner certainly helps to ensure that!
After you’ve scanned the long, long lists of sports you can bet on and you start clicking on some of the other prominent buttons on Playa’s front page, you will quickly discover that apart from the rather surprising fact that while Playa unusually carries a busy daily betting schedule of British Greyhound Racing it seems to ignore horse racing, it won’t take you too long to also discover that it has an excellent FAQ and Help facility and has a large and enterprising promotions package.
But let’s look a little closer at some of its man strengths.
SPORTS:
In amongst the bookmaker’s favourites like football, rugby, cricket, tennis, golf, athletics, FI, cycling, Aussie rules, darts and the American sports of NFL Football, baseball, basketball and Ice hockey, there are a good many sports not always listed on the menus of other South African sportsbooks.
These include greyhound racing, surfing, biathlon, motorcycle racing, Esports, chess, snooker, pool and table tennis.
But if that’s impressive, so too are the tons of markets within each sport, never more so than in Playa’s live-in-bet stable where thanks to their new software, you are given hundreds of options to play this adrenalin-rush game – and at any time of the day.
For example at 12 noon in Cape Town on Friday, August 17, 2018, you could have made 100s of live-in-bet wagers in at least eight different sports which at that time were being played in many venues all around world. Among them were football, Tennis and ice hockey.
PROMOTIONS:
Playa certainly does not come short in this department as you will quickly discover when you click on their ‘Promotions’ front page button.
Along with their standout sign-up bonus, they also offer a FICA bonus of a R100 and another R100 each time you refer a friend to Playa.
Move on to promotions and you’ll probably find as many as a dozen or more. We found 11 at the time of writing.
Seven of them were ‘Betting Promotions’ which gave you the chance of winning a fancy TV set, a premier league football jersey, free bets and even hard cash.
Another three were ‘Betshop Promotions’ for customers who preferred to do their betting via Playa’s nine retail betting shops.
And the final one was a predict-and-win ‘Social Media” promotion.
CUSTOMER SUPPORT:
Playa’s competent Customer Support offers you live chat, whatapp and email support as well as a telephone betting service, but it lets itself down by not operating on a 24/7 basis (its only available between 9am and 10pm) and its pink Live Chat button in the bottom-right hand corner of its website doesn’t seem to work.
Over the course of a business day we clicked on it four times and each time a notice popped up saying: “Sorry. None of the support team is available at the moment. Please leave a message and someone will get back to you shortly.”
We did leave a message, but a day later it had still not been answered.
We had much better luck on the number given us when he clicked on ‘Contact Us’. A polite and knowing male voice answered our call within seconds and had no hesitation in providing us with the exact answers we were seeking. He was impressive, yes.
Also impressive are the sportsbook’s excellent ‘Help’ and ‘FAQ’ features which will tell you almost everything you’ll need to know and are also accessible via buttons at the bottom of Playa’s home page.,
Transactions:
Playa Bets, like all of its South African rivals at this time, trades only in the South African Rand (ZAR) – and with customers within the borders of the Republic.
It uses Thawte encryption technology to ensure that your money and your personal details are kept safe.
And Deposits can be made by PayU, by MasterCard and Visa credit and cheque cards, by EFT to FNB, Nedbank , Standard Bank, Investec, ABSA,& Capitec Banks, by direct deposit to any of the above banks’ branches or in cash at one its nine retail stores in Kwa-Zulu Natal and Cape Town.
SUMMIING UP:
Playa Bets is an excellent and highly entertaining sports book that has almost all of the important features that South African punters are attracted to.
Its huge menu of sports and associated markets is about as good as you’ll get and its bonus and promotional activities among the best, if not the best, in the market it serves
Its sophisticated technology makes it safe to deal with and it is licensed by three solid watch dogs whose business is to see that it trades fairly and squarely.
It has so many good things going for it, in fact, that despite it not having a 24/7 customer service or a sports blog, we have no hesitation in recommending it highly.
Give it a try. We’re pretty sure you won’t be sorry.