2007/01/03 - Review by Ira Nanson

Coral was established in 1926 and joins an elite list of 'first of its kind bookmakers' together with VCBet and William Hill. In 1999 Coral merged with Eurobet employing a workforce of more than 6,000 persons throughout 1100 betting shops in the United Kingdom.

Six years later Coral Eurobet was purchased by the Gala Group for the staggering sum of £2.18 billion making them a formidable presence in the UK gaming industry, employing more than 17,000 employees and servicing more than 2 million active customers each year.

The Group's organic growth continued with the recent acquisitions of the County Club Bingo chain in Scotland and Leo Casino from Dolby Management Ltd, Liverpool in 2006.

Currently Gala owns 170 bingo clubs, 31 casino venues and nearly 1500 betting locations throughout the United Kingdom and boast's earning more than £400 million of EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization). The online sports betting at Coral includes football, horse racing, greyhounds, rugby union, American sports, boxing, cricket, darts, golf, motor sports, politics, tennis, TV specials plus casino, games, poker and lotto.

Virtual sportsbetting is available on soccer, horses and greyhounds.

A good selection of bet types are available and include live betting, football match betting, single, each way single, place only, doubles, trebles, accumulator, patent, lucky 15 / 31 / 63, trixie, yankee, super yankee, heinz, super heinz, goliath, straight forecast, reverse forecast, combination forecast, straight tricast, combination tricast, football live betting and props.

Coral will only accept deposits in GBP. Customers wanting to deposit using an alternative currency should visit sister site Eurobet which offers a choice of GBP, EUR, USD, DKK, THB, NOK, SEB and CZK. Eurobet also supports 16 different languages.

The payment options are slightly limited comparative to other online betting companies and only include credit / debit card, bank transfer and western union.

The customer service at Coral is excellent but they fail to provide 24 hour support. Instead normal trading hours are from 9.00 am - 11.00 pm Monday to Saturday and 10.00 am - 10.00 pm on Sundays'. Accordingly some betting opportunities may not be available outside of these hours.

Due to the change in US legislation, US residents are not permitted to wager or deposit funds with Coral. Additionally the same restrictions apply to residents of China and Hong Kong.

Although Coral doesn't quite measure up to sister site Eurobet they do have a solid financial infrastructure and provide a secure betting environment.

Bookmaker rating of Coral :

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