How to Request a Bet
This How to Request a Bet guide provides a full explanation of a useful betting feature that many online bookmakers make available to customers. The feature allows you to ask for tailor-made odds about any outcome or combination of outcomes you would particularly want to bet on. In this guide, we explain how it works, how to use it, which bookmakers offer it and how to get the most out of it.
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Request a Bet - Step-By-Step
Let’s start by getting straight down to the practical matter of how to request a bet. This feature is being made available by a growing number of online betting sites in the UK. We’ll highlight some of the best ones later. But for now, we’ll take you through the process of using it, step-by-step. For purposes of this example, we will assume that you want to use the William Hill request a bet feature. This is known as William Hill YourOdds. There are some very slight differences between bookmakers in how the feature works, and we’ll address those differences later in this guide. But in general, we can summarise the process as follows:
Dream Up Your Bet
The first thing you need to do – irrespective of the bookie you’re using – is dream up the bet you want to request odds for. It could be that you want to bet on an event that you can’t find a market for. Or maybe you want to bet on an outcome that isn’t being offered. Whatever the case, you need to define the bet so that you can describe it to the team in one sentence. For example, “I want to bet on Fulham keeping a clean sheet in each of their next three matches.”Contact the Request a Bet Team
Each bookmaker offering this feature has a team standing by to respond to those requests. Your next step is to contact the team and request the bet you want to make. At William Hill, you do this by tweeting your needs with the hashtag #YourOdds on the X social network. Most betting sites use X, which is why your bet needs to be defined as concisely as possible.Wait for a Response
The next step is simply to wait for a response from the request a bet William Hill team. If your requested bet isn’t doable, they will let you know quite promptly. And if it is doable, they will take a little time to work out the odds for it before coming back to you. For this reason, it’s always worth making a request a bet early, rather than waiting until just before the event takes place.Place Your Bet
Assuming that your application has been successful, the team will give you their bookmaker odds for it along with a link to the new market that has been created for you. You can then decide whether or not to place a bet at those odds. There is no obligation bet, so if you don’t like the odds that have been offered, or you’ve simply changed your mind, you can leave things there. If you do want to bet, follow the link provided and help yourself.
How Request a Bet Works
Many people think that request a bet is just another name for the Bet Builder feature that is also available at most betting sites. That isn’t the case. When you use Bet Builder, you select various outcomes from existing betting markets and your bet is priced automatically. Request a bet is quite different because it’s designed to help you bet on outcomes that aren’t already available in existing markets, or on events that don’t yet have any markets.
The way these special bets work is quite simple, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re betting on football, horse racing, or any other sport. When your bet request is received by the bookmaker, it is checked over to make sure that it’s viable. Not all proposed bets are logically possible or in good taste, so this first inspection is to verify that it is. The request will then get sent to the traders, who are the experts assigned to the task of looking into the probabilities and setting odds accordingly.
Every enquiry needs to be priced up individually. The length of time needed for the team to get back to you with odds will therefore depend not only on how busy the bookmaker is but also on the complexity of your requested bet. A straightforward request for odds on the winner in a fairly obscure event might be fulfilled in a matter of minutes. But more complicated propositions could take quite a bit longer.
Which Bookmakers Offer Request a Bet?
Now that you’ve seen how to request a bet and how the feature works, you’re probably wondering where you can put your knowledge to good use. You’ll be pleased to hear that a growing number of betting sites are catching on to its popularity. Here are some of the best bookies that allow you to request odds, and how.
Betfair OddsOnThat
The Betfair request a bet feature is called OddsOnThat. To use it, send a tweet on the X social network to the customer service team at @BetfairCS using the hashtag #OddsOnThat. You’ll be notified when your request has been forwarded to the trading team and updated when the bet has been priced up. Follow the link provided in that response to go straight to the new market and strike your bet.
Betfred PickYourPunt
PickYourPunt is the name of the football-focused Bet Builder feature at Betfred. If you can’t find the event or outcome that you want to bet on, you can tweet @Betfred on X using the #PickYourPunt hashtag. The request will then be processed in the usual way. While it’s request a bet football that’s most commonly advertised here, you can ask for odds about other sports and outcomes and the trading team will do their best to accommodate you.
Paddy Power WhatOddsPaddy?
The Paddy Power request a bet feature is called WhatOddsPaddy? This bookmaker is famous for its enthusiasm for unusual betting markets, so you can request odds on just about anything and – if it’s possible – you have a good shot at getting a price. Send a tweet on X to @AskPaddyPower using the hashtag #WhatOddsPaddy with a summary of your request. If the traders can give you odds about it, they’ll include a link so that you can take them straight away.
Sky Bet Request a Bet
There should be no confusion about how to request a bet on SkyBet because the feature is called exactly that – Sky Bet Request a Bet. If you come up with something that you want to bet on that you can’t find at the site (be sure to check request enquiries that have already been fulfilled) head over to X. When you’re there, tweet @RequestABet with your requirements using the #RequestABet hashtag. There’s also a handy tool on the Sky Bet app which allows you to bypass X.
BoyleSports Request a Bet
This is another bookmaker that doesn’t exactly shout about the feature, but you can still use it at Boylesports. Head over to X and tweet @BoyleSports being sure to include the term ‘request a bet’. The team will then pass your wager on to the traders to see if they can come up with some odds for you.
William Hill YourOdds
We’ve already outlined how to use this feature at William Hill, so we won’t repeat ourselves too much here. Just tweet @WilliamHill using the #YourOdds hashtag and your query will be processed as described earlier.
Request a Bet Tips
Bookmakers are very good at providing markets that will suit the needs of most bettors, so you probably won’t need to request a bet very often. That said, here are a few request a bet tips that should prove useful when you come to do so.
Check Your Bets
When you request a bet on social media the world will see your tweet. Nobody will even notice, in most cases, but if you make an impossible bet request you could get more attention than you’d like. For example, if you ask for a team to win a tournament match by a certain number of goals and for the same match to go into extra time, both outcomes aren’t possible. Always check your bets to save yourself both time and potential embarrassment.Make Early Requests
As we said earlier, it takes time to process requests and price up new markets, so don’t make a request at the last minute and hope to get any joy. Instead, plan ahead of time and send your requests as soon as you know you want to make them. That will maximise your chances of getting a price back before the event gets underway.Ask Several Bookmakers
Asking for price quotes on novel bets is like getting quotes for a purchase – it makes sense to obtain several. Send the same wager suggestion to two, three or four bookmakers at the same time and you can then bet with the most generous one.
Request a Bet Today!
The next time you’re looking to bet on a sporting event or outcome that you can’t seem to find, don’t just give up. Instead, define what you’d like to wager on and use the request a bet feature to see if your favourite bookie will give you odds for it. In a survey of Twitter users, 37.3% of people who used a request a bet feature reported winning with it. As you’ll probably find out for yourself soon enough, there’s nothing quite as satisfying as landing a winning bet in a market that didn’t exist until you asked for it to be created!
FAQ
Can you request a bet on BoyleSports?
How do I request a bet on Sky?
Can you request a bet in bookies?
How do you request a bet on William Hill?
What is request a bet insurance?
