Open Your Betfair Exchange Account Without the Usual Snags

Six checkpoints for opening a new Betfair account

This page is a reading of Betfair's published terms and help pages, not an account test. Those help pages are written around UK and Irish customers, and we found no rest-of-world version, so where your screen and this page disagree, trust your screen.

Join Now sits top right on the website and in the app alike (either will do). The checkpoints run from before the form to after your first login, and each says what is compared with what.

1. Settle three facts before the form

   Country of residence, date of birth, and your name exactly as on your photo ID: you will type all three and may be asked to prove them. Clause 4.1.3 of an archived copy of Betfair's terms has you give "your correct date of birth and your country of residence, together with valid identification proving the same"; check the current wording. Age comes with it: if an account turns out to belong to someone under 18, clause 5.2 returns net losses from the underage period and voids open bets.

2. Fill in the form, knowing what each detail meets later

   Clause 5.1 lists what you must give: a valid mobile number, date of birth, first and last name, full residential address, a valid email address and a chosen password; the help article adds a security question and answer. Four comparisons follow later: name, date of birth and address against the documents Betfair may ask for, and name against the card or bank account you pay from, since clause 11.2.1 makes a mismatch there a prohibited activity.

3. Read the promises at the second Join Now

   The second Join Now is where you accept the terms, and clause 4.1 turns that click into promises: you are 18 or over; your date of birth and country are correct and provable; the account is for your own personal use and you will never act for a third party. You are not in a Prohibited Territory, you will follow your own local law, and you are not self-excluded from Betfair or the other brands the clause names, nor on a national register such as GAMSTOP. Read what the Prohibited Territories wording covers and omits before you make the country promise. These are promises with consequences, not boxes to tick: the terms list false registration details as a prohibited activity, and Betfair's answer to one can include suspension, voided transactions and part of the balance withheld.

4. See what the electronic check finds

   Betfair says it checks you electronically first, and that it can usually verify you that way without having to request proof of identity or address. Documents come only if that check needs more, and a prompt tells you so; clause 5.5 adds that Betfair may ask again later, for as long as you hold the account. The order of checks, the refused formats and the waiting times belong to what the ID review asks for.

5. Credit it, and pick the currency once

   Betfair's help pages say registering works with an empty account; betting at once does not, and the money should come from a card or bank account in your own name, for the reason in checkpoint 2. The account currency is set at registration. We found no Betfair help page on changing it, and one third-party site, bookmakers.net, says it cannot be changed afterwards, so choose the currency you will really deposit in. Which methods Betfair lists depends on your country.

6. Look around on the first login, before the first bet

   Look at four things: your verification status, since withdrawals wait until it is complete; the currency you set; the prices, since Betfair reserves its latest ones for a logged-in, funded account; and the way out, since withdrawals generally return to where the deposit came from, the closed loop of clauses 7.9 and 7.10.