Due to numerous bugs in the Coral betting app, we now recommend Paddy Power instead.
New Customers Only. 18+. T&Cs Apply
Coral Betting App Review
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RATING ***
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CORAL MOBILE SUMMARY
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INTRODUCTION
Coral Sports Betting is a mobile app designed by Gale Coral Group Ltd., the third largest bookmaker in the UK. Coral operates over 2,000 betting shops in the UK and Italy as well as both a traditional Web-based online bookmaker and the Coral iPhone application. Released in October, 2012, the service’s mobile app was a couple of years behind the biggest names in the bookmaking industry. Currently available for iOS 4.3 or later (but optimized for iOS 7 as displayed on the iPhone 5), Coral Sports Betting no doubt chose to release an Apple-specific application to take advantage of the large number of iPhone users around the world, a number that’s now in the hundreds of millions. |
INSTALL & WELCOME BONUS
The most-celebrated bonus available to sports bettors through Coral’s Sports Betting iPhone application is their “$20 for $5” welcome bonus. This offer comes with some strict conditions (including a 7-day time limit, see the site for more details) but promises a return of $20 for a first wager of at least $5.
Besides this low-value (and condition-laden) early bonus offer, Coral is not particularly generous when it comes to promotions. As is common for bookmaker app bonuses, most of the offers available vary from sport to sport, or even from one season to another. Generally speaking, rebates based on deposits and the performance of a user’s bets are the most-common.
Coral Mobile is available as a web-based betting app that is compatible with any iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry or Android mobile device.
The most-celebrated bonus available to sports bettors through Coral’s Sports Betting iPhone application is their “$20 for $5” welcome bonus. This offer comes with some strict conditions (including a 7-day time limit, see the site for more details) but promises a return of $20 for a first wager of at least $5.
Besides this low-value (and condition-laden) early bonus offer, Coral is not particularly generous when it comes to promotions. As is common for bookmaker app bonuses, most of the offers available vary from sport to sport, or even from one season to another. Generally speaking, rebates based on deposits and the performance of a user’s bets are the most-common.
Coral Mobile is available as a web-based betting app that is compatible with any iOS, Windows Phone, BlackBerry or Android mobile device.
FEATURES
Coral Sports Betting for iPhone makes use of a number of the most popular features of today’s bookmaker applications. One of the most popular is in-play wagering, options for which are collected here under the heading “Bet In-Play.” The layout of the in-play wagering section is easy to navigate and users can easily scan up and down the various statistical and numerical columns for at-a-glance viewing. In-play action is well-organized, with important statistics displayed in big bold numbers above lesser details, including a text-based description of major events in a game.
Live streaming options available with the Coral iPhone bookmaker app are a big plus –watching sports broadcasts is traditional in betting shops and casinos, and it’s just as popular on mobile apps. Coral doesn’t have the largest number of streaming events, but it boasts thousands of broadcasts per year across a decent variety of sports and leagues. Watching the live streams requires a free account and a positive balance (meaning above $0.00).
An added bonus of the streaming games feature – Coral’s live stream function is the only one in the world to show all UK and Ireland-based horse racing events. The service’s Best Price Guarantee offer on all of these events is an added bonus for racebook customers. This bonus pays bettors whose wagers come in at a better starting price the difference between their buy and the final value, in the form of a free bet.
DESIGN & NAVIGATION
Users familiar with Coral’s traditional website will recognize the color scheme, design, and layout immediately. The design is on the simple side, but unlike some competitor apps, attention has been paid to legibility. The text on the app is plenty dark, no matter which field it appears in. Most of the app’s layout is simple black and white, with splashes of blue in headlines and as the font color of important text. But this black and white is like that used on eReader programs – the black is easy to read, the white is not bright, but muted. It’s pleasant.
Navigating Coral Sports Betting for iPhone is easy, since the menus are stripped-down even further from the already user-friendly Web-based user interface. Rather than cram information on a single page, markets are broken up into a ton of categories. This could get a little confusing for users researching a number of different events at the same time, but for the average bettor focusing on a single event or sport, the need to click through a few menus to get there shouldn’t be a deal-breaker.
An important feature for customers interested in live streaming is the quality of video. Obviously, that will vary depending on different users’ connections to the Internet, but the live sports streams look excellent in both portrait and landscape mode and the streams translate between the two viewing modes easily.
BETTING MARKETS
Customers who like to see a big variety of betting markets will be pleased with the choices currently available through Coral Sports Betting. At the time of this review, 32 choices were available for customers. The list includes the most popular world sports (soccer, American pro sports, etc.) as well as a few non-traditional choices of note, like Hurling and wagers on UK Mercury Prize voting.
In terms of the various wagers available in those markets, as with other online bookmakers the variety shrinks as the sports’ popularity decreases. During the most recent World Cup, Coral Sports Betting focused heavily on variety, and even boasted of offering the largest variety of World Cup-focused wagers of any bookmaker app. For now, the traditional bets (spreads, lines, totals, etc.) are the most varied in the world’s five most popular sports.
VERDICT
Coral wasn’t a pioneer in the bookmaker app department, and the service doesn’t have the huge betting variety of the world’s top-rated applications, but the service has a lot going for it besides. An attractive and user-friendly GUI is nothing to sneeze at, and the navigation system that acts to de-clutter the bet slip screen performs its job well. Though the bonus and promo service at Coral is weaker than some of its competition, bettors should focus more on the functionality of the app itself, as well as the large number of in-play and live streaming options.
Coral Sports Betting for iPhone makes use of a number of the most popular features of today’s bookmaker applications. One of the most popular is in-play wagering, options for which are collected here under the heading “Bet In-Play.” The layout of the in-play wagering section is easy to navigate and users can easily scan up and down the various statistical and numerical columns for at-a-glance viewing. In-play action is well-organized, with important statistics displayed in big bold numbers above lesser details, including a text-based description of major events in a game.
Live streaming options available with the Coral iPhone bookmaker app are a big plus –watching sports broadcasts is traditional in betting shops and casinos, and it’s just as popular on mobile apps. Coral doesn’t have the largest number of streaming events, but it boasts thousands of broadcasts per year across a decent variety of sports and leagues. Watching the live streams requires a free account and a positive balance (meaning above $0.00).
An added bonus of the streaming games feature – Coral’s live stream function is the only one in the world to show all UK and Ireland-based horse racing events. The service’s Best Price Guarantee offer on all of these events is an added bonus for racebook customers. This bonus pays bettors whose wagers come in at a better starting price the difference between their buy and the final value, in the form of a free bet.
DESIGN & NAVIGATION
Users familiar with Coral’s traditional website will recognize the color scheme, design, and layout immediately. The design is on the simple side, but unlike some competitor apps, attention has been paid to legibility. The text on the app is plenty dark, no matter which field it appears in. Most of the app’s layout is simple black and white, with splashes of blue in headlines and as the font color of important text. But this black and white is like that used on eReader programs – the black is easy to read, the white is not bright, but muted. It’s pleasant.
Navigating Coral Sports Betting for iPhone is easy, since the menus are stripped-down even further from the already user-friendly Web-based user interface. Rather than cram information on a single page, markets are broken up into a ton of categories. This could get a little confusing for users researching a number of different events at the same time, but for the average bettor focusing on a single event or sport, the need to click through a few menus to get there shouldn’t be a deal-breaker.
An important feature for customers interested in live streaming is the quality of video. Obviously, that will vary depending on different users’ connections to the Internet, but the live sports streams look excellent in both portrait and landscape mode and the streams translate between the two viewing modes easily.
BETTING MARKETS
Customers who like to see a big variety of betting markets will be pleased with the choices currently available through Coral Sports Betting. At the time of this review, 32 choices were available for customers. The list includes the most popular world sports (soccer, American pro sports, etc.) as well as a few non-traditional choices of note, like Hurling and wagers on UK Mercury Prize voting.
In terms of the various wagers available in those markets, as with other online bookmakers the variety shrinks as the sports’ popularity decreases. During the most recent World Cup, Coral Sports Betting focused heavily on variety, and even boasted of offering the largest variety of World Cup-focused wagers of any bookmaker app. For now, the traditional bets (spreads, lines, totals, etc.) are the most varied in the world’s five most popular sports.
VERDICT
Coral wasn’t a pioneer in the bookmaker app department, and the service doesn’t have the huge betting variety of the world’s top-rated applications, but the service has a lot going for it besides. An attractive and user-friendly GUI is nothing to sneeze at, and the navigation system that acts to de-clutter the bet slip screen performs its job well. Though the bonus and promo service at Coral is weaker than some of its competition, bettors should focus more on the functionality of the app itself, as well as the large number of in-play and live streaming options.
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