Hollywoodbets

About Hollywoodbets

Today, we have the honor of reviewing one of South Africa’s most renowned betting sites. Hollywoodbets is by far the most popular domestic option for taking punts. For years, they observed the sports betting habits of South Africans. Due to this excellent information management strategy, they’ve expanded a lot since their website was first launched in 2006.

Even though we’re reviewing a very popular bookie, we can’t help but say that we’re disappointed. If Hollywoodbets doesn’t rebrand any time soon, we might never see a South African brand dominate the country’s sports betting scene. They lag behind the big names in several areas, most notably in the design department.

The UI on this particular betting site is the work of Betting Entertainment Technologies (BET) and features an iteration of the company’s flagship SyX software platform. While it’s commendable that Hollywoodbets went with a domestic brand, there’s no worth beating around the bush - the design is an unmitigated disaster. It would have been an unmitigated disaster if we were in 2010 now, too. What was Hollywoodbets thinking?

We get that they wanted to go for a throwback look, but it seems like they’ve only taken the worst facets of early 2000s web design. That’s right, after almost 15 years, you can still see those annoying little banners and carousels that advertise in-site promotions. Everything is too colorful and clickable elements are crammed so closely together that over half of our time spent on the site involved clicking on the wrong hyperlink. Disastrous, unusable and not worth your time. Those familiar with this period in sportsbook design will surely be repulsed by the homepage alone.

Several of our team members had to check the date on their phones because we honestly felt like a wormhole sucked us in and spat us out in 2005. The Payments section is the epitome of the disappointment that is Hollywoodbets, with VISA and MasterCard being the only payment options available to punters. Excuse me, but what are you thinking, lads? In a time when it’s notoriously easy to use Neteller, Skrill, and PayPal, this is unacceptable.

Customer support is a joke as well, with response times being in the 20 minutes ballpark. That’s not something you want to encounter if you need assistance on a betting site. Hollywoodbets also doesn’t offer live chat support, nor do they have dedicated apps for iOS and Android. Not a good look.

Sports and Betting Odds

Users that access Hollywoodbets have a variety of sports that they can bet on in front of them. Among the covered sports are: Horse Racing, Soccer, Tennis, Rugby, Cricket, Golf, Badminton, Basketball, Boxing, Darts, Ice Hockey, Mma, Motorsport, Snooker, Table Tennis. Betting odds at Hollywoodbets are competitive overall. Soccer betting margin is 5.2%, tennis betting margin is 7.5%, ice hockey betting margin is 7.6%, basketball with 5.6% and so on. The overall betting margin is 6.5%. These betting margins have been calculated using odds from different events in each sport. Please note that margins may be different from a sport to another, and even from a league to other.

Betting Features

At least the overall sports offer is fine on this site. Honestly, we didn’t expect such a nice mix of niche sports and mainstream options. You will find the odds to be a pleasant surprise, as they hover slightly above the industry average at all times. The Bet Builder tool and Form Guide are a nice touch, too.

Security and Fairness

Three South African Regions - Gauteng, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga, have all granted licenses to Hollywoodbets, making them a secure and legitimate option. To further protect their site from hackers, they have a Thawte certificate for excellence in using SSL encryption technology.