Do you like the challenge of fantasy football? Enjoy picking players and going up against your mates? Have you ever thought that fantasy football could be improved by adding a betting element? Well, Betmate might just be the answer that you’ve been looking for.
“What is Betmate?”, do I hear you say? Don’t worry, that was exactly what I thought when somebody first mentioned it to me. Betmate is a relatively new platform that allows players to combine fantasy football and football betting, which if you ask me, is quite a cool combination.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve tested the Betmate app, having a look at what it’s all about, so let’s go through it step by step, starting with the basics.
What is Betmate?
For the most part, Betmate works like this: ahead of each Premier League fixture, users create their own team consisting of players playing for the two teams involved in that fixture.
You can play against friends in a private set-up or join a public league. I joined a public league. As you can also see from the images below, there’s a primary contest or pot, as Betmate likes to call it, for each Premier League game.
Once the game takes place, players score points based on their performance, much like standard fantasy football, though there are few additional ways to score points that would not be found in FPL.
Whether you’re in a league with your friends, or in a private league, the players with the most points at the end of the game rank highest in the league and thus scoop the prizes. The prize element comes from everybody paying a small fee, which is typically £5, to enter a team. At least, it’s £5 to play the primary contest, and that’s where the betting element comes into it. You’re essentially paying to put your pick of players against other people. The user with the highest scoring team at the end of the game wins the largest prize, while there are smaller cash prizes to be won by those ranking highly, such as in second, third and fourth place.
If you play the primary contest, like I did, it’s the top 25 users, who once the game is done and dusted and all points are awarded and totalled, win the cash. Obviously the higher you rank inside the top 25, the more you win. More on that later, let’s first start at the very beginning and look at the sign-up process. See below.
Sign up process
First and foremost, you need to download the Betmate app, which is available for all smartphone users. I have an iPhone, so I downloaded it from the App Store, which took a matter of moments, but you can naturally download the app from whatever the store is on your device.
Rather pleasingly, the sign-up process was swift and easy. It took me no more than two minutes to register, and within three minutes, I had my cash deposited and was browsing contests, deciding what to take part in first.
Below is a simple guide to signing up. As you can see from the first screenshot below, you’ll be asked to create an account by first imputing your first name, followed by your last name, your date of birth and finally, your email address. You also have the option to tick a box that permits Betmate to send you details relating to news, offers and freebies.
Once you’ve entered the personal information required in the first screenshot above, plus decided whether you want to allow Betmate to contact you, simply hit ‘NEXT’ at the bottom.
On the second page, as shown above, you’ll be asked to provide details of your address, including your postcode, house name or number and street name, this is so that you can be verified, as the app is only available to users within the United Kingdom at present. Once you’ve filled out your address info, simply hit ‘NEXT’ as before.
Finally, you’ll be asked to choose a username. Initially, you’ll be given an auto generated username, but if you don’t like this or have a more personal one in mind, then you can simply delete the generated one and type in your own username.
Personally, signing up took no longer than two minutes. It may take longer depending on how quickly you type, but in general, I’d say this process is simple and relatively rapid, especially compared to some other sign-up process in the betting world.
Let’s look at the recent Premier League match between Aston Villa vs West Ham. This was the first fixture that I bet on in terms of joining a contest and entering a team.
As the screenshots show, you must make a team of 12 players, and you’re allowed a maximum of six players from each team. In other words, I was only permitted to pick six Villa players and six Hammers.
Payment methods
There are a few payment methods. I chose to pay using a debit card, which was quick and easy. As the screenshots below show, you can also use Apple Pay, which should please those who’d rather pay with just a few clicks without having to fill out their card information.
As the first screenshot above shows, there’s also an option to deposit using a banking app, most popular UK banking apps are accepted, including popular digital bank Monzo. If you choose to deposit using a debit card as I did, then you’ll need to add the card to your Betmate account by entering the details, as displayed in the second of the three screenshots directly above this text.
Betmate Main Pots
OK, so onto the juicy stuff, the gameplay itself, or the betting, whatever you want to call it. The name of the game at Betmate is pots. Each contest/competition is known as a pot, the premise being that each user pays into the pot and then the prizes are distributed from the pot. Rather simple stuff.
Primarily, as touched on above, for each Premier League game there will be a primary pot, where players can enter a team consisting of 12 players, six from each team.
Below is an example of a pot that I joined ahead of Aston Villa vs West Ham in the Premier League, and I’ll save you the suspense; I was not successful, but don’t let that put you off, I’m sure you’d have a better stab at it than I did!
As the first image above shows, with my account highlighted in beige at the bottom, I finished in rather displeasing 77th place, so clearly I picked the wrong team on that occasion, but this image also shows what I could’ve won had I picked more wisely, and some of the prizes are very decent, with the winner scooping no less than £150 having paid only £5 to enter. Not bad at all.
When it comes to the main pot, which is basically the main contest for each and every Premier League fixture, the top prize is always £150, though it’s important to note that the first prize is only £150 if one person wins it. If two people finish in a tie for first place, then they split the £150 equally. In other words, they win £75 each. As we can see from the screenshot above, the first pot that I joined was won by just one player, but had five players been tied for first, then the top prize would’ve been split five ways. As we can also see from the leaderboard above, that logic applies to the other winning positions too.
The standard prize structure, which applies to all pots on single Premier League games is displayed in the second image displayed above (on the right).
Betmate Alternative Pots
It’s not just the fantasy football style pots that you can join for each Premier League game either, there are a few other pot-types, some of which I think are great.
BTTS Pots
On certain Saturday’s throughout the season, there is a 3pm BTTS Pot, which basically allows players to pay into the pot as they would for the regular fantasy football style contests, but this time you’re simply selecting whether both teams will score or not from a list of given games, as shown below in the first screenshot.
What you’ll also see from the first screenshot (on the left) is that the Saturday BTTS pot only cost me £3 to join, which I thought was good. The total prize pot is smaller, but still, if there’s a £100 first prize on offer and you’re only required to pay £3 to enter, then that’s more than acceptable in my book. I did not scoop the top prize, though as it turns out, faring much better than I did when playing my first fantasy football style pot, I came third. Unfortunately, I was joined by three others, which meant that I received less than I would’ve done had I been third in my own right, but still, £15 return from a £3 bet is far from the end of the world.
Saturday 3pm Pot
There’s also a Saturday 3pm Pot every weekend, which is like the BTTS Pot, but it involves selecting the match results, whether it be home win, draw or away win, much as you do with the UCL Showdown Pot.
As the first screenshot above (on the left) shows, the main Saturday 3pm Pot costs £5 to enter, and the first prize is £150, while the second prize is more than decent £70. Prize money extends to 10th place and as usual includes ties.
Betmate Big Weekender
Those who like a contest with a more mouthwatering prize will be up for giving the Betmate Big Weekender a go. As the first screenshot below shows, there’s big money up for grabs here, with thousands to be won, as the second screenshot shows. And it only costs a fiver to enter.
This contest is similar to the UCL showdown in that it involves players selecting the match result of a list of games, typically all of the ten Premier League games on a given weekend, plus a couple of Championship fixtures. The top ten places scoop the prizes, all of which are quite juicy given the entry fee of £5. Don’t worry, you don’t have to get each and every result right, the winner is the user with the most correct results, so you could end up winning even if you predict home win, draw or away win correctly for only half of the games.
If you’re the sort of punter who loves a flutter on a hopeful accumulator bet at the weekend, then this is sure to be up your street, as you don’t need to stake much and the potential rewards are very lucrative indeed.
3PM Goalscorer Pot
This one I really like. I’ve always been a fan of the odd goalscorer bet and if you’re the same, then this should be right up your street. The premise is simple: for each of the five nominated Premier League games, you need to select a goalscorer, as the image below shows.
The best bit is, this one only costs £3 to join, which is great given that there’s a £100 prize for finishing first. The top five places get paid out, with second place receiving £40. Each place that follows, down to fifth, gets £10 less. Screenshot three (on the right) shows my selections for this pot ahead of the next round of Premier League fixtures (at the time of writing).
UCL Showdown Pot
One of Betmate’s biggest pots is the UCL Showdown Pot. This is not a fantasy football pot, nor a BTTS pot. Instead, here you must predict the outcome of each Champions League fixture ahead of any given round of games, selecting either home win, draw or away win.
As the image above shows, there’s a rather chunky £1,250 jackpot up for grabs. As you can also see, I got nowhere near that jackpot, finishing in a rather disappointing 90th position, but don’t let that put you off. Somebody has to win, and it might be you. At the very least, I’m sure you’ll have a better stab than my dreadful effort!
Joining a Pot
It’s really easy to join a pot. On the homepage, at any given time, the upcoming contests will be listed in time order, so simply scroll through until you find something you like the look of. If it’s one of the contests such as the Big Weekender, as the image below shows, you can join from the main page by clicking ‘JOIN’.
For most contests, you’ll have to click ‘VIEW’. This is so you can see the different pots that are available. The main pot will always be first in the list. If you’ve already entered a contest, the ‘VIEW’ button will be shown in grey, as the second image (on the right above) shows. This is because at the time of writing I had already entered that particular contest.
Public/Private Pots
In addition to public pots, there are private pots. Now, you can join a private pot, with the pot creator’s permission, or you can create your own private pot and invite people.
Creating a Private Pot
When it comes to creating a private pot, it’s simple stuff. From the main menu that shows all the upcoming contests and pots, you’ll just shift the slider from ‘Public’ to ‘Private’, as circled in the first image below.
From the image above on the right, you can see that you’ll be afforded two options when it comes to creating a private pot. You can create a survivor pot, which essentially means that you and anyone joining your pot will pick the winner of a game each week, which will continue until only one person gets it right. Sort of like a last man standing type of situation.
The second option that you’ll have when creating a private pot is to create a fantasy pot, which is no different from the fantasy pots described above, except only you and the people you allow into your private league will play. You’ll select the game, decide the prize structure and then invite your friends.
Rules of the game
There are a few different ways of using Betmate, a few different pots, or game modes, if you want to call them that. The main part of the app revolves around the fantasy football styles contests described above, and there’s one for each and every Premier League fixture, so let’s look at those rules first.
It’s very much like standard fantasy football from a rules point of view. Every player that you select for your team picks up a single point for playing less than 60 minutes, and two points if they play more than 60 minutes, but before we get into that, it’s worth confirming that each team consists of seven players (a keeper, two defenders, two midfielders and two forwards) and four subs. A sub is only used if one of your players doesn’t end up starting for some reason. If subs do not play, they do not score any points.
As we can see from the screenshot below, keepers get three points for a clean sheet, while defenders and midfielders get two points and one point respectively if their team records a shutout. We can also see that keepers get a single point for each shot saved, which is not a feature of regular FPL and is in fact a really nice touch, especially if you’ve selected a keeper that is likely to be kept busy.
As the above screenshot also shows, your keeper will be rewarded with five points if they save a penalty. However, if a player misses a penalty, regardless of their position, that player will cost you minus four points.
For goals, it’s a little different from regular fantasy football games too, as all outfield players get five points for a goal. All outfield players earn four points for an assist too, again slightly different from regular fantasy football. As is to be expected, it’s minus points if a player gets a yellow card, red card, or scores an own goal.
In fantasy football tradition, captains score double points, but what is fantastic is that vice captains score 1.5x points, which is not something that happens under regular fantasy football rules.
Earlier, I touched on the fact that your team consists of 12 players but here is an official summary of how to pick your team and play from the app itself:
In terms of joining a game, as the image above shows, you can join a game, whatever the game may be, whether it’s fantasy football, a 3pm pot or the UCL showdown pot, up to ten minutes before kick off.
In terms of fantasy teams you can edit and change your line-up as many times as you like up until ten minutes before the game too, which if you ask me, is a massive upgrade on standard fantasy football, which has quite strict deadlines and doesn’t allow for much in the way of chopping and changing.
Refer A Mate
Another nice touch from the Betmate guys is the addition of a referral bonus. This essentially allows you to refer a friend using a referral code, and if they sign up, not only will you get a referral bonus of £10 in free bets, but your friend gets £10 in free bets too.
Betmate Pros
There are lots of pros to the Betmate app, or rather there are lots of pros based on my own user experience. Other users may feel different, but there’s lots to like if you ask me, so let’s get into the pros.
Firstly, I really like that the guys at Betmate have played around with the traditional fantasy football rules. In other words, they’ve basically created their own fantasy football rules rather than just using the standard rules, which is great. For example, it’s great that you get the same number of points for a striker goal as you do for a midfielder goal.
One of the best, if not the best thing that the Betmate guys have done in terms of fantasy football rules is the addition of 1.5x points for your vice captain. In regular FPL, let’s face it, vice captains mean nothing unless your captain happens to not play, so getting extra points for a captain and a vice captain is a really nice touch.
I also mentioned above that I loved the BTTS competition, which I think is worth mentioning again. This is a really great feature, as it gives the app some variety. From a given list of six games, containing both Premier League and Championship fixtures depending on the weekend, players simply choose whether they think both teams will score or not. As is the case with the fantasy football pots, the more you get right, the more points you score.
Here is a summary of the pros as I see them:
- Big prizes to be won
- Lots of different prizes to be won
- Relatively small stakes required
- Plenty of variety in terms of different contest (e.g. fantasy, both teams to score, goalscorer, match result)
- Exciting alternative to fantasy football
- Alternative fantasy football rules are more rewarding
Ultimately, there’s plenty to like about Betmate. If you’re into fantasy football, like a little flutter and enjoy contests where you can win a few quid, then there’s no real reason to not give it a go.
Betmate Cons
To be honest, we’re talking about a pretty cool app that combines fantasy football and casual betting. This is by no means a heavy or serious betting app, but that’s probably a good thing, plus it’s enjoyable.
The stakes are low, but the enjoyment can be quite high. I enjoyed watching a single game and having lots of players to focus on from a fantasy-football point scoring aspect, which is not often the case in regular fantasy football, as you tend not to have more than two or three players ever playing in the same game. With Betmate’s version, you’ve got 12 players.
One thing that I would like to see for me to get more involved personally would be the addition of more leagues. Right now, unless you’re playing the Win/Draw/Win Champions League contests, it’s only Premier League.
I’m not sure what the future plans for the app are, but the addition of further leagues, such as the Championship in England, La Liga in Spain and the Bundesliga in Germany, would be great.
Different tiers of contests per game would be good. As I found out, and as you can see from the screenshots below, if you want to take part in the main contest for each game, the entry fee is always £5. Of course, there are always a few other contests, some of which are created by users, but these are different to the primary contest, because they do not pay the top 25 entrants.
It would be nice to see another couple of primary contests (that pay the top 25 users) with different entry fees, say £2.50 and £10, for those who want to stake less or more.
In summary, the cons aren’t sizeable, nor are they particularly big in number. In fact, if I’m being utterly truthful, they’re very minor and none of them are anywhere near enough of a concern to prevent me from using this app.
Here is a simple breakdown of the cons, or rather a few things that would enhance the app further:
- Not enough of a range in terms of entry fees
- Lack of variety in terms of leagues
- Champions League is featured but no Europa League or Europa Conference League
Realistically, as I see it, there aren’t any significant cons, just a few things that could make what is a really good app even better.
Final word on Betmate
To be honest, having spent a while on the app, and having taken part in a variety of the contests, I only really have positive things to say.
The way in which the app allows players to combine fantasy football with winning money is excellent. If, like me, you get a little bored with regular fantasy football leagues after a while, then this is a fantastic alternative, as you can pick a different team for each Premier League game and have a real chance of winning some cash.
As also mentioned above, the variety of contests and pots is great, to the point where there’s almost sure to be something to suit your taste, as long as you’re a football fan and like to palace a small wager.
The app is simple to use, easy to navigate and it’s relatively pleasing aesthetically.
The payment methods should be more than enough for most users, while depositing and withdrawing is nice and easy too.
Of course, as I’ve touched on in the cons section, there are a few developments that could be made to improve things, such as the addition of new leagues and pots to suit varying financial levels, but all in all, Betmate is a fantastic addition to the sports betting world.
I will continue to use the app and would recommend it to any UK residents with an interest in football, sports betting and fantasy football, that’s for sure.
