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About Coral:
Coral is one of the oldest and most successful bookmakers in the UK. Based in Essex, the company has been in the gambling business since 1926. Running two greyhound racing tracks, hundreds of betting shops and an array of online services, Coral is a well established group. Coral Eurobet was bought in 2005 by Gala, the well known gaming and bingo organisation. Gala combined with Coral to become one of the biggest UK bookmakers and the largest bingo provider.
Coral's online services are wide ranging. The website home page is laid out well and is relatively easy to navigate; each section, from the casino to sports, is clearly set out in a menu bar and betting highlights are presented below. Upcoming events are also featured, enabling quick access to the next five racing or sports bets.
Betting
Coral bookmaking services feature a tremendous selection of sports including rugby, boxing, horse racing, snooker and Tennis, amongst others. Football is covered in great detail, with options to bet on matches taking place all over the world. Also included under sports is UK politics - offering up the chance to bet on the time of the next general election and, of course, on who will win. Going beyond the UK, Coral also offers betters the option to gamble on US sports ranging from American football to basketball.
Opening an account is a fairly straight forward process, a three step sign-up first requests personal details and goes on to ask how you intend to deposit and withdraw funds. The credit card options are quite limited but a range of debit cards are accepted. Only one method can be used at a time and if you want to change this in the future you'll need to withdraw the full value of your deposits via your original method before the change will take effect.
In terms of deposits Coral has measures in place to encourage responsible gambling. Clearly presented in the deposit method set-up is the option to limit deposits to ensure safe gambling. A link opens up options to set a maximum deposit both on a daily and weekly time-scale. Session time limits can also be set for gaming and a self-exclusion policy is in place which enables gamblers to restrict their own access to the service.
Casino
An online casino is available with a plethora of games from roulette to various forms of slots. No download is necessary to play the games and they load very quickly in neat pop-up windows. It's also possible to try them out just for fun before committing any money. The software provider is Chartwell who also power online games used by Bwin and Betfair.
Poker
Coral's poker offering initially appears to require a download but there is an option for an instant play version, requiring Java. The downloadable version offers certain benefits such as being able to customise your poker table. The instant poker application isn't as well laid out as the casino games but it doesn't take too long to get to grips with the interface. A chat room is also available for those who like to have a gabble with their gamble. The software for Coral's poker is powered by Ongame Network who also provide for a range of other sites.
Bingo
Naturally Coral's bingo section links straight to Gala Bingo. Gala's site is a little more chaotic at first glance but it's still easy to find your way around. The bingo site actually contains a lot of other games from roulette to more casual offerings. Like Coral's casino, Gala Bingo operates in a pop-up window and requires no download. The bingo lobby is split between a chat room and a selection of available tickets for purchase.
Coral has a comprehensive help section with betting guides and information regarding each of the website areas. Individual sports rules are included and finding out what you need to know is generally simple. The support side of Coral is let down by the absence of a 24 hour help line- direct support is only available between 7am and 11pm and this might be an issue for some people.
Another key drawback is the apparent absence of a mobile betting service on the main website. Thankfully a quick search will reveal coraleurobet.com which has a WAP based service link for those who like to gamble on the go. Unfortunately this is only for sports betting and it really should be advertised in a more prominent place on the main site.
All of this adds up to a feature packed gambling service, the addition of Gala Bingo (which can be accessed using your Coral account) is of particular benefit to the site and the casino is also very easy to use. A radio service and neat tools such as a bet calculator all contribute to what is an excellent betting experience. Despite a couple of small niggles like the limited support service Coral stands out as a high quality gambling site.
Tick box:
Safe: Yes
Demos: Yes
24/7 support: No
Live chat: Yes (in some games including poker and bingo)
Download required: No (optional for poker)
Promotions: Yes
Live-Betting: Yes
Mobile: Yes
Disclaimer: All deals and promotions listed were correct at the time of this review, and are subject to change. For current promotions, please visit the website as listed above. Please feel free to use the comments section to post details of current promotions including, where applicable, valid dates.