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GloBet is a competent bookmaker, but average odds combined with a lack of bonuses and choice mean that, for English-speaking customers at least, its existence in such a crowded marketplace seems slightly pointless.
On arrival at the site you are greeted by a screen offering a staggering variety of languages, indicating that GloBet does attempt to live up to its name. The translation is surprisingly accurate by the standard of Internet betting companies, although the support available in other languages is weak. GloBet does attempt to put the ‘world’ into ‘world wide web’ with its language use at least.
However, the sports available seem to focus mainly on a US market, although there is a reasonable coverage of football. Additionally, in all sports the odds come on the market considerably later than most of GloBet's rivals. This might lead some people to suspect that the odds are being averaged out from a number of other companies, and the odds themselves, which form solid value but rarely offer any surprises, do little to dissuade such an assumption.
The GloBet site itself is very easy on the eye, with a stylish interface in complementary blues and orange. Navigation is fairly straight-forward, although once you go forward a page you can rarely navigate back without using the ‘back’ button. The account screen and options are simple and effective. Overall, the site is both fast (except in Russian, where the alphabet typically slows things down) and easy to navigate, although one suspects this is as much due to the limited content as the good design.
Signing up is a simple and uninvolved process, except that you need to place a 10 EUR deposit to open an account. Customers accustomed to the US sites, which often offer healthy signing up bonuses, would be disappointed by the lack of bonuses available at the time of writing.
Placing a bet on GloBet is a simple process, and can normally be done with just four clicks from the home page. Deposit and withdrawal methods are equally straightforward, and there are no extortionate fees. Customers with a fetish for paper money will be glad to know that they can also get hold of their winnings through the old-fashioned method of cash in the post.
In terms of customer service, there is an online help system although navigation is a bit fiddly. You can also phone the hotline from 10am to 9pm CET (that’s Central European Time apparently) although the standard of response was mixed.
GloBet has been trading since 1996, and in 2002 it made a profit of £5m on a turnover of £50m. For peace of mind, GloBet is registered with the UK-based independent betting arbitration service IBAS.
Overall, there is nothing wrong with GloBet, but there also seems to be little reason to recommend it. The range is limited and the odds are average and appear late. Furthermore, its purpose seems slightly confused, as its helplines are based in Europe but many of its sports cater towards an American audience. Perhaps its niche could lie with foreign language speakers, although the limited sports available and lack of foreign language support also make this dubious.
Upshot: Average
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