BoyleSport is Ireland’s biggest independent bookmaker. Since its integration into the betting industry in 1982, they have gone on to provide one of the best bookmakers not only for its Irish customers, but that of the UK and around the world.
Unlike most of the modern day bookmakers, BoyleSport still relies heavily on its high street shops and even telephone betting – Fon-A-Bet – to subsidise its income. Over 100 high street shops can be found promoting BoyleSport in Ireland alone with a workforce pushing over 1,000. The company have invested large amounts into the sponsorship of a variety of sports including football and greyhound racing to name just a couple.
Sign Up Offers
Bet £10 Get £20 in Free Bets
Other Offers
This is available on one horse racing meeting each day or occasionally two if they are feeling particularly generous. You get your stake back as a free bet on singles if your horse finishes second to the start price favourite. The maximum is a very reasonable £20.
All UK and Irish horse racing meetings have guaranteed odds so that if you take a price and the SP is bigger you will be paid at the better odds.
Much like the horse racing offer, if you take a price on any BAGS/BEGS greyhound race and the start price is bigger, you'll get paid at the bigger odds.
UK and Ireland customers only. 18+, T&Cs apply.
#adBoyleSports are one of the few operators to offer accumulator insurance on all sports markets, pre-match and in-play. Acca's with 5 or more selections at odds of 1/2 or greater each will qualify for a refund if only one of the selections loses. This is paid as a free bet up to £20 (minimum £5 applies).
Features
Boylesports have a very clear and usable website. An area where this is especially evident is the in-play section. There’s a wide range of sports and markets available and it’s really easy to find and select what is currently available. You can star the live events that you’re interested in so that they appear at the top of the menu. It’s also really simple to look through the upcoming fixtures for that day, conveniently sorted by sport and then start time.
It’s probably of little surprise to hear that BoyleSport offers up one of the largest array of Irish sports in the industry. Comprehensive markets on sports such as GAA Football and GAA Hurling make it an ideal place for fans, and bettors of those sports to come and bet. The usual non-Irish sports are obviously on offer as well in what’s a very solid betting market line-up.
The Boyle Group not only supply odds for sports, but their casino, bingo, poker, lotteries, and mobile sections are all well-equipped. The site really could be a one stop shop for many bettors with pretty much all the important bases covered.
Banking
Payment Methods
UK and Irish customers can make deposits using debit cards, bank transfer, Skrill, Neteller, PayPal and by Paysafecard. As a retro option you can also pay in by cheque. Account holders in the Republic of Ireland can also make deposits to their online account in any Boylesports shop. Customers in other territories have a range of methods to use including EUTeller, eKonto, SOFORT, Trustly, Giropay and InstaDebit.
Fast Facts
- Minimum Deposit – The minimum amount that you can deposit is £10.
- Minimum Withdrawal – This is also £10.
- Withdrawal Time – Payments should reach your account in between 3 to 5 days.
- Fees – Boylesports themselves do not apply fees to transactions.
- Bonus Exclusions – Neteller and Skrill deposits won’t be eligible for the any of the free bet promotions.
Licence & Contact
Customer Support
- Live Chat – Via website
- Email – [email protected]
- Telephone – UK: 0800 22 00 66, RoI: 1800 22 00 66, Rest of World: +353 42 939 3168
- Post – Boylesports Customer Services, Finnabair Industrial Park, Dundalk, Co. Louth, Ireland, A91 Y899
Company Information
- Licence Details – UK Gambling Commission 39469
- Company Name – Boylesports Enterprise
- Company Number – 112469 (Gibraltar)
- Registered Company Address – Suite 2B, 143 Main Street, GX11 1AA, Gibraltar
About Boylesports
Ask people to name an Irish bookmaker and there is little doubt that they will name Paddy Power. Whilst that is a company that has worked hard to earn its reputation in the industry, it is also one that has regularly opted for cheap tricks when it comes to marketing ideas. Meanwhile, BoyleSports has operated slowly and surely since the company’s formation in 1982, which came when John Boyle opened his first betting shop in the Markethill area of County Armagh in Northern Ireland. As proof of the ‘slowly but surely’ method, BoyleSports didn’t open its 100th shop until 2006.
The success of BoyleSports wasn’t immediately obviously, not least because John Boyle took a job working in his brother’s betting shop after losing his job as bread delivery driver, enjoying success in the position and making a decision to open up his own shop. Over the years that followed, Boyle developed the company to become a massive success, not only in his native Ireland but also across the water when he began to open betting shops in the United Kingdom, all supplemented by a strong online presence.
John Boyle Opens His First Shop
For John Boyle, a life in the world of gambling shouldn’t have been too unexpected. After all, he would often travel with his father, who trained greyhounds for a bookmaker. He would later declare to his friends that he was ‘going to be a millionaire’, having been told that the bookmaker, who he met in London on one of his father’s trips, was one. That was an impressive aim for someone that had left school at the age of 15 and struggled to enjoy a full-time role before getting a job as a bread delivery driver as a 25-year-old in 1982.
He began working in his brother’s betting shop, learning the ropes and developing a keen interest in the subject. He was, he later said, determined to ‘grab’ any opportunity that came his way and ‘be so appreciative and so grateful’. He opened his own shop in 1982 and worked there for seven years, opening a second shop in 1989. He had bought the first shop thanks to a £6,000 loan from his father, having got into the world of betting when placing bets on greyhound races. “It was exciting and fun, you always thought you were going to win.”
Moving To Southern Ireland
The decision to open a new shop wasn’t just about expanding the bookmaking empire that John Boyle had begun to build. It was also about getting himself out of Northern Ireland, which was suffering from the troubles at the time. His new betting shop, alongside four others, were opened in Drogheda in the Republic of Ireland. It is located in the Dublin–Belfast corridor, about fifty miles or so from Dublin, so it wasn’t too far from home for him. The headquarters of BoyleSports was established in Dundalk, County Louth.
It was an entirely understandable move for Boyle to make. His family lived in a village to the south of Armagh and in the early part of the 1970s the family home was bombed. Though they had been given advance notice and managed to leave the house in time, there was havoc for them and the pub that it was built above. As if to prove the point of how volatile life in Northern Ireland could be at the time, the first explosion was carried out by a Republican group, with a Loyalist group carrying out an attack there a few years later, albeit after the Boyles had moved out.
As with so many who grew up in Northern Ireland at the time, these attacks were a fact of life. If he hadn’t been sacked from his job as a bread delivery man, he might well have quit it after a petrol bomb was thrown onto the front seat of the truck that he drove. Boyle struggled with a drinking problem which meant he was often missing shifts. BoyleSports as an enterprise only really taking off once he’d decided to give up drinking and concentrate on the empire that he was going to build.
BoyleSports Begins To Grow
Photo © Sean Davis (cc-by-sa/2.0)
A big part of the reason for the move to the south of the island of Ireland was the fact that things were a lot more relaxed there. In Northern Ireland, bookmakers had to apply for permission to open a shop and prove that there was a need for a new one in the location that they were looking at. The same wasn’t true in the Republic of Ireland, with the answer ‘always’ being ‘yes’ for new betting shop applications and without the risk of investing £30,000 only to have your application turned down, as could happen in the north.
Even so, it remained a slow progression for BoyleSports. By August of 2004, the company had opened up 77 shops across Ireland, with its 100th store opening two years later. He was able to add another 17 shops to the empire when Celtic Bookmakers began to struggle in 2011, at which point BoyleSports stepped in and saved the 100 or so jobs associated with the firm. That year he also made a move to buy 15 shops that belonged to William Hill, ensuring that the empire’s growth was a steady and successful one.
John Boyle Steps Down, Then Back Up Again
In 2017, John Boyle made the decision to step away from his role as the Chief Executive Officer of BoyleSports. In his place, his son-in-law Conor stepped, with Boyle acting as the Executive Chairman in order to help guide Conor in his decision making. It was a wise decision, seeing BoyleSports open up its 250th shop in County Kildare in September 2018. A year later and BoyleSports, which had also launched a successful online presence, made its first move across the Irish Sea, buying Wilf Gilbert and taking charge of the independent bookie’s 13 shops in the West Midlands.
BoyleSports has always been an Irish bookmaker, though. That is perhaps why the company agreed to pay to purchase 15 shops from William Hill, who had all but shutdown their operations on the Emerald Isle. It ensured that BoyleSports was the largest betting retailer on the island of Ireland, with a restructure following soon after. The former Managing Director of the UK Tote Group, Mark Kemp, was brought in as Chief Executive Officer, whilst Conor Gray shifted over to become the Commercial Director. More growth followed, thanks to the purchase of independent bookmaker Tully.
As well as the retail shops of Tully, BoyleSports also bought the company’s telephone business. It was all part of BoyleSports’ on-going expansion, which included a deal with platform solution organisation Aspire Global that would allow them to move into the Dutch betting market, once a licence was granted. When Mark Kemp stepped down as CEO in March 2022, John Boyle returned to the role on a temporary basis. His decision to do so was designed to help the company keep operating smoothly whilst the search for a new CEO was carried out.
The Move Into Great Britain Is Solidified
By May of 2016, BoyleSports had 25 stores in Great Britain. That, though, wasn’t enough to allow John Boyle to feel as though he could relax about the company’s move into the United Kingdom’s betting market. So it was that a decision was taken to open another 20 shops, starting with an initial two whilst 18 others were ‘going through the process’. The ‘vast majority’ of the new outlets were going to be in the Midlands, according to BoyleSports’ then-Chief Financial Officer, Mark O’Neill. It was hoped that the move would help to bolster the company’s online presence, as much as its physical one.
The decision to concentrate on the Midlands was based on the fact that the business there had ‘outperformed’ the rest of the BoyleSports shops in Great Britain, at least in terms of its ‘digital online growth’. It was all part of a strategy that depended more on organic growth than on acquisitions, even if the company remained open to doing the latter. It meant that the company had more than 340 shops across the UK and Ireland, which included two on the Isle of Man. Not bad for a company that was started by someone who had lost their job as a bread delivery driver.