BetWay

BetWay at a glance

Even though the bookie has their headquarters in Malta, their biggest presence is felt in the UK where they are regulated by the UK Gambling commission. They have a strong worldwide presence but they do not accept players from the United States, surprisingly. The company started targeting the African continent back in 2015, with Kenya being their first country of choice. They struck a deal that would see the former Royal bets Kenya rebrand to BetWay Kenya. They launched their online platform at this time and players have been betting by SMS, through their website ad through the Android app since then. All Royal Bets Kenya customers had their account details (and funds) migrated to BetWay.

Their website is a bit too crowded to be honest, it took me sometime getting used to their site.

New players register by SMS or through their web portal. SMS “accept” to 29029 and they’ll create an account for your: With your phone number as the username. They’ll send you back your password.

Pro Tip: This is the same SMS number you’ll be using to place bets too.

When registering trough, the website, you’ll be required to provide your email and official names. I find this process tedious as other bookies usually pull your names straight from transaction records when you deposit by SMS. When you create an account by SMS, you’re not required to furnish them with these details and it’s faster.

BetWay Pros

Easy deposits

They’ve made the most out of M-Pesa and you can make deposit requests through their website. Confirm your mobile number and choose how much you’d like to deposit.

A popup on your phone will ask you to approve this deposit request and the funds are credited almost instantly. Neat.

Betway have exclusive games not available to other bookies

I love betting on basketball and Kenyan bookies rarely showcase games from smaller leagues. I find that BetWay has more “smaller” games in comparison to 22bet, Betin and sportybet.

Bwteay stream games to players for FREE

I use this feature when live betting. Most games aren’t aired on cable (we call it DSTV here) and I’m able to stream them through this site. I must confess that I go to BetWay to stream games even when I don’t have intentions of betting.

You can use betway site and app for free without using data (bundles) on Airtel / Safaricom

Cellular data is billed by the Megabyte and unless you’re on Wi-Fi, you will be required to have an active bundles subscription for you to access the internet. BetWay is exempt from this rule on Airtel. On Safaricom, you’re capped to 50MB every day and you have to use Opera Mini browser to access betWay.co.ke for free

Betway Cons

Betway livestreaming feature is often buggy and games lag

Well, this isn’t a deal breaker but it would be great if betWay gave us a stream that we could rely on.

Betway 20% withholding tax

The company gets to keep 20% of our potential earnings as withholding tax. This isn’t unique to betWay alone as all mainstream bookies are subjected to this tax.

Either way, this sucks and you’ll have to account for it. It’s believed that the biggest difference between successful punters and loss making once lies in ledger keeping, with 20% of your potential earnings taken away, you start at a handicap for sure.

Betway have the longest withdrawal processing period

Seriously. All deposits above Kes 10,000 have to be processed manually and won’t be credited as soon as the withdrawal request is made. It takes 24 hours for large deposits to be processed and withdrawals are slower over the weekends, when we have most games unfortunately.  

Pro Tip: If you ever need to withdraw Kes 30,000; make smaller withdrawals of less than Kes 10,000 multiple times instead of making one large withdrawal. This way you get to bypass their manual processing and have access to your funds instantly.

Betway have a maximum withdrawals limit sneakily hidden in their terms and conditions

betWay have built a bad name for themselves when it comes to paying out. Here’s the withdrawal clause hidden deep in their terms and conditions that many people are not aware of

Overall Betway review verdict

I would give them a 3/5. There’s room for improvement in their withdrawal processing and customer support departments.

BetWay deposit options

You can deposit funds to your online wallet by making payments through their M-Pesa pay bill 880185. I prefer topping up through their online payment request option as it’s faster. You could also deposit through Airtel Money or Credit Card. This is the only Kenyan bookie that allows deposits through credit cards as far as I know. You can withdraw through the same channels too.

BetWay customer service

Their customer support is somewhat lacking. They take long responding to issues. They are notorious for deleting “questionable” comments from their social pages too.

BetWay betting platform

They have all the typical games in in-play and as upcoming games. Even with their 5% winnings bonus (only applicable to multi-bets), betWay odds aren’t competitive. Looking at this basketball game, you can see that they cap their odds for OV 220.5 at 1.74 and 1.84 under and over respectively. Other bookies like Sportybet would have them at 1.85 and 1.95 respectively. Their odds aren’t worth writing home about to be honest.

Betway Welcome bonus and promotions

Betway have a 50% welcome Bonus on all deposits up to Kes 5,000. They are quite vague on how you’re supposed to earn this bonus.

The company also offers free bets of up to 20x your stake under these stringent conditions

Betting limits

Kes 49 is the minimum stake you could use to place a bet

Kes 10M is the maximum you could win on a single bet slip. This is quite generous. Other bookies usually cap their maximum winnings at Kes 1M on each bet slip; with jackpots being an exception.

[UPDATE] Betway jackpot Sept 2020

Betway has a pick 5 jackpot where you could win up to Kes 475,000 (Kes 380,000 after tax). All this for just 5 correct picks? Looks lucrative. There’s a bonus (Kes 95,000 before tax) for 4/5 correct picks too.

However, this reward is divided amongst all the winners and it will end in you cursing. I got a Kes 175 “bonus” for 4/5 correct from a Kes 95 jackpot. Haven’t heard such BS before.

Moral of the story

1. You’re better off setting up a multi bet (accumulator) with the same teams as you will definitely win more for the same risk.

2. Don’t EVER think of selecting all possible picks. You’ll spend Kes 23,500 and even though you will “win” the jackpot, it probably won’t exceed Kes 1,500 after tax and this is a guaranteed loss. There’s a disclaimer against doing the same too.

Q&A