LadBet vs Ladbrokes

Support handles a version of this conversation most weeks. Somebody has deposited, cannot find the balance, and is understandably alarmed. Nine times in ten the money is exactly where they left it, at the other company. Our own licence details and the company behind the brand are both published so the two can be told apart in seconds.

So, plainly: LadBet is operated by Jupiter Gaming Limited of 9 Bond Street, Jersey JE2 3NP, under Gambling Commission licence 67098. Ladbrokes is a long-established British bookmaker operated by an entirely different company, with its own licence, its own accounts and its own terms. There is no ownership link, no shared platform and no shared wallet in either direction.

Why the confusion happens

Three letters and a category. Both names start with "Lad", both are British bookmakers, and both turn up against the same searches. Autocomplete finishes one when you meant the other, and a phone keyboard does the rest.

Where it goes wrong in practice

The expensive version is depositing at one and looking for the balance at the other. Nothing is lost, but the ten minutes before you work that out are unpleasant, and support at either company can only see its own accounts. The fix is boring: check the address bar before the cashier, not after.

Telling the two apart

If any of those does not match what is in front of you, you are not on our site. That is worth knowing in both directions — it is also how you spot a copy of either brand.

What we are not going to do

This page will not compare the two as products. We are not going to tell you our odds are better, our app is faster or our offer is worth more, because we would be marking our own homework against a competitor who has no right of reply on our site. Advertising rules take a dim view of it and, frankly, so would a reader.

What this page is for is the practical problem: making sure the money goes where you intended. On the question of whether we are worth betting with, what customers say and our licensing are better evidence than anything we could write about somebody else.

If you have deposited in the wrong place

Nothing has been lost and nothing needs reporting as fraud. Work through it in this order.

1. Check the confirmation email. It names the company that took the payment, which settles the question immediately.
2. Check the card statement. The merchant descriptor names the operator rather than the brand.
3. Sign in there. The balance will be sitting in that account, untouched.
4. Withdraw from there if you want it back. Their timings and rules apply, not ours.

What you should not do is open a dispute with the bank. The payment was authorised and it did reach a licensed operator, so a chargeback will be declined and it may well get the account frozen while it is investigated.

Lookalike sites are a separate problem

Confusing two real bookmakers is inconvenient. Landing on a copy of either is not, and the second is worth more care than the first.

If you have handed card details to a copy of either brand, the bank comes first. They can stop and recover a payment in a way no gambling operator can, and reporting it to Action Fraud afterwards takes ten minutes.

Other names that get mixed up with ours

Ladbrokes is the big one, but it is not the only source of confusion, and the rest are worth a line each.

• Search suggestions split "LadBet" into two words, which turns up a different set of results again.
• Our app listing and our website use the same name, so an app store search is a reliable way to reach the right place.
• Affiliate and review sites sometimes run domains built from our name plus a word like bonus or login. Those are not us, even where the content is accurate.
• The only sign-in that belongs to this account is on our own domain, and it is the one in the address bar of the page you are reading.

None of that is unusual for a brand in its first year. It is simply worth knowing that a familiar-looking name in a search result is not by itself evidence of anything, on either side of the comparison.

Decide a figure before you start and the rest of the evening looks after itself. You can ring 0808 8020 133 without giving a name to anyone, at whatever hour suits you. 18 and over only, without exception.