Gambling is a popular activity in the UK, with a large betting and gambling industry that is well-known worldwide. The country’s permissive legislation has played a key role in this. Over time, online gambling has become more prevalent than traditional bookmaker shops thanks to advancements in technology. Nevertheless, accessing UK betting websites from outside the country can be challenging. That’s where my guide to the best VPN for online gambling comes in handy!
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Last Update Made On: 19 December 2024
Why can’t I access UK betting sites abroad?
As I said above, other countries have stricter gambling legislation than the UK. What is totally acceptable in the UK, might be completely forbidden in other countries. As such, most UK gambling sites need you to actually be in the UK to use them. If you try to visit an online casino site from a country where betting is not legal, you’ll get something like this:
Luckily, even when you face this type of messaging, there’s still a solution. This guide will show you a 100% legal way of unblocking UK gambling websites while abroad, so you can continue betting and playing just like you would at home.
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How to unblock UK sites with a betting VPN?
The geo-restrictions of betting and gambling sites are based on your IP address. If a site detects your IP address isn’t in the UK, you’ll be blocked. Therefore, you need to find a tool that can hide or change your IP, so that you can pretend you’re in the UK. While you could try to use a proxy, I always recommend a gambling VPN (find out why here: Proxy vs. VPN). A betting VPN will emulate your location in the country where you connect.
So, to access a UK gambling site, you have to connect your betting VPN to a British server. This server will then connect to the betting site for you. With VPN betting, all your internet traffic will pass through an encrypted tunnel between your laptop, to the server and then onto the site you’re trying to access. As the site will only receive information from the server, it will consider that you’re located in the UK – even if you’re not. As a result, you will be able to access UK betting sites, no matter where you are.
Changing your IP Address is legal. However, most gambling sites require you to actually be in the UK to use their services. Using a gambling VPN may breach the site’s terms and conditions, giving them good cause to revoke your winnings…
Therefore you should understand the risks involved when using a VPN for betting, and weigh the pros and cons. Losing your winnings would definitely suck…
Once connected to a server in the UK, you can refresh the gambling site page. Going back to our original Betclic example, you can see that I can now access the site using a betting VPN and play online poker or place sports bets as usual.
Why should I use a VPN for betting?
First of all, a gambling VPN allows you to access UK betting sites from anywhere in the world. But there’s more! There are a huge number of advantages related to gambling, and not related to gambling.
The best betting VPN will hide your activity
While you can easily hide your online activity from your loved ones with private browsing, incognito tabs can still be viewed by your internet provider (ISP) or the government. With the snoopers charter, your online privacy is over. But with a gambling VPN, you can regain your privacy and get it back to browsing anonymously. This isn’t just for gambling either. A VPN for betting is the same as a VPN for browsing and as such, you can hide all your online activity – from gambling to shopping and reading the news – from any onlookers.
A gambling VPN protects your privacy. How? Two things. First of all, a VPN for betting hides and replaces your IP address with the IP of its own server. So the sites you’re browsing believe that you “are” the server – they don’t know the server is connecting to their site on your behalf. While they know your requests, they can’t link the requests to your real IP address.
Furthermore, whether you’re using a VPN to gamble or to stream movies online, the VPN creates a tunnel to encrypt your connection. All your data passes through this tunnel and is protected from snoopers: Your government, your ISP and other hackers.
This added level of protection and privacy is why I actually use one of the best betting VPN on all my devices, at all times. And I’d recommend you to do the same. Even if you think you have nothing to hide, you leave traces of your activity and identity everywhere. Despite these bits of information being anonymous, it’s possible to locate and identify you…
Use different accounts
The best VPN for gambling will allow you to create multiple accounts to gain access to specific privileges. Depending on the location, you can get diverse accounts and use multiple currencies to add extra protection to your online activity. It’s also worth mentioning that a single account for VPN gambling will allow you to use the software on multiple devices – so you can hide your activity on your laptop, mobile and tablet all at the same time.
Access ALL geo-restricted content with the best betting VPN
This is one of the most popular features of a standard, or gambling VPN. This particular benefit doesn’t relate solely to gambling, but it’s still pretty appealing. When you connect to an IP address in any country, it means you can unblock all the restricted content from this country.
Let’s say you want to watch American Netflix or stream AMC from your home in Newcastle. Without a VPN: Impossible. But with the best betting VPN, you can quickly connect to an American server and enjoy the show!
And it’s the same the other way round. If you’re on a trip to China, with a gambling VPN, you can watch UK Netflix from abroad or stream Sky Go. You can also get access to censored websites like Facebook or Twitter.
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The Best Betting VPN: How much is it?
Is anything really free these days? Not really. And it’s the same for a gambling VPN. If you do find a brand offering free VPNs, I wouldn’t recommend exploring further. Behind any VPN for betting service is an expensive network with hardware, software, and employees. If the service is free, how can they afford to run it?
Chances are, you’re paying for it in another way.
If you don’t pay money for their services, your value is somewhere else: In your navigation data and your online habits. These companies will sell this data to the highest bidder who will use it for spam or marketing. And that’s only the best case scenario.
Some cybercriminals also offer free VPN services that claim to be the ‘best betting VPN’. By running their own service, they gather a huge amount of data from unsuspecting users, including bank login details, credit card information and all account login details.
While the best VPN for betting aren’t free, they are cheap. What’s more is that they typically offer promotions throughout the year. You could can get yourself a cheap VPN, for as low as £2.50 for a month. A cost of a single pint to guarantee your privacy online and bypass all restrictions. Not bad, right?
The best VPN for betting
There are literally hundreds of brands offering VPN for betting services. But finding the right one is crucial. Some of them might not be a gambling VPN, and as such won’t work on gambling sites.
Lucky for you, I’ve simplified the selection process, and tested the best betting VPN so that you don’t have to. All you have to do is choose one from the list below:
How to set up a gambling VPN
Finally, here’s a very simple step by step guide on how to access UK betting sites using the best betting VPN above.
- Choose a VPN for betting from the list above – I’d recommend ExpressVPN if you’re not sure
- Click on the red button to access the VPN official website
- Subscribe to the service (follow their instructions)
- Download, install and launch the software
- In the client, select a server located in the UK
- Click on the “Connect” button
- Go back to the gaming site and refresh the page
And you can now be a high roller again! This works not only with Bet365 but with every betting site you can think of. Although each of the best betting VPN options above will have their own set up process, this step by step should be enough to get you started.
UK gambling stats
If you like stats like me, you’ll find a cool infographic below with some fascinating information about UK gamblers. You’ll discover gambling habits among men and women, young and old, all throughout the land!
So this was my guide on the best betting VPN and how to access UK gambling sites when travelling. With a specific VPN for betting in tow, you should be able to get back to your favourite casino games in no time. Stay tuned for more articles coming soon.