Unibet Poker
Why Play at Unibet Poker?
- Great software for recreational players.
- Rakeback rewards from loyalty scheme.
- Plenty of soft games, especially tournaments.
- Satellites and access to major events, like Unibet Open.
UNIBET POKER SUMMARY
Unibet is a Swedish betting company that’s been around since 1997. As one of the industry’s original online gambling brands, it’s seen all manner of trends come and go. In 2013, it’s executives made the decision to leave the MPN network and go it alone. This move led to a partnership with Relax Gaming and the creation of the Unibet Poker Network. Today, this standalone network is the champion of recreational poker. Everything from the Unibet welcome bonus to its software is designed to be fun and, more importantly, appealing to casual players.
Our Unibet review will take you through the various ways this site is great for novices. However, before we do that, it’s important to note that this is a European poker site. That means it’s available in Europe and the UK. Its poker platform is also available in Canada but, at the time of writing, not the US.
What about in the US?
Unibet is legal in certain US states, including New Jersey and Pennsylvania. However, these apps only offer sports betting and casino games. Will this change in the future? Possibly. Therefore, if you’re able to access Unibet US, the information in this review could still be useful in the future. For now though, the following information is only applicable if you live in the UK, Europe, or Canada.
PROMOTIONS & BONUS INFORMATION
Is there plenty of added value at Unibet? Of course there is and we’ll explain what you can get in the following sections. We’ll also answer questions such as is there a Unibet Poker bonus code?
Bonus Code and Payout
At Unibet Poker UK and other regions, you can get a sign up offer when you register. Therefore, it’s worth explaining what you can get if you live in the UK and Europe both for its own sake and as a way of showing what could be available in the US.
Unibet Poker Welcome Bonus
- Click PLAY HERE and use our Unibet Poker download link to create your free account.*Note: you don’t need a Unibet Poker promo code to activate this offer.
- Enter your Unibet Poker login and deposit at least £/€10.
- Get €28 worth of tickets: 1 X €8 cash game ticket (for €0.02/€0.04 tables) + 4 X €5 tournament tickets.
- You also get access to four €500 Unibet Poker freerolls for new customers.
- Finally, you get a £/€500 progressive bonus. The Unibet Poker playthrough bonus is active for 60 days and cash payments are released on an incremental basis:
Level | Amount You Pay in Rake | Amount of Your Bonus Released |
1 | €2 | €1 |
2 | €10 | €4 |
3 | €50 | €15 |
4 | €150 | €40 |
5 | €550 | €140 |
6 | €1,638 | €400 |
As you can see, the Unibet Poker sign up offer is packed with value. Moreover, it’s unique. The tickets can’t be classed as a “Unibet Poker no deposit bonus” but they are a static reward. That means their value isn’t dependent on the size of your deposit. It’s the same for the freeroll tickets and the bonus cash. As long as you meet the minimum deposit requirement, you’ll get maximum value. Whether or not you play enough to unlock said value is up to you. However, the opportunities are there. This is what makes the new customer offer great for recreational players and novices.
Unibet Poker Promotions
The Unibet Poker bonus page is mainly filled with freerolls and special guaranteed tournaments. That’s because most of the post-deposit bonus value is gleaned from the loyalty scheme (see below). However, there is one promo that caught our eye. Unibet Replay Rewards is a chance for you to get something back if luck isn’t on your side. Unibet’s promo team uses a sophisticated algorithm to find players down on their luck. Once the system finds people on a downswing, it pings them an email containing an offer.
That offer is a mission which, if completed, will earn the unlucky player some money. Unibet pays out €15,000 in Replay Rewards every week. That’s a lot of money. Not only that, it’s a lot of money that you wouldn’t get at other online poker sites. As we keep saying, Unibet is all about giving casual players more value.
Loyalty Program
The VIP scheme isn’t like one you’ll have seen before. Indeed, if you’re doing a Unibet vs PokerStars comparison, you’ll find that the former focuses less on volume and more on achievements. Basically, you’ll be given a series of missions to complete.
These missions range from the simple (e.g. play XX game) to something more complex. Each completed mission earns you Unibet Poker bonus points which can be exchanged for prizes. So, in a general sense, the Unibet Poker rakeback system isn’t uniform. That means you can’t bet a certain amount and get a certain amount of cash back.
However, what you can do is engage in a series of tasks that keep things entertaining. Yes, there’s less certainty with regards to what you have to do vs. what you’ll receive. But this doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of added value. In fact, as well as bonuses and rakeback, you can win a free trip to a Unibet Open event somewhere in Europe if you complete enough missions!
POKER GAME VARIETY
Anyone that plays nosebleed stakes with poker’s elite will be slightly disappointed with what Unibet has to offer. However, if, like us, you’re among the 99% of the poker population that doesn’t grind at a high level, you’ll love this site. Why? Because the games are not only aesthetically pleasing and filled with fish players, but perfectly pitched.
Unibet Online Poker is all about entertainment and making poker fun for everyone, regardless of their skill level. This means the cash game lobby covers every popular variant and buy-in level. That doesn’t mean the developers haven’t thrown a few surprises into the mix. However, overall, the Unibet Poker app mainly focuses on low and mid-stakes No Limit Hold’em (NLH) and Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) games.
Hold’em and Omaha games start at €0.02/€0.04 and go up as high as €2/€4. That’s a lot lower than most top-rated online poker sites but, again, Unibet is all about recreational gaming. This overriding ethos also means you won’t find Stud, Draw, Mixed Games, or any other exotic variants.
Having said that, you can play an innovative short-deck game called Banzai. This is basically Unibet’s take on 6+ Hold’em and it has a unique twist in that you can only buy in for a maximum of 10 big blinds. That means there’s a lot more action because you don’t have much choice other than going all-in or folding. You can play Banzai poker at €1 NL, €5 NL, or €20 NL.
Unibet Poker Tournament Schedule and Satellites
This features everything from freerolls and high stakes MTTs to major live events. For those on the first rung of the poker tournament ladder, Unibet has more daily freerolls than many of the best US and UK poker sites. As well as welcome freerolls and events for loyal players, you can play free tournaments with prizepools topping €600.
If that’s not enough, you can use Unibet Poker freeroll passwords to enter exclusive events organized by specific companies within the community. Finally, there are plenty of free qualifiers for live tournaments. In terms of tournaments you have to pay for, the line-up looks like this:
Daily and Weekly Guarantees
There are plenty of daily and weekly MTT events at Unibet Poker Online. Buy-ins start at an affordable €0.01 aka Unibet Centrolls. At the top end, weekly majors such as the Big Bang and the €40,000 Supermoon cost between €200 and €250.
Sit & Go Tournaments
There is a lack of high stakes SNG action at Unibet but we don’t think that’s too much of a problem. Why? Again, this site is aimed at recreational players. As such, you can play five-handed SNGs for between €1 and €25. Unibet also offers heads-up SNGs. Buy-ins for these start at the same level and go up to €200.
Also propping up the sit & go lobby are jackpot-style games known as Hexapro. Buy-ins range from €1 to €100 and all tables are three-handed. As is the nature of these games, you won’t know how much you’re playing for until the action starts. However, the top prizes will be worth 1,000X the buy-in, which means you could win up to €100,000!
Private Games
The Unibet Poker private games are unfortunately just tournaments. Honestly, we’d like to see cash games added to the Unibet Poker home games. However, the fact you can set up your own events at all is a positive.
Creating a tournament to play Unibet Poker with friends is fairly simple. You don’t do it via the app. Instead, you fill out a form and Unibet’s support team does all the hard work. A Unibet Poker private table requires a minimum of six players and you’ll need to wait up to 48 hours for the event to be created. Once it’s ready, you can use your personalized password to ante up alongside your friends.
Satellites and Live Events
Long before Unibet was a champion of accessible and entertaining online poker, it was a leading light on the European tournament scene. It achieved this status thanks to the Unibet Poker Open. Stopping in various European hot spots, including London, Prague, and Budapest, these events combine great value with a jovial atmosphere.
Anyone can pay €1,100 to enter a Unibet Open event. However, if you’re a member of Unibet, you can qualify via satellites costing less than €1. Of course, you can pay more to start higher up the qualification ladder. But the point here is that you can win your way to a top-quality live event for not a lot of money.
SOFTWARE & GRAPHICS
You can choose to install the Unibet Poker software on your computer or play via your browser. In our experience, the no download platform - Unibet Poker instant play - isn’t as slick as its downloadable counterpart. That’s just our opinion, but you will find that the PC and Unibet Poker Mac download (for Apple Macs) are a little more stable.
Regardless of whether you use the Unibet Poker play in browser software or the desktop client, you’ll be able to move effortlessly between cash games and tournaments. What’s great about Unibet’s app is the prompts. Each game/variant has a “i” button attached to it. Hover over this and it will give you a brief description of what that game is and how to play. You won’t find these types of prompts at other popular online poker sites, which reaffirms Unibet’s position as the ideal place for novices. Something else that also plays into this dynamic is random seating. You can’t choose a cash game table.
Instead, you select the stakes and variant you want to play. From there, the software will automatically take you to a random table. This is to eliminate things such as bum hunting and give everyone a fair shot at playing against people of comparable skills. The final feature of note is screen names - You can have five different identities while playing poker here. This helps you stay anonymous and, in turn, prevents people targeting you. It’s not an infallible system, but it’s almost unique to Unibet and a great way to avoid the sharks.
Multi-tabling
Multi-tabling is easy at Unibet. The software is capable of running 4+ games at once, which means the only thing you have to worry about is playing solid poker. For that, you can use the Unibet Poker starting hands chart to brush up on your pre-flop skills. From there, you can learn how to play tight and exploit weak players when you’ve got multiple tables open.
Mobile App
The Unibet Poker browser and desktop apps are designed in such a way that everything is compatible with mobile devices. In other words, all of the features inside the main app are available on iOS and Android devices.
No HUDs Policy
Some players have reported configuration issues with products such as PokerTracker and Hold’em Manager. If you can’t use your preferred tracking software, iPoker has developed its own HUD to use at the tables. For example, the auto-seating feature doesn’t need to change. That means you can download the Unibet Poker mobile app and access cash games on your iPhone or Android in the same way you would your PC or Mac. In our opinion, this consistency is the reason Unibet’s mobile app is easy to use and extremely efficient.
TRAFFIC AND SOFT COMPETITION
Unibet left MPN back in 2013. It subsequently partnered with Relax Gaming to develop its own software and create its standalone network which, as we’ve said, focuses on the lighter side of poker. Indeed, the decision to break away from MPN was fueled by Unibet’s desire to take control of its products and make poker fun again.
It has certainly done that. As well as winning multiple awards in recent years, it’s one of the industry’s only successful standalone sites. It’s ranked among the top 15 networks in the world and attracts up to 1,000 cash game players every day. Unsurprisingly, a lot of these players are newbies or casuals. That means you’re not going to find a lot of tough games. So, if you can brush up on the basics of poker, you should find that Unibet can be a profitable place to play.
SUPPORT
The FAQ is packed with information that’s neatly segmented into categories. You’ll also find a variety of responsible gambling tools, including deposit limits and timeouts. For those times you need help with specific issues, customer service agents are available to contact 24/7 via the following methods:
- Phone: 0800 329393
- Email: [email protected]
- Live Chat
- Forum (ask members of the Unibet community)
DEPOSITS AND WITHDRAWALS
Unibet is a licensed and regulated online gaming company. This not only means it’s legal in various countries but that it offers a secure betting experience. For example, if you use Unibet Poker Canada, you can be confident that it operates within the law and, therefore, works hard to keep your money safe at all times.
SSL encryption protects all deposits and withdrawals, as do the best payment processors in the world. Unibet also stores your funds in segregated bank accounts. That means your money is safe, even if the company runs into financial problems. The default currency on this site is Euro. You can make deposits in GBP as well as other local currencies but you’ll always make bets in Euro (if you’re outside of the US). The minimum deposit is €5 and transactions are processed instantly. The minimum withdrawal is €10 and requests are typically processed in 24 hours.
Payment Options
OUR OVERALL UNIBET POKER RATING
If you’re a poker novice or someone who wants to have fun and not worry about sharks, Unibet is the place to play. This operator offers the best conditions for low and mid-stakes players. It’s an established name in the UK and Europe but we expect it will soon be a haven for recreational players in the US. Therefore, it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, Unibet should be one of your top picks if you want value and entertainment.