If you’re looking for the glitz and glamour of Tinseltown in your online gambling, Hollywood Bets certainly offers most of it. But is it a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame or is it all just the smoke and mirrors of a make-believe industry? We think that this well-known sports bookie, and newly minted online casino, certainly offers a lot – even if it’s more of an indie production rather than a summer blockbuster.
If you’re looking for the glitz and glamour of Tinseltown in your online gambling, Hollywood Bets certainly offers most of it. But is it a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame or is it all just the smoke and mirrors of a make-believe industry? We think that this well-known sports bookie, and newly minted online casino, certainly offers a lot – even if it’s more of an indie production rather than a summer blockbuster.
Casino Rating
8/10
New Players
R25 Free Bet bonus on successful registration.
Min Deposit
R5
Loyalty Scheme
There is currently no Loyalty programme at Hollywood Bets
Here’s a horror show to start out with: type www.hollywoodbets.net into your browser. Hit enter. Gape in horror at what you are facing.
Now look to the right of the page. See that box with the “Go to new website” message? Hit that as fast as you can!
Our initial thoughts when we visited the Hollywood Bets site were that we had somehow been transported back in time to the early 1990’s and were stuck in some spam-filled, designed-by-my-mother’s-friend’s-cousin’s-12-year-old-neighbour hell. It is simply atrocious.
Thankfully, there is a new and updated website that really has thought and spatial awareness put into it.
The new website is clean and super smooth. Everything is laid out to be a click away, although there are places where you need to delve a little deeper to find what you are looking for. The black-dominated colour scheme with purple accents is premium looking and classy, and it gives the player an easy time of navigating around.
The centre of the page is, as is normal on sports books, taken up by lists of the latest events, odds, and options. On the left we have the various sports lobbies, while on the right is helpful tips and Hollywood Bets info. The top banner is a rotating series of colourful frames that highlight the latest promos and offers.
Above the rotating banner are the tabs that take you to various areas of the website: About Us, Branches, Videos, Contact Us, Careers, Covid-19 SA, Promotions, and Results. This is a little unusual as this would normally be the place that players would look for the lobbies like Sport, Live Games, etc. rather than the info you would normally see at the foot of the page. Still, it does make the layout a little more open and easier to navigate, so we’ll let it slide.
The very top of the page gives you a quick look at your profile details and a link to your account. We like this feature as it gives us a quick glance at our account number, our balance, our recent bets, and with a link to more in-depth info within our account profile.
The left-hand area is where most of your navigation will happen and the links here are to all the online casino lobbies as well as to all the sporting action.
The foot of the page has all the usual required info as per every other site out there.
Which takes us to one final thing relating to the layout: the Hollywood Bets Sports Blog. It’s one of the tabs on the right-hand side of the page and we recommend every player have a look at it – it’s pretty damn fine. Here you can find all the latest news and views about the online gambling scene, the latest offers from Hollywood Bets, the latest sports news, predictions and reviews, FAQs, interesting articles, and so much more. You can also find out more about the Hollywood Foundation and what they are up to in our communities.
Registration was ‘easy’. The process was simple, but we did find that we had to ask for assistance because, once we had a confirmed registration, the system wouldn’t allow us to log in using our username/password. Frustrating, yes. A dealbreaker, not really. It’s something we are finding more and more as we register on various sports betting and online casino sites. Maybe it’s to make sure we aren’t bots? Who knows?
That gets you a confirmation of your registration and access to bookies and casino.
You will need to do a FICA check and supply banking details before you can start playing for real money.
Hollywood Bets is secured using SSL digital encryption to ensure all your data is secure.
Hollywood Bets supports Responsible Gambling and Fair Play policies.
The left-hand tabs are where you will find all the different lobbies – and it starts with some online casino lobbies like Spina Zonke (online slots for the win! Yay!), Betgames Africa, Jika Sports, Casino by Evolution, Casino by Ezugi, Live Instant Win, and Golden Race.
Below these are all the sports lobbies, and they are comprehensive if only limited to 26 markets. As we said though, these do encompass all South Africa’s favourites: cricket, golf, tennis, rugby, boxing, MMA, motorsport, and so on. A selection of the more ‘exotic’ sports is on offer like handball and floorball, but the choices are very much in the mainstream of the bigger sporting codes.
Horse racing is a focus and there is a simply mind-boggling number of permutations for horsey fans.
Sports betting
The left-hand tabs are where you’ll find all the different sports betting options and they are comprehensive if only limited to 26 markets. As we said though, these do encompass all South Africa’s favourites: cricket, golf, tennis, rugby, boxing, MMA, motorsport, and so on. A selection of the more ‘exotic’ sports is on offer like handball and floorball, but the choices are very much in the mainstream of the bigger sporting codes.
Horse racing is a focus and there is a simply mind-boggling number of permutations for horsey fans.
Jika Sports is the Virtual Sports lobby for fans of video and RNG-based horse racing, motor racing, and more.
We did notice a lack of e-Sports betting which is odd considering the massive growth of this betting market.
Casino games
Above the sports betting tabs are the online casino games lobbies like Spina Zonke (online slots for the win! Yay!), Betgames Africa, Casino by Evolution, Casino by Ezugi, Live Instant Win, and Golden Race.
The presence of online slots fills us with joy, even if there are only about 70 online slots games available. They are provided by Habanero – a superb international online slots provider.
Table games are only available as Live Dealer games but these are brought to you by Evolution, Betgames, and Ezugi so they are top quality (although we did have an error message every time we tried to get into the Ezugi lobby).
Evolution brings all their best in Live gameshows, poker, blackjack, roulette, baccarat, dice, and craps along with some new games like bac bo and fan tan.
Betgames have their tried and trusted line up of Speedy 7, Andar Bahar, War of Bets, Baccarat, 6+ Poker, Bet on Poker, Baccarat, Wheel of Fortune, Lucky 7, Lucky 6, Lucky 5, and Dice duel.
We couldn’t get into the Ezugi lobby but we’re sure they bring the goods as they usually do.
With stellar providers like these, players can expect professional dealers, superb sets, and smooth interactions.
Lotteries
The Lucky Numbers tab is where you will find all the lotteries taking place around the globe so you can have a go at those life-changing payouts!
Aviator
This is an interesting addition that we’ve never seen before. Aviator is a really weird betting game where you bet on when a plane will disappear from screen. The closer your bet is to the plane leaving, the more your multiplier. We think.
There is currently no Loyalty programme at Hollywood Bets
Using your mobile device to access Hollywood Bets is as simple as typing the address into your mobile browser. You will get all the functionality and the same basic layout as on the online site. There is apparently a very basic app but it’s not optimised for smartphones so we suggest sticking to your browser.
There are an agreeable number of banking options familiar to South African online gamblers
Deposit
Withdrawal
Winnings can be withdrawn into a properly FICA’d bank account. Remember, when withdrawing funds, you will be legally required to provide FICA documentation to Betway, including bank details, ID, and proof of address.
There is also an option to withdraw into e-Wallets, CashSend, Send-iMali, and Instant Money.
There are a few ongoing and changing promotions from Hollywood Bets, which is great for regular players. However, there is only on sign up bonus and no deposit bonuses.
R25 Free Bet bonus on successful registration. Automatically credited to your account and must be used within 24 hours. Ts & Cs apply.
Promotions
Promotions are definitely there for all the regular punters and are available for both the sports betting lobbies and the online casino games. They do change regularly so keep an eye on that promotions page.
Problems and queries can be resolved through an FAQs page, or via email o telephone. The lack of a Live Chat is noticeable as we spent quite some time waiting on a telephone operator. It’s the usual “you are number xx in the queue”, “we are experiencing high call volumes”, and that cutting off out of the blue.
Nevertheless, once we were connected, the support was professional, thorough, and really helpful.
Terms and Conditions are industry standard. Make sure to read and understand them before you start depositing money.
Hollywood Bets is licensed across multiple provincial gambling boards including Western Cape, Gauteng, Limpopo, Eastern Cape, Free State, Mpumalanga, and KZN. Hollywood Bets is owned by Hollywood Sportsbook.
