Blue Square was founded in 1999 and was bought four years later by Rank, the gaming company with casinos, bingo halls and other online gaming sites among its interests. Rank are listed on the London Stock Exchange and are based in London, whilst Blue Square is also based in the city and is regulated by authorities in Alderney in the Channel Islands.

Blue Square operate an online casino and poker room in addition to the sports book and have over 750,000 registered users.

The company has a slightly below average range of markets, although on UK horse racing and football they are well covered. On big football matches they have an excellent range of markets, including some unusual ones as well as the ability to create your own scorecast bets (first scorer and correct score combined). They also cover novelty and special bets very well, and although the overall coverage of lesser sports is not great, it is improving. They are quite UK-centric, as one might expect given the website is only available in English.

Blue Square's odds are also below average on the whole and in tests we didn't find them leading the way. Having said that, on occasion they will attempt to stick their neck out on big football matches and occasionally outsiders in horse racing, but they are almost always usurped by others.

The main sign up bonus in the sports book is currently 25 GBP but it does change quite frequently. In the past it has been as high as 80 GBP so if bonuses are your main motive for signing up with a bookie it could be worth watching and waiting. The current offer is a 100% match on your first bet between 5 GBP and 25 GBP, which is not the best around by any means.

They also offer an ongoing 0-0 refund on all Premier League games, enhanced odds trebles and occasional cashback promotions on horse races if, for example, your horse gets beaten by a single length in designated races. In addition they run a weekly caption competition with a 100 GBP prize as well as welcome bonuses in their casino and poker room.

The in-play console is clearly marked on the top and side menu bars and whilst it is sometimes a little slow to load it's a decent enough piece of software. It is easy to see the current live events, what is coming soon and there is also a diary for future events. There is a good selection of sports and markets (with around 20 markets on most football games) and a "ticker" accompanies all in-play events updating you with match information.

Blue Square's mobile app is also sound, and in fact won the EGR award for "Best Mobile Performance". Whilst there is no specific bonus for mobile punters the app is, as you would expect from an award winner, very good and also comes with plenty of dedicated support, should you need it.

It can be accessed by texting "Bet" to 64555, going to mobile.bluesq.com on your phone's browser or entering the your mobile number onsite to obtain a link by text.

Telephone: 0800 587 0500 or +44 203 530 3014
Email: support@bluesq.com
Address: (from the UK) FREEPOST Bluesq.com or Customer Services, Blue Square Ltd, PO Box 37354, London, N1 2WT
Other contact methods: Live chat

Blue Square claim to offer live chat but in extensive tests on multiple occasions it was unavailable with "all agents are currently on chats with other customers", allegedly! This is really poor and is fairly symptomatic of the customer services team at Blue Square. Telephone assistance, although answered quickly is not up to scratch, with basic questions having to be checked and different answers given to the same question by different agents! Not good and plenty of room for improvement, although the FAQ section has a nice lay out and better than the industry standard.

Blue Square are not a bad outfit, rather they are a good one, but with some basic flaws. The customer services issues above could be quite easily fixed with a little investment and the range of markets could also be simply expanded which, in fairness, does seem to be happening. The in-play and mobile options are definite plusses and the range of unusual specials bets will also appeal to some punters.

However, the free bet is nothing special - although a free bet of £25 is not to be sniffed at - and the odds in general are, again, average at best.

Having said that, the website is quick and has improved a lot in the last two years. There is a wealth of information on it, from their blog to the racing icard and the scores and stats information. All in all good but could be much better.