Stake vs Bet365: The Live Streaming Battle

[Pmalek]

Bet365.com has some of the highest quality sports streams in the betting industry. I use them often for various reasons, both for leisure and professionally. Stake.com is relatively new in the live streaming field, so I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to compare these two services and see the pros and cons of both.

I will compare a few different things:

•   The number of matches and the live streaming offer.
•   The quality of the streams.
•   The accessibility of the streams and how easy/hard they are to work with.
•   The design, layout, and graphical representation of a live match.

Accessibility of the Stream

It’s very similar to get to the streams on both platforms. Both sites require the player to be logged in to access the live streaming feature.

bet365

After logging in on bet365, you click on In-Play matches on the top left and select the sport you want to watch. If a live stream is available, you will notice a play icon on the far right. Clicking on a match opens it in the corresponding bet365 in-play match centre.



If you click on the streaming icon, a stream with match information will appear on the right. A volume slider is present to adjust the sound. It’s also possible to open a new window with an adjustable screen for the stream.



Alternatively, you can click on the Streaming button from the sport selection on the top to view a list of all matches that are streamed live at that moment.

Stake

On Stake.com, you need to click on Sports > Live Events from the box on the left to display all in-play matches. Select the sport you are interested in, and if there is an available live stream, you will notice a play icon next to the result. 



Clicking on the streaming icon opens up a new but small window with the stream. The player can move the window around and place it where it suits him better. It’s possible to adjust the volume, but the window size can’t be changed, and there is no full-screen feature.



If the player clicks on the match instead, he will be taken to the selected game's match centre, where he can watch a bigger stream.

Final Thoughts

In my opinion, there is no clear winner in the accessibility department. They both seem equally good to me. Bet365 seems slightly faster when browsing and switching between matches, but that’s not enough for a win here.

Live Streaming Offer

Bet365

This is what Bet365 says about its live streaming feature:

bet365 streams thousands of events every year, bringing you top sporting action including games from Europe’s top domestic Soccer leagues and Grand Slam Tennis tournaments, as well as EVERY UK and Irish horse race.
Only available to eligible customers. To watch live sport, UK racing covered by At The Races or Racing TV, US racing covered by At The Races or Indian racing covered by BetRadarAV, all you need is a funded account or to have placed a bet in the last 24 hours. To watch any other racing that is not UK racing covered by At The Races or Racing TV, US racing covered by At The Races or Indian racing covered by BetRadarAV, you must place a qualifying bet of at least £0.50 win or £0.25 Each Way (or currency equivalent) on your selection(s). This applies to single and multiple bets. Minimum stakes apply to Tote and other pool betting.

Source: https://extra.bet365.com/features/en/sports-live-streaming

Bet365 streams games from some of the most popular football leagues in the world: German Bundesliga, Italian Serie A, Spanish La Liga, French Ligue 1, and many other leagues and sports.

On Sunday, April 4th, I checked the available streaming offer on Bet365 between 21.00-22.00 CET. Here are some details of what was on offer:

•   bet365 showed a total of 14 live football streams and 66 matches from all sports.
•   bet365 had live streams of the Spanish 1st and 2nd league matches and the French Ligue 1.
•   bet365 requires depositing money in a player account to watch live streams, or the player has to make a bet on the match.
•   bet365 streamed all 9 MLB baseball matches live.
•   4 basketball streams were running on bet365 at this time.
•   An Austrian handball match was streamed live.
•   There was a good offer of Esports and Table Tennis live streams.

I took a 2nd quick look at the live streaming offer on Monday 5th at around 10.00 CET.
This is what I found:

•   43 live events were available on bet365.
•   3 of those were football matches, but the majority were Table Tennis events.

Stake

This is what Stake says about its live streaming feature:

We've gone and raised the game - again!

Live Streaming on Stake has taken yet another step forward, as we have increased our live streaming offering to include elite and premium sport, available to all punters.

With over 170,000 events per year; headlined by the NBA, MLB, Bundesliga, UEFA Champions League, ATP Tennis and more, experience the smartest way to bet your crypto on Stake. 

200,000 live events, including:

NBA
Major League Baseball
The best Soccer leagues, cups and International fixtures from around the globe
ATP Tennis
Chinese, German and Greek Basketball leagues
FIVB Volleyball
T20 Cricket
PDC Darts
Much more!

Source: https://promotions.stake.com/live-streaming/

According to the source, Stake.com streams the UEFA Champions League, the German Bundesliga, all UFC events, and major ATP tournaments, just to name a few.

On Sunday, April 4th, I checked the available streaming offer on Stake.com between 21.00-22.00 CET. Here are some details of what was on offer:

•   Stake had live streams for 3 football matches and 14 in total from all sports combined.
•   2 soccer streams were from Brazil, and 1 was from Ecuador.
•   No Spanish or French matches were streamed.
•   Players don’t have to deposit to their Stake.com account to watch streams. They are immediately available after logging in.
•   No MLB baseball or basketball matches were streamed live last night from 21.00-22.00 CET.
•   An Austrian handball match was streamed live.
•   Stake.com had an excellent offer of Esports and Table Tennis live streams.

I took a 2nd quick look at the live streaming offer on Monday 5th at around 10.00 CET.
This is what I found:

•   10 live streaming events were available on Stake.com.
•   Not a single of them were football matches, but 5 were Table Tennis streams.

Final Thoughts

Bet365 had a more comprehensive offer of live streams (66 and 43 on bet365 compared to 14 and 10 on Stake.com) when I checked.
All of the world’s TOP 5 football leagues (except the English PL) can be streamed on bet365. Stake only streams the German Bundesliga. The share volume of streams for other sports is also greater on bet365. This is clearly a point for bet365.

What I like about Stake is that they offer live streams for the UEFA Champions League. Bet365 doesn’t. But overall, Bet365 is a clear winner in my opinion in this department.

The Streaming Quality 

Bet365

Bet365 streams can run directly on the site or in a separate window. When they are in a new window, the player can click on the highlighted button below and activate a much bigger screen if he wants.





Stake

Stake.com live streams can be opened in a separate window, as explained previously. This window can be moved around your screen at will. It’s a better experience when you open the match in Stake’s match center, where you can view a larger screen.





Final Thoughts

The playback experience on both sites is excellent. With a good Internet connection, players won’t experience freezing issues or crashes.

When I compared the delay, I found that bet365 is always ahead of Stake. At best, Stake's streams were delayed by 2-3 seconds compared to bet365, but in some cases, this delay was up to 10 seconds. Whenever you reload a Stake stream, the delay is different. Sometimes it’s 3 seconds; other times it’s 5, or even 10.

Here is a head to comparison of both streams running for the same match on 2 computer screens:



Because of the delay and no option to increase the live streams window, I see bet365 as the winner in the streaming quality department.

The Design and Available Options for A Live Match

Bet365

When you open a match in Bet365, this is the standard layout you see:



You have various betting markets in the middle, a 2D representation of ball movements on the right, and the most critical stats underneath. Clicking on the different tabs, like Goals, Free Kicks, etc., allows you to see the positions on the pitch from where those events happened. The summary tab below the pitch shows a timeline of events, such as goals, bookings, substitutions, etc. There is also a lineups tab that shows all players called up for the match.

Stake

When you open a match in Stake.com, this is the standard layout you see:



Like bet365, you have the betting markets in the middle with the stats and 2D representation on the right. Stake's data features head-2-head results, league positions, and a textual live ticker for the entire match. The button on the far right below the pitch shows tactical lineups of both teams.   

Final Thoughts

Both platforms offer a wide range of stats and a similar layout. I prefer the way Stake looks over bet365. It seems better built compared to a simpler style used by bet365. I like that Stake offers textual commentary, which is a feature that is missing on bet365. Bet365, on the other hand, offers adjustable sound alerts for events such as goal, cards, corners, subs, etc. Overall, I think Stake.com is the winner when it comes to design and layout quality.


Feel free to share your own thoughts and comments.

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[Joca97]

Well i like watching games on bet365 its fast and dosent lag plus its not late. Didnt watch much games on Stake but for me bet365 is the way to go they are the biggest and best fiat casino. While stake is one of the best crypto casinos in the world. And i think Stake can do really big big things . Also i seen that for table tennis they sponsored the entire tournament and stream it thumbs up for that as well

[Saint-loup]

Well i like watching games on bet365 its fast and dosent lag plus its not late. Didnt watch much games on Stake but for me bet365 is the way to go they are the biggest and best fiat casino. While stake is one of the best crypto casinos in the world. And i think Stake can do really big big things . Also i seen that for table tennis they sponsored the entire tournament and stream it thumbs up for that as well

I agree with you, for table tennis punters, Stake is definitely the place to go   lol
This comparison from Pmalek is very detailed and accurate but a little bit irrelevant in my opinion. Bet365 is an old british fiat sportsbook restricting many territories while Stake is an international crypto sportsbook available from almost everywhere in the world without KYC, so they can't offer the same live streamings as bet365, that's obvious.

[vennali]

No disrespect to stake but the streams on Bet365 are ahead of any other streams available across all the streamable universe. They get the direct feed from matches which are given to the broadcasters for commentary etc and then to channels. The whole process loses at least 30 secs of real time vs broadcast time difference. Which isnt bad in fairness but its not the same. The downside for direct streams is that it isnt palatable to larger audience base. It is only useful for punters/gamblers who would like to know real time event to get an advantage. Stake uses mostly broadcasts or twitch integration.

[alegotardo]

Certainly, BET365 is the best choice in this case.
The agility in the transmission of the games is the most important aspect in a betting game, and that is why BET365 has my vote in these cases.

However, I also really like Stake for other games where I don't care about that criterion, I prefer the layout of Stake over BET365.

[Pmalek]

This comparison from Pmalek is very detailed and accurate but a little bit irrelevant in my opinion. Bet365 is an old british fiat sportsbook restricting many territories while Stake is an international crypto sportsbook available from almost everywhere in the world without KYC, so they can't offer the same live streamings as bet365, that's obvious.

I disagree. Bet365 certainly has country restrictions, but so does Stake. According to their TOS, several countries are restricted from Stake.
USA, Iran, North Korea, Netherlands, the UK, Australia, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, to name just a few.

Besides that, Stake's live streaming services aren't available worldwide. Here is a quote from a link I shared in the OP:

Please note: Live Streams are available to certain regions only. If you would like more information about this, please contact our 24/7 support team.

https://promotions.stake.com/live-streaming/

No disrespect to stake but the streams on Bet365 are ahead of any other streams available across all the streamable universe.

Trust me they aren't. I often work with streams that are several seconds ahead of bet365 and all TV channels. I can't get into more details about them.

They get the direct feed from matches which are given to the broadcasters for commentary etc and then to channels. The whole process loses at least 30 secs of real time vs broadcast time difference.

Bet365 adds an artificial delay on their live streams. They are not as fast as they were in the past. The delay isn't 30 seconds. It varies. I have seen matches were the delay between a live event (that occurred at the venue) and a stream/tv broadcast is 3/4 seconds, and I have also witnessed matches were this delay goes up to 10 seconds. That's the data when you compare the fastest available TV/streaming source with a live venue event. Of course slower channels will have an additional delay compared to the fastest source.

[Saint-loup]

This comparison from Pmalek is very detailed and accurate but a little bit irrelevant in my opinion. Bet365 is an old british fiat sportsbook restricting many territories while Stake is an international crypto sportsbook available from almost everywhere in the world without KYC, so they can't offer the same live streamings as bet365, that's obvious.

I disagree. Bet365 certainly has country restrictions, but so does Stake. According to their TOS, several countries are restricted from Stake.
USA, Iran, Korea, Netherlands, the UK, Australia, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, to name just a few.

"to name just a few"   you quoted the comprehensive list yet Pmalek (BTW it's North Korea, not Korea)

United States, cw, Syrian Arab Republic, Islamic Republic Of Iran, The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Australia, Portugal, Serbia or Slovakia

https://stake.com/policies/terms
Moreover you shouldn't forget one thing, there is no KYC and you can deposit, gamble and withdraw cryptocurrencies, so even if you are located in a restricted area it's not impossible to use it. That's not the same for bet365, I can't register on it from my country.

[7788bitcoin]

It is a good comparison and i can say that stake is the best when it comes to live streaming in the cryptocurrency gambling space, you cannot compare with Bet365 who is the leading sports book for over a decade and the number of lines they provide cannot be matched by majority of the sites and Stake is a new kid when it comes to sports betting and with time it will improve and will compete against Bet365 and when it comes to promotion you cannot compare with Stake as Bet 365 does not give you much promotion other than the initial deposit bonus.

Verdict: Stake wins by a mile against Bet 365 in terms of the promotion they offer to its users. The rest it will catch up in live game play smoothness and other finer things.

[Pmalek]

(BTW it's North Korea, not Korea)

Yes, you are right, I edited my previous post. I thought it was the "other" Korea.

Moreover you shouldn't forget one thing, there is no KYC and you can deposit, gamble and withdraw cryptocurrencies, so even if you are located in a restricted area it's not impossible to use it.

I don't know how it is with Stake, but many crypto bookies have no KYC rules until you win a significant amount and than you have to suddenly verify your identity. 

@7788bitcoin
Crypto bookies in general offer players better deposit bonuses than fiat casinos plus a wide range of other promotions. Fiat bookies offer deposit bonuses ranging between $100-200 on average. Crypto casinos have bonuses of 1,2, or more bitcoins.

It's good that Stake has entered the live streaming market. Bet365 has placed the bar pretty high on that front, and I am sure Stake.com will make up ground in the years to come.     

[fiulpro]

There is a clear winner here : bet365 but I do think other than that this post can be used by these respective companies to improve their own instabilities in any way. I do think that through your little research.
Stake can focus on their live stream events and at the same time they should also improve the video quality but I do think that goes for both of them.
They can Include more matches and make sure that the games won't lag. There should be even more people giving such reviews. This would help them improve the overall quality of the whole system in place.
Bet365 is already an old and reputable site precisely one of the best available in the market. But stake has to work forth on the live streaming events.

I hope both these companies take a note of this post !
P.S. such reviews should actually be paid since OP did really do a good job.

[dkbit98]

Problem with Bet365 is that they are not accepting Bitcoin and crypto payments, and you must bet 24h before you want to watch some live streams, and sure it's not much you have to pay but you still need to bet everyday.
Stake is free to watch even with that small lag and more important is they accept Bitcoin payments, but that miniature unresizable small video window is really stupid.

There are other ways to watch sport streams in better quality with full screen like Rokkr, KodiTV and there are even free sport live stream apps for Android on their store, but remember to use vpn or something like this.

[Fortify]

It was rather interesting to see that the CEO and largest shareholder of Bet365 made around £460,000,000 last year between her dividends and salary. That is a colossal amount and shows they must be doing a lot of business in these Covid times. I always wonder how companies like Stake do in comparison, when they are usually situated outside the regulatory authorities of a major country - that is bound to put off a certain segment of gamblers who need to know their money is somewhat protected. Are the owners of Stake well known? It always makes me feel a little bit safer with companies when they are really transparent like that. Thanks for your feedback on stream quality though as it is really insightful and might help when deciding to watch a few games!

[LTU_btc]

Oh, I wasn't aware that Stake have live streams on their website. Nice and detailed comparison, OP! I don't watch live streams on sportsbooks very often, but it's useful thing to have.
From your review I see that Bet365 is way ahead of Stake. One of key advantage that they have - significantly smaller delay of streams. We all know how big factor it's on live betting.
Also, stream quality on Bet365 looks better and there is more options to adjust stream size and watch it on bigger screen.
Also, I may be wrong, but I think that live streams that sportsbooks are offering may be different in different countries because of streaming rights that they have.

Problem with Bet365 is that they are not accepting Bitcoin and crypto payments, and you must bet 24h before you want to watch some live streams, and sure it's not much you have to pay but you still need to bet everyday.

I always thought that having ballance on Bet365 account is enough to watch live streams.

[Pmalek]

...and you must bet 24h before you want to watch some live streams, and sure it's not much you have to pay but you still need to bet everyday.

Actually, there is no need to bet before the event or on the event for that matter either. The only requirement that exists for the majority of sports is that you are logged in and have deposited funds to your account. I am only aware of betting requirements for horse and greyhound races. For those sports, you need to place a bet on one of the markets for that respective race to be able to see the stream.

Also, I may be wrong, but I think that live streams that sportsbooks are offering may be different in different countries because of streaming rights that they have.

That's correct. In some countries like Germany and Austria, you wont be able to watch streams of local sports. The German or Austrian Bundesliga, DEL, or the BBL basketball league. That's because Sky Germany, Magenta Sport, ORF, and others, have the broadcasting rights for those competitions. But you can watch other sports from other countries. The specifics vary from country to country, and the media rights in effect there. 

[dkbit98]

Actually, there is no need to bet before the event or on the event for that matter either. The only requirement that exists for the majority of sports is that you are logged in and have deposited funds to your account.

Funded account or bet in last 24 hours is what the rules say:

Only available to eligible customers. To watch, all you need is a funded account or to have placed a bet in the last 24 hours.

https://extra.bet365.com/features/en/european-soccer-live-streaming

[nelson4lov]

@Pmalek, kudos to you on the in depth analysis and unbiased review of both stake and bet365 platforms. While I've used the live streaming option at stake just a couple of times times including the most recent SuperBowl event back in early February and the experience wasn't so bad. Stake just has to do more to improve the live streaming experience and hopefully support even more events as well.  Being one of the very few crypto sport books supporting event livestreaming, I'd say Stake is on the right path. It shouldn't be long now.

[Joca97]

Well i like watching games on bet365 its fast and dosent lag plus its not late. Didnt watch much games on Stake but for me bet365 is the way to go they are the biggest and best fiat casino. While stake is one of the best crypto casinos in the world. And i think Stake can do really big big things . Also i seen that for table tennis they sponsored the entire tournament and stream it thumbs up for that as well

I agree with you, for table tennis punters, Stake is definitely the place to go   lol
This comparison from Pmalek is very detailed and accurate but a little bit irrelevant in my opinion. Bet365 is an old british fiat sportsbook restricting many territories while Stake is an international crypto sportsbook available from almost everywhere in the world without KYC, so they can't offer the same live streamings as bet365, that's obvious.

Im still shocked that bet365 still didnt add crypto. I think their revenue would explode and would open a lot more options for us gamblers as well
Really a shame that they dont add it plus they restrict you if you win so thats a bad side from bet365

[Pmalek]

Funded account or bet in last 24 hours is what the rules say:

Yes, that is probably true, and that is different from your previous reply in which you wrote that the player must bet in a 24 hour time window before the live stream. Since I always keep a little bit of money in my bet365 account, I never experienced issues with not being able to watch a live stream.

...plus they restrict you if you win so thats a bad side from bet365

I have won hundreds of $ per bet on bet365 and lost plenty of times. I was never limited nor did anyone ask me any questions regarding my betting patterns. Not sure what kind of experience you have.

[Adzivu]

@Pmalek
Depending on the market you are betting on you get limited.
If you play small markets (Croatian 3rd football league) you will get limited pretty fast, especially if it's prematch bet. In play you can bet a bit more until they limit your account.

If you play bigger markets (NBA , UEFA CL) you don't need to worry about limits, but you have better options than b365 for that (pinnacle if it's prematch).

[magneto]

It's really no surprise given the fact that Stake was launched way later than Bet365, and Bet365 is just a more established company and can afford to invest in a ton of network infrastructure.

But I am really impressed with Stake, honestly. Given the fact that it is a purely crypto casino that spawned out of a dice site, it is doing awfully well in terms of converging with the industry norm when it comes to adding features.

If only more services in the crypto world can get closer to the quality delivered by their fiat counterparts... That would be the ultimate catalyst for mass adoption.