It’s not very often that the Online Casino Review team manage to unearth a gem amongst all the thousands of online gambling platforms out there, but Play is a genuinely excellent example of how to marry design, utility, navigation, ease, and excitement into one shiny package.

Online sports books are, in general, a bit of a nightmare to get around if you aren’t an experienced sports bettor and most tend to favour a very basic and stark look to try to give a sense of order to what is on offer. Online casinos, after many years of experimenting, tend to lean toward a more simplified format where the games do all the talking – and then set it in a ‘plush’ look to give us a premium feel.

Play have taken the best of all possible worlds to create a premium look and feel with all the functionality you could need and run it across both the online sports book and the online casino.

And it works! Brilliantly!

Classy, cool, beautiful, and easy to navigate. That’s the look and feel. The actual gambling side is even more impressive. A world-class Live Casino, Lucky Numbers and Betgames, and a comprehensive sports book with over 50+ categories of sports from across the globe.

It all adds up to a place where we WANT to go and play!

License: Western Cape Gambling and Racing Board

Operator: Betflash (Pty) Ltd

Opened in 2022

In a word: exquisite.

Exquisite design. Exquisite layout. Exquisite playability.

Play have combined form and function beautifully to present an online sports book and casino whose look is only surpassed by its absolute pleasure to navigate.

Everything is designed to be easy to see and easy to get to. From the home page and its Live Casino focus to each of the different game lobbies and the sports book – a glance, a click, and there you are, ready to play.

It’s a bit of a revolution in the eyes of the OCR team. Where other online sports books try their hardest to bring ease through a lack of colour, or where other online casinos overpower their players with hundreds and hundreds of thumbnails for all their games, Play have gone with a striking purple accent on black background that – surprisingly – works incredibly effectively in making everything easy to see and read combined with a downplayed and simplified casino games layout that lets the players see exactly what is going on without getting swamped with choices.

The home page layout is an indication of just what players will see as they navigate through the gambling partner: class, elegance, and simplicity.

There are two main menu bars with links to In-Play, Sports, Live Games, TV Games, Virtual Sports, Lucky Numbers, Promotions, and Deposit. There is the usual animated banner with current promos, news, and events. There is a top bar with the logo (that doubles up as the home button) and register and login buttons – these change to become your profile link and main balance and bonus balance. The bottom of the page has all the legals and info links as per standard practice.

Your profile button will open up all the deposit, withdraw, promo, my bets, and messages pages.

And that’s it. No mess, no fuss.

And the ease continues with each lobby you click on.

Elegant in style, simple in execution, pleasure in every moment you spend at Play.

Play is fully compliant with the Fair Play and Player Privacy Policies. They adhere to the Responsible Gambling Programme.

Play is secured using industry-leading encryption software.

Play is fully legally licensed through the Western Cape Gambling and Racing Board.

Sports book

Play has a comprehensive sports book with over 50+ categories and 300+ traders managing live In-Play games. South African sports gamblers will be thrilled to know that Play has all the favourites: soccer, rugby, cricket, golf, basketball, motorsport, boxing, and MMA.

But there is also a great selection of other world sports like futsal, badminton, snooker, darts, and more.

And an awesome eSports offering for those players who know where the future of online sports gambling is heading!

There is also a Virtual Sports lobby for fans.

Casino

Play has an impressive Live Casino under the Live Games tab that includes baccarat, roulette, poker, blackjack, and keno from well-known providers Creed Roomz and Vision Casino.

Rumour has it that Evolution will also be setting up their studios for Play players soon.

Fans of lotto games have a world of numbers to choose from in the Lucky Numbers lobby.

And, the news we are all super-thrilled about, Play will be bringing world-class slots to the casino in the very near future.

At the moment there are only two real promos – a Welcome Bonus and a 1^st Deposit Bonus – but we understand that Play has literally just opened their digital doors. We will be watching with interest to see what other promos are put up for players and we will update all our readers as they happen.

Welcome bonus

• R50 Free Bet

R50 Free Bet for use on the sports book on successful registration. Ts & Cs apply.

• 1^st Deposit Bonus

100% match on your first deposit up to R3,000. Wagering requirements and Ts & Cs apply.

The 1^st Deposit Bonus can be sued at the sports book and at the casino. Make sure you read and understand the wagering requirements and Ts & Cs before you redeem the coupon.

Regular promotions

Play are currently only days old so we expect their promos will still be in the planning stages. The OCR team will update you with all the latest offerings from Play as they are made available.

There is a tier-based Loyalty Programme from Play where players earn points for playing. The tiers are Bronze, Silver, and Gold and the points can be exchanged for money.

Play.co.za is a fully responsive platform that works beautifully on mobile devices.

One small disappointment is the lack of banking options. At the moment, players can only use EFT to deposit or withdraw funds, but Play have assured us that the usual channels trusted by South African players (like Visa, Mastercard, and various voucher systems) will be up and running in the near future.

However, Play do offer Realtime EFT for same day payouts so that’s great news.

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