I love my football and (without boasting) boast an exceptionally large knowledge of the game, and while at university, funded my exploits by winning accumulators and football-related bets down the local bookies. Of course, you win some, you lose some but I did rather well out of it, although from time to time you just cannot odds the rare shock result that ruins your otherwise perfect accumulator!

Since leaving uni, the local bookmakers is no longer across the road, it is 15 minutes walk away, which isn't too bad of course, but not exactly convenient. So, I decided to setup an online account and did so with William Hill as it is a trusted and traditional bookie. To be honest though, I think joining any well-known online bookmaker (Ladbrokes, Paddy Power, Bet 365 etc etc) is much of a muchness, although personally I am not a fan of BetFair due to their high minimum bet of £2.

Will Hill's was simple to join, and as a site is easy to use. I can only comment on the football side of things as I do not bet on anything else. Their prices are fairly good and winnings are deposited quickly to your account. You can view your account at any time - a profit and loss account of your transactions; deposits, bets, wins and losses. The minimum deposit is £10 which is fairly standard with many of these types of sites and the minimum bet is low; 50p I think it is.

The only quibble I have is with the in-play live betting, whereby the system seems quite slow and often displays a very wrong time, regarding how long a game has left to play, and this has cost me a couple of times. For example, the other day I bet on a UEFA Cup game live in-play. The Will Hill console said the game was at half-time when I put the bet on, but 15 minutes later the game was over and I lost my money because the game ended in a draw rather than a win for the team I backed. Bascially, the game-time was at 75 minutes, not at half-time, so my team did not have a whole half to find a win, but instead 15 minutes! Had I have known that I wouldn't have put the bet on!

Instances like above seem fairly rare but when money is involved it is poor that they got it wrong. Thankfully I didn't bet much but I would have been hopping up and down on the spot (and worse!) had I bet serious money!

The upside of the live in-play betting is that the prices can work in your favour and also, the large amount of games that you can watch live by streaming. The video is of good quality and usually features football across the continent; in the past I have bet on (and watched via Will Hill, for free) games in Italy and Portugal.

Overall, this site is good. It is easy to navigate and pretty reliable, with free football streaming an added bonus. It has numerous football coupons, with betting available on all sorts of football, domestic and worldwide. Be careful though, be aware of what you are betting and don't bet what you can't afford. It sounds like pretty patronising advice but hard-earned money can be lost in seconds on sites like these.