Sporting Odds, the fixed-odds arm of the spreads company Sporting Index, certainly passes muster as far as the former categories are concerned, but it is the fact that the firm offers early prices on all UK racing that gives it a big advantage over the competition.
The design of the site is uncluttered and simple to manoeuvre and the racing section offers players the chance to display every event from a particular card on one page - particularly useful when the early odds are on view.
The number of early-price races varies from firm to firm, from day to day but an average tally with normal racing on offer would be around eight, that's well shy of what this site offers.
The prices available might not be quite what a punter was hoping for but, if nothing else, it provides an accurate early indicator for all that afternoon's competition.
For those looking to follow the sport on-line through the day, the site's racing centre provides audio coverage, relatively detailed cards and a fast results service.
The racing radio gets under way at 10.00 with news and previews, concentrates on greyhounds when the morning BAGS gets under way and takes in full coverage of all the afternoon's action from 1330. Commentary highlights and a results round-up follow after racing.
As with a lot of the firms, free-bet promotions change quickly from sport to sport, but the company does put on a range of new-user incentives.
These can be more regulated then some firm's offers, a recent example was a free £20 bet on the Champions League outright list for customers opening an account and staking £10 on any Champions League market, but are worth having nonetheless.
Finally for those harboring concerns over internet security, the firm allows users to partially complete their card details on the web registration form before passing on the rest of the information over the phone.
Sporting Odds offers one of the widest array of markets going as far as fixed-odds firms are concerned and their range of early price races is second to none - a must-have account in the on-line player's armoury.