bet365 are one of the best bookmakers we've reviewed and offer so much to punters across the UK. Features like the free sports streaming service and their amazing odds prices make bet365 a must-see!
Popular Tools For Use with PokerTracker 4: Whether you are looking to play more tables, increase your hand volume, or just simplify your poker experience; TableNinja II can improve your online poker workflow and maximize your multitabling experience. Bet365 have no shops and are an online-only bookmaker. Bet365's reputation is clearly merited for the good reason that their site is one of the market leaders for users looking for an. There's a variety of games including Blackjack, Roulette and Slot Games. Intro – bet365 Bonus Offers. The bet365 sign up offers, bet365 bonus codes, and bet365 promo codes are fantastic. There are many advantages to these bonuses, one of them being low wagering requirements. Bet365 US has, on average, the lowest wagering requirements compared to other new U.S.
This bet365 review has been written from the viewpoint of, and are the personal opinions of, two different reviewers.
An existing customer with years of experience betting with them who will tell you all about the product and how they treat existing customers, and a new customer who will tell you all about the sign-up process and whether there is a strong bet365 sign up offer.
Keep reading our complete, unbiased bet365 review to find out why both of these very different reviewers made bet365 their new regular bookmaker.
bet365 - Easy Sign-up Process and Excellent Welcome Offer
When I signed up to join bet365's sportsbook, I'd heard from a lot of people that it was a straight-forward and easy to understand process. Nip vs dignitas. And that there may be a welcome offer for new customers.
I'm pleased to say that those people were correct and my experience of signing-up as a UK customer to this bookie was a great one as they made it really easy in comparison to other bookmakers out there.
It was a simple one-page sign-up, so whilst they needed all the usual information from me - email, username, address etc, having it all on one page made it seem quick and simple.
Once I was registered with them I was instantly asked if I'd like to deposit, although you can skip that part, and it was at this point that a bet365 sign up offer was presented to me - however, they call it the bet365 Open Account Offer.
The bet365 new customer offer that I was presented was to ‘get up to £100 in bet credits' which, even without reading the terms and conditions comes across as an extremely generous offer.
Interestingly compared to other online bookies, bet365 avoid the words ‘free bet' with this promotion as they seemingly take their responsible gaming and bonus transparency really seriously which is an excellent thing if you're a new betting customer like me. How to buy paysafecard with paypal.
The terms and conditions that I was given on this promotion were incredibly fair too - firstly I had to claim the offer within 30 days. I then needed to make a qualifying deposit of £5 or more in order to qualify for a 100% matched amount in bet credits, up to a maximum of £100.
Release the Bet Credits of bet365's Open Account Offer
I was informed by their promotional text that my qualifying deposit is my largest deposit (capped at £100) made in the 7 days prior to you claiming the offer. Thankfully I was using my debit card anyway and it's great that bet365 accept Paypal which I've since gone on to use.
The next step was for me to release the bet credits by making qualifying bets of a total value of the qualifying deposit and these bets needed to settle within the first 30 days from opening my account. These bets had to be at odds of 1/5 (1.2) or more and in markets/fixture combinations that only have 2 or 3 outcomes - such as a win-draw-win market
Interestingly I would have lost my bet credits if I had not made qualifying bets to the total (or greater than the total) of my initial qualifying deposit. Once my credits were released though, I got to use them but was reminded that any returns from bet credits would not have the bet credit included, it would only be any winnings from bet credits that would go into my withdrawable balance.
Overall, in my personal opinion, when you compare these terms to those of other bookmakers, I think they're very favourable, especially if you're looking to deposit a decent amount from the beginning - it really seems that they want to look after you from the start; that's how I felt anyway!
Key Terms & Conditions
Here's a summary of the key terms and conditions that I experienced when claiming bet365's Open Account offer, explained by bet365 themselves:
New Customers only. Up to £100* in Bet Credits. Sign up, deposit £5* or more to your account and bet365 will match your qualifying deposit in Bet Credits when you place qualifying bets to the same value and they are settled. Min odds/bet and payment method exclusions apply. Returns exclude Bet Credits stake. T&Cs, time limits & exclusions apply. The bonus code CD365 can be used during registration, but does not change the offer amount in any way. Full list below. Significant Terms and Conditions
*or currency equivalent T&Cs, time limits and exclusions apply. |
#ad
What are bet365 like with Existing Customers?
Talking as a UK-based bet365 customer of over 10 years now, I've really seen the company grow and change over the years - and I've been offered my fair share of bonus credits and bet365 promotions during that time too.
I'm going to talk about a few of my favourite promotions over the last year and they're ones that have occurred regularly.
The easiest way to check out the promos is by visiting the site or app and heading to the Promotions tab - that way you'll see the latest ones available to you. Of course, it goes without saying that all of these promotions are 18+ and that full T&Cs applied.
If you like horse racing then one of my favourite offers has been their Grand National offer - I'd say it's the best Grand National offer I've received ever - where they gave you half your stake back if you made an each way bet on the race - up to a total return of £125.
So if you backed a horse £10 each way, you'd get £10 back instantly. And I really mean instantly - I'm always amazed how well they do things by automating their products.
A great bet365 football promotion I've been lucky enough to receive has been one that focuses on in-play markets. They pick a big game, and if you have a pre-match bet on game then they will match that bet in Bet Credits to be used when the game goes in-play. This alone is On occasion this has been up to £50 in Bet Credits which is a really generous offer.
In fact, and of course, this is just my personal experience but I've received a number of deposit bonuses over the years, just for being a loyal customer. Often I've been given a bonus code in which to apply in order to take the bonus but it's always really easy to implement - exactly what you expect from one of the best UK online bookmakers.
What are the Current Promotions?
When I look at the Promotions tab in my account I currently see 10 different options which is a very healthy level. One of them and one that is really popular amongst my friends is their ‘Bore Draw Money Back' promo. But why listen to me when bet365 can explain it better:
| 'Place a pre-match bet on ANY of bet365's Correct Score, Half-Time/Full-Time or Scorecast markets for ANY Soccer match, and if the game finishes 0-0, your stake will be refunded if your bet loses. This offer will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, and the match finishes 0-0, only the remaining active stake will be refunded. If a qualifying bet is edited using the Edit Bet feature prior to kick-off and the match finishes 0-0, only the new stake will be refunded. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the offer will no longer apply. Bets placed from your Withdrawable Balance will be refunded to your Withdrawable Balance and bets placed with Bet Credits will be refunded as Bet Credits. T&Cs apply. Only available to new and eligible customers.' |
Overall my experience of bet365 tells me that they really look after their customers and really understand me as a punter.
bet365 Keep my Account Safe and Secure
A lot has changed in the 10 years that I've had a bet365 account - in particular around responsible gambling and site security, like with their GamCare partnership, - and online sportsbooks have found it tough to adapt to this approach in my opinion. However, bet365 have not struggled to adapt.
I receive regular emails promoting their responsible gambling measures and whenever I join a new bookmaker I always check this section of their site out as it's important to me to know that they're looking out for you as much as they can.
During my experience with them, I've been offered the chance to set deposit limits on a daily, weekly or monthly basis - a measure that's really great if you just want to bet casually and responsibly.
In the 10 years I've had an account, I've never once had a problem with bet365 when it comes to banking issues either - I've always considered my money safe with them and have not had to question them otherwise.
Now that they are such a massive online bookmaker, they transcend the betting world and are often in the mainstream news pages - in particular the business sections. The more you read about them, the more you realise that they try their hardest to ensure they're meeting all regulatory requirements within the UK, where I bet from.
When it comes to trust and safety around online betting sites, bet365 stand out due to being one of the world's largest, whilst still being privately owned. Who owns bet365? It's the same owners now as it has been since the beginning - the Coates family, headed by Denise Coates.
bet365 is Available on iOS, Android, and Mobile Web!
I've only used bet365 on occasion using the mobile website, rather than playing at bet365 online, and it's always worked as expected - essentially the exact same experience. It's easy to navigate around bet365's mobile website and just as simple to select and place your bets.
Bet365 Summary Icons Meaning
When it comes to the bet365 apps, I use the iOS app regularly and again it's really simple to use. From the pin-code bet365 app login to navigating the mobile app, everything works well. Best blackjack in california lottery. Much like the desktop experience you can tell that they've invested heavily here.
Android users are covered too as it's clear within the Google Play store that there's a bet365 Android app available to download. Friends who have this installed assure me that the experience is exactly what you'd expect from great sports betting sites - easily navigable, simple to get your bets on, with a good user experience.
I really enjoy the bet365 in play experience on mobile - with the bet365 live match/event visualisations and data points providing just enough info to help me make my sports bets.
bet365's Live Betting Experience Is My Favourite
So if bet365 do things right as a bookmaker, then they really do live betting right. We've all seen Ray Winstone's head bobbing around our TVs in the UK for years now but behind all of that is a really slick live product that offers you plenty of betting value.
They have content scoreboards and visualisations available with data as you bet, so it's really easy to follow the flow of the game or the event - this is crucial when betting in-play.
The Best Live Streaming Service Out There
Bet365 Summary Icons Free
Even better than this though is being able to watch a match or event live and they really excel here with bet365 live stream available for tons of events, through the bet365 Live Streaming product.
This is NOT a free service though as you must have a funded account or have placed a bet within the previous 24 hours, but this is really fair considering the quality of live sport on offer. In fact, we'll let bet365 explain even better again how it works:
| 'To add to the IN-Play excitement, bet365 stream over 140,000 events live to your PC every year - so you can bet as the action unfolds. Highlights include Masters Series Tennis tournaments and matches from some of the top domestic Soccer leagues in the world. To use the Live Streaming service you will need to be logged in and have a funded account to have placed a bet in the last 24 hours. Any fixture/event on our website which has the Play or Video icon next to it is scheduled to be shown via Live Streaming.' |
So there you go, an all-round great live sports betting product from bet365 has allowed me to bet and watch events as long as I've had money in my account - which I am more than prepared to do.
Using Live Chat to Speak with bet365's Customer Support
Over the course of 10 years, I really haven't had to talk to the customer support team very often - this is testament to bet365 making everything very simple to understand for me.
On the occasion's that I have contacted them it's been mostly through the bet365 Live Chat system where the response has always been really quick and really professional in my experience. I could have chosen from plenty of customer support options like email or phones but the bet365 live chat is too simple not to choose.
Whilst it's unlikely, if you needed to contact them in another way then they also offer email and postal options, whilst there is also a dedicated 24/7 bet365 contact number available to all UK customers.
Part of the reason I've not needed to use them much is that they actually have a really useful bet365 FAQ section where I found the answers to most of my questions. Again - everything works properly and quickly.
bet365 Review - Final Thoughts
Thanks to our two reviewers for such a personal account of their bet365 experience.
Hopefully, this bet365 review has explained the great benefits of joining one of the best online sports betting sites - great customer service and excellent products from a company that looks after you as a customer.
Pros
- Excellent site that works really well
- They have always looked after me as an existing customer with regular promotions
- I find their live streaming service excellent and allows me to bet in-play easily.
- A massive brand presence with hugely competitive odds
Cons
- Slightly dated design
- No responsive search
FAQs
The bet365 new customer offer that I was presented was to ‘get up to £100 in bet credits' which, even without reading the terms and conditions comes across as an extremely generous offer.
Interestingly compared to other online bookies, bet365 avoid the words ‘free bet' with this promotion as they seemingly take their responsible gaming and bonus transparency really seriously which is an excellent thing if you're a new betting customer like me. How to buy paysafecard with paypal.
The terms and conditions that I was given on this promotion were incredibly fair too - firstly I had to claim the offer within 30 days. I then needed to make a qualifying deposit of £5 or more in order to qualify for a 100% matched amount in bet credits, up to a maximum of £100.
Release the Bet Credits of bet365's Open Account Offer
I was informed by their promotional text that my qualifying deposit is my largest deposit (capped at £100) made in the 7 days prior to you claiming the offer. Thankfully I was using my debit card anyway and it's great that bet365 accept Paypal which I've since gone on to use.
The next step was for me to release the bet credits by making qualifying bets of a total value of the qualifying deposit and these bets needed to settle within the first 30 days from opening my account. These bets had to be at odds of 1/5 (1.2) or more and in markets/fixture combinations that only have 2 or 3 outcomes - such as a win-draw-win market
Interestingly I would have lost my bet credits if I had not made qualifying bets to the total (or greater than the total) of my initial qualifying deposit. Once my credits were released though, I got to use them but was reminded that any returns from bet credits would not have the bet credit included, it would only be any winnings from bet credits that would go into my withdrawable balance.
Overall, in my personal opinion, when you compare these terms to those of other bookmakers, I think they're very favourable, especially if you're looking to deposit a decent amount from the beginning - it really seems that they want to look after you from the start; that's how I felt anyway!
Key Terms & Conditions
Here's a summary of the key terms and conditions that I experienced when claiming bet365's Open Account offer, explained by bet365 themselves:
New Customers only. Up to £100* in Bet Credits. Sign up, deposit £5* or more to your account and bet365 will match your qualifying deposit in Bet Credits when you place qualifying bets to the same value and they are settled. Min odds/bet and payment method exclusions apply. Returns exclude Bet Credits stake. T&Cs, time limits & exclusions apply. The bonus code CD365 can be used during registration, but does not change the offer amount in any way. Full list below. Significant Terms and Conditions
*or currency equivalent T&Cs, time limits and exclusions apply. |
#ad
What are bet365 like with Existing Customers?
Talking as a UK-based bet365 customer of over 10 years now, I've really seen the company grow and change over the years - and I've been offered my fair share of bonus credits and bet365 promotions during that time too.
I'm going to talk about a few of my favourite promotions over the last year and they're ones that have occurred regularly.
The easiest way to check out the promos is by visiting the site or app and heading to the Promotions tab - that way you'll see the latest ones available to you. Of course, it goes without saying that all of these promotions are 18+ and that full T&Cs applied.
If you like horse racing then one of my favourite offers has been their Grand National offer - I'd say it's the best Grand National offer I've received ever - where they gave you half your stake back if you made an each way bet on the race - up to a total return of £125.
So if you backed a horse £10 each way, you'd get £10 back instantly. And I really mean instantly - I'm always amazed how well they do things by automating their products.
A great bet365 football promotion I've been lucky enough to receive has been one that focuses on in-play markets. They pick a big game, and if you have a pre-match bet on game then they will match that bet in Bet Credits to be used when the game goes in-play. This alone is On occasion this has been up to £50 in Bet Credits which is a really generous offer.
In fact, and of course, this is just my personal experience but I've received a number of deposit bonuses over the years, just for being a loyal customer. Often I've been given a bonus code in which to apply in order to take the bonus but it's always really easy to implement - exactly what you expect from one of the best UK online bookmakers.
What are the Current Promotions?
When I look at the Promotions tab in my account I currently see 10 different options which is a very healthy level. One of them and one that is really popular amongst my friends is their ‘Bore Draw Money Back' promo. But why listen to me when bet365 can explain it better:
| 'Place a pre-match bet on ANY of bet365's Correct Score, Half-Time/Full-Time or Scorecast markets for ANY Soccer match, and if the game finishes 0-0, your stake will be refunded if your bet loses. This offer will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, and the match finishes 0-0, only the remaining active stake will be refunded. If a qualifying bet is edited using the Edit Bet feature prior to kick-off and the match finishes 0-0, only the new stake will be refunded. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the offer will no longer apply. Bets placed from your Withdrawable Balance will be refunded to your Withdrawable Balance and bets placed with Bet Credits will be refunded as Bet Credits. T&Cs apply. Only available to new and eligible customers.' |
Overall my experience of bet365 tells me that they really look after their customers and really understand me as a punter.
bet365 Keep my Account Safe and Secure
A lot has changed in the 10 years that I've had a bet365 account - in particular around responsible gambling and site security, like with their GamCare partnership, - and online sportsbooks have found it tough to adapt to this approach in my opinion. However, bet365 have not struggled to adapt.
I receive regular emails promoting their responsible gambling measures and whenever I join a new bookmaker I always check this section of their site out as it's important to me to know that they're looking out for you as much as they can.
During my experience with them, I've been offered the chance to set deposit limits on a daily, weekly or monthly basis - a measure that's really great if you just want to bet casually and responsibly.
In the 10 years I've had an account, I've never once had a problem with bet365 when it comes to banking issues either - I've always considered my money safe with them and have not had to question them otherwise.
Now that they are such a massive online bookmaker, they transcend the betting world and are often in the mainstream news pages - in particular the business sections. The more you read about them, the more you realise that they try their hardest to ensure they're meeting all regulatory requirements within the UK, where I bet from.
When it comes to trust and safety around online betting sites, bet365 stand out due to being one of the world's largest, whilst still being privately owned. Who owns bet365? It's the same owners now as it has been since the beginning - the Coates family, headed by Denise Coates.
bet365 is Available on iOS, Android, and Mobile Web!
I've only used bet365 on occasion using the mobile website, rather than playing at bet365 online, and it's always worked as expected - essentially the exact same experience. It's easy to navigate around bet365's mobile website and just as simple to select and place your bets.
Bet365 Summary Icons Meaning
When it comes to the bet365 apps, I use the iOS app regularly and again it's really simple to use. From the pin-code bet365 app login to navigating the mobile app, everything works well. Best blackjack in california lottery. Much like the desktop experience you can tell that they've invested heavily here.
Android users are covered too as it's clear within the Google Play store that there's a bet365 Android app available to download. Friends who have this installed assure me that the experience is exactly what you'd expect from great sports betting sites - easily navigable, simple to get your bets on, with a good user experience.
I really enjoy the bet365 in play experience on mobile - with the bet365 live match/event visualisations and data points providing just enough info to help me make my sports bets.
bet365's Live Betting Experience Is My Favourite
So if bet365 do things right as a bookmaker, then they really do live betting right. We've all seen Ray Winstone's head bobbing around our TVs in the UK for years now but behind all of that is a really slick live product that offers you plenty of betting value.
They have content scoreboards and visualisations available with data as you bet, so it's really easy to follow the flow of the game or the event - this is crucial when betting in-play.
The Best Live Streaming Service Out There
Bet365 Summary Icons Free
Even better than this though is being able to watch a match or event live and they really excel here with bet365 live stream available for tons of events, through the bet365 Live Streaming product.
This is NOT a free service though as you must have a funded account or have placed a bet within the previous 24 hours, but this is really fair considering the quality of live sport on offer. In fact, we'll let bet365 explain even better again how it works:
| 'To add to the IN-Play excitement, bet365 stream over 140,000 events live to your PC every year - so you can bet as the action unfolds. Highlights include Masters Series Tennis tournaments and matches from some of the top domestic Soccer leagues in the world. To use the Live Streaming service you will need to be logged in and have a funded account to have placed a bet in the last 24 hours. Any fixture/event on our website which has the Play or Video icon next to it is scheduled to be shown via Live Streaming.' |
So there you go, an all-round great live sports betting product from bet365 has allowed me to bet and watch events as long as I've had money in my account - which I am more than prepared to do.
Using Live Chat to Speak with bet365's Customer Support
Over the course of 10 years, I really haven't had to talk to the customer support team very often - this is testament to bet365 making everything very simple to understand for me.
On the occasion's that I have contacted them it's been mostly through the bet365 Live Chat system where the response has always been really quick and really professional in my experience. I could have chosen from plenty of customer support options like email or phones but the bet365 live chat is too simple not to choose.
Whilst it's unlikely, if you needed to contact them in another way then they also offer email and postal options, whilst there is also a dedicated 24/7 bet365 contact number available to all UK customers.
Part of the reason I've not needed to use them much is that they actually have a really useful bet365 FAQ section where I found the answers to most of my questions. Again - everything works properly and quickly.
bet365 Review - Final Thoughts
Thanks to our two reviewers for such a personal account of their bet365 experience.
Hopefully, this bet365 review has explained the great benefits of joining one of the best online sports betting sites - great customer service and excellent products from a company that looks after you as a customer.
Pros
- Excellent site that works really well
- They have always looked after me as an existing customer with regular promotions
- I find their live streaming service excellent and allows me to bet in-play easily.
- A massive brand presence with hugely competitive odds
Cons
- Slightly dated design
- No responsive search
FAQs
Yes, I found signing up really easy as there's just a single scrolling page to fill out. It's similar details to other online bookmakers but they've obviously thought about user experience to ensure it's easy and functional.
Yes, I've always found it really simple to deposit - although I've only used debit cards and Paypal so far, both are really great and quick deposit and withdrawal methods.
It's great - everything works as you'd like it to and every advancement they make seems to have a purpose. Loads of sports, loads of markets, Cash Out, a Live Streaming Service and a slick system makes the bet365 sportsbook tick.
Yes, and plenty of them! Over the years I've received several bonus bets and other bet365 promotions. While many of them change regularly, I've always appreciated having lots of options. As always, though, I recommend reading the terms and conditions in full before committing to any promotional offer.
When it comes to the web, I'm not a fan of sweeping ‘binary' advice. The ‘don't do this' kind of advice is usually too simplistic, idealistic or inflexible; the Web is too grey.
So when Tyler Sticka wrote 'Seriously, don't use Icon Fonts' I felt a little uncomfortable. I understand and appreciate some of the points he raises but I can't agree with the sentiment that we shouldn't be using them.
I like icon fonts. I think they are genuinely useful. So I'm here to say a little in defence of icon fonts 😉
I'm not about to tell you should use an Icon Font. I'm here to tell you that I think they are a great solution to certain problems. And certainly more appropriate than SVGs in some situations. If nothing else, I just want to offer some counter balance to Tyler and Sara's point of view.
Need to support Android 2.3?
What browsers do you need to support? For most of the projects I work on I need to consider browsers back to Android 2.3.
Old Android has no SVG support so in these scenarios it's necessary to consider fallbacks for these older browsers when you are using SVG.
If it's multi-coloured assets or animated assets, SVGs with PNG fallbacks are the way to go. No contest.
However, there are often a number of graphical assets in a project that are not multi-coloured, nor involved in animation. These are the workhorse assets of a product; arrows, shopping basket icons, refresh buttons etc. These are the kind of assets I generally find better handled by icon fonts.
With an icon font these assets can be resized easily, recoloured simply and they will work comparatively everywhere.
Plus this isn't a binary thing. You don't have to choose between icon fonts or SVG with a PNG fallback. Each can solve a different problem for you.
You don't need multiple font formats
It's commonly believed you need multiple formats of an icon font (WOFF, WOFF2, SVG, TTF, EOT). You might but you might not. If you want your icon font to be viewable on all devices (apart from old IE) the solution is simple: use a TTF of the icon font. To remove the possibility of the icon font not loading, embed it as a data URI in your CSS. If the CSS loads, the icon font loads.
Icon fonts make it simple to work with designs
With an icon font the designers and the developers have the same flexible asset. Pick the font, paste in the relevant glyph and the size you set the asset in the graphics editor is the size it will end up in the code. Let me re-iterate that point as it's an amazing benefit of using an icon font. Icomoon has a beautiful feature and I'll provide a direct quote here from their docs that explains this:
The IcoMoon app aligns the top of the icon canvas to the ascender line and its bottom to the descender line of the font. Using this technique, the size of your font will directly translate to the size of the icon. For example, if you set your font-size in CSS to be 16px, you will get a 16px icon. This method was first introduced by IcoMoon.
So, inside your OS, you install the icon font as you would any other font. In Sketch/Illustrator you select the font, paste in the relevant glyph and size it with text controls as you would any font. That size is a 1:1 of what you will get via CSS in HTML. Size of the shopping basket icon 16px in Sketch/Illustrator? Set it to 16px in your CSS and it will render the same size. Exactly.
PUA and accessibility
Much has been made about the accessibility problems of icon fonts. For the manner in which I apply icon fonts, I don't believe this is relevant. If you are using an icon font using the private use area of Unicode, starting at a range of e600 (again, IcoMoon has this covered and starts your font at that number by default), screen readers do nothing with it; more simply they don't attempt to read the glyph. I'm yet to find any evidence of a screen reader reading a unicode number in this range.
Furthermore, I'm using the icon font glyphs as a visual enhancement to something. Therefore, whether the icon appears or not – it is not essential for the use of the interface – you can see this approach in the header icons of this very site.
Using icon fonts in this manner is simple, this is what the PUA looks like in the content value:
More from the wonderful documentation of IcoMoon:
Some screen readers (such as Apple's VoiceOver), read the content inside pseudo elements. When you assign single characters to your icons, you wouldn't want the screen reader to read these characters. By using PUA code points for your glyphs, you can prevent this problem.
So, as far as I am concerned, icon fonts are not a hack. The private use area of Unicode is expressly for custom glyphs. Icon fonts are custom glyphs. Why is this being called a hack? To me it is a text book use case of PUA.
Bonus points for Icon Fonts
With nothing but CSS, you can have text shadows, transition colours, perfect alignment with surrounding text and what's more the visuals stay out of the DOM. Presentation stays in the presentation layer; the CSS. I'll level with you though – I don't actually care that much either way but it might be preferable for you.
Pages render faster with icon fonts
Back in May of this year, Parashuram N did some excellent testing on the comparative speed of SVG and icon fonts. Here's a headline:
The frame rates were best for Font Icons (sic) and worst for inline SVGs, when measured using request animation frame, and using tracing benchmarks.
These things are always changing. Browsers update, techniques improve but I've not seen any data more recently to counter this data. If render speed is a priority, icon fonts are likely a better choice than inline SVGs.
Summary
There are occasions when SVGs in backgrounds are the best choice, there are times when SVGs inline are the best choice. Equally there are times when an icon font could be the best choice. Don't avoid techniques wholesale. Understand the advantages and disadvantages of a technique fully. Appraise the merits of a technique relevant to your situation and employ said techniques when they are relevant and beneficial.
The 3rd Edition of the best—selling 'Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS'.
