Buff88 Bookmaker Review

Buff88 Summary

Buff88 Features

• Top e-sports bookmaker
• Accepts a variety of cryptocurrencies
• Great for live betting

Website

Buff88 have done a very good job of designing their website. The content spans the whole screen and the graphics, text, layout and a red, black and white theme. Sports are listed down the left-hand side of the screen, and when the user selects the market it appears in the centre of the page. The website can be viewed in English, Russian, Turkish, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese. Customers have the option to view the odds in either decimal, American, fractional or Hong Kong formats and they can switch the languages and odds by selecting the desired output via the horizontal menu bar that appears on the main screen.

Customers have the option to flick between the regular sports betting and then the live action. When live betting is selected, the markets expand and dominate most of the screen. Clients can see the scores for the games, the remaining time and the odds on offer. That is the ‘Overview’ format, but Buff88 bookmaker has introduced a few cool extras which enhance the experience for customers. By clicking on Event View, players are able to look at the games and see a range of markets in depth, with all of the odds in the screen, and for some of the e-sports, there is video footage of the games and competitions as they happen. If a user happens to have a bet on several live matches, they can switch to the multi-view format which enables them to see up to four screens of action simultaneously. This is a nice touch and is popular with e-sports fanatics.

It is easy to tell that Buff88 bookmaker is a new company with ambition from their site. The design, features and functionality are all spot on.

Bonus

Buff88 offer clients a matched 100% deposit when entering a bonus code on sign up. The bonus is good up to a maximum of €88 and the bonus will be added to the customer’s account once the deposit is made. There are of course terms and conditions attached to the bonus – the player must rollover 8 times the deposit plus bonus amount (16x free bet), at odds of 2.00 or greater, within the first 30 days after making the deposit. As it stands, clients from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia are unable to take advantage of the offer.

Sports

One area where Buff88 bookmaker is particularly strong in is the realm of e-sports. This makes them an attractive destination for online gaming buffs, as they are not only able to strike wagers on different games but are also able to do it using bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.  Some of the offerings include Counter Strike, Dota 2, League of Legends, HearthStone, Overwatch, King Of Glory, Starcraft, Starcraft Broodwar, Warcraft 3, Call Of Duty, Test and NBA 2018.

For each match or competition, Buff88 bookmaker provides odds for the win market, but also offers prices for a number of additional bet types, such as the correct score, number of kills, total maps played and more. With such a wide offering of games, one would think Buff88 must have an expert trading team or include big profit margins when compiling their odds. It doesn’t seem to be the latter, as most of the e-sports are priced up with total book percentages of between 105-107% (a book of 100% would indicate there are no profit margins for the bookmaker), which is particularly competitive when assessing against other bookies offering the same markets.

The second main sport concentrated on by Buff88 bookmaker is football. There is a solid offering of odds for games from around the globe, with all of the major countries covered. Those looking to wager on matches in some of the smaller footballing nations will probably need to go elsewhere, as Buff88 only focus on the bigger countries. The odds for games are okay but are not particularly competitive when compared with the main protagonists in the bookmaker industry. For instance, looking at the UEFA Champions League Final between Real Madrid and Liverpool, 72 hours out from the game, the total book percentage for the 1X2 market was just shy of 106%. Very similar margins were witnessed for both the Asian handicap and the over/under on the goals.

In truth, Buff88 bookmaker has a roster of sports that doesn’t compete with the big boys. Having said that, their list covers all of the main betting events and features a total of 18 different sports. Again, the odds for the other sports are acceptable without being wildly competitive. The averages below were observed for the top competition in the following disciplines:

• Baseball – 106.5-107%
• Basketball – 105-105.5%
• Tennis – 104.5-105%

Payment Types

Users can bet in the following currencies and are able to select which one they want to use when registering an account: Euro, Dollars, Yen, Russian Rubel, Turkish Lira, Canadian Dollar, Australian Dollar, Japanese Yen, British Pound, Swedish Krona, Norwegian Krone and Danish Krone. Buff88 are also very e-currency heavy and take Bitcoin and around 50 other cryptocurrencies. When depositing with a cryptocurrency, users are presented with a barcode or address that they need to visit and from there they can add funds.

The following payment methods are accepted by Buff88 bookmaker:

• Credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, Maestro)
• Skrill
• Bitcoin
• Paysafecard
• Neteller
• iPayment
• QIWI Wallet
• Yandex
• Moneta
• Skinwallet
• EcoPayz
• IWallet

All payment methods are free and there is a €10 minimum deposit (or equivalent if using a different currency).

Customer Support

The overwhelming majority of online bookies dedicate a page and resources to their customer services. After all, when it comes to e-commerce and individuals parting ways with their hard-earned money, they want to be sure that they can contact a company representative in the instance of a mistake, error or query. When perusing the Buff88 bookmaker website, it became apparent that the firm has neglected to set up a dedicated page giving contact information. Instead, they just simply nestled the following text at the bottom of the homepage: “For customer support related questions, you can reach us through support@buff88.com or by phone: +4420 3286 7751”. No mention of operating hours etc. This will be a little disconcerting for some clients who really have to scour the screen to find any contact info. There is a sports betting rules section and terms and conditions which may cover some questions customers will have, but it definitely isn’t comprehensive enough and this area is something that could be improved upon.

Restricted Countries

Residents of most countries around the world are able to sign up for an account with Buff88 bookmaker, with a few notable exceptions. Unfortunately, due to licensing and legal issues, bettors from both the UK and USA cannot register. Furthermore, players in Bulgaria are also banned.

Mobile

When visiting Buff88 bookmaker from a mobile phone or through a tablet, the website automatically readjusts and optimises itself for whichever device it is being viewed on. When landing on the homepage, interestingly, e-sports are the default in terms of the matches and odds that appear, reinforcing Buff88’s intention to establish themselves in that sphere. It is easy to flick back between e-sports and sports by navigating using the horizontal menu bar at the top of the page, and once on the sports section, customers can select their desired event by clicking on the icon which represents each sport. The icons are a little basic, so perhaps it would be better to have text underneath, but this is just a minor quibble. Everything loads quickly and the functionality is much the same as on the main website.

Overall

Buff88 bookmaker has taken a different approach to their bookmaking, focusing on e-sports and they have done a good job of it. For a brand-new firm, they are already doing plenty right and should continue to improve and expand in future.