DoBet Sports Review

DoBet Sports has ceased trading as of 14/08/2016 – The website states that the domain name has been seized due to government regulations.

DoBet Summary

DoBet Features

• Offers a 100% matched sign up bonus
• Website can be viewed in different languages
• £5 free bets on Champions League matches

Website

The website adopts a no frills, simple design. A light theme utilises red, grey and white colours. There is no landing page, with customers immediately directed to the bookmaker. The list of sports can be found down the left hand side of the page, with the highlighted events for different sports displayed in the middle of the page. A graphic with the sign up bonus is placed on the right hand side beneath the betting slip, and below that, customers can view all of the upcoming events with a countdown from their scheduled start time. At the top of the page customers can log in and are able to flick between decimal, fractional and moneyline (US) odds.

There is currently no mobile app or web app, so customers trying to access Dobet on the move will have a difficult time navigating around the website. The lack of a mobile betting app is probably indicative of the firm’s customer base and low turnover.

Languages

Dobet’s website can be translated into a huge number of different languages, although the accuracy of the text when converted has to be questionable. The website was originally translated from Spanish to English and some of the grammar and sentence structures are inaccurate.

The site can be viewed in: Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, and Vietnamese.

Markets

There is a very limited list of sports available on the Dobet website. While most bookmakers offer around 20+ different events, there are only 12 available with the Costa Rican firm. The major sports such as football, tennis, American football, ice hockey, rugby and ‘basket’ (basketball) are covered, but there is no room for any non-mainstream sports such as skiing, bandy or table tennis etc.

Unlike most small online firms, Dobet offer betting on horse racing. There is no UK action, but customers can get their fix of the thoroughbreds with racing from Ireland, South Africa and the USA. No best odds guaranteed, specials or concessions on any of the action unfortunately though, but having horse racing markets is definitely a step in the right direction when trying to differentiate from similar sized firms.

The depth of the football markets isn’t actually too bad. There are odds on matches/leagues from 24 countries around the world, including countries such as Vietnam and Pakistan. The smaller leagues simply have 1X2 betting or over/under goals markets, but the bigger leagues have a few additional bet types such as correct score, half time/full time and draw no bet. However, the extra bet types for each game still fall well below the industry standard of 30-100 additional markets for each game.

The American football offering covers both the NFL and college football in the USA and for each game they have over/under points, half time betting, Asian handicap betting, and draw no bet. This is comparatively better than the depth of football markets for each individual game, but still lags behind most of the bigger bookmakers.

Ice hockey has reasonably good coverage in terms of the number of leagues that are priced up. Obviously the NHL is the main focus, but there are also games from eight different countries around Europe which have 1X2 betting and a few other bet types.

Odds

The competiveness of odds is really an area where Dobet struggle. For most English Premier League matches, Dobet’s odds compile to a total percentage of around 109-110.5%. (If the bookmaker were taking no profit out of the game, then the odds when expressed as percentages would equate to 100%). This is very high for a league in which there are very few unknown variables. Top online bookmakers usually work to around 103-103.5% books.

The odds on offer for the Irish horse racing are not very competitive. Ten minutes before the 6.35 at Dundalk, Dobet’s book compiled to a hefty 129.5%.

It gets worse when delving into the ice hockey markets. The 1X2 for Polish Superligi match between MKS Olimpia-Beskid Nowy Sacz – MMKS Piotrcovia, compiled to a massive 116.3%. In essence, Dobet offer very poor and unattractive odds to their customers.

Promotions

Dobet offer a 100% matched sign up bonus up to £50 for new customers. The user needs to deposit their first amount whilst inputting the promo code they received via email when signing up. The terms of the bonus are fairly reasonable in comparison to those imposed by many firms – the initial deposit amount must be rolled over once and the bonus five times on events with odds of 1.80 or larger, before it can be withdrawn.

The list of countries exempt from the sign up bonus are: Armenia, Australia, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Taiwan, Ukraine, and Vietnam.

Dobet do offer other concessions such as £5 free bets on Champions League matches and for a small company their rollover requirements to activate the bonuses are not too bad, so this area has to be given the thumbs up.

Customer Service

The customer service on the Dobet website is poor. Individuals with queries have to find a small link at the bottom of the page called ‘contact with us’ to try and resolve their questions. There are then a number of predetermined questions and answers that may answer those enquiries, and only if customers are not satisfied, should they click a further link to send an email form to customer services.

There is no direct email address listed on the website, nor is there access to any other form of communication. The company address for Dobet is

Montes de Oca Los Yeses,
125 Sur del Automercado,
Global Building Counseis,
San Jose

So customers can write in if they wish.

Final Thoughts

Starting out as an online bookmaker is a difficult task, with the established firms benefiting from economies of scale, large turnover and brand reputation. Dobet have started by doing a few things well – namely offering a reasonable sign up bonus without too many unrealistic terms and conditions, and having horse racing markets on their site. However, their odds are so uncompetitive, they are sure to act as a deterrent for anyone with a half decent understanding of the mechanics of bookmaking and value. It is likely that with a low turnover, the limits for the markets are also quite prohibitive.

Customer service is difficult to reach and for a firm operating out of Costa Rica, this could also be off putting. If Dobet can improve the competitiveness of their odds (likely to happen if they grow in size), improve the English on their website and make their customer services more accessible, then they could compete with other similar sized firms as they do have a few advantages.