Sportingbet Bookmaker Review

Sportingbet Summary

Sportingbet Features

• Great mobile app
• Accepts large deposits
• Live streaming

On The Laptop Or Desktop?

The Sportingbet website looks a little outdated in terms of its design, font choice and colour scheme (two tone blue), but it does a job. On the left hand side of the page, customers will find quick links and casino promotions, with highlights in the centre and the bet slip is located on the right hand side of the page. Unusually, the list of sports can be found across the horizontal menu bar at the top of the page.

Bonuses

Sportingbet bookmaker offers a £50 sign up bonus to new internet and mobile customers in the UK. The bonus is a little confusing. Players will get their first bonus by making minimum deposit of £10 or more and make a sports bet. To get their second bonus, the customer must have qualified for the initial bonus. The second bonus will be equal to the average stake over the first 5 bets (i.e. if the bets are all £15, then the bonus will be £15). In order to get the third bonus, the players must have qualified for the first two bonuses. The third bonus will be equal to the average stake made over the first 10 bet. All qualifying bets must be staked at odds of 1.50  or greater and deposits using Moneybookers, Ukash, Neteller and Paypal are excluded.

Sports Markets & Odds

Sportingbet display their most popular betting events across the top of their page, and naturally football makes the top of the list. Horse racing, tennis, basketball, cricket, darts, golf, rugby union and snooker are the other sports.

Although Sporting Bet are a global brand, their initial target market was the UK and Ireland, and as such horse racing comprises a big part of their bookie. The company sponsor numerous races throughout the racing calendar and offer ad hoc concessions. In addition to the win markets, Sportingbet bookmaker offers forecast and tricast betting for each race. Their early odds are very competitive when looking industry wide.

Most firms will typically be cautious in pricing up future races, as the markets are stronger and more accurate closer to the off. We looked at two races, roughly an hour before they started – the 12 runner contest at the Cheltenham Festival compiled to a total book percentage of 112.2% (pretty much 1% per runner), and a 9 runner contest at Hexham worked out to 114.3% (around 1.6% per runner). Naturally, Cheltenham will have smaller margins, but even the odds at Hexham were reasonable.

The football betting section is strong. In England, coverage of matches extends as far down as the eighth tier. There are odds for games from all corners of the globe – from Kazakhstan to Israel. The number of additional markets is strong, with over 100+ extra bet types on top of the 1X2 offering for games in most of the major leagues around the world. What are the odds like? Very good. For Europa league fixtures on the night of the matches, the average odds compiled to 103.5%, which is particularly strong. It may not be quite the best in the industry, but it definitely isn’t far off and bettors receive some good value.

Overall, the sports section is very good. The presence of cricket, snooker, darts and rugby union suggests a strong British influence on the firm. Sportingbet don’t dabble in any of the smaller sports, but instead focus on established disciplines where they can offer good odds.

Currency and Banking Options

Sportingbet allow their customers to deposit in a variety of different currencies:

Pounds sterling (GBP), US Dollar, Euro, Japanese Yen, Hong Kong Dollar, Australian Dollar, Swiss Franc, Singapore Dollar, Canadian Dollar, Danish Krona, Swedish Krona, Hungarian Forint, Indonesian Rupiah

Sportingbet offer customers a variety of different methods to deposit into their account:

Deposit (Min/Max)

Debit/credit card –£10/£20,000
Bank transfer – £10/£200,000
Skrill – £10/£5000
Neteller – £10/£5000
Paypal – £10/£6000 – unavailable for German players.
Paysafe – £10/£500

All transactions are immediate, apart from bank transfer that takes 3-5 days.

Withdrawal

Credit/debit card
Neteller
Click2Pay
Moneybookers
Paypal (unavailable for German players)
Bank transfer

The only method with a minimum is Paypal, where customers must withdraw £10 or more

Who Can’t Bet With Sporting Bet?

Customers from the following countries are unable to bet with Sportingbet (find places to bet in your country here):

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Angola, Australia, Belgium, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, China, Congo, Costa Rica, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, French Guiana, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Hong Kong, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Iran, Iraq, Italy, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Latvia, Laos PDR, La Reunion, Lesotho, Liberia, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Mali, Martinique, Mauritania, Moldova, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovenia, Somalia, Spain, Sudan, Swaziland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, UAE, USA, Vietnam, Virgin Islands, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Languages / Customer Support

Sportingbet’s website can be translated into an extensive number of different languages, which is indicative of their global reach. Customers can view the site in: English, Canadian (English), Latin American Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Greek, German, Danish, Czech, Croatian, Hungarian, Norwegian, Bulgarian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese, Russian, Ukrainian, Finnish, Swedish and Romanian.

There is an extensive FAQ section which answers pretty much every question bettors may have. For those who want to speak with a representative, the following numbers will be useful:

UK – 0800 0280348
Canada – 1800 7649804
Finland – +358 942450416
Sweden – +46 852500166
Norway – +47 21950180
Singapore – +65 31583907
All other countries – +353 15110840

(All available 10:00-20:30 GMT). Alternatively, players can use the e-mail form on the website, or speak to a representative via live chat.

Betting On Your Phone?

Sportingbet bookmaker has a mobile compatible website, but they also have a dedicated app that can be downloaded and is compatible with IOS 7.0+ and Android OS 4.0 smartphones. The app gets the thumbs up – it has touch ID login for speed, has a smooth horizontal scrolling bar to quickly access sports and also has a dedicated in-play section so that bettors can see the matches and events that are already underway. Sporting Bet offer video streaming and data visualisations, a ‘quick bet’ feature and much more. The app is very strong and has been well designed.

Verdict

Sportingbet bookmaker is a strong, established bookmaker and that is reflected in their service. They offer good odds, all the major markets, and much more. Nice extras such as video previews of major horse racing events etc. add extra quality to the service, and they are recommended.