SportingBet
Bonus
Up to £60 in Free Bets Package
Overview
- Deposit Options: Debit Card, Apple Pay, PayPal, PaySafeCard, Fast Bank Transfer, Skrill
- Minimum Deposit: £10
- Minimum Bet Stake: £0.01
- Maximum Welcome Free Bet: £50
Sportingbet Introduction
Sportingbet were one of the first movers in the world of online betting. Founded in 1997, the British company have had lots of ups and downs over the years, but they’ve concentrated on providing a world-class service to their users throughout.
Sportingbet continue to work hard on improving and becoming the best betting company they can be, but what is it they do well currently? We’ve taken an in-depth look and pointed out exactly why you should consider betting with them in our Sportingbet review, ranging from their free bet welcome bonus to their range of betting markets to their customer services, and anything else in between.
About Sportingbet
Every online betting company was first the idea of one person. In Sportingbet’s case that person is Mark Blandford. He was deeply rooted in the betting industry during the 1980s and 90s but was quicker than most of his peers to understand that the internet was the future.
Blandford showed the courage of his conviction by selling up his bricks and mortar operation and investing the proceeds into his new online venture. It took time for Blandford and his early team to get Sportingbet operational but wasted no time once they got going. As well as attracting many customers in the early years, Sportingbet won several awards and fans.
A number of acquisitions took place during the 2000s including poker brands. They brought extra profit to the company but also some massive headaches as they fell foul of the authorities in the USA. At one point their chairman, Peter Dicks, was arrested in New York, an event which prompted Sportingbet to sell off the entire USA facing side of their business.
Those problems didn’t put off potential suitors and Sportingbet were eventually bought by GVC Holdings. As part of the deal, their Australian and Spanish operations were sold to William Hill whilst the rest of the business continued under the Sportingbet branding but with the backing of GVC. They’ve continued to improve their offering to both serve their 2.5 million customers and to attract new users to their site.
SportingBet Free Bet Welcome Bonus and Promotions
To give new customers a chance to see just what they can do without risking their own money, Sportingbet have put together a free bet welcome bonus worth up to a £10 free bet. As well as being generous, this free bet offer is easy to take advantage of. Qualifying for the free bet is simple, you just need to deposit and place your qualifying bet within 14 days of registering with SportingBet.
To claim the SportingBet free bet you just have to click the button at the top of this review and complete the straightforward process to open your account. You must then make a deposit of at least £10 and then place a first sports bet of up to £10 at odds of 2.0 (or evens) or greater. If you’ve made the right bet then all you have to think about his how to spend your winnings, if the bet loses you’ll have your stake refunded as a free bet.
SportingBet Free Bet Terms and Conditions – All free bets and bonuses come with certain terms and conditions, so it is important to know what you can and can’t do when claiming the free bet. Firstly, to qualify your first deposit must be of at least £10 and place a first bet up to £10. This welcome offer has a maximum bonus of £10 which is paid as a free bet. Also, this welcome offer is only open to new customers and players from either UK or Ireland. Your first bet also must have odds of Evens (2.0) or greater and be placed within 14 days of joining at SportingBet.
SportingBet Loyalty Offers and Promotions
Those new customers who like what they see with the Sportingbet free bet can also partake in a host of long term promotions. These include winnings boosts on horse racing and football accumulators and special bets for the biggest football matches. These offers are constantly changing but to get a feel of the promotions and offers you can expect from SportingBet they are currently offering the following at the time of writing.
Accumulator betting offers are SportingBet’s favoured offers and the first is their weekly free bet offer, where you can get a £5 free bet each week by betting £20 on accumulator bets the week before. SportingBet are also refunding losing 5-fold or more football accumulator bets as well if 1 leg lets you down as a free bet up to £10. There is also a selection of daily enhanced accumulators where they boost the odds on your bet if you like the look of the promoted ‘acca’. Horse racing fans are also looked after with SportingBet as they also offer ‘Best Odds Guaranteed’ so you never have to worry about taking the odds or the start price ever again.
Interface and Appearance
Sportingbet get a lot of benefits since they were acquired by GVC Holdings. One of these is that the site is underpinned by ElectraWorks, a company who are also owned by GVC Holdings.
ElectraWorks are experts in providing sportsbooks and gaming products and do so for numerous betting companies. This has two main benefits for Sportingbet. First, their site is at once safe, secure and reliable. Second, new visitors to Sportingbet often feel a sense of familiarity as it looks like so many other bookies.
Sportingbet do a good job of making sure that their site is not simply a carbon copy of the other ElectraWorks sites though. This is achieved by the use of the light blue, red and white colours which have been associated with them ever for so long. They also use some very good images and illustrations to make events and promotions stand out whilst they do an excellent job of displaying the vast number of odds they provide.
Betting Markets and Odds
Sportingbet display the number of markets available at any one time on top of the left-hand sidebar that includes their long list of sports. It’s generally somewhere around 50,000 markets which makes the choice available to punters abundantly clear.
As you’d expect, the market coverage is deeper for the biggest events, but that is not to say that they are lacking when it comes to more niche events. The same is true when it comes to the odds provided by Sportingbet. Odds comparisons show that they compare favourably with the competition across their sportsbook so Sportingbet really do have a great combination of choice and value.
Live Streaming
Sportingbet’s reputation as a forward-thinking betting company may have ebbed away slightly over the years as the industry has embraced the internet, but they are still a technologically advanced company. That extends to their live-streaming coverage which is as good as you’ll find and can be access just by signing in to your funded account.
Mobile Betting
Another way that Sportingbet show their commitment to moving forwards through technology is via their mobile betting options. They have a genuinely excellent mobile site which allows punters to quickly and easily get a bet on whilst on the move. If you prefer, there are also feature laden mobile betting apps which rank well on the app stores on both iOS and Android devices.
Cash Out
Sportingbet were not one of the first movers when it came to cash out, but it didn’t take them long to offer it to their customers. Finding your current positions is a little bit fiddly as you have to navigate to your account, click on your current bets and then filter them by those available to Cash Out. It is easy to get out of your positions once you’ve done that though.
Pros / Cons
- Large welcome offer - Up to £50 in free bets available
- Part of the huge Entain Group
- Well thought out online betting site - Very easy to use
- Fantastic choice of betting markets
- Not as many betting offers as some bookmakers
Licence, Security and Customer Service
The licence for the Sportingbet website is actually granted in the name of ElectraWorks. It was granted by the Government of Gibraltar as that is where the company is based. That is good enough to operate in a number of territories but the United Kingdom requires further licencing and regulation through the Gambling Commission which is exactly what they have.
Before being granted their licences, Sportingbet had to prove that they were able to pay out on every bet struck by their customers, has robust safety measures to secure payments and personal information and has links to gambling charities and bodies to ensure that users are well treated if they get into any difficulties.
Should you have any further questions about Sportingbet’s safety measures you can have a read through the terms of use on their website or get in touch with them via the contact page.