888sport free bet offer is one of the best free bets available at the moment. 888sport bookmaker is strongly focused on horse racing and is offering a great live streaming service for horse racing. 888sport free bet pack includes a free £10 casino token as well, which makes this offer a double win. 888sport free bet details can be found in our review, just read on. Special horse racing free bet is available too.
888sport Sign Up Offer – £30 Free Bet
888sport free bet for UK customers is quite generous and interesting – Bet £10 to get £30 free bet for sports betting + £10 bonus for Casino. Here is what you have to do to claim this offer;
- Sign up for a new account at 888sport
- Deposit at least £10
- Place a bet of a minimum £10 on any sports betting market. Minimum required odds are 1/2 (1.50) or greater.
- Once your first bet has been settled, 888sport free bet will be credited to your account.
- On top of that, you’ll receive a £10 casino bonus token.
If you prefer horse racing, 888sport offers interesting free bet for new customers that enjoy horse racing. More information about 888sport Horse Racing Welcome Offer
Min deposit £10. A qualifying bet is a “real money” stake of at least £10. Min odds 1/2 (1.5). 888sport Free Bet credited upon qualifying bet settlement and expires after 7 days. 888sport Free Bet stakes not included in returns. Casino Bonus must be claimed within 7 days. To withdraw bonus/related wins, wager bonus amount x40 within 14 days. Casino bonus expires after 60 days. Withdrawal restrictions & full T&Cs apply.
888Sport Free Bet Terms & Conditions
- In order to receive Bet £10 get £30 888sport free bet sign up offer, you must make a first deposit of at least £10.
- A qualifying bet is a stake of at least £10 with odds of 1/2 (1.50) or greater on any sports market.
- Multiple bets qualify with cumulative odds of 1/2 (1.50) or greater. Each way bets qualify. Each way bets count as two bets and must be at least £10 each way (£20 in total) to qualify.
- Bonuses will be applied to qualifying accounts upon first bet settlement. Please allow 72 hours in extenuating circumstances.
- 888Sport Free Bet tokens expire after 7 days and Casino Bonus expire after 60 days. Free bet stakes are not included in any returns.
- To withdraw any winnings from your casino bonus, you must wager the bonus up to 40 times within 14 days. Wins are capped at £500, excluding jackpot wins.
- 888sport free bet promotion cannot be combined with any other acquisition offer.
- First qualifying bet must be placed within 90 days of registration.
- New customers depositing with PayPal, Muchbetter, Paysafe Card, Neteller or Skrill will not be eligible for 888sport free bet.
888sport Free Bet Offer FAQ
How to get 888sport Sign up offer?
To claim the 888Sport Free Bet you’ll have to:
1.) Register an account at 888sport.
2.) Promo code 30FB is only for all territories/players outside of the UK.
3.) Bet min £10 on any sports market with odds of 1/2 (1.50) or greater.
4.) Wait till your bet is settled.
5.) Once done, you will get £30 free bet for Sports betting and £10 for Casino, which is £40 in total.
How do I use my free bet on 888sport?
Once awarded, here’s how to use your free bet:
1.) Log In to your 888sport account.
2.) Select a bet and click the ‘Bonus offers’ tab.
3.) Your free bet token should be available in the tab.
4.)To activate, Click the ‘Free Bet’ token and click ‘Place Bet’.
What is 888sport promo code?
888sport promo code for sports betting bonus is 30FB.
This bonus code is valid for ‘Bet £10 get £40’ promotion but only for all territories / players outside of the UK.
888sport free bet is awarded for sports betting only, up to £30.
On top of the sports betting bonus you will also get a £10 Casino bonus token!
Does 888sport have live chat?
888sport support is available 24/7, including live chat.
Does 888sport offer Cash Out?
Yes, 888sport offers Cash Out feature for selected events.
Cash-Out feature gives you the opportunity to Cash-Out a bet before the outcome is decided, allowing you to secure part of your winnings or to cut your losses depending on how your bet is getting on.
The Cash-Out offer is available on selected events both in pre-match and live, as well as on both single and multiple bets.
888sport Cash-Out is also available for pre-match accumulators (pre-match multiple bets) on selected Football markets.
Cash-Out will NOT be available for accumulators (multiple bets) combined with any pre match selections for any sport other than Football.
888sport Betting Offers for Existing Customers
888sport ACCA Saver – Up to £25 Money Back Offer
888sport ACCA Saver Promotion is valid for both new and existing customers – Get Money back on misfiring multiples.
If your football, horses or dogs Acca goes down by one, you can get up to £25 back.
Acca Saver brief terms and conditions;
A qualifying bet is a real money multiple bet consisting of 6 legs or more of at least £2 placed on any Greyhound, Horse Racing or Football Match winner market, 90 minutes only.
Selections from other sports can be included but bets must contain at least 6 selections from the above markets. For example, an 8 fold with 6 Horse Racing selections with 2 Tennis selections would qualify.
Each multiple leg must consist of odds of 1/2 (1.50) or greater. Straight line multiples only, permutation multiples will not qualify for this promotion.
Bets with only 1 losing selection will be eligible for a refund. Bets with more than 1 losing selection will not qualify for this promotion.
Maximum refund for this promotion is £25. Refund credited as 888sport free bet. Special Enhanced Accumulator bets do not qualify.
How Does 888sport ACCA Saver Work?
Place a multiple of at least £2 comprising at least 6 legs with minimum odds of 1/2 (1.50) on each leg.
Accepted sports markets for this promotion are greyhound, horse racing or football match win selections (additional, i.e. subsequent legs can be on any sport).
If one leg goes down, you’ll get a refund of up to £25.
What is 888sport Acca Saver?
888sport Acca Saver is a money back offer for your sports bets. Place minimum 6 bets with odds of 1/2 (1.50) each, and if you miss by one selection, your acca stake will be refunded.
Min Bet £2. Min Legs 6 or more on any Greyhound, Horse Racing or Football match winner markets only. Min odds 1/2 (1.5) or greater on each selection. Max Refund £25. 888sport Free Bet stakes are not included in bet returns. Free Bet valid for 7 days from credit. Full T&C’s apply.
Win at 4/1 or bigger and get a £5 free bet at 888sport
When you bag a 4/1+ winner on any market, get credited with a £5 Free Bet (to qualify, min bet stake is £10).
Available once a day, every day. All sports included.
18+. Min bet £10. Min odds 4/1. 888sport Free Bet credited upon bet settlement and expires after 7 days. Free Bet must be claim within 3 days. Limited to 1 token per day. Withdrawal restrictions and full T&Cs apply.
888sport Free Bet for Champions League
Earn a 888sport free bet every Champions League night – all you need to do is keep a winning run going. Win with your Free Bet and get another, until your streak runs out!
To qualify, place bets totalling £20 or more at odds of evens (2.00) or higher on Champions League matches using the Bet Builder feature:
- Get credited with a £5 free bet.
- Win with your 888sport free bet and you’ll receive another.
- Continue receiving 888sport free bets if you maintain your winning streak. Up to 10 times.
If your streak comes to an end, don’t sweat. This offer will be available once on every Champions League day. Just meet the £20 bet requirement again and have an another shot.
Promotion is valid once on every Champions League day. 18+. £20 minimum stake. Minimum odds, event and bet selection restrictions apply. 888sport Free Bets must be claimed and valid for 3 days. General withdrawal restrictions & full T&Cs apply.
Bet Builder
Combine markets in the same game to build unique odds. Available on football and basketball matches.
With Bet Builder, you can combine markets within the same game, both pre-match and live, to produce unique match multiples.
For example, the Manchester derby might be coming up and you fancy City to win, Aguero to score 2+ goals and over 10.5 corners. Using the Bet Builder section, under the match, you’ll be able to add these selections together to get a price.
18+. Full T&Cs apply. BeGambleAware.org.
Free to play predictor game – win up to £8000
888’s free-to-play weekly predictor game gives you the chance to win up to £8,000 in cash – all you need to do is pick the win-draw-win result from eight selected matches from Europe’s top leagues.
Get them all right and the £8k is yours (If there are multiple winners, the £8k will be shared). Fall short and you’ll still get a £1 Free Bet for every correct answer (After your first two plays, to continue receiving Free Bets, there will be a weekly wagering requirement of £25).
Valid for the 2020-21 football season. 18+. Registered & verified players only. The £8k prize will be shared if there are multiple winners. After 2 plays, a weekly wagering of £25 (min odds 1/2) will be required in order to receive Free Bets. 888sport Free Bet tokens must be claimed within 3 days and expire 7 days after being claimed. General withdrawal restrictions & T&Cs apply.
Each Way+ Promotion
Earn a bigger EW payout or gain some added insurance on your EW bets.
Your horse is pipped at the post, missing out on a top-three finish by a whisker. Your head’s in your hands. You’ve just slipped out of the EW (each way) places.
Bring on Each Way+. On selected horse and greyhound races, we’ll be adding an extra place. For example, if your race is paying three places, we’ll bump it up to four. So, next time you’re edged out, there might be some consolation.
Plus, in other races, we’ll enhance the place terms. Maybe your race is paying at a 1/4 of the odds each way – keep an eye out, we might boost it to a 1/3.
Place terms will revert to the industry standard if a select number of runners do not participate.
18+. Full T&Cs apply. BeGambleAware.org.
888sport BOG on Horse Racing
Take a price on a horse and if it starts at a bigger one, we’ll pay you at those odds.
Horse prices are constantly on the move and it’s hard to know when you’ll get the best value. With Best Odds Guaranteed, it doesn’t matter if you’ve backed a horse at 3/1 (4.00) and it drifts to 5/1 (6.00) at the off.
Just take a price on a horse on the day of the race, and if your selection wins or places at a bigger Starting Price (SP), we’ll pay you at those odds.
This offer applies to all single, multiple and each way bets on UK and Irish races, every day. It doesn’t apply to ante post bets, bets on international racing (unless stated otherwise), enhanced accumulators, tote pools or any other special markets.
Only UK and Ireland meetings are eligible. 18+. Only registered members from UK and Ireland can take part in this offer. BOG icon must be displayed on betslip to qualify. Cash stakes only. Withdrawal restrictions and full T&Cs apply.
Watch Horse Racing from EVERY track in Britain and Ireland at 888sport
888sport are now streaming the action from every single one of Britain and Ireland’s 86 racecourses!
For as little as a £1 stake per race, you’ll be able to watch all the best action from the best Grade and Group 1 tracks on both sides of the Irish Sea, including the mighty Cheltenham, Ascot, Chepstow, Aintree, Kempton, Leopardstown, Punchestown and more!
All you have to do to watch a race is have a bet of £1 or 50p EW.
Furthermore, we know how great it is to be able to place a bet on an event and then watch it play out right in front of you, and that’s why it’s fantastic to see that 888Sport offers live streaming of certain sports as well.
Horse racing is the main feature that can be watched via this function, with all UK and Irish races being live streamed.
You simply need to have a stake from as little as £1 per race you want to watch, and the service will be completely at your fingertips.
If horse racing is your passion, take a look at 888sport Horse Racing Free Bet Offer.
Min bet of £1 or £0.5 EW. Only UK, US and Ireland Meetings are included.
888sport Live Streaming Review
888sport live streaming is easy accessible on different platforms, including mobile phones.
888sport streams a variety of sports like football, rugby or tennis, but the main focus is on horse racing;
888sport live streaming coverage includes every racecourse and greyhound track in Britain and Ireland, including the best Grade and Group 1 races at Cheltenham, Aintree, Leopardstown and many more, so you never have to miss a live race again. Additionally, US, French and Australian racing is also available through live streaming.
In order to watch the race(s) you must have funded account or have wagered a minimum of £1 on any event in the previous 24 hours.
Please note that in order to watch some of the races, you will have to place a £1 bet, or £0.50 EW bet.
*Some races will have a minimum bet requirement of £1 (or £0.50 each way) in order to stream. Only UK, US and Ireland Meetings are included. 18+ only. Full T&C’s apply. Gamble responsibly.
What we like about 888sport Live Streaming Service
888sport is one of the most competitive online bookmakers to make horse racing bets with, as its unique icard tool allows you to see the predicted outcome.
This is perfectly combined with 888sport live streaming of the race when you bet on it!
When you combine innovative icard technology with excellent In-Play betting options, what you get is a high quality service and perfect console for betting on horses.
Is 888Sport Live Streaming Free?
888sport live streaming is free for all account holders from the UK and Ireland under these conditions;
a) You have money in your 888sport account.
b) You placed a min £1 bet on any event in the previous 24 hours.
c) To watch UK, US and Ireland horse racing live, you will have to place a bet on a selected race. (£1 or 0.50 EW bet).
What Sports I Can Watch Via 888Sport Live Streaming Service?
Following sports are available through 888sport Live Streaming Service; football, tennis, rugby, horse racing, NBA and many other major sports events.
888Sport Bookmaker Review
Punters from the UK can’t fail to be familiar with the 888 brands, they’ve been in the UK market since 1997 and have been growing at an almost frightening rate since then! Today, they operate one of the largest online casinos and poker rooms in the country. In 2008 they launched their sports betting brand 888Sport, which has rapidly grown in size, reputation and awareness. They have achieved this through sponsorships such as their sponsored stand at Fontwell Park Racecourse, as well as big name ambassadors including Santiago Canizares, Ian Wright and Emma Spencer.
The company has sought to gain an early foothold in the legal US online gambling industry too, including becoming one of the first non-US companies to receive a license from the Nevada Gaming Commission and getting involved in tie-ups with US gambling giants such as Caesars Atlantic City Casino in order to offer sports betting to residents of New Jersey.
There have been a few minor bumps along the road, and the company hasn’t always been praised for its approach to responsible gambling. Its casino arm has come under fire for unfair bonus practices too, but these have all turned out to be relatively minor issues for this juggernaut of the UK gambling industry, whose shares continue to increase in value year after year. That tells you they are definitely doing something right, so let’s take an in-depth look at all of the most important features of 888Sport.
If you know anything about online gambling then you know there is one area you simply cannot afford to get wrong: licensing, safety and security. With that in mind, let’s start there.
Licensing, Safety Record & Security
You’ll find 888Sport’s gambling licenses listed under Cassava Enterprises, and as well as holding a prestigious Gibraltar gaming license, the company is actually based on the island too. Further information on their Gibraltar gaming license can be found under entry 22 for the main company and 39 for the sportsbook specifically – such low numbers should give you an idea of just how early this company was to get involved in the gaming industry!
Gibraltar are particularly strict when it comes to monitoring their licensees, making them a difficult regulatory authority to obtain a license from – and it’s even harder to keep one for over two decades. You can see why companies would make the effort though – Gibraltar is a tax haven, and running a gambling company from there has numerous financial benefits for the company’s themselves, as well as being a huge positive for the players who choose to bet with them as well. You won’t be finding any “rogue” outfits holding a Gibraltar license.
Some of Gibraltar’s key requirements for their licensees include:
- Ensuring that no customer gambling with a GGC licensed company can lose any of their money should the operator become insolvent. This means making sure that player deposits and winnings are held in a separate bank account controlled by a different party from the company’s primary accounts. There must be no ability to easily transfer funds between these different accounts either.
- Preventing their licensees from taking advantage of players whose location suffers from poor gambling regulation. For example, operators may not provide a worse level of service, less attractive bonuses and promotions or enforce arbitrary rules that they would not be able to get away with in jurisdictions with stricter regulation such as the United Kingdom. Gibraltar insist that all players who sign up for an account receive a fair and transparent gaming experience, and have devised a series of tests to ensure that operators cannot flout this rule.
- Requiring licensees to keep a careful eye on the actions of their customers, including watching for signs of gambling addiction. Operators are required to temporarily suspend the gambling privileges of customers exhibiting signs of such behavior, and the suspension must not be lifted until such time as it can be determined that the player is in full control of their actions and spending.
There are other aspects to the Gibraltar license, but these three main pointers alone would discourage a large number of the “shadier” operators on the web from attempting to obtain this type of license. Aside from 888Sport, some of the other brands operating with a Gibraltar license include Boylesports, Unibet, Mansion and Bet365. That’s a pretty prestigious list of tier-one operators, I’m sure you will agree!
Secondary Licensing from the UK Gambling Commission
All gambling companies offering their services to players within the United Kingdom are also required to hold a secondary license from the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), which was created way back in 2005 to protect players from the explosion in gambling related activity caused by the introduction of the internet. The license number is 39028 and can be seen here.
Their powers were extended dramatically in 2014, introducing a number of new regulations which caused many operators to decide to pull out of the UK market altogether rather than comply with these newer, much more strict sets of rules and regulations.
The cynics among us would probably wager that it was the introduction of a point-of-consumption tax, forcing even offshore companies who are taking bets from UK punters to pay taxes on any profits made from these players to the UK treasury. Personally, I believe it was just as much down to worries about the unlimited fines that could now be handed out to operators engaging in shady business practices which scared many companies into abandoning their UK punters.
Whatever the true reasons, we did lose a large number of gaming companies around that time, many of whom have been sorely missed. Some larger operators did eventually change their mind and return to the UK market in the end though – it’s possible that some of these companies just didn’t have sufficient time to make all of the necessary changes to their standard operating procedures that were required to be in compliance with the updated laws at the time that the switchover took place.
Some might say that the UKGC oversteps their bounds at some points – their well-publicized plan to limit stakes on online slots to just £2 per spin seems a little excessive, with many operators claiming such a change could put them out of business. At least that proposal has some kind of obvious purpose though – other recent directives such as the removal of the fast play and bonus buy options from online casino games were quite frankly absurd, with no obvious benefit to anybody.
All things considered though, I think most players would agree that the UKGC has been a good thing for punters based within the UK overall, and it’s probably even had a positive impact on some international players too – operators such as 888Sport are required to treat all of their customers with the same amount of respect they would their British punters, even though such players are located out of their jurisdiction.
We certainly get a lot of things wrong here in Britain, but refusing to grant gaming licenses to companies that are willing to mistreat any player they believe they can get away with certainly isn’t one of them!
Player Protection
888Sport has a number of features available to designed to block access to persons that should not be gambling – whether that is because they are a minor, suffer from gambling addiction, or struggle to effectively limit the amount of time and money they spend on gambling sites. Regular warning messages are shown on screen once an hour, or at another time interval of your choosing, alerting you to the amount of time you have been playing and how much you have won or lost during that time.
Responsible gaming features such as allowing you to set daily, weekly and monthly deposit limits are useful even for the regular punter who just likes to make sure they don’t spend more than they can afford. A “Take A Break” facility is available, which allows you to prevent access to the site or place bets using the mobile application for a specified period of time.
Alternatively, you can self-exclude yourself from the site altogether, although caution should be advised when choosing to use options such as this – you may find yourself excluded from many other sites that you did not realize were related to 888Sport as well. The UKGC has created a single system that allows those with a true gambling problem to exclude themselves from all online gaming sites with a single action. That site can be found at www.gamstop.co.uk. If you know you have a gambling problem, do not hesitate to use the self-exclusion feature or GAMSTOP to protect yourself from any further losses. On the other hand, if you have just had a bad session, consider using the Take A Break option instead – you don’t want to find yourself permanently locked out of several sites just because you got annoyed at losing a large bet!
Depositing and Withdrawing
888Sport have improved their banking services dramatically over the last five years or so. It was always a particular bugbear of mine when a casino or sportsbook would quite happily accept your money immediately when it came to depositing and placing bets, but requesting a withdrawal meant waiting days or even weeks for your funds to be processed.
Withdrawal requests would previously sit in a reversible “pending” state for up to seven days, which was just completely unacceptable in my view. Whilst I do think that the UKGC decision to ban reverse withdrawals altogether was somewhat unnecessary and over the top, it has definitely led to a drop in overall withdrawal times when waiting to be paid from many online sportsbooks.
Long before that change was implemented however, 888Sport made significant improvements of their own accord and began processing e-wallet withdrawal requests in under 24 hours, just like most other tier-one online gaming operators. The company has yet to implement the fast-track card refund service now available from Visa and Mastercard, which allows withdrawals to be sent as refunds to the card used for depositing in just a few minutes. Despite this, my debit card withdrawal requested at 8pm the previous night was in my Monzo bank account the next morning when I woke up. That’s fantastic, but do remember that other card issuers may not be as fast as Monzo.
A huge number of depositing options are supported at 888Sport – more than any other sportsbook that I am aware of. Just check out this huge list of supported payment options for UK players!
Method | Fee | Limits | Deposits | Withdrawals | Time Scale |
Visa | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | Yes | Instant |
Mastercard | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | Yes | Instant |
Diners Club | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
Eurocard | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
Maestro | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | Yes | Instant |
Apple Pay | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
Qiwi Visa | £0 | £5 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
ecoPayz | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | Yes | Instant |
iWallet | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
MuchBetter | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | Yes | Instant |
WebMoney | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | Yes | Instant |
Neteller | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | Yes | Instant |
Nordea | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
Skrill | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | Yes | Instant |
Paypal | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | Yes | Instant |
Yandex | £0 | £5 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
Astropay | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
Purplepay | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
ToditoCash | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
Boleto | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
EPS | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
Instant Payments | £0 | £15 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
Op-Pohjola | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
Sofort | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
Trustly | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
Verkkopanikki | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
INSTADEBIT | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
iDebit | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | No | Instant |
Bank Transfer | £0 | £100 – Unlimited | Yes | Yes | 1-3 Working Days |
Transferencia Bancaria | £0 | £10 – Unlimited | Yes | Yes | 1-3 Working Days |
Wire Transfers | £0 | £50 – Unlimited | Yes | Yes | 1-3 Working Days |
Betting Markets, Pricing and Odds
888Sport has built a reputation for offering some of the best odds of any online sportsbook, and the sheer variety of different leagues and fixtures available on which to place a wager makes them one of the most interesting books to bet with. The company has a large focus on horse racing, offering live streaming for more races than any other operator. You’ll also find a wide range of political betting markets for various European countries, which is quite unusual and definitely presents some fun and interesting options. Here’s a full directory of the sports and markets currently available at 888Sport:
American Football Athletics Aussie Rules Football Badminton Bandy Baseball Cricket Cycling Darts eSports Floorball Football | Golf Greyhound Racing Handball Horse Racing Ice Hockey Mixed Martial Arts Motorsports Netball Olympics Politics | Rugby Snooker Specials Surfing Tennis Trotting TV UFC Volleyball Winter Sports |
People often wonder how bookmakers come up with the odds they offer for each of their sports, and the simplest way to explain this is that they assign a probability to each of the potential different outcomes, and adjust their price for each one by assessing the number and size of bets which have been placed on each of the various possibilities. Some of the larger bookmakers will trade data with each other too, to allow them to more accurately manage their risk.
For the bookmaker to make a profit though, they have to ensure that the total of the odds they offer on each of the possible outcomes adds up to a number higher than 100%. This is called the odds overround, and a good online sportsbook should be adding no more than around 10% to the combined probabilities of each of the possible outcomes. By combining these two aspects together, the bookmaker can be sure of making a profit regardless of what the actual outcome of a particular contest happens to be.
We looked at a small selection of current contests being offered at 888Sport at the time of writing this review, and found all three to be offering combined total odds of less than 107%. This is a great way to determine that 888Sport are offering players a good price, without having to compare their odds directly against every other online sportsbook.
It’s no surprise to find that 888Sport appears to be at its most competitive in the horse racing and British Premier League markets, but their odds were consistently good across the board.
In-Play Betting & Cash Out Facility
This method of betting on sports fixtures has exploded in popularity in recent years, and it’s easy to see why – instant gratification is all the rage these days, and in-play betting allows you to make very quick profits by getting in and out quickly once you can see you are in profit.
The odds for all outcomes are constantly being updated to reflect the current state of the contest, and creating a friendly user interface for this type of betting is a true nightmare for even the most talented software developers.
Whilst 888Sport’s implementation may appear a little simplistic, this is perhaps its beauty – even newcomers to in-play betting should be able to find their way around the different functions and get their bets placed in time, which is crucial for this type of betting to work correctly and be popular with players.
A real downside to this aspect of 888Sport is the lack of live streaming for any sport apart from horse racing. If horse racing is your thing though, then this is surely the book you would be best to choose to place your bets with. No less than 85 different tracks throughout the UK and Ireland are available to watch in real-time, although you will need to have an active bet of at least £1 in play to make use of this functionality.
Other large sportsbooks have managed to arrange tie-ups with TV networks to service them with other British staples such as football, tennis and cricket, and with all the money spent by 888Sport on promotions and advertising it seems strange they haven’t yet added a significant live-streaming element to their site. Hopefully, this is something the company has planned for the future.
Bonuses & Promotions
Welcome Bonus is better than much of the competition.
888Sport has a reasonably decent offer for new punters at their sportsbook, and seeing as you are only eligible for one new player bonus from 888 as a whole then this offer is definitely preferable to the new player deal they offer in their casino division, which is frankly awful. On the other hand, their poker division offers an excellent new player bonus as well, so you may want to compare the two and see which you would prefer.
In order to receive the new player bonus for the sportsbook section you need to deposit a minimum of £10, then make your first selection for a bet of at least £10 with odds of at least 1/2. You can take advantage of the bet builder facility if you wish, which allows you to combine several wagers into a qualifying bet – provided the resulting cumulative odds exceed 1/2.
If you choose to go for an “each way” bet, however, be aware that you’ll need to stake a minimum of £10 each way (total bet £20) in order for the bet to qualify. You’ll also need to place the qualifying bet within 30 days of opening your account too, so it’s probably a good idea to get straight on with it right after signing up!
You must not use the cash out feature at any time whist your qualifying bet is in play – you must wait for the event to complete. Disappointingly, wagers placed on virtual sports do not count as qualifying bets either, which is a dubious decision at best. Also, be careful regarding the method you use to get your funds into the sportsbook too – deposits made using Paypal, Muchbetter, Paysafe Card, Neteller and Skrill are all excluded from the welcome offer.
It’s very likely that this decision was made because of the way e-wallets used to be so simple to set up and use, making them idea for fraud. This is no longer the case, however, as all of the deposit methods listed above have implemented proper KYC procedures these days. It could be a while before the sportsbooks feel confident enough about them to relax their restrictions, unfortunately, but it should happen eventually considering the loophole which used to be exploited by fraudsters to rip off the gambling sites were closed a long time ago.
Your £30 in 888sport free bets will be credited as three separate £10 free bet tokens, one of which must be used on their mobile app. The site promises to get them added to your account within 72 hours maximum, but from what I have heard people usually receive them very quickly – just a few minutes, apparently.
There are no wagering requirements on any winnings that result from your 888sport free bets, however you will only receive the winnings from each free bet and not the value of your £10 token. 888sport free bet tokens cannot be used to place each way or permutation bets, and must be used in their entirety for one single bet – you cannot make several smaller wagers using a single token. You also cannot combine any free bet tokens with deposited funds in order to make larger bets either.
In addition to the three sports bet tokens, 888Sport free bet pack also throws you an additional £10 casino bonus too. The casino bonus does have a wagering requirement of 40x, as well as a maximum cash out limit of £500 (excluding progressive jackpot wins). Certain games are said to be prohibited from play whilst using your casino bonus as well, although the signup page doesn’t make clear exactly what those games may be! I would suggest nipping over to 888casino and reading their bonus terms before using this bonus.
So, there is undeniably a lot of terms and conditions which have to be taken into account, but I believe this is both attractive and generous as far as new player bonuses go. Especially when you consider that you receive all of these benefits in return for a such a tiny deposit of just £10, I’d recommend that all new players take advantage of 888Sport’s welcome package.
Other Promotions
At the moment 888Sport are running a great promotion where you receive a £5 free bet token every time you place a winning bet at odds of 4/1 or higher. The bet has to be a minimum of £10 and only one 888sport free bet token will be awarded per day.
There’s also a VIP scheme known as the Premier Player Club, and rather than just giving points for each pound you wager this scheme awards real cash – up to £50 every week. You need to stake a minimum of £50 to be eligible for the bottom tier, which pays £5 in cash with no restrictions attached. Sadly, the higher tiers have some pretty insane staking requirements – you’ll need to be betting over £1,000 a week to earn a reward of just £15! In order to get the maximum benefit of £50 in no-strings-attached free cash, you’ll need to be staking over three grand every week…. Wow!
It’s definitely a nice feature to have, but the staking requirements seem way too high, and most players will never get past the £10 level which requires bets of at least £500. Perhaps VIP points would actually work better, as they allow players to build up their staking over several weeks or months – it would be nice to get that £50 reward once you have eventually placed £3,000 worth of bets over the lifetime of your account. I don’t believe there can be many people who are actually staking over £3,000 per week on a regular basis at any online sportsbook, and the handful who are probably won’t be that excited by the promise of a measly £50 in free cash!
Mobile Betting & Apps
It wasn’t long ago that gambling apps were prohibited by both the Apple App Store as well as the Play Store used on Android devices. As a result, sportsbooks and online casinos were forced to develop apps and then offer them alongside complicated instructions explaining how to sideload these programs onto people’s devices.
As you can probably imagine, this massively limited the number of users who were willing to install and use this software – Apple owners in particular required a jailbroken handset in order to install applications that were downloaded outside of the genuine App Store. Even Android users had to disable a few scary sounding options about “trusted sources” before they could install applications which were not obtained from the google play store.
Apple and Android Devices
Thankfully, the two major mobile software markets have now taken a much more sensible approach to apps which allow real money gambling – if you are located in a jurisdiction where the use of such software is permitted by law, you will be allowed to download and install it.
Open up the App Store on iPhone or Google Play on Android and you’ll have no trouble finding the 888Sport app at the moment – they currently pay for a sponsored ranking, so any search for sportsbook apps in general will almost certainly return 888Sport as the very first result. There are also dedicated 888 Casino and 888 Poker mobile apps, both of which are fully developed and work great on every device we have tested them on.
Going back to 888Sport, If you have an iPad or Android Tablet then the experience is even better than that offered on smartphones – the larger screen is taken full advantage of, and is fantastic for allowing extra information to be displayed onscreen at once, which is particularly useful when participating in in-play betting.
Windows Store Support
The Windows Store has no restrictions on these kinds of apps, but few of the major sportsbooks have yet made any effort to establish a presence within that market. Sadly, this does include 888, who are yet to create a decent Windows application that can be downloaded and installed from the Windows store.
Most sportsbooks and even casinos have been sticking to web-based interfaces for a while now, and while most poker rooms do have a downloadable application, not many of those have made it into the actual Windows store as yet either.
If you do try searching for 888Sport in the Windows Store, a strange application will be offered called “888sport tournament”. This application has nothing to do with 888 themselves, and is actually some sort of basketball challenge game. Considering that the creators of this application are obviously trying to pass themselves off as 888, there’s a very good chance that this software is actually some type of malware, so stay well away.
The gaming companies really need to get on top of this, both by creating their own dedicated Windows store applications and actively monitoring the store and ensuring that content which infringes on their trademark rights is removed quickly before it can cause any harm to fans of the 888 brands.
Going forward, more and more people are choosing to get their software from these official stores – it’s a delivery mechanism that people have found extremely useful and convenient when using their smartphones and tablets, and they are keen to have the same kind of high-quality experience when using the Windows Store on their desktops and laptops too. The sooner the sportsbooks get a grip on this, the better – for both the books themselves, and their punters.
888Sport: The Verdict
Pretty much the best book out there, with only a few minor faults: 5/5
In almost every area that really matters to punters, 888 are definitely near the top of the list in every category, doing battle with the best sportsbooks on the web for the highly desired label of being Britain’s biggest online sportsbook. Their brand is one of the most well respected in the entire world of online gaming, meaning that the vast majority of players will automatically view them as being safe and trustworthy – a fantastic advantage.
Their dual licenses from the Gibraltar Gaming Commission and UK Gambling Commission ensure that your funds are safe no matter what happens to the company. Additionally, those licenses provide considerable peace of mind that you will always be treated fairly, you will always be paid any withdrawals that you request, and that the quality of their support and customer service will always be excellent.
The standard of their website is absolutely first rate, and a recent refresh and update roughly six months ago made an already exceptional site even better. The only thing that is really missing from 888Sport’s current offering is their lack of a decent live streaming service – on the one hand, they do stream more horse racing than any other book, but on the other hand the lack of any streaming whatsoever for all other sports is very disappointing.
Of course, it’s difficult with some sports such as UK football, as the rights are always sold for exorbitant rates to media companies willing to pay hundreds of millions of pounds. For sports which are easily viewable on broadcast television though, it feels as if it would be straightforward enough to arrange a tie up with a television company, just as Unibet has done with UTV, and it would definitely add significant value to their offering.
We do hear of a few players who have been quick to have their accounts restricted or closed altogether after they managed to win large amounts of money in a short period of time. This seems to be a problem with all online sportsbooks though, so it doesn’t seem fair to single 888 out for this.
The thing is, such actions just should not be necessary – a good bookmaker should be calculating their odds so that a single player making a few winning bets here and there should not cause them any concern whatsoever, and something is definitely going wrong – probably something as simple as extremely greedy operators – if the rumours of so many sportsbooks behaving in this manner are actually true.
Finally, their customer support is way above the standard of even the majority of other larger books. There is a very detailed FAQ section as you would probably expect, but it is even available in eight different languages! Their 24/7 support staff can be reached via a freephone number, by email, or through online live chat. We found that the average waiting time before speaking to someone using their live chat support was roughly minutes.
When we were connected to a real person, we were immediately asked if we would prefer to communicate in English or would prefer French, Portuguese, Finnish or Spanish instead. This is really excellent and far ahead of much of the competition. The company does state that Russian, Norwegian and Polish are usually available too, but perhaps there were no agents available to cover those languages at the time of our tests.
On balance, we were extremely impressed with 888Sport, and would have no doubts about recommending this sportsbook as well as awarding them an excellent 5/5 rating.
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