888 Sport Review:

888sport is the bookmaking platform of its famous namesake 888Casino, and in many ways it fits the role of little brother to the much more famous and established online casino rather well.

It may not rank among the top betting sites, but with that kind of brand recognition, coupled with access to a humungous marketing budget, this is a betting site that has all the weapons it needs to take the fight to the market leaders.

Established in 2008 by Cassava Enterprises, 888sport wasn’t among the first wave of online sportsbooks, but it’s been around long enough to establish its own distinct identity.

The neat orange-and-black colour scheme of the site bears little family resemblance to the black-green 888 Casino, and the lack of obvious casino or bingo links in the site menu adds to the feeling of a serious and focused sports betting site.

Of course, it still has the weight and stability of the enormous Gibraltar-based 888 Holdings parent company behind it. With 20 years of proven reliability, a listing on the London Stock Exchange, and all the relevant licenses from the Gibraltar Licensing Authority and the UK Gambling Commission, that should be enough to reassure most players.

The range of payment methods available is certainly extensive. Most e-wallets allow a minimum deposit of £10, which is about average. At the other end of the spectrum, players using Neteller or Paysafecard can deposit up to £50,000.

888Sport oofers both a responsive mobile site and a dedicated mobile app. It’s great to see a handheld offering be made available, but the look of the app leaves a lot to be desired. Maybe it’s just us, but we don’t think that the orange and black of the 888 desktop site transfers to the portable platform particularly well.

Another issue that we have with the 888 mobile app is that actually getting it on your device can be a little irksome. Those with an iOS device like an iPhone or an iPad shouldn’t have too much bother when grabbing it from the app store, but for Android users it’s a different story. You can grab the app via QR code or by getting sent a link via email or SMS on the site. However this is the case with all android betting apps so maybe we shouldn’t be too hard on 888.

Negatives aside, the actual sports betting experience delivered through the 888 mobile app is pretty expansive. Football, racing, tennis, cricket, basketball, snooker, golf, greyhounds, and more are covered through what is a full A-to-Z of top sports betting action.

Graphically, 888 has a mobile app that needs a bit of work, but anyone who is after a strictly no-frills and no-fuss handheld betting experience will find that this robust offering from 888 fits the bill.

888 offers new accounts the chance to treble their odds on their first bet, regardless of the bet or the odds in play. So if you’re betting at Evens (2.00), you’ll win 5/1 (6.00) if your first bet comes in. This offer is valid from a deposit and bet of just £5, and applies to any event with odds at over 1/2, or 1.50.

Although it’s not a free bet offer as such, this offer compares favorably with the more common types of welcome promotion offered by 888sports’ rivals. Rather than messing around with wagering requirements, bonus credit and the other quirks of free bet offers, it’s simply a case of signing up and betting as normal – and if your bet wins, you’re in line for a 3x return over the rate you originally expected. We like this neat alternative to the usual free bet messiness.

An 888sports account nets you access to all of the other products in the lineup – 888casino, 888ladies and 888poker. Each has its own unique welcome promotion, so if you plan on spending most of your time on one of the other 888 products it’s worth checking out what’s on offer.

When you sign up to the sportsbook, you’ll also receive a free £5 casino bonus once you’ve placed a first bet of at least £5.

888Sports also regularly offers enhanced odds on certain fixtures and events, as well as various other promotions from time to time, as a reward for loyal customers.

We especially love the fun selection of regular free bets promotions 888 offers around top-level football.  At the time of review, European Double offered punters the opportunity to win a free £5 bet for the weekend when they placed three double-bets of £5 or more on mid-week European fixtures. Free Bet Saturdays, meanwhile, is a regular offer that gives customers a £5 free bet whenever they place at least three live bets during Saturday fixtures. There are also some nice money-back offers for unfortunate football punters, such as the 88th Minute Special, which awards unlucky punters up to 25 back if their bet is derailed by a late goal.

Overall, quirky promotions are one of 888’s big strengths, adding extra value – and fun – to an already attractive betting offering.

When it comes to the sports available to wager on, 888sport is probably above average in the industry and slightly behind the best. This shouldn’t be a big deal if you are a fan of the more popular sports and leagues out there such as the top European football competitions, US sports, horse racing, and other famous events. There’s good depth too, with way more than 100 betting lines available pre-game and in-play for top-level football games.

Betting margins are promisingly low, averaging less than 4% on football great for any FA cup or Champions league betting. On the flipside though while odds are good, 888sport doesn’t have a reputation for offering the lowest odds in any particular market. No chance of feeling hard done by, but it won’t be the first site you turn to when you’re looking for the very best odds you can get. You do get some extra value in the shape of all those cash-back and free bet offers that run throughout the year.

If you regularly place bets that could net you tens of thousands of pounds then it’s definitely worth doing some digging into maximum bet sizes and payouts. The overall maximum payout is £250,000 per day, but limits for individual sports can be lower and aren’t at all well-publicised. So, points docked for lack of transparency.

When it comes to live streaming, 888 really does go big. The brand doesn’t carry the “BetWatchWin” tag for no reason, as they strive to cover as many events as possible. Venturing all around the globe, from the German Bundesliga all the way through to KHL Ice Hockey, 888 does it’s best to showcase top quality live sport.

In a sense, 888 is trying to craft an experience that makes the platform a one-stop shop for live sports betting. While we wouldn’t go quite as far to say that it totally nails it like Sky Bet, we can say that it more than does itself justice with the markets, mobile, and live streaming options it makes available.