Once the bonus is credited to your account, losses will be refunded up to the bonus amount. 2. You must deposit at least the qualifying deposit of £10 (or currency equivalent) in a single amount with your first deposit to be eligible for the rebate. 3. To withdraw rebated funds, you must bet at least the qualifying deposit on any combination of markets within the promotional period; otherwise rebated funds will be forfeited. 4. Unused bonuses expire after three months of being credited to a user account and will be removed after this period. 5. Users making their first deposit by Skrill, Neteller, PayPal or a virtual/prepaid card will not qualify for this promotion. 6. The sign up offer is strictly limited to one per individual, family, household address, email address, same payment account number, and shared computer. 7. This promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other sign-up promotion. 8. Smarkets standard terms for promotions apply.
Once the bonus is credited to your account, losses will be refunded up to the bonus amount. 2. You must deposit at least the qualifying deposit of £10 (or currency equivalent) in a single amount with your first deposit to be eligible for the rebate. 3. To withdraw rebated funds, you must bet at least the qualifying deposit on any combination of markets within the promotional period; otherwise rebated funds will be forfeited. 4. Unused bonuses expire after three months of being credited to a user account and will be removed after this period. 5. Users making their first deposit by Skrill, Neteller, PayPal or a virtual/prepaid card will not qualify for this promotion. 6. The sign up offer is strictly limited to one per individual, family, household address, email address, same payment account number, and shared computer. 7. This promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other sign-up promotion. 8. Smarkets standard terms for promotions apply.
Founded in 2008, Smarkets is an online betting exchange that provides betting markets for sports, politics and current affairs alongside some of the lowest commissions of any exchange available today (this is just 2% and only applicable on winning bets).
Whilst still remaining firmly in the shadows of Betfair, the world's largest betting exchange, it is clear that Smarkets are an up and coming player and continue to refine their offering. Smarkets exchange is fast becoming a great betting exchange for pretty much any sport in the UK or further afield!
In this review, we will cover Smarkets in more detail. Starting off with one of the best reasons first, a £10 risk-free bonus bet for any new customer, simply for signing up and depositing just £20!
Once the bonus is credited to your account, losses will be refunded up to the bonus amount. 2. You must deposit at least the qualifying deposit of £10 (or currency equivalent) in a single amount with your first deposit to be eligible for the rebate. 3. To withdraw rebated funds, you must bet at least the qualifying deposit on any combination of markets within the promotional period; otherwise rebated funds will be forfeited. 4. Unused bonuses expire after three months of being credited to a user account and will be removed after this period. 5. Users making their first deposit by Skrill, Neteller, PayPal or a virtual/prepaid card will not qualify for this promotion. 6. The sign up offer is strictly limited to one per individual, family, household address, email address, same payment account number, and shared computer. 7. This promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other sign-up promotion. 8. Smarkets standard terms for promotions apply.
Welcome Offer
When trying out any new bookie or betting exchange it's always great to start off with a welcome bonus, if nothing else this helps you get a feel for how the new website works before going into your own funds and helps in deciding if this provider works well for you.
Smarkets currently offer a £20 welcome bonus to all new customers who sign-up and credit their account by at least £10 in a single transaction during their first deposit. Once your account is funded you can then bet on the exchange and claim any winnings as normal, any losses incurred up to your first £20 will be covered by the welcome bonus as cash, this means your first £20 of betting at Smarkets is effectively risk free and comes with none of the usual bookies bonus requirements to worry about!
You can sign-up to Smarkets and take advantage of this special welcome market by clicking here!
Smarkets Commissions
One of the most important differences you will face when using a betting exchange over a traditional bookie is the issue of commission, usually a small percentage of your winnings which will be paid back to the betting exchange operator (Smarkets themselves in this case) should your bet be a winner!
Smarkets have a standard commission rate of just 2% which applies equally to all winning bets from across all sports and markets in which they operate. This commission is automatically taken when any winnings are paid meaning there is no need to worry about it any further and any winnings you receive will be all yours!
Range of Sports Available at Smarkets
A big advantage of using a betting exchange (aside from the much better odds which usually are on offer) is the variety of sports, politics, current affairs and special bets markets that are available to place both back and lay bets on.
Smarkets is no exception in this regard and provides a varied selection of sports & markets to bet on, this includes mainstream favourites such as top-flight football, grand slam tennis tournaments and golf majors through to worldwide politics events.
Even if your sport of choice is less common in the UK, for example, Australian rules football, NBA basketball, NFL American football or NHL ice hockey, Smarkets has you covered featuring a great range of sports markets from all around the world and are, naturally, one of the better choices of exchanges for such international betting.
Football / Soccer
Football is a sport that Smarkets clearly takes very seriously. UK and European mainstream leagues are covered as well as smaller competitions & leagues such as the Copa America and the Japanese J league among others.
Some football markets available at Smarkets include:
Match Result
Correct Score
First Goalscorer
Winner & BTTS
BTTS
Double Chance
Draw no bet
Asian Handicap
Half-Time / Full-Time
The popularity of football betting on Smarkets also means there is usually lots of activity from other bettors and with this plenty of opportunities to get your bets placed with the best odds and the minimum of fuss.
In-play betting on football and other sports is also available at Smarkets. Cash out is also available up to the final whistle which is not always something that is available with traditional bookies.
Horse Racing
Smarkets clearly have worked hard to provide a good horse racing offering and provide easy access to all major horse races in the UK and Ireland as well as across the world including in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa and France.
Races for the next day (and further ahead for big events) are also usually available and priced up much earlier than they would be at the bookies.
Tennis
Tennis is another sport that has great coverage at Smarkets. All major and most minor professional tournaments are covered and a good range of markets are available, these include:
Match Winner
Correct Score
Set Winner
Winner of Next Point
Set Betting
Games Over / Under
Motorsports
Good coverage is available across multiple motorsport events at Smarkets, the main and most popular being Formula 1, an event Smarkets has really come to excel in during recent years!
Unfortunately, as an F1 fan of many years myself, I know first hand that a lot of bookies tend to offer very poor odds on Formula one races. Thankfully, Smarkets not only covers a good range of F1 race markets but tends to usually feature market leading odds to boot!
Politics
With so many “Brexit will never happen” moments in politics of late, the growth in political markets has been huge in recent years! Thankfully, Smarkets have cottoned on to this newly found interest in political betting and have quickly developed one of the best political betting offerings on the market today!
Not only will you find all of the big political bets available to bet on such as the next US President, but also many smaller political events like the next cabinet member to resign, the next German chancellor and even if there will be a 2021 general election in Belarus if that is your thing!
eSports
Just like political betting which was mentioned above, eSports have also become a huge betting opportunity recently. If eSports is of interest to you then Smarkets should be on your shortlist given the excellent range of markets available and games covered, these include CS:GO, Call of Duty and League of Legends amongst other big titles.
Liquidity at Smarkets
Liquidity is the amount of money that is available at any given odds. In order for your bet to be matched, the liquidity must be equal to or greater than your bet.
Starting with a fairly big football match, England vs Scotland, we can see that at the time of taking this screenshot, there has been £529,624 matched on the 1x2 market. There is also over £1300 of funds available to back England at the top odds of 1.34 and over £6,000 at odds of 1.33, the next price down. Scotland, being somewhat of an outsider, have only £168 available to back at odds of 12 and just over £1,000 at 11.5.
Comparing these values to exchange leader, Betfair, we can see how Smarkets fares on liquidity for a mainstream football event as well as the availability of money at the top odds:
Looking at the same England vs Scotland 1x2 market (above), we see that although fewer funds have been matched on Betfair so far (£529k at Smarkets vs £263k at Betfair), Betfair do have much more market depth. For example, in the market above, Betfair have over £13k available for those wanting to back England at odds of 1.34 versus only £1378 at Smarkets!
Moving onto another mainstream exchange, Betdaq, and we see that with only £24,874 in matched bets so far on England vs Scotland that Smarkets is clearly providing much more liquidity to its customers (although market depth is somewhat similar).
And finally, when comparing Smarkets to Matchbook (above) we also see that Smarkets seems to be a lot further ahead in the liquidity provided on this same game (over £529k at Smarkets versus just over £58k at Matchbook).
Whilst this total liquidity amount is important, there are other things to consider when assessing liquidity at an exchange including the depth of the money available and the spread in odds values, which is how far apart the back and lay odds are on a market. If we were to look at a less mainstream event, such as the Brazilian Serie B game between CS Alagoano and Londrina we might see a spread such as this one below:
Notice (above) how the back price on all selections, in green, is very different to the lay price in blue! This is an example of a market which isn't receiving much interest from exchange customers, has very little liquidity and with this very little market depth, the act of trying to get, say, £200 on any of these outcomes would potentially see some very low odds needing to be taken due to the low market depth currently available.
NB Luckily most mainstream football markets at Smarkets do offer very good liquidity and market depth, should you wish to bet on a less popular game (such as the above) it might still be worth checking some of the traditional bookies and how much they will let you bet.
Multiples and ACCAs at Smarkets
An advantage of using a bookie compared to an exchange is the ease at which multiples and accumulator bets can be placed. Smarkets have made good progress in such offerings in recent years and it is now possible to place multiples across many popular sports whilst using the exchange!
As can be seen above, when adding multiple events to a betslip in Smarkets, we now get a “multiples” section appear towards the bottom of the betslip! In many ways, from this point onward, this works in the same way as it would when placing a multiple bet at a bookie.
Comparing Smarkets Multiples with Other Betting Exchanges
Starting with exchange leader, Betfair, we must make use of Sportsbook to place multiples bets at Betfair (and this, naturally, means we can't then lay such multiples like we can with the Smarkets system).
Moving on to another exchange with good multiples betting options, Betdaq, and we can see that (much like Smarkets) we can simply add multiple selections to our betslip and then be able to make use of the multiples betting system.
As can be seen above, when placing multiples at Betdaq we also have additional options for placing other multiple bet types such as Trixie and Patent system bets. Betdaq, like Smarkets, also suffers from the limitation of only allowing one selection in our multiple per event and falls behind Smarkets in only allowing back bets to be placed on these multiples.
Finally, moving onto Matchbook, we see a similar multiples offering to Betdaq whereby we can back multiples bets but not lay them as we can with the offering at Smarkets.
Similar to Smarkets, when placing multiples at Matchbook, we also are not permitted to add multiple selections from any single event either.
Comparing Smarkets Multiples to Bookies
Having seen that Smarkets appear to have a very strong multiples betting option so far, we can now compare the value on offer to that of a sportsbook offering. Given that Betfair has a very limited multiples offering on their own exchange and like to direct customers to their own sportsbook for such multiples, I think this will make for a good initial comparison.
Above is a simple multiple bet placed on England, France and Spain all to win their respective matches at Euro 2020, as can be seen at the bottom of the screenshot I have received odds of 2.36 from Smarkets for this bet!
Looking at the same bet at Betfair Sportsbook, the odds are (somewhat predictably) lower then they were at Smarkets: at only 2.25:
Whilst this isn't a massive difference in odds, it does show that the exchange based offering from Smarkets might possibly be better value, at the very least when combining selections from mainstream events with lots of liquidity available.
Finally, for some additional comparison, I will compare placing this same multiple at Coral.
As shown above, for the same multiple bet consisting of England, France and Spain each to win their respective games, Coral are offering combined odds of 2.28. These are noticeably a little bit higher than Betfair, but like Betfair still a little bit lower than the value on offer from Smarkets.
Unfortunately, one area in which Smarkets doesn't quite match up to many sportsbook offerings such as Betfair Sportsbook and Coral (as above) is that they don't, as of yet, provide a cash out button for their multiples bets!
As can be seen above, when using a sportsbook, we do get a cash out option which can be used prior to the event starting and up until the bet has settled.
If wanting to effectively cash out at Smarkets after, say, a couple of winning legs, this could be done by placing a new multiple bet made up of only the remaining legs and then laying this new bet. Whilst technically possible, this method could become complicated to calculate and is not the most appealing method, therefore, if cashing out is important then Smarkets multiples feature might not yet be quite the right choice for you!
In conclusion, with all of these multiples betting options across the main 4 exchanges and some more traditional bookies considered, Smarkets have a very strong offering! The ability to lay a custom multiples bet being of considerable value in that Smarkets are the only mainstream betting exchange to provide this functionality in such a form as it currently is.
Whilst not quite a “bet builder” just yet, owing mainly to the limitation of only a single selection per event being allowed, and no options to cash out multiples just yet, this is still a very promising multiples feature on offer from Smarkets.
Live Streaming and Match Stats
Smarkets don't currently offer any live video feeds of any of the sports or events.
Having said this, certain sports on Smarkets do feature a very useful live graphics box which sits in the top right of the page and displays, in real-time, the current status and score lines for an event. For example, below is the live graphics box for the France vs Germany game showing some useful live stats including the number of attacks, dangerous attacks, corners, cards, the current scoreline and the current event taking place on the field at any given time (Half-Time in this case below):
The Smarkets Website & App
Smarkets has a well designed, quick and responsive website and apps which feature light or dark colour schemes to suit and are available for iOS and Android tablets and phones.
If you have ever used Betfair Exchange, you will see that far from trying to emulate a similar look and feel for themselves (like some other exchanges do), Smarkets have taken the bull by the horns and developed a completely new type of exchange product, one focused around making exchange betting quick and easy to grasp!
Whilst the Smarkets website might look a bit strange at first, after a few minutes of use it becomes clear this is a well thought out product that makes finding the event you want a simple task when using the navigation menus and search functions. Once arrived at your chosen sport, getting the correct bet on is simple thanks to clear labelling and real-time displays of the money that is available to bet against on each selection (the “market depth” as you might sometimes hear it referred to as, which is basically the amount of money available from other exchanges users to bet against).
Moving on to the smartphone app and we see a similar colour scheme, layout and feel to the desktop version, this should make the transition to betting across a desktop or laptop computer and a smartphone as seamless as is realistically possible!
All in all, a great job from Smarkets and a great benefit for those who like to bet at home and then regularly check, adjust or even cash-out bets whilst on the go!
Smarkets Casino and Games
At the time of writing Smarkets don't have any casino games, live casino or slots available on their website or mobile apps!
Whilst this might, initially, seem like a negative for such a service, it does give Smarkets a certain edge in that they and their customers can be more focused on sports betting. If sports betting is your thing and you see casino games and slots as more of a distraction than anything else, then the Smarkets betting exchange service could be an ideal place to move on to!
Managing Your Betting at Smarkets
If you are someone who is keen on tracking your bets and keeping a tab on any profits and losses then the Smarkets reporting tool will be of great value.
The reporting tool allows you to easily see your betting history and additionally, thanks to the summary boxes, a snapshot of how much you have wagered, how many bets have been placed and what you might have profited (or lost) in any given time period.
Most bookies do offer some way of seeing betting history, Smarkets, however, have gone a step or two further in this regard and built a very advanced and usable reporting screen. If you just want a quick glance at what you have won on any given day then this is great, but it will let you go much further into analysing your betting history should you wish to.
Smarkets Deposit and Withdrawal Options
Deposits
Accepted currencies at Smarkets:
GBP(British Pound)
EUR (Euro)
SEK (Swedish Krona)
NOR (Norwegian Krone)
DKK (Danish Krone)
Available deposit methods:
Debit card
PayPal
Trustly
Open banking
Neteller
Skrill
Min deposit: £/€10 for all methods other than PayPal (£/€20) and Trustly (£/€40).
Withdrawals
Available withdrawal methods:
Open Banking
Debit card
Neteller
Skrill
Bank transfer
Trustly
PayPal
Min withdrawals for all methods is £/€10 other than bank transfers (£10 / €12 fee and a £/€20 minimum) and Trustly (£/€20 minimum)
Help and Support
If you need to speak with a member of the Smarkets customer service team, you can do so via the contact methods listed below:
Phone (+44 207 617 7413) Hours: 09:00 - 00:00
Email (support@smarkets.com)
Twitter (@SmarketsTech)
Live Chat (for logged in customers only) Hours: 24Hrs
Once the bonus is credited to your account, losses will be refunded up to the bonus amount. 2. You must deposit at least the qualifying deposit of £10 (or currency equivalent) in a single amount with your first deposit to be eligible for the rebate. 3. To withdraw rebated funds, you must bet at least the qualifying deposit on any combination of markets within the promotional period; otherwise rebated funds will be forfeited. 4. Unused bonuses expire after three months of being credited to a user account and will be removed after this period. 5. Users making their first deposit by Skrill, Neteller, PayPal or a virtual/prepaid card will not qualify for this promotion. 6. The sign up offer is strictly limited to one per individual, family, household address, email address, same payment account number, and shared computer. 7. This promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other sign-up promotion. 8. Smarkets standard terms for promotions apply.
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