888Sports betting review (2024)

Our Verdict:

888 Sports are a somewhat curious case of a betting site that does some things considerably better than other sites, while falling a bit short in other areas.

For example, they offer Bet Builders on four sports outside football which very few other bookies do, they run unique horseracing promotions and offer more depositing methods than just about anyone else.

But on the other hand, they only have live streaming for UK racing and not other sports, only offer five withdrawal methods and don’t have a Customer Service phone line.

So, they’re a little inconsistent when it comes to a few things, but they’ve already improved in quite a few areas over the last year or so and we’re confident that will continue to be the case.

Intro

888 Sports is the sports betting branch of the parent company 888 Holdings, who also own 888 Casino, 888 Poker and Wink Bingo, among other brands. 888 Holdings, who were formed way back in 1997, operates out of Gibraltar and is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

888 Sports was launched in 2008 and holds both the UK Gambling Commission License and the Gibraltar License.

888 Sports is one of the most active betting sites out there when it comes to advertising on TV although it’s used other forms of marketing to get its name out there, including sponsoring big horseracing events and working with well-known former sports stars as Brand Ambassadors, including former Spain goalkeeper Santiago Canizares.

Customers can enjoy betting on over 30 different sports and in addition to doing so via their laptops and desktops, can also make use of the highly rated 888 Sports betting app.

Sign Up offer

Let’s kick off our 888 Sports review by looking at the 888 Sports sign-up offer. It’s one of the more generous ones currently on the market. New customers are treated to what is essentially a 400% bonus when depositing and placing a qualifying bet. Here’s how it works.

The sign-up offer

On depositing and placing a qualifying sport bet for at least £10, 888 Sports customers will receive £30 worth of sports free bets. They’re divided into 3x £10 bets. Additionally, they’ll receive a casino bonus worth £10 to use on selected games.

One of the nice things about the offer is that you’ll receive the 888 Sports sign-up offer whether the qualifying bet wins or loses.

Notable terms and conditions

• Your £10 qualifying bet must be placed at odds of at least 1.5.
• Deposits can’t be made with PayPal, Muchbetter, Paysafecard, Neteller or Skrill.
• You must place the qualifying bet as one £10 bet, without breaking it down into several small bets and must be placed within 30 days of your registration.
• The free bet(s) can be used on any sport and must be placed as 3x £10 bets within 7 days of receiving them.
• Only winnings generated from the stake are paid out; the stake isn’t returned.
• The casino bonus has 40x wagering requirements on it.

How to claim your welcome bonus

• Register an account at 888 Sports.
• Make a deposit, remembering which payment methods are excluded from giving you the bonus.
• Non-UK and Ireland customers must enter promo code 30FB in the promo box when depositing.
• You need to accept the free bet before you can use it. This is done either by clicking the ‘Claim Now’ button in the confirmation e-mail or via the pop-up message that appears when logging into your account.
• You need to accept both sets of free bets (sports/casino) within 7 days; the sports ones must be used within 7 days, the casino ones within 14 days.
• Use the bets as per the terms and conditions listed above.

Registering an account

• Click on the Join Now button at the top right-hand side of the homepage.
• Enter your name, country of residence, E-mail and date of birth.
  
• Choose a username, password and choose a security question (and answer) that you’ll easily remember.
  
• Enter your address (you won’t be able to register if it’s not a real one), mobile number, select the currency you want to play in and your occupation. This is also where you choose whether you want to receive promotional offers in the future from 888 Sports.
• Click Register and your account is now active and ready to go.
  

Ongoing Promotions

There are plenty of ongoing 888 Sports promotions beyond just the welcome offer and that’s one of the elements that makes 888 stand out from a lot of other betting sites.  Here’s a selection of the best of them.

Champions League Bet Builder

Placing a £10 Bet Builder on a Champions League match will secure you a £5 free bet every week on a football market of your choice.

The Champions League Bet Builder must be placed pre-match, must come to odds of at least 3.0 and must be both placed and settled on the same day.

As a reward for doing this, you’ll receive a £5 free bet to use on any football match of your choice.

£5 Free Bet when you win at 4/1 (5.0) or Bigger

Winning a bet at 4/1 or bigger should be reward enough and make for a successful day’s betting in itself.

But 888 Sports clearly like rewarding winners as much as they like keeping the money of losers, because winning at considerably big odds isn’t the end of the story.

As long as the bet was a) placed for at least £10 and b) won at odds of 5.0 or bigger, you’ll receive a £5 free bet to use on any sport you like, as long as you claim it within three days and then use it within the next seven days.

Customers can claim this bonus once a day but can do so 365 days a year.

Boosted Trebles, Enhanced Windcasts and Special Bets

Every day, 888 Sports will select certain individual markets, trebles or other forms of bets and will decide to boost them.

If they’re exactly the bets that you were planning on backing anyway, so much the better.

If they’re not, you’ll at least have a perfectly good bet placed at higher odds than usual, which is never a bad thing.

Each Way +

Every horseracing punter has had the experience of backing a horse each-way and needing a Top 3 finish for it, then watched in horror as the horse finishes fourth.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. Every day, 888 Sports offers an extra place on selected races that could well make all the difference in terms of whether you get paid out, or not.

Betting Markets and bet types

888 Sports may not have quite the same number of sports to bet on as some of the other major betting sites but with an average of 35-40 different spots available to bet on at any given time, there’s certainly enough on offer that you always have something to interest you.

Let’s look at what stands out across the five major sports for UK punters, plus a look at what else catches the eye among some of the other sports.

Other sports

So that’s the five most popular ones just discussed. But let’s look at a few other sports that 888 Sports do particularly well.

Novelty Bets

Ok, not a sport as such but the 888 Sports betting markets coming under the Novelty Bets category are certainly worth a look. T

At the time of writing, there were markets on who would win Eurovision, who will play James Bond in the next movie and who will win the coveted BBC Sports Personality of the Year award. But there are plenty more on an ongoing basis, including who will win the major reality TV competitions.

eSports

Probably the fastest-growing sport to bet on and 888 Sports have certainly embraced it.

They offer betting markets on more contests than most other bookies, paying particular attention to games of CSGO, DOTA, Valorant and League of Legends.

For the most part, they just offer the three most popular markets: Match Result, handicap and Total Maps betting but occasionally there are other markets available, as well.

See more about eSport betting

Betting Odds

So how is 888 Sports betting when it comes to their odds?

They’re about par in comparison to the rest. You’re unlikely to find prices that stand out from the rest but you’re also unlikely to find odds at 888 Sports that are considerably lower than at other bookies on the more popular markets.

Betting Features

Now is the time in this 888 Sports betting review where we consider the special features on offer that improve your customer experience.

In-Play betting

The In-play offering here is pretty standard with pretty much every event of note that’s offered pre-match, also available in in-play betting.

The live odds are standard and they’re pretty quick to update odds after a suspension.

However, there’s room for improvement when it comes to the in-play graphics and stats displayed during live events such as football and tennis. They have the basics, but other sites do more in terms of providing information on what’s going on in the match.

Cash Out Betting

As is the case with just about any online bookie, 888 Sport offers Cash Out betting, meaning you can take a profit on a bet before it’s settled.

You can do so here on singles and multiples, as long as the multiples don’t include selections that aren’t football ones.

The Cash Out process is pretty simple to use and the ‘offers’ of how much you’ll get if you choose to Cash Out are pretty decent.

Bet Builder

888 Sports have a good Bet Builder product for football, no surprises there. In addition to obvious picks like who will win the game, whether there will be over or under 2.5 goals or which player might score, other selections include: the number of corners, a player to be carded or match stats such as how many passes a team will complete.

Better still, the Bet Builder offering is extended to sports beyond football including NFL, baseball and basketball, which is a real feather in their caps as most sites only have it for football.

Best Odds Guaranteed

‘Take a price on a horse and if it starts at a bigger price, we’ll pay you at those odds’.

The offer does exactly what it says on the tin and applies to all UK and Irish horseracing. Unlike other betting sites, it doesn’t extend to greyhound racing.

Livestreaming

At 888 Sports, live streaming is limited to just UK and Ireland horseracing which is somewhat surprising given competitors like Bet365 or Ladbrokes have live streaming on a good 15-20 different sports.

So, we hope to see 888 Sports offer streaming of far more sports in the future, starting with football and tennis.

To watch the racing, just place a bet for at least £1 on the race in question.

Mobile App

The 888 Sports betting app is available on both Android and iOS.

For more info on downloading betting apps, visit our mobile betting app page.

One feature that’s particularly good about the app is that it’s optimised so it works as well as possible, based on the device you’re using.

It will shrink or expand as a way of adapting to the device and screen size used, making everything look tidy and proportional. It’s quick and allows you to do anything you’d normally be doing on your laptop.

Customer Support

888 Sports have gone down the same route as many of the best betting sites by offering an extremely extensive FAQ section covering such things as: bonuses and promotions, registration, account issues, login difficulties, depositing and withdrawing and technical issues.
Across these 20-25 FAQs, most queries will be answered. If not, go to the ‘Contact Us’ link and you can get in touch via e-mail at support@888.sport.com. Alternatively, you can speak to an Agent via Live Chat by logging in, going to User, clicking on Help Center and then choosing Chat.

Strangely, they don’t offer a telephone service for queries.

Deposit/Withdrawal Options

888 Sports have certainly made an effort to give you as much choice as possible when it comes to depositing, though admittedly not the same choice when it comes to withdrawing.

We also note that the withdrawal times are a little on the slow side. Whereas some betting sites process e-wallet payments within 1-2 days, at 888 Sports it takes considerably longer, which is something they can improve on.

888 Sports in the Media

#1 – 888 expand to Africa.

The launch of a new brand called 888 Africa will allow 888 to be present in four African countries that are regulated: Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique.

Customers in all four countries will be able to access the sports betting branch with users in Zambia also being able to play Casino.

The 888 group will start by owning a minority share in 888 Africa with plans to increase their stake in the future. There are also plans to expand to other African countries (which are regulated) in the future.

Read the full story: https://igamingbusiness.com/sports-betting/online-sports-betting/888-extends-africa-reach-with-four-new-launches/