Innovative social featuresMobile-focused brand with a brilliant betting app
August 31, 2023
Joe is a passionate sports fan, who also loves the field of sports betting. He has been creating sports betting content full-time since 2016. In that time he has written hundreds of articles, including sportsbook reviews, strategy guides, explanatory articles, betting tips, and more. Joe also enjoys wagering in his spare time, particularly on football, the NFL, and the NBA.
SBK can’t quite match the biggest sportsbooks around for betting markets, and disappoints with its special offers. That said, if you’re looking for a user-friendly, fast, and reliable betting app, with plenty of special features, SBK is a fantastic choice.
SBK’s choice to go mobile-only was a brave one. Based on how spectacularly good its mobile app is, however, it was also the correct decision. This is easily one of the best mobile betting apps you can use in the UK right now. In fact, it’s so brilliantly-designed that it could well take top spot.
SBK has plenty more going for it, of course. You’ll find an extremely solid range of SBK betting markets here, excellent customer support, and a nice selection of ways to fund your account. You’re also given several useful features to enhance your experience, from live streaming, to betting tips, a bet builder, in-play tools, and more.
Obviously, SBK isn’t perfect. The complete lack of ongoing promotions is absolutely baffling, and is by far the biggest drawback. That said, we believe the positives here vastly outweigh that negative. If you’re a fan of on-the-go betting, you simply have to give SBK a shot.
Like the vast majority of UK sportsbooks, SBK has a ‘Bet and Get’ welcome offer in place. In this case, you’ll need to place a qualifying wager worth at least £10 to trigger the deal. In return, you’ll be given £20 in free bets.
Here are the most important T&Cs you need to take into account for this sign up bonus:
As you can already see, this is a pretty straightforward promo. If you’ve ever used a ‘Bet and Get’ welcome offer before, you’ll have no problems with this one. To help clarify things even further though, here are the few steps that are involved:
Overall, this is an extremely solid welcome offer. Getting a £20 bonus on your £10 initial spend is certainly good value, and the odds for your qualifying wager are completely fair. We also like the fact that your bonus is split into two parts. This gives you two shots at using it successfully, rather than needing to put all your eggs into one basket.
As with most modern-day bookies, it’s extremely easy to get started on SBK. Below, we’ve boiled the entire sign up process down for you into four easy steps.
Welcome offers are always appealing, since they invariably deliver the biggest rewards. Even the best such deals, however, will only last you a short amount of time. After that, you’ll be reliant on the ongoing promotions instead.
We’ve already noted how impressed we were with SBK’s welcome offer. Unfortunately though, the brand does almost nothing to keep this momentum going.
At the time of writing, there are no true ongoing SBK promotions whatsoever available. Never mind the likes of free bet deals or cashback offers. You won’t even find extremely straightforward and common promos here, like Best Odds Guaranteed or Odds Boosts.
Needless to say, this is all extremely disappointing. We would say that we hope SBK corrects this error soon. That seems unlikely though, since this brand has already been around since 2019, and shows no sign of putting existing customer deals in place.
It’s fair to say that SBK lets you down in a big way with its lack of ongoing promotions. We’re pleased to say, however, that things get right back on track when it comes to the betting markets here.
For starters, all the main key markets for British bettors are in place here. Most importantly, SBK has smashed it with its sections for both football and horse racing, and the likes of tennis, cricket, and eSports are also handled with aplomb. Below, you can check out a few of the key bet types SBK gives you for these priority markets.
| Betting Market | Bet Types |
| Football |
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| Horse Racing |
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| Tennis |
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| Golf |
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| eSports |
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Football and horse racing are clear priorities here, as they should be. As noted above though, SBK does also let you wager on a full range of other markets. We counted around 22 different sports covered here, which certainly stacks up well with the competition. In addition, you can also wager on the likes of current affairs and politics.
Here’s a quick roundup of some of the other notable sports you can bet on, apart from the ones mentioned above:
To be a truly appealing bookie, you can’t just offer a load of sports. You need to actually provide good odds for those sports too, and we’re happy to say that SBK impresses in a big way here.
You won’t find a brand which is more confident in its prices than SBK. It talks frequently about having industry-leading odds, but doesn’t just talk the talk here – it walks the walk too. Head to any matchup you like on the sportsbook, and you can look out for a small green arrow next to the odds. If you see it, you can rest assured that the price for that market is better than the vast majority of SBK’s competitors.
Just to make sure, we carried out our own analysis, comparing the odds on major markets to those offered by SBK’s rivals. In the vast majority of cases, we found SBK’s prices to be at least equal, if not superior.
One of the reasons why SBK’s lack of ongoing promotions is so frustrating, is that it excels in basically all the other most important areas. That’s also the case with the special features here. While we couldn’t call SBK ‘feature-packed’, it does have some extremely useful tools to enhance your mobile betting experience.
This is normally a feature reserved for the very biggest bookies of all. We were very pleased, therefore, to see that SBK has managed to put it in place. Technically, streaming is only available on horse racing right now. This will obviously be great news for racing fans though, and the coverage of over 60 courses is impressive. Not only that, but the quality of the streams is excellent.
In-play betting opens up a whole new world of gambling opportunities once the action kicks off. SBK absolutely excels in this area, with an exceptionally good live betting section. This is packed with matchups, with the bet types you can choose from tending to be varied. The odds update regularly, and tend to be fair, and you’ll find the live betting tools themselves to be highly-responsive.
SBK further shows its commitment to live betting by also providing you with a nice range of live statistics. These are available for a whole range of sports, and – if you can’t watch the action unfold for yourself – will give you a good idea of how a matchup is going.
You might be surprised to find that – unlike most sportsbooks – SBK actually adds some social media elements to its app. The most important is the inclusion of betting tips. Open up a matchup, and you’ll be able to see how many tips are available. Not only that, but – if you do see a tip – you can actually check how successful that tipster is, and whether you want to follow their advice or not.
As touched upon, Price+ is an extremely useful feature. If you’re browsing SBK’s markets, and see that little green triangle next to some odds, that automatically means the price is one of the best around.
SBK is a proven sportsbook, with multiple betting licences. It gives you even more peace of mind, however, with its security features. Along with the likes of SSL and powerful firewalls, these include 2FA to help protect your account. Unsurprisingly, from a mobile specialist like this, you can also use TouchID and FaceID to both protect your account and access it more quickly.
If you’re an accumulator bettor, you’ll be right at home on SBK. Placing mutli-game accumulators is straightforward enough, and we’re pleased to say that crafting same-game accas is also a cinch. This is thanks to the bet builder, which can be accessed on the page for a particular matchup, and lets you add and subtract eligible selections with ease.
As we explained early on in this SBK review, this is a mobile-only brand. The app is literally the only way you can play, you’d expect SBK to have put plenty of effort into it. We must say, however, that the final quality of the app exceeded our highest expectations.
This is easily one of the best betting apps you can use in the UK right now. The user interface is an absolute masterclass in mobile-friendly design. From the very first time you log on here, you’ll be whizzing around the app in no time at all. All the most important stuff – the betting markets, account management tools, tips area, and so on – are incredibly easy to access.
The loading speeds are also extremely speedy, and the app is completely stable, with no crashing whatsoever during our testing. Visually the app looks clean and modern too, making it easy to read text and numbers, and – quite simply – a joy to use.
Use even the best betting app for long enough, and you’ll need some help sooner or later. SBK steps up to the plate in a big way here, allowing you to get in touch in a nice variety of ways.
The best way to contact SBK is via live chat. This can be accessed via your Account area, and is available from 8am until 10pm every day. There are also a few indirect options, including email and social media.
We were also extremely impressed with the help center here. The articles are neatly arranged, and there’s a handy search tool to help you find what you’re looking for immediately. The articles are also clear and concise, and will answer many of your questions straight away.
Even some of the biggest and best British bookies fall down in this area. You’ll be pleased to learn, therefore, that this is another area in which SBK impresses. Technically, there might only be six payment options here, but all the main bases are covered.
Bank transfer and debit card are both in place, as you’d expect. You can also use Trustly to effectively make a bank transfer, but without connecting your bank account to the sportsbook. Elsewhere, SBK lets you use three different eWallets – Neteller, Skrill, and PayPal.
Below, you can get a quick summary of how exactly SBK handles these payment options:
| Payment Method | Minimum Deposit | Minimum Withdrawal | Processing Time |
| Debit Card | £10 | £10 | 1-6 business days |
| Bank Transfer | £10 | £20 | 12 hours |
| Trustly | £10 | £10 | 1-2 business days |
| PayPal | £20 | £10 | 1-2 business days |
| Neteller | £10 | £10 | 1-2 business days |
| Skrill | £10 | £10 | 1-2 business days |
SBK itself might have only launched in 2019. But its parent company – Smarkets – has a much longer track record. This betting outfit was first launched in London back in 2008. By 2016, over £1 billion was already being traded on the platform. Basically, it’s a pretty big deal, and Smarkets has brought all of this experience and success to bear on its newer product, SBK.
Unsurprisingly, however, it’s not content to stop there. SBK hadn’t even operated in the UK for two years before Smarkets was already launching its flagship betting app in the USA too. This launch was targeted at Colorado (one of the most betting-friendly states), but plans were soon unveiled to expand into other states too.
In short, if you join up with SBK, you’re getting involved with an incredibly successful and ambitious company.
Yes, you can watch live streaming of UK and Ireland races as long as you’ve placed a bet on something in the last 24 hours or have money in your account. You can also watch international racing or greyhound racing as long as you place a £1 bet on it. They don’t currently have live streaming on sports other than those two.
Yes, they offer this on all UK and Ireland horse racing. The promo is valid on all bets placed on the day of the race after 9am UK time and applies to win and each/way bets. Additional payouts thanks to BOG are capped at £25,000 per day per customer.
