Sky Bet review

Sky Bet is the sports betting division of the UK-based Sky Betting and Gaming, which in turn is a subsidiary of the satellite TV giant, BSkyB (which also operates Sky Sports). More than 30 million people watch Sky content each week. The backing of such prominent brands means that this bookmaker is a solid option, even if it doesn’t exactly knock the competition dead.

Sky Bet is licensed and regulated by the Aldenay Gambling Control Commission, which provides protection for punters.

Sky Bet provides middle-of-the-road odds – not the best on the net, but providing consistently decent value. In a survey of over 1,200 punters, Sky Bet ranked 17% above average for the overall quality of its odds.

A particular strength of Sky Bet is its live betting odds, which are definitely worth comparing to those of the top bookmakers whenever you’re ready to place live bets.

Sky Bet is offering new customers a “Bet £5, Get £20” deal. Simply open an account, place an initial bet of £5 or more at odds of evens or above and your account will be credited with a free bet of £20.

More impressively, the “Free Bet Club” allows you to get a £5 free bet every week. Place an accumulator (or “acca”) of £5 on any sport with combined odds of at least 5/1 each week. If you miss a week, you can get back into the club by placing a £10 bet on an accumulator. If you enjoy placing accumulators, Sky’s Free Bet Club is just the ticket.

Sky Bet offers enhanced prices on particular bets, especially football bets. These include enhanced accas and goalscorers, and regularly provide better value than you’ll find anywhere else for backing particular outcomes.

Sky Bet also now offers best odds guaranteed on Irish and UK horse racing, bringing its racing offering almost on par with those of its biggest competitors.

Sky Bet’s website is simpler than the sites of leading bookmakers like William Hill and Ladbrokes. This is partly because it doesn’t have as many features, but it also makes it very easy to use. Everything on the site is fast and works smoothly.

The live betting console is clean and uncluttered, and a graphical view of the action in live football games is provided. Watching this is moderately more interesting than watching only the score.

The emphasis is on UK and Irish horse racing and football, but a full range of sports and novelty betting markets are covered. The site provides excellent football stats provided by Opta and Sky, as well as Racing Post form information on horses, jockeys and trainers.

The bet slip is easily accessible and intuitive. It includes an optional feature for checking your bets before placing them. It’s worth using this to ensure you don’t make costly mistakes when placing bets.

Super 6

Sky Bet runs the popular Soccer Saturday Super 6 competition, in which participants try to predict the score of six football matches each Saturday. If you get all six scores right, you stand to win a jackpot of £250,000, or a share of this amount if others guess right also. If nobody gets the scores exactly correct, you can win £5000 if your predictions are the closest. Super 6 is free to play – simply sign up here.

Media offerings

As a subsidiary of the leading sports broadcaster in the UK, Sky Bet provides a rich array of media services, which integrate with other Sky Sports services.

Apart from the TV channels, there’s Sky Sports News Radio, Skysports.com and Sportinglife.com to keep you busy around the clock. Sky Bet’s weekly “Trading Views” podcasts pair Sky Sport commentators with Sky Bet tipsters, giving punters well-informed previews of the weekend sporting action.

In 2013, Sky Bet mobile won the “eGR Best Mobile Sports Product” award, and over 9 million bets were placed using its mobile platform. Over 60% of Sky Bet customers are now using the bookmaker’s mobile app. This is unsurprising because the app really is neat and easy to use.

The iOS application offers all the markets and most of the features of Sky Bet’s website, including in-play betting, live streaming of UK racing (with a £1 minimum qualifying bet) and easy to use accumulator coupons and placement of multiples.

After some delay, Sky Bet finally released its official Android app. Perhaps the wait was worth it – the app has attracted positive reviews and features an intuitive design, with straightforward mobile betting on a huge number of sports markets. It also provides access to a wide range of promotional offers.

Sky Bet’s customer service department is helpful and friendly, and the live chat representatives seem reasonably fast and knowledgeable. Chat and e-mail support are available 24 hours a day, and e-mails receive responses within a maximum of four hours. The phone lines are open from 8:00 a.m. to midnight every day.

On Sky Bet’s website, a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page provides straightforward information, and a helpful Twitter stream is available to notify you of technical or settlement issues.

Deposits are easy with the usual payments methods accepted, including Visa, Maestro, Mastercard, Laser, NETELLER, Skrill and PayPal. Withdrawals via cards take a standard two to five working days. If you have an e-wallet account, for example with NETELLER, you can withdraw funds from your Sky Bet account in under 24 hours.