Smarkets are an award-winning betting exchange with an excellent commission rate, which is very important for value.
To get a good look at their services, we explored everything from the Smarkets sign-up bonus to market coverage.
Let’s get into our full Smarkets betting review.
Use code COMMFREE to trade with 0% commission for 60 days. Min. £10/€10 first deposit using Debit Card or Instant Banking. Full T&C’s apply.18+. BeGambleAware.org.
What is the overall Smarkets betting exchange experience like? To answer that, we’ll take it step by step. They were founded in 2008, so they aren’t one of the newer betting sites - they are well-established.
We did find the Smarkets sign-up offer selections to be good. But, again, choice is nice, and both offers are generous, particularly the 60 days of 0% commission.
The odds at betting exchanges usually surpass those at traditional bookmaker sites. Better odds is a massive advantage of sports betting at Smarkets, although getting the liquidity on smaller markets is not always easy.
📢 "The Smarkets betting exchange provides punters with a the opportunity to take advantage of better odds than they would find on traditional sportsbooks."
We did (at a hectic time) on a Saturday afternoon, notice that live markets were lagging a little bit, perhaps due to volume.
Market variety is good, despite what we saw some users complain about. For example, we found football betting options well up to par in terms of variety on the Smarkets exchange.
The payment to the Smarkets account was easy enough via debit card. However, we were surprised about withdrawal times, as they don’t appear to be the quickest.
Customer service is decent with telephone support. Live chat is available day and night.
One area in which they do rate strongly is mobile betting apps. Their exchange trading platform app is slick and, importantly, very functional.
We have looked at many aspects in this Smarkets betting review and now move on to security.
Smarkets are a legal platform for UK punters. The operator is fully regulated and licensed by the Gambling Commission.
Your real money goes into an online betting account, not just numbers on a screen. Therefore you want total security on transactions.
Smarkets betting exchange transactions are covered by Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Socket Layer (SSL).
Two-factor authentication can also be set up on the account through Google Authenticator, Duo Mobile or Authenticator.
You will need to verify your personal information with Smarkets as part of their security steps. That can be done by securely uploading documents.
You've done a secure transaction to get funds into your Smarkets account. Now there's a bonus to grab, which we look at next in our Smarkets betting review.
New customers at Smarkets have a choice of one of two welcome offers. Whichever is selected, an initial minimum qualifying deposit of £10 is required.
The promo code must be entered at registration for either of the Smarkets Betting Exchange Welcome package selections. So make your choice before signing up.
Trade with 0% for 60 days OR Get a £20 cash refund
There is a Smarkets bonus code of COMMFREE
Any cash refund balance will expire after seven days.
Smarkets Welcome Bonus: 0% for 60 days from the first deposit
The other option for a Smarkets welcome bonus is 0% for 60 days from the first deposit.
This option needs the Smarkets promo code COMMFREE.
After making a qualifying first deposit, all bets settled within the first 60 days will have a 0% commission rate.
If you don't plug in a promo code at registration, then the £20 cash refund promo is automatically assigned.
As with any betting bonus, there are T&Cs. It’s worth a look to cover yourself to ensure you meet the requirements.
Some of the key ones for the Smarkets welcome bonus are:
After logging some of the main features, we move on to the next part of this Smarkets betting review. This is where we examine some of the best features in depth.
Features are things that are outside of the actual betting markets and price quotes. For example, enhancements like live streams and cash out can be considered features.
Smarkets Mobile AppAvailable on both iOS and Android, the Smarkets mobile betting apps are a huge feature.
It is just a platform for super-convenient betting on the go. There is in-play betting, trade and the full Smarkets betting exchange functionality on the small screen.
The Smarkets app is excellent, lightweight and gives access to all the sports, politics and current affairs markets with real-time prices.
Trade OutThe benefits of the Trade Out feature allow you to manage your active bets to lock in a profit or reduce exposure on a bet.
As it is possible to have more than one bet matched on a specific contract, punters can also cancel previous ones.
The Smarkets Trade Out can be activated via a green button on the market contract. The offer will come up, and you can confirm the Trade Out.
Lay BettingThe real beauty we hit on for this Smarkets betting review is being able to Lay a bet - acting like a bookmaker.
An example is a Lay bet on England winning the World Cup, which essentially backs any other team to win the tournament except England.
Lay betting is an outstanding feature that gives you options you can’t get at traditional bookmaker platforms. Ensure you fully understand the liability of Lay betting, which is different from the liability (stake) on a Backed selection.
Help GuidesThis isn’t usually a feature that we would include, but for the Smarkets review, it gets a mention.
If you want to get Smarkets betting explained, they have you covered.
There are many user-friendly explanations of the different aspects of Exchange Betting regarding the likes of trading out, expected value, matched bets and Lay liability.
Keep bets in-playWith this feature, you can decide whether to keep an unmatched bet live when the market has gone in-play, allowing more time for it to get matched up.
If the option isn’t selected, unmatched bets are cancelled when they move in-play.
We found the sports coverage at Smarkets strong - from the different sports to the market options within.
One of the other major betting exchanges, Betfair, sets the standard for how extensive an exchange can be.
Do Smarkets better them? We have to say no, as Betfair excels at more niche sports and novelty markets.
But all of the major sports we expect to find were in place at Smarkets.
Betting on football is one of the most extensive areas of sports betting in the UK. So naturally, we expect a strong presence of football competitions and match betting options at Smarkets.
It’s there. Even on minor games, including club friendlies, we saw more than 50 available markets per match. But, of course, that number goes up drastically for big games like the Premier League and UEFA Champions League.
We did find extensive coverage of tennis. It is a sport that has a high turnover of matches daily. As a result, we found plenty of markets from even lower-ranked Challenger tournaments alongside the main ATP and WTA fare.
Horse racing is a massive chunk of UK sports betting. Smarkets ranked well with us because of good international action in Japan, Australia and beyond, though to all the daily UK and Ireland racing cards.
Another strong area of the Smarkets sportsbook is the novelty betting area. That includes things like current events, politics, TV and awards.
Smarkets was a shirt sponsor of Championship club QPR, and they partnered with The Jockey Club for race sponsorship in 2018. However, they are currently not official sponsors or partners of any sports organisations.
With coverage of the leading sports looked at, next, we dip into some popular betting markets and bets.
Yes, and they have a guide to help with it. Matched betting is where you use a promotional offer like a free bet and then back or lay the opposite outcome with a real money bet. The Smarkets calculator can help piece a Matched Bet together.
Links to the Smarkets mobile betting apps for iOS and Android can be grabbed straight from their website.
The first thing we did with the iOS app was to hook it up with 2FA via Google Authenticator. Coupled with FaceID, it makes the Smarkets mobile app extra secure.
Keeping up with in-play bets and trade-out opportunities are considerable benefits of having it to hand.
The app promises the whole exchange experience, and it doesn’t disappoint. The full range of markets and trading insights, along with a good search tool, are available.
Complete account management is there, plus we also noticed the Smarkets welcome bonus could be completed via mobile.
📢 "The superb Smarkets app takes the full betting exchange functionality and neatly packages it for mobile users."
We have looked at some of the popular bets, markets and features of Smarkets and now circle back to bonuses.
Unfortunately, this is an area in which Smarkets don't rate well. We saw reviews from customers saying they have never had a free bet bonus from Smarkets despite being long-term customers.
It's not a bad thing - it's just something to consider.
After signing up, putting funds into the account is straightforward. We tend to stick to debit cards as they are secure and offer quick transactions, and Smarkets also recommend debit cards.
The minimum deposit amount at Smarkets is £10. The one exception is the PayPal deposit which is a £20 minimum.
Want to get your winnings from the Smarkets betting exchange? Of course, you do. There’s a £10 minimum withdrawal amount, except for a Bank Transfer, which has a £20 minimum.
Withdrawals can range between 1 and 6 business days, longer for a Bank Transfer. Smarkets don’t charge withdrawal fees.
We pulled out winnings to a Visa Debit because of the standard closed loop set-up. The withdrawal link can be found in My Account by the balance.
It was a simple matter of selecting the withdrawal method and amount.
We logged into the 24/7 Smarkets live chat to test support in the early hours of a Wednesday morning around 6am.
We did have to wait a few minutes to get an agent. It felt like a longer wait time than expected, especially at what should have been a quieter time.
The help we received from an agent called Sarah was concise enough. A request for information about account verification was dealt with professionally.
All of the Smarkets contact details can be found in their help section. Their help section is excellent - there’s a lot of great information there, and it’s well worth browsing.
