Smarkets Sports Betting Review (2024) – Ultimate Guide

Smarkets has taken the exchange market by storm following its inception in 2008, firmly establishing itself among the world’s best betting exchanges💎. The platform has handled over £3 billion in trades since its emergence, offering its users streamlined peer-to-peer trading on a multitude of events and markets.

✨ Despite its success, we’re here to determine whether Smarkets is the optimal betting platform for you and if you see yourself trading on the exchange. Here’s our in-depth review.

❀ Creating an account with Smarkets is a simple three-step process in which only basic information is required. Customers are obliged to enter their email address, date of birth, and create a secure password part of step one. Those fortunate enough to have access to a promo/bonus code can redeem it here, too.

🦩 Next, you'll have to list your name, phone number, country of residence, address, and preferred currency before moving on to the third and final step.

ꦇ You’re now all but ready to go after that. Step three doesn’t require any information and instead, customers have the choice to deposit funds into their account and set deposit limits. Smarkets gives the option of skipping an immediate deposit and beginning your betting exchange journey without a funded account.

🎶 If more documentation is required to verify your account, you will be contacted by email, and your documents will be reviewed within an estimate of 24 hours.

The bookie has several payment options for customers to utilise. These are debit cards(VISA, Mastercard, Maestro), Bank Transfer, Trustly, PayPal, Skrill and NETELLER.

The minimum and maximum deposits☂ do vary dependent on the payment method, however. You’re required to deposit a minimum of £10 with debit cards, Bank Transfer, Trustly and Skrill, but £20 with PayPal and NETELLER. The maximum you can deposit is £10,000 with debit cards and Trustly, £5,500 with PayPal and £5,000 with Skrill and NETELLER.

𝔉 Depositing funds itself is a markedly simple process. Customers have to merely click the ‘Balance’ icon at the top of the homepage before selecting ‘Deposit’ from the drop-down list to access the screen depicted above.

🔯 Once you’ve selected a payment method, fill out the basic financial formalities before confirming how much you want to deposit to see your Smarkets account funded.

♐ Regarding withdrawals, most requests are processed within 48 hours. This is the case if you’re withdrawing via NETELLER, Skrill, PayPal, and Trustly. However, you may have to wait up to six days if you’re using a debit card, and between 5-10 days with Bank Transfer.

For most methods, there is no maximum withdrawal, although it’s £5,500 with PayPal. The minimum withdrawal amount⛄ is £10 for all options apart from Bank Transfer, which is £20, and Trustly, which is £40.

There are no fees associated with withdrawals, while customers are unable to use cryptocurrencies for deposits.

For everything else you need to know about withdrawing on Smarkets, kindly visit our dedicated Smarkets withdrawals page.

New Smarkets customers are entitled to 0% fees for 60 days after signing up with the betting exchange.

To receive the bonus, you have to use the code “COMMFREE“. For the bonus offers you’re required to make a £10 deposit via debit card or Instant Banking. All other payment methods do not qualify for this promotion.

With the ‘0% from first deposit for 60 days’ option you ‘re eligible to enjoy trading with a commission rate of 0% on all bets that settle within 60 days.

🌳 Full Terms and Conditions apply. Bet Responsibly. #ad

Unfortunately, Smarkets is currently bereft of any promotional offers.

VIP/Loyalty Programme

﷽ Smarkets does not offer a VIP or loyalty programme of any kind. This is unlikely to change given how the betting platform operates.

Smarkets is a betting exchange. This means that, in contrast to your traditional bookie, customers can bet against each other rather than the bookmaker🔴. The latter is replaced by the punters themselves who back or lay the odds for an event instead.

💧 You'll find 18 sports covered here. This isn’t massively broad, but the sports offered are nonetheless covered in impressive depth.

The betting platform charges an industry-low commission fee of 0% for new customers signing up until the end of 2023.

Once you're signed uo you have the option to have a rate of 1% exists as a Pro Tier customers♏ if you place more than 1,500 bets or stake more than £1,000,000 every month.

Thus, Smarkets offers a better quality of odds when compared to traditional betting markets, given the fact that the odds on offer at betting exchanges in general are driven by supply and demand,♍ rather than being set by a bookmaker with an associated bookmaker’s margin.

On the exchange, customers have the choice whether to Back (buy) or Lay (sell) a bet꧋. Buyers are the customers; sellers are the bookmakers.

Back betting is similar to betting with a bookmaker: you’re betting that a particular outcome will happen.ꦡ With Smarkets, you can place a back bet by selecting the odds in the green box. So, in the example below, you’d be backing Bolton to beat Port Vale at odds of 1.62.

Layers, meanwhile, offer odds to other exchange users. If you’re placing a lay bet, you believe the outcome will not🗹 happen. The blue boxes show the current lay odds and, in the example below, you can see what a lay bet placed with a £20 stake at odds of 1.2 looks like.

We’ve bet against Portugal, so if the match ends in a draw of a Republic of Ireland victory, our bet wins. In this case, we’d win £4 with a return of £24 because of our £4 liability – the amount we’d stand to lose if our bet is unsuccessful.

Customers can also choose to back higher odds – the reason for the multiple boxes alongside every outcome – if they believe the odds that are currently being offered are too low. If another exchange user chooses to lay their bet, and offer them odds for the same, their bet will be matched. If this does not occur, however, their placed stake will be returned.

💜 Smarkets present various graphs and statistics to help its users assess and analyse the nature of the market, thus universally aiding betting strategies. Customers can also choose whether to display odds as decimals, percentages or American.

Esports

๊ Smarkets’ esports offering is great. On the day of writing, 40 Counter-Strike and 12 League of Legends events were covered. Other major gaming events are covered frequently as well.

If you want to take advantage of the site’s impressive esports coverage, be sure to check out our top esports tips and strategies.

Other Specials

There’s more than enough for novelty bettors to get stuck into here. Political eventsಌ make up some of Smarkets’ most popular markets. These include the 2022 French election, the next British Prime Minister and the next German Chancellor, at the time of writing.

Customers can also bet on various ‘Current Affairs🔯’ markets that cover an array of events – or possible events.

ꩲ For example, in 2021, Smarkets give its customers the chance to bet on whether they’ll be any more pandemic-related restrictions in the UK, the year of the first European Super League match and whether Gareth Southgate will earn a knighthood by the end of the year.

♏ It’s rare to see traditional bookies offer these sorts of markets.

Regarding TV and Entertainment♔, the platform covers Sports Personality of the Year in 2021, the 2022 Oscars, Strictly Come Dancing, James Bond and Doctor Who.

Cash Out & Bet Builder

☂ Smarkets has a Bet Builder and a Cash Out feature for its customers.

‘Trade Out’ allows users to secure a profit or cut losses♌ per contract both pre-game and in-play at the click of a button. However, it’s only activated when you have matched bets on a contract, the exposure isn’t £0 and there is enough volume on the market.

✃ If a trade out request is unsuccessful, it will likely be because of either a lack of liquidity in the market or the price may have moved.

Smarkets’ live coverage can be accessed via the ‘Quick Links🅷’ section. At the time of writing, there were 24 live events available to bet on across a multitude of sports.

ܫ There is also the option to live steam horse racing events here. While there were no live football events accessible, Smarkets once again provides graphs and stats to help customers gauge the market. Second-by-second updates are provided, as is a live scorecard.

🌼 The platform’s Trade Out option is also available.

Smarkets is licensed and regulated by the 🉐 and the Malta Gaming Authority for its operations in the UK and overseas respectively.

🅺 Smarkets’ emphasis on is distinct. Following the creation of your account, you’re immediately given the option to set deposit limits to restrict your gambling.

For more information on responsible gambling, customers can access a link at the bottom of the homepage🌳. Once accessed, customers will see a comprehensive overview of the site’s policy towards responsible gambling. Articles are provided that help you identify problem gambling, while support agencies for addiction are also listed.

Alongside deposit limits, punters can deploy other spending controls such as Loss and Stake Limits. Time-Outs and Self-Exclusions can also be deployed, while a Self-Assessment test can be taken to gauge your gambling activity.

An in-depth Privacy Policy is also accessible.

Smarkets’ ‘Help Centre⭕’ offers links where betting, account and payment information can be accessed. These articles are extremely helpful, especially those under the ‘Education’ section. Here, the exchange provides guides for upcoming events to aid their customers’ betting strategy and help them evolve into superior traders.

This is a part of the site that we’d certainly recommend diving into.

🤪 FAQs can also be found here. However, should you require further assistance, Smarkets’ customer support team are available to help 24/7 .

There are several avenues of communication, including email [email protected], Twitter (@SmarketsTeam) or phone (+44 207 617 7413), which is available every day between 09:00 and 00:00.

For the sake of this review, we decided to test out the Live Chatꩵ service, which is ubiquitous at the very top of the homepage. When we clicked the icon, a small window immediately opened up.

🅺 This can be seen above. Smarkets' support team initiated the conversation, to which we replied and enquired whether there were any promotions to take advantage of on the exchange.

However, this is where we saw live chat’s efficiency dissipate. It took some time to receive a response to our query, and although we got a valid answer, the response wasn’t delivered with the utmost enthusiasm. Thus, our overall experience with Smarkets’ support team was cold and inefficient.

Available in three languages (English, Swedish and Portuguese), the Smarkets website is very impressive𓃲. The design is super slick, with customers having the option to choose between a light or dark theme. We preferred the latter due to the sharp contrast between the prominent black and background white and green colours.

ꦇ The graphs and statistics found all over the platform are not only incredibly detailed and useful, but they’re superbly designed too. Real images, meanwhile, are used for the platform’s graphics, thus adding to the professional feel of the site.

Structurally, Smarkets’ website facilitates a user-friendly experience⛎. A slider is prominent in the centre of the homepage, but it’s not overbearing. ‘Top Markets’ then run underneath, with ‘Quick Links’ accessible on the left-hand side along with an A-Z list of all the events the site has to offer.

More popular markets manifest on the right-hand side, underneath an ever-present bet slip. Contact links, as well as the ’ ‘Help Centre’ can be accessed at the bottom of the homepage.

As we said, we were so impressed with Smarkets’ website. It’s an interesting, interactive and modern experience for customers.

Another fine feature is Smarkets HQ. This is the platform’s blog that covers a range of topics outside of sport. Here, the focus is on culture, technology, and politics💛. The content produced is of the highest quality, although posts are infrequent.

Smarkets’ mobile app is available to download for free via the App Store and Google Play for both Apple and Android users. Overall, the app is well-brought together, with its excellent graphics, second-by-second live updates and coherent structure facilitating a user-friendly experience.

♋ The design remains slick and simple, with efficient betting functionality provided. It’s incredibly easy to place a bet on the move. Customers can access all the unique features offered by the bookie on the mobile app, including Trade Out.

At this stage, Smarkets doesn’t offer any other products💛 for its customers, and given the nature of the betting exchange, we wouldn’t expect to see a casino offering any time soon.

After assessing everything that Smarkets has to offer, it’s easy to understand why it’s regarded as one of the premier betting exchanges. First of all, the website is one of the best we’ve seen -modern, well-designed and brilliantly structured – it’ll be hard to find a better site.

🔴 There are plenty of other benefits of betting here too, including their industry-low 2% commission rates, the Trade Out feature, the dedicated blog that covers various important and interesting topics outside of the sporting sphere, and their useful analytical tools that helps users gauge and predict the market. Overall, Smarkets is a platform we’d certainly recommend if you want to bet on the exchange.

🎃 However, even the very best has its faults. For example, some may be put off by the lack of promotions and VIP program. Surely, though, these drawbacks will be easy to overlook considering the site's stellar performance elsewhere.