Smarkets

While you can simply buy bets on the exchange, Smarkets offers an additional layer of interactivity via the ability to buy and sell bets – much like buying and selling shares on a stock exchange. If this sounds intriguing, read on to find out more, and how you can claim the introductory 0% commission welcome bonus.

Smarkets Sign Up Bonus

It’s important to remember that Smarkets is a betting exchange and not just a traditional sportsbook. In addition to placing bets, you can buy and sell your wagers on the exchange to potentially limit your losses or make additional profit.

Because of this format, the Smarkets sign up bonus is different and its terms include:

• 0% commission on trades for the first 60 days
• £10 minimum deposit
• Doesn’t apply if you make a deposit using Skrill, Neteller, or PayPal
• You must be at least 18 to claim the offer
• Bonus code – COMMFREE

The standard commission on trades is 2%. Therefore, if you bought a £30 bet on Man United to win the FA Cup, the commission would be £0.60. This might seem like a minimal amount, but that soon adds up over multiple bets which makes the Smarkets 0% commission offer incredibly useful.

This also makes your timing important when you claim the offer. Ideally, you want to claim the welcome offer during a peak period when you intend to place regular bets.

For example, at the start of the EPL season, or of a global event like the Euro. By doing this, you can make the most of the 0% commission, instead of registering an account during a lull in sporting activity.

Our Favorite Betting Tools and Features at Smarkets

Smarkets is packed full of useful features that improve your betting experience. I’ve described some of my favorite tools below.

Live Streaming for Horse Racing

The horse racing features at Smarkets are fantastic and I enjoyed watching several live UK races at Redcar and Huntingdon. The live feed appears on the right-hand bar of the website but you can make it full screen too. Just note that you can only watch live races if you are logged in. As good as the streaming is, they don’t make it our best bookies for streaming list as we found other operators cover more events.

Trading Graphs & Statistics

If you want to monitor the bet fluctuations and trends, Smarkets has overview graphs for each match/event you can bet on. The graph shows how betting action has changed over time, and you can also see the total trading value for the associated event.

Responsible Gambling Tools

I like to keep control of my gambling so I found the weekly deposit limit option especially useful. You can set daily and monthly limits too and these can’t be changed on the fly – once you’ve set one, it takes 24 hours to change. Smarkets has several other responsible gambling tools including links to external help sites, and the ability to impose self-exclusion periods or timeouts.

News & Politics

I’ve never bet on news and politics before so the dedicated section at Smarkets fascinated me. It has some astounding futures and prop bets on anything from the US election to who will be the next Conservative Party leader, or whether France will leave the EU or not!

Betting Calculator

If, like me, you struggle with basic maths, or can’t wrap your head around odds and returns, Smartkets has an incredibly simple betting calculator. You can set the calculator up for back or lay bets and all you have to do is insert your stake in GBP, the odds, odds format, and commission.

The calculator does the rest and shows your liability (how much you stand to lose), return, and profit after commission. I like that there is a set of descriptive bullet points below the calculator too that explain exactly how it works.

Our Experience & Score of Smarkets

I found the Smarkets exchange easy to use but I can see how it could be confusing for first-time users who have no experience with exchanges or sports betting. This is because there is a lot of information to digest and the sheer volume of sports markets can feel overwhelming.

Regardless, I enjoyed the quick website loading speeds, the simplicity of the sports market sidebar, and the account management features. I’ve described other aspects of the site such as its markets, customer support, and payment methods below.

Smarkets Sports Markets

Smarkets has some of the best coverage for sports markets I’ve seen. It features all the major UK sports plus a heap of lesser-followed options like handball, ice hockey, Australian football, and volleyball. The main markets covered include:

• Football
• Horse Racing
• Tennis
• Golf
• Boxing
• Cricket
• Rugby
• Darts
• Basketball
• American Football
• MMA
• Snooker

For each market, the major tournaments are covered but they also cover most leagues and tournaments. For example, with Rugby League, Smarkets covers the Super League, but also the NRL Premiership.

Likewise, with cricket, the T20 World Cup is featured, but you can place bets on regional T20 matches too. I like how all the sports are listed in the left-hand menu and when you click on one, it expands to show the different subcategories and number of available markets.

Football

The football coverage is amazing and Smarkets goes far beyond the major leagues such as the EPL, La Liga, Ligue 1, and the Bundesliga. You can also place bets and follow the markets for South American competitions like the Copa Libertadores, and Icelandic Premier League.

I found the props bets for individual matches staggering too. You can keep it simple and bet on the overall winner, or go as detailed as you want and bet on anything from the number of goals, to whether one team will score a penalty or not.

Horse Racing

At any one time, I found 100+ horse racing markets on Smarkets. The coverage is superb and it’s not limited to popular events like Ascott. You can follow races from around the world including the top racecourses like Armidale, Churchill Downs, Golden Gate Fields, and Vichy.

I like how you can select the daily race card by country. For example, if I selected the UK, it would show all the available racecourses for the day together with the times of the events. A heap of races are streamed live too which adds to the betting experience.

Tennis

The four Grand Slam tournaments are of course covered at Smarkets and you can bet on multiple markets for Wimbledon, Roland Garros, The US Open, and the Australian Open. However, Smarkets covers ATP and WTA tennis and every 500-ranking tournament in the calendar year.

I like to watch tennis live so I found the various games and set props bets interesting. For example, you can bet over/under on the total number of games, or try and predict the exact match result in sets.

The only downside I found was the lack of stats relating to the matches and this is a common theme for the different markets at Smarkets. For example, if I was placing a bet on a singles match, I’d like to see previous match data for the players and this is something some sportsbooks offer – Smarkets doesn’t.

News and Politics

I don’t think I’ve come across a sportsbook with such a detailed news and politics section! Whether you want to bet on the outcome of the next UK election or the US Presidential election, Smarkets has you covered.

Smarkets Banking Methods

I found the banking system at Smarkets Sportsbook to be incredibly flexible and they offer a brilliant range of card, transfer, and e-wallet payment options. I never experienced any issues except the slower withdrawal processing times compared to other platforms like Ladbrokes and 888sport.

Depositing money is easy. My account was always credited instantly and I appreciate the flexibility to pay with either cards or e-wallets. The min/max limits are spot on too and they cater to all types of bettors – whether you’re a casual fan or want to place big bets. The minimum deposit is £10 at the bookie, which may be high for some. Many punters now prefer a low deposit betting site especially if they are new to betting.

The variety of withdrawal methods means that anyone should be able to cash out their bets easily. I struggled to find info on the maximum limits, but from speaking to customer support, it’s generally £5,500.

Instant bank transfer is the fastest withdrawal method and I tested this and Visa. My instant bank transfer withdrawal was processed the next day when I woke up (so 12 hours was accurate), while my Visa withdrawal took around 48 hours to process.

Smarkets Support and Contacts

Support methods include live chat, email (support@smarkets.com), and X (formerly known as Twitter) @SmarketsTech. There is also a help centre that has a great range of FAQs and helps with subjects such as account management, payments, and betting education.

The live chat option only appears when you are logged in and it’s available between 09:00 am – 23:00 GMT. I tested it and got connected to a support rep within 4 minutes. The rep was prompt and helpful and they were able to sort my query.

I also tested the email support – I got an auto-reply to say my query had been received which was a nice touch. The actual reply took 24+ hours so not great and I would recommend always using the live chat when possible.

Is Smarkets Legit?

Smarkets is a legitimate betting exchange and holds gambling licenses from the UK Gambling Commission (License number 39173), and the Malta Gaming Authority (License number MCA/CRP/162/2008). I checked both licenses on the relative websites and found they were in-date and active.

Smarkets Limited is also a registered trading UK company with up-to-date accounts visible on the GOV.UK website. I checked for security too and the site has a valid SSL certificate so all data is encrypted end-to-end when you access the site.

Regular Deals and Rewards at Smarkets

From my testing and experience, I couldn’t find any deals or rewards for existing Smarkets customers.

Smarkets Review Verdict

I don’t think Smarkets is great for beginners entering the world of sports betting as the exchange system and buy/sell features could be confusing. However, for experienced bettors looking for something different, Smarkets is incredible. The markets covered, the variance of the props bets, and the 0% commission welcome bonus make it an excellent choice for serious sports fans.

AUTHOR

Brian Webb

Brian is the owner of BettingTools, he has decades of experience in horse racing betting and the best ways to utilize betting tools and calculators. Brian’s vision is to provide a comprehensive resource for bettors, offering sophisticated tools combined with expert advice to enhance betting strategies. He has a passion for horse racing and soccer and a commitment to helping others gain knowledge and succeed in sports betting.

Brian also writes at BettingHype.com, where he focuses on major sporting events, value betting, and a philosophy of keeping betting enjoyable and sensible.