You don’t need to be a big online gambler to have heard of 888. This online gambling giant can be found in virtually every gambling market around the world, offering a number of betting products including an online casino, sports betting, poker, and bingo.
The sports book element of their website is one of the most prominent, and it is this side of things we will be looking at today.
With such a huge range of markets covering everything from Football and Tennis to MMA and Handball, 888 truly offer something for everyone; but as you’ll soon see, it’s not the wide range of markets alone that keeps players coming back time and time again.
The bonuses are some of the best we’ve come across, and the website also offers a number of unique features that you simply don’t see at other sites.
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THE 888SPORT WEBSITE
888’s website is one of the most professional, well designed sites around; and their distinctive orange and black colour scheme creates a brand that players instantly recognise. This is strengthened by 888’s TV advertising. The site oozes class and integrity and takes no time to learn how to use.
Below, we’re going to look at some of the stand out features:
MOBILE BETTING
One of the biggest problems many punters face, is how to place bets on mobile devices in a way that’s easy and snappy. So many bookies seem to have taken shortcuts when it comes to their mobile betting, but thankfully 888 isn’t one of them.
In fact, they offer a really well constructed mobile app to all iOS and Android players which is completely free to download. It’s a seriously classic product that solves a lot of the problems others bookie’s apps seem to have.
For example the menu system scrolls across the top of the screen giving easy access to the most popular options, with a full list available a single tap away behind a menu button, which includes a search function for anything specific you are looking for. The response times would give Usain Bolt cause for concern they are so quick, and although the same can’t be said for loading times they certainly aren’t slow.
You can do anything via mobile that you can do on the desktop website so there really is no downside to betting on the smaller screen.
HUGE RANGE OF BETS
One of the key reasons players bet at 888 is the huge range of markets available, so if you’ve not placed bets with them before then you’ll want to check it out, because you’re going to find sports events you didn’t even know you could bet on.
You’ll find everything from the common markets like Football, Tennis, Rugby Union and Rugby League; all the way through to rarer markets like UFC, Political markets, and even specials such as who the next Pope will be, and during his time in office if/when Donald Trump will be impeached was a popular one.
You can view all of the markets through the left-hand side navigation menu, which allows you to view ‘Top Events’ as well as ‘All Markets’.
With thousands of events offered every hour, there truly is an abundance of choice.
EASY NAVIGATION
We talk about the navigation functions of a sports book a lot, and while it may sound like we’re overstating its importance, until you’re in a situation where you can’t find the market that you want, you won’t appreciate how frustrating poor navigation can be. Thankfully, 888 have designed their website to be as easy to use as possible, so you won’t face that issue here.
Where things get even better is the search function found on most pages inside the sports book. You can search directly for an event, but you can also search for a specific league as well as individual teams and even players.
This means that should you want to place a bet on Pogba to score first, rather than having to trawl through all of the football coupons trying to find the match you could simply search for ‘Manchester United’ and you would be presented with a list of associated bets matching your keyword.
It sounds basic, but don’t underestimate its importance – it’s proved incredibly useful in time sensitive situations, and is definitely one of the best designed search functions we’ve come across.
Sports Betting at 888
888 offer a varied and interesting selection of betting markets. While you will find all the obvious classics like Football, Hockey, Tennis, Racing, and Cricket; you can also bet on less common markets such as Darts, Water Polo, WWE, and even selected Martial Arts.
All of the above are found under the ‘Sports’ tab on the left side menu, but you may have to extend the list to find what you are after if it’s not a major sport. This closes off the rest of the site until you have made a decision which we didn’t like, and selecting a sport causes a new page to load too so that creates a lot of back and forth which could be ironed out in future updates.
If you’re a horse racing fan then not only will this be no problem but the site is perfect for you as there is a constantly updated stream of the next races on the home page, so you can go to them directly.
How Good are the Odds?
888 Sport are known for offering some of the most competitive odds in the online gambling industry, and they often outperform many of their competitors when it comes to prices on individual events and selections.
The company is especially generous with their UK market odds, with Horse Racing and Football being two of the company’s major markets. Due to the majority of their players choosing to place wagers in these two markets, the company decided it would be wise to sacrifice a small percentage of profits in order to be able to offer higher odds and encourage business. We’ll take that, thank you.
This approach likely concerned shareholders at first but it appears to be working, with the site retaining its place as a major player in the online betting world.
In Play Betting
The idea of being able to place bets once a sporting event was already underway may have seemed pretty farfetched a few years ago, but today, it has become something of a must have at most online betting sites, and 888 is no exception.
While they were hesitant to join the in-play gravy train at first (they were one of the last online betting sites to implement the feature actually), they quickly redeemed themselves by developing one of the better in-play game systems we have seen for a while, and this is thanks to the ‘Quick Stats’ that give an instant overview of what’s going on – who’s winning, what the odds are, and any other game specific events worth mentioning.
The in-play markets have been a little on the thin side until recently, but 888 now offer a good variety of live betting markets including Football, Baseball, Golf, Snooker, NFL, and Tennis; and this looks set to grow over the coming months and years, as the company expand their services further and develop new systems.
BANKING
You have possibly the largest selection of payment methods ever with 888, far too many to list here, but some of the highlights include: Visa and Mastercard Debit cards, ApplePay (UK players only), PayPal, Skrill, and Bank Transfer.
The minimum deposits are standard with most methods commanding a minimum of £10 (a few are £15) and the withdrawals are oddly a little higher, with all payment methods allowing withdrawals from £15.
They don’t clearly state the maximum withdrawal limits, but one thing that is worth drawing your attention to is the processing time – 888 promises to act on all withdrawal requests within 24 hours, although usually it’s even quicker, with some punters reporting withdrawals processed in as little as an hour. That is quick by anyone’s standards.
History & About
888 Sport (or 888 as referred to in this article) is the sports betting arm of 888 Holdings plc, a company that operates a number of online betting sites including 888 Poker and the 888 Casino.
Founded in 2008, 888 Sport has quickly garnered a loyal fan base, largely thanks to the company’s reputation in the other online gambling markets it operates in, and today the brand offers players the ability to place bets on hundreds of different markets, with 24/7 betting available on events from all around the world.
While 888 have always offered Sports Betting – at least since they became a known brand – the decision to operate the sports book as a dedicated separate entity was a tough business decision, and took many years of financial and logistical planning to implement.
The change appears to have affected the company only positively, however, with the site growing its player base by almost 200% between 2015 and 2017, and with some big stars personally endorsing the brand: Santiago Canizares, Ian Wright and Emma Spencer are a few of the associated famous faces. 888 have since managed to enter new markets all over the globe, thus further cementing their position as a front runner in the online gambling world.
2014 saw the site getting a fair degree of mainstream media attention in the UK after the company’s tongue in cheek tweets started to attract the attention of sarcasm loving Brits. The company further utilized social media during this time, regularly creating and publishing humorous memes that proved popular, often roasting a celebrity athlete or sporting event.
888 has gone on to sponsor some of the biggest sporting events in the UK and other parts of the world, and sponsorship ads can be seen between the online gambling hub and Kempton Park (a UK race course), Fontwell (another), and a variety of other venues, including the Giro d’Italia and the World Grand Prix of Snooker.
Today the company is working hard to make their website more user friendly (which was badly needed, their old website was out of date to put it kindly) and by all accounts they are doing a fantastic job, with more players than ever before signing up and placing bets at the site.
888Sport
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Editors Review
888 has been one of the fastest growing bookmakers over the last 10 years or so. The company has transformed into a real gambling powerhouse with the inclusion of casino, poker and bingo games for its users. But, it’s there sportsbook that we are interested in. In all honesty, first impressions of the 888 aren’t great. We are lucky that recently bookmakers have spent a lot of money on developing high quality betting sties – in looks as much as functionality. Unfortunately 888 seem to have missed the boat somewhat.
All that’s really needed are a few tweaks with the colours, as the grey background and white font are tough to read at best. That being said, we actually like the black and orange twist that the site has, making it look vibrant and interesting. But we can’t overlook a few basic errors that lead to the downfall of the aesthetics of the site.
Away from that, the 888 site has all the credentials to be one of the biggest bookmakers in the UK. Their market coverage is excellent and the sports on offer are diverse and comprehensive. We really like the inclusion of some of the smaller sports such as UFC, Motor Sports and the inclusion of the American sports. This adds real depth to the site and something that we rate highly amongst the top bookmakers.
If you are a racing fan you will probably be aware of 888’s ‘I-Card’ – if not, where have you been? This is arguably one of the most comprehensive racing widgets online and includes so much information we could spend all day writing about it. But for now we will just give you a few highlights. Once you have selected your race you are taken to the interactive section which includes all your usual information such as jockey, trainer, form etc. But on top of that they give you information on which horses will gain an advantage from the draw, latest live odds and even a predictor section of how each horse should perform given all the available information. It’s a fantastic piece of kit and something all racing fans should definitely check out.
With a few minor tweaks – mainly on the aesthetics of the site- 888 could be on to a winner here. We can totally understand why people would bet here and be pretty much set without having to hop about to other bookmakers. For us, these changes would need to made before we could see any longevity with the site, but others may see this totally differently.