888 are now one of the biggest firms in the gambling industry and have been running since 1997. My first memories of the brand were playing online poker on what was then, one of the biggest poker networks in the world. Admittedly, the company, for me at least, failed to really kick on and the likes of Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker were quickly able to surpass, with me being one of many that decided to jump ship. Whilst I’ve always been aware of 888Sport and had many friends who swore by them, it’s only been since 2015 where I’ve started to get back into the brand. In fact, I’ve been that impressed that over the last 12 months they’ve become one of my go-to bookmakers! Features The features on site have seen quite a dramatic growth of late. They’ve been able to bring in some much needed ‘oomph’ to their bookmaker in the way of features. But, what I will say is that compared with the likes of bet365, they aren’t quite as feature-rich, but I’d definitely say they were above the norm for the top bookmakers in the industry. Design *888 Updated their site Aug 2019* The new design is fantastic. Now I'm looking at the new site I actually feel the previous design was basic and not easy to navigate. It's fair to say that 888 have stepped up in to the Premier League and if you have tried them before, I would recommend giving them another chance. Check the screenshot below for a quick preview of what to expect: The left hand navigation menu is the thing I like the most. It just makes flicking between betting markets that bit easier. When you're backing accumulators this is incredibly useful. Even though the colour scheme is dark, it's actually easier on the eye. No fluff, just betting markets and clear icons guiding me around the site. It's no easy task re-designing an online sportsbook so you have to praise the guts of 888 here. If they want to keep with bet365 and William Hill, they will need to take risks and improve their offering regularly. Live betting The live betting section has probably seen the biggest transformation since the latest design changes and I think that it’s totally transformed how this section works. A lot of live betting sections are often tough to navigate between and feel quite overwhelming, even for people like me who’ve been betting for over a decade now. 888Sport’s is simple, but in a good way. All you get is a list of games that are currently live, a quick overview of the latest score and then the latest odds for match betting. As an overview, this is exactly what you want to see with little fuss. As you click on the match that you want to bet on the section really starts to come alive. It splits the page into three columns; one with the overview of the games, the middle with the different markets that you can bet on for that game and the final column showing you the match centre and the events for that game. The match centre is the best bit about this section for me and shows a detailed and live overview of the game. It highlights which team are in possession and also their location on the pitch. If any events occur such as fouls, free kicks, offside’s, bookings, throw ins, goals or anything like that, then you will be notified here. One of their latest additions to this has been the inclusion of a live heat map, which I’ve never actually seen before. It shows you where most of the action has been taking place and has proved to be a vital tool when betting live in an attempt to finding bets. Market coverage One of the main reasons why I’ve stuck with 888Sport is their extensive market coverage, especially when it comes to football, but for all sports as well. I tend to only bet on a handful of markets for my bets usually, but you would be shocked to see how many bookies can’t even cover these. I loved the fact that they were able to offer a comprehensive range of Asian Lines. If you have followed any of my tips or have signed up to my mailing list then you will know that I love an Asian handicap bet. But, so many bookies don’t offer this market and it baffles me. 888Sport are probably one of the best and offer a massive range of handicaps, along with half and total bets as well. They are also able to offer a good range of what I call novelty markets, but that’s probably doing them a disservice, it’s just that I rarely use them. By this I mean things like penalty kick awarded, away team to score from a penalty, home team to score in both halves, home team to score first and win both halves, and so the list goes on. Statistics No good bookmaker is without a good statistics section and 888Sport’s link with Betradar to power their statistics section is a marriage made in heaven. It’s about as comprehensive as you are going to find and covers a crazy range of sports as well. In fact, there are some sports that I don’t think 888Sport even offer markets on or if they do, they are few and far between. It’s the football section where I spend most of my time and with it, I can’t really fault it to be honest. I like the fact that the stats that are on offer are linked to betting. For example, they show percentages for games that teams have been involved in that have over/under a certain number of goals. They also show top goal scorers for these markets and even previous odds for past matches to give you an idea of if they look good or bad value. Now granted, this is something that most bookies have these days and it’s mainly down to Betradar, but it’s fully accessible on 888Sport, so the credit must be shared for this. Blog A blog might not be something that you think of when it comes to online betting, but I love to read any information that is sourced via a bookmaker. Why? Well, the reason is that behind the blog are one of two people (usually); Employees of 888Sport whose job it is to write and find interesting articles related to betting or former pros who’ve been paid to come and write for the bookmaker. These guys are focussed on their trade and if it’s the latter, you get an insight from people who’ve played the game at the highest level and you’re getting all this inside info for free! The blog at 888Sport is one of the better ones that I’ve come across actually. Again, they plough a lot of time and resources into the football section, which is pretty common to be honest and suits me just fine. For example, one of their latest blog posts was from an interview with former Manchester United defender, Mikael Silvestre looking forward to United’s upcoming game at Liverpool and talking about how he feels it might go. Now, as ex United employee, you have to be a little careful to not follow too many rose-tinted glasses, but you can pick the facts from the BS pretty easily I find, making for entertaining reading. Contact information and customer support The customer support section on site has been pretty solid. I fired off a few queries for the purpose of this review actually just to test them out and found that they were knowledgeable and polite. The grounds of the subject matter were along the lines of banking methods for an obscure country and also bet information, such as how payouts work and how quickly they are to be processed. Basically, just things that I thought could test them a bit rather than the norm. I tried once via phone and the other via email (contact form). The phone call had me on hold for less than a minute, which was great. The person I spoke to spoken fairly broken English, but seemed to know what I wanted to know and how to answer it, so couldn’t fault really. The contact form was answered within 24 hours, although responses to and from weren’t exactly timely, with again around 24 hours between each response. My advice, use the Toll-free number provided for anything urgent. Contact details are below. Acca specific Chances are you are looking for how well 888Sport works for acca specific betting, so let me tell you. Promotions In the next section I’ll go into some depth regarding the promotions on offer, so I won’t talk too long here, but there are so many that are linked to acca betting that I need to mention them again. The likes of the acca bonus is one of the main reasons why I use the bookmaker so much. It’s like getting free money and that’s never a bad thing, right! But, on top of that they run things like acca price boosts and enhanced odds that can be included into acca bets, all perfect what I’m looking for. Pricing Pricing is the number one aspect of acca betting for me. You need to find the bookmaker with the best price to make sure that any returns are maximised. This is one of the few things that are in your control, so utilise it! 888Sport’s pricing has improved no end over the last 12 to 18 months or so. I run all my bets through an odds comparison site which shows me where to bet and the number of times that 888Sport are right at the top is staggering. The thing is, the slightest odds change in acca betting can be huge. If a bet was priced at 2.00 instead of 2.00, for a single it won’t make that much difference, but for an acca it can be the difference between hundreds of pounds. I would say that these days they are right up there with the likes of BetVictor and bet365 for pricing. They are a little erratic in that one day they can be best priced and the next nowhere to be seen, but then you need sites like that for your rotation and it’s one of the main reasons why I’m such a fan of 888Sport. Welcome offer and promotions Banking I’ve never had an issue with banking at 888Sport and have often found them to be one of the prompter bookies for getting money in and out of. Now, admittedly I’ve only personally sued that of Debit cards and e-wallets, but from the research I’ve done I can’t find too many complaints with any other process. Deposits are pretty much instant with all methods, apart from cheque which takes time to clear. Withdrawing has often been in my account within just a couple of working days, but it does state on site that it can take up to 6 working days to hit your account, so bear this in mind. With regards to e-wallets, I’ve found withdrawal times to be significantly quicker than that of debit cards, but bear in mind that you can’t claim some of the bonus with the likes of Skrill or Neteller, which will often put many people off. They do offer PayPal though and this has been my banking method of choice on site with no issues at all. Summary One of the latest bookmakers to enter the fold for me, but one that's going to stay for a long time. I'm loving their offers and the amount of markets that you can bet on. In terms of an all-round alternative to bet365, then at the minute I think there are few bookmakers that really get near 888Sport.
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