Home Bookmakers SMARKETS
Updated: December 2019

SMARKETS Review Details

3.0 rating
3 / 5 Editor Score
Editor Score Players Score

Editor Score

3.0 rating
3 / 5
Usability
3 / 5
Odds
2 / 5
Live Betting
3 / 5
Bonuses & Promotions
3 / 5
Bets Selection
2 / 5
Mobile App
3 / 5

Players Score

3.0 rating
3 / 5
Usability
3 / 5
Odds
2 / 5
Live Betting
3 / 5
Bonuses & Promotions
2 / 5
Bets Selection
3 / 5
Mobile App
2 / 5

SMARKETS FACTS

Pros Cons
  • Only 2% commission charged as standard which is a leader in the exchange marketplace
  • The minimum bet is just £0.05 (5 pence) so it is great for small stakes punters as well
  • Earn up to £100 per month by referring 10 friends to sign up for a SMARKETS account
  • Although the site is easy to use, the dark background interface does take getting used to and they use a GREEN for back and a BLUE for lay which is not intuitive

SMARKETS SERVICES

Cash Out
Live Betting
Live Streaming
24/7 Support
Sign Up Bonus
High Odds
High Limits
Mobile App
Poker
Bingo
Casino
Fast Withdrawal

SMARKETS PLAYER REVIEWS (31)

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Carl Peters

24 January 2020

Comment from uk.trustpilot.com

1.0 rating
1 / 5

The more profit you make, the more they limit the number of bets you can place and will charge more commission. Greedy site better to use betfair without restrictions and less commission

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horatiu.stoianovici

10 January 2020

Comment from uk.trustpilot.com

3.0 rating
3 / 5

First of all, never had issues with payments or anything like that. I've been a Smarkets user for over 3 years. Beware that some bets do sometimes get cancelled, being classified as erroneous bets. Happens to me once every two months or so. If you see some odds that are too good to be true.. expect that your bets might get cancelled. There's potential to lose some money with this. Overall having a positive experience so far. However, lately, their different commission tiers are making the exchange less and less attractive to me. I just got moved (or a better word would be "forced") to the "Select" tier where I need to pay 3% commission on both profit and loses for each bet. This is TRIPLE compared to the previous commission. I was not even eligible (or so I thought), but it turns out they had a bug on their website showing my winnings figure for the last year in pounds, but with a euro symbol. I was supposed to have under 30000 euro winnings for 2019 to keep my commission tier. It turns out I had 30300 euro winnings, even though the website was displaying ~26000. I got forced onto the new commission tier, being 1% over their limit without knowing it, where I could have easily avoided it, and now I just have to live with the consequences of their bug. Not to mention that this got announced very late in the year, and there was no sort of "balance reset" as they've previously done with their monthly limits for the pro tier so that they don't catch people off-guard. Increasing the commission by 200% should never be done with such a short notice. Not very happy about this, now it will be "at Smarket's discretion" as they state in their T&C's if I will ever be put back on the "Pro" tier if I make less profits in a calendar year. Originally moved to Smarkets from Betfair because of lower commission, but now it seems like they somehow managed to get the commission to be worse than on Betfair for me.

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Thomas Wilcox

01 January 2020

Comment from uk.trustpilot.com

2.0 rating
2 / 5

I first signed up to Smarkets when offered 0% commission using OddsMonkey. I used Smarkets for only matched betting. However, as time went on I used Smarkets for higher stakes betting, and understandbly due to the fact I did LESS matched betting and more high stakes gambling, they moved me onto 2% commission. This is now the same commission that Betfair charge. It's OK, I prefered the Smarkets platform even though they had less liquidity (almost always). The problem was, on the start of the new year I was moved onto "Select Tier". This is the highest amount of commission payable, 3% commission. This was due to the fact I made over £25,000 "profit" on my Smarkets account. I never traded markets, I never really understood that. I started matched betting then starting gambling with large stakes. The gambling was somewhat successful but that and a mixture of matched betting and arbing lead to the profits to be over that amount. I can only assume I'm misunderstanding something and costing them more due to the fact I'm winning, which doesn't make me fully understand as it's P2P betting, right? If that wasn't the case, why up my commission? Now, due to the 3% commission it would be unwise for me to ever use them again. This is because Betfair now offer all their customers 2% commission, and have much larger liquidity. Sadly, I've now withdrew my Smarkets funds and will now have to use Betfair Exchange to fulfill my needs. A company which I am not too fond of. So long Smarkets.

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SMARKETS BONUSES

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General Information

As well as its sports trading and exchange offer, SMARKETS also offer trading on special events and politics so there is something for everybody. Sports however is where the main thrust of their offer is. SMARKETS has positioned itself in the niche of exchange trading, so of course is competing against the “big dogs” in that area, Betfair and Betdaq. So how do they differentiate and offer the punter/trader value? In the short time that they have been on the market, the SMARKETS exchange has seen more than five billion pounds traded so you know the system and platform is robust. The key to this is that they have developed, and continue to develop the platform totally in house. The background of the founder and his team is mathematics and finance so you could call it a “geek” tech company.

The great thing for the customer is that they are getting pure trading tools in which to make as much money as possible. And just as recently as April 2017 they were named the 25th fastest-growing company in Europe in the inaugural FT1000 ranking.

They offer a very easy to use peer to peer trading platform with very strong liquidity in all major sports markets, and as well as the sign up bonus offer you can lock in commission at just 2%. Sign up for a SMARKETS account TODAY!

Deposit & Withdrawals

The minimum and maximum deposit amounts vary depending on your chosen deposit method. The table below explains the amounts for each payment option. Visa debit card £/€10 minimum Solo / Maestro card £/€10 minimum Visa credit card £/€10 minimum MasterCard / Eurocard £/€10 minimum Neteller £/€20 min / £/€5k daily max Skrill £/€10 min / £/€5k daily max Bank Transfer £/€10 minimum.

The minimum and maximum withdrawal amounts vary depending on your chosen deposit method. The table below explains the amounts for each payment option: Visa debit card £/€10 minimum, no max Solo / Maestro card £/€10 min, limited to deposit amount. Visa credit card £/€10 min, no max MasterCard / Eurocard £/€10 min, limited to deposit amount Neteller £/€10 min, no max Skrill £/€10 min, no max Bank Transfer £/€20 min, no max. On our site you will also find information about SMARKETS bonus and SMARKETS mobile app.

Customer Service

Email: support@smarkets.com Twitter: @SmarketsTech Live Chat: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (Logged in users only, visit smarkets.com) Phone: +44 207 617 7413 (Customers only, 09:00-19:00) Post: 1 Commodity Quay St. Katharine Docks London E1W 1AZ United Kingdom

License Information

You can check out the SMARKETS gambling license here

Odds format & betting margin

Fractional and Decimal Fractional odds are exactly as its says on the tin…..a fraction. So lets take a price which is odds on, which might be 1/4 or one quarter. So If you put a bet on of 1 pound, you will receive back your one pound stake plus one fourth, so a total of £1.25 Decimal odds are quite straightforward to understand, as all you need to do is take the decimal number, lets say 34.0 and deduct 1 which would give you odds of 33/1. Of course as a betting exchange, SMARKETS use decimal and enhanced odds, or ticks as they are well known in the trading industry.

Betting limits

At SMARKETS there are certain betting limits in place. The minimum deposit amount is £10, The minimum withdrawal is £10.

Types of bets

As a betting exchange SMARKETS caters for peer to peer betting across a wide range of markets

Sport coverage

SMARKETS covers a combination of 13 sports and current affairs events on which you can bet and trade on.

In-play experience

As a betting exchange SMARKETS offer a full range of live event and in-play betting across a full selection of sports, political events and speciality/novelty events.

Live streaming

SMARKETS does not currently show any live stream information on its’ site.

How easy to the eye is the SMARKETS website?

The SMARKETS website has a very unique look and feel to it. Being an exchange of course this is going to be different to a normal sports book. What they have done is to turn the site into a similar view to a traditional trading screen.

The site is very uncluttered and because of this is easy to navigate. Their is a single menu on the left side which can be opened by clicking on the hamburger menu (mobile menu icon) in the very top left corner. When you click this it will open a traditional left side menu like you can see on a traditional sportsbook.

The loading time of the page is ultra quick as you would expect on an exchange site.

At the top of the page in the main section you will find “Top Markets” which focuses on the big events happening righ now. And on the right side you will see a menu with “Popular Events” which makes it easy for a visitor to find major upcoming sports events and means you only have to make one click to get to a market.

One very nice feature they have is the ability to change the colour scheme of the site. The default is a “dark” colour scheme but you can click on the “more” tab in the top and change this to a “light” layout.

SMARKETS also has a na exceptional blog and a betting education portal which can be found in the footer section of the site

Does SMARKETS offer competitive odds or the best odds in a certain sport?

Being an exchange means that SMARKETS is offering peer to peer betting so odds are set by the users. However an exchange cannot have good odds if they do not have liquidity in their markets.

As an example, at the 2018 Cheltenham Festival the average difference across the fours days racing amounted to a 32% difference compared to industry SP (starting prices)

To put this into context, a horse that would have had an SP of 3/1 would have been averaging at 4/1 on the SMARKETS exchange. This really did provide SMARKETS customers with real value.

How good is the market coverage and selection of bets on SMARKETS?

SMARKETS covers not only a wide range of sports but also current affairs and politics as well as novelty events as well. When we look at sports the main focus is very much on football and horse racing, and since Spring 2018 SMARKETS have been putting a large amount of sponsorship into the sport of horse racing.

In terms of football betting, you will normally see around 1000 events to trade on with matches from Europe, South America, Asia, Worldwide and from North/Central America.

How good is In Play betting on SMARKETS?

As an exchange the main area of their business is of course the In-play markets with a wide selection of events. The In-play interface on a single event is so easy to work with and at the top of each event you have changing graphs and data to show you what is happening, this data also shows some very good trend information.

Below the main prices for the outright event result, you will find all the other markets that can be opened by clicking the white drop down arrow next to the title (clearly displayed in green) of each market.

What selection of bonuses and re-occurring promotions does SMARKETS have?

SMARKETS currently only provide a Bet £20 get £10 promo. They do offer commission concessions on a regular basis.

How easy is it to deposit and withdraw funds with an SMARKETS account?

Adding funds to your SMARKETS account is a very simple process. They offer the following options:

– Visa Debit
– Neteller
– Skrill
– Visa Credit Card
– Mastercard/Eurocard

The withdrawal process is also very easy with payment cards taking 1-6 days to receive your cash out betting and E-wallets providing payments within 1-2 days.

How friendly and fast is the SMARKETS customer service and live chat service?

You have to be a logged in and registered user to use the live chat function

Can you trust SMARKETS?

Regulated in the UK by the Gambling Commission. Licensed and regulated outside of the UK by Malta Gaming Authority (MGA/CL3/492/2008 issued May 12th,2009).

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What tools do you provide to help exchange betting punters?

SMARKETS have a wide range of tools to help punters get the most from their betting and trading.

Hedging calculator - The hedging calculator works out how much you need to back or lay to guarantee a profit or reduce your loss - whether your bet wins or loses - on a betting exchange by trading out of a market - leaving you with an equal profit or loss across all selections in that specific market.

Arbitrage calculator - The arbitrage calculator - also known as an arb calculator - automatically calculates how much you should stake on each single outcome on a market you want to make an arbitrage bet.

Bet calculator - Smarkets’s bet calculator automatically calculates your payout for any bet whether it’s back or lay betting on a betting exchange or a bookmaker, so you can identify your return and any commission paid quickly.

What is a betting exchange?

A betting exchange is a platform for bettors to trade on the outcome of certain events. It differs by allowing bettors to bet against each other rather than a bookmaker - so bettors can act as a bookmaker by setting odds for an event, or the customer by backing the odds set by other users on the exchange.

What is Expected value calculation?

The formula to calculate expected value for betting is fairly simple:

(Amount won per bet * probability of winning) – (Amount lost per bet * probability of losing)

Let’s use a coin toss as an example of calculating expected value. Assuming the coin and the toss are fair, each outcome (heads or tails) has an equal probability of 50% - therefore the odds offered on a fair market would be 2.0.

This would result in an EV of 0 for either a Head or Tail - because the probability of the two outcomes is the same, so if you tossed a coin infinitely it would theoretically end up all square.

If however you were offered odds of 2.15 for the coin to land on heads, this is a value bet.

If you placed £10 on the coin landing on heads at 2.15, the EV is calculated likewise:

(11.50 X 0.5) – (10 X 0.5) = 0.75

This shows an EV of 0.75. Therefore you would expect to make an average profit of 75p for each £10 bet, because the odds received are better than the implied odds of the coin toss.

What is the minimum deposit amount?

The minimum deposit amounts vary depending on your chosen deposit method. The minimum amount is £10 with the minimum being £20 for Neteller deposits.

Can I set a deposit limit on my SMARKETS account?

It’s easy to set a deposit limit with Smarkets. You can set daily, weekly or monthly deposit limits.

Once your deposit limit has been set, the changes will happen immediately, while there will be a week pending period before increased limits will take effect.

What is the maximum withdrawal limit from my SMARKETS account?

Their are no maximum withdrawal limits at SMARKETS, as an exchange you are only limited by the amount you have in your positive account balance.

What is Electronic Verification?

Where possible, Smarkets will try to verify your account electronically by running the details you provide when signing up against a number of UK official databases.

Note: This will not affect your credit rating and we do not access this private data.

What is a money laundering policy and why do you have one?

Smarkets adheres to all relevant anti-money laundering requirements.

All transactions may be checked to prevent money laundering. Any transactions which Smarkets deems suspicious may be reported to the appropriate authorities. We do this to protect all of our customers against fraudulent transactions.

How can I enter the SMARKETS raceday ticket giveaway competitions?

During the Competition Period, enter by visiting smarkets.com and signing up for an account, and then sending a Direct Message to the official Smarkets account on Twitter and/or Facebook quoting the relevant competition code that appears in the social media content promoting the competition (e.g. 'Exeter2401').

Each participant may make a maximum of one (1) entry during the Competition Period. All entries must be received by Smarkets during the Competition Period.

How does the liquidity on SMARKETS compare to the likes of Betfair and Betdaq?

SMARKETS is a relatively new player in exchange betting but we have been very active on the market and we believe our liquidity is as strong as any other exchange out there. The best way to test it yourself is to try out SMARKETS.

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author

Alex Miller

Alex Miller is a former expert in the online sports betting industry. He has spent more than a decade as a trader in sports betting. His experience makes him the best in giving advice to bettors.