Smarkets UK Betting Review 2024

Smarkets
Smarkets
3.5
Trade with 0% at Smarkets for 60 days
Bonus Code: COMMFREE

Use code COMMFREE to trade with 0% commission for 60 days. Min. £10/€10 first deposit using Debit Card or Instant Banking. Full T&C’s apply.18+. BeGambleAware.org.

Smarkets Sport Types

  • Football Icon
    Football
  • Golf
    Golf
  • Horse Racing
    Horse Racing
  • Basketball Betting
    Basketball
  • Tennis
    Tennis

Smarkets Features

  • Betting Exchange
  • Trade Out to control bets
  • Extensive In-Play opportunities
  • Strong trading apps
  • Betting Variety
    3.5
  • Banking Options
    3.5
  • Mobile Experience
    3.5
  • Betting Experience
    3.5
  • Customer Support
    3.5
Total score
3.5

Full Smarkets Betting Review

3.5
By:Scott McGlynn

Smarkets are an award-winning betting exchange with an excellent commission rate, which is very important for value.

To get a good look at their services, we explored everything from the Smarkets sign-up bonus to market coverage.

Let’s get into our full Smarkets betting review.

Smarkets Profile

Website: smarkets.comCompany:  
Year founded: 2008License & regulation: Gambling Commission, Malta Gaming Authority 
Contact information: Customers only telephone 020 7617 7413, support@smarkets.com  Sponsorship Deals: N/A
Address/Headquarters: 1 Commodity Quay, St Katharine Docks, London E1W 1AZContact information/Support: 24/7 live chat
Payment Methods: Bank Transfer, PayPal, Trustly, Visa Debit, NetellerFeatures: Exchange. 
Apps Devices: Android and iOS. Casino Providers: No Casino

Smarkets Strengths and Weaknesses

First we take a look at a balance of strengths and weaknesses for this Smarkets review.

✔️ Smarkets Strengths

  • Low Commissions: A significant strength is the low commission rate of 2%. That’s a stand-out point from this Smarkets betting exchange review.
  • Low commissions equal more profit and often work out better than traditional bookmaker margins.
  • Trading Indications: The Smarkets betting exchange displays charts highlighting when money has been coming in and where it has been going. 
  • Brilliant Trading App: It surprised us for this Smarkets betting exchange review of how well the whole experience operated on the Smarkets betting apps. We're partial to mobile betting, so we have to check this as a huge positive.

❌ Smarkets Weaknesses

  • Fully Understanding the Exchange: Smarkets makes exchange betting very accessible with their help guides. Does that mean it’s immediately user-friendly for all players? Probably not. There is a bit of a learning curve to get the most out of such a platform.
  • Lack of bonus offers: If you are looking for bonuses and promotional offers, Smarkets isn't the place to find them. It's not the be-all-and-end-all, but offers are scarce.
  • Liquidity Issues: We did hit a liquidity issue on a horse race. Wanting to back a selection at £20 with only £9 liquidity is a frustrating scenario. You aren't likely to find everything you enjoy all the time in exchange betting.

Smarkets Promotions & Bonuses

Smarkets UK
Trade with 0% at Smarkets for 60 days
Bonus Code: COMMFREE

Use code COMMFREE to trade with 0% commission for 60 days. Min. £10/€10 first deposit using Debit Card or Instant Banking. Full T&C’s apply.18+. BeGambleAware.org.

Smarkets Betting Exchange Review

What is the overall Smarkets betting exchange experience like? To answer that, we’ll take it step by step. They were founded in 2008, so they aren’t one of the newer betting sites - they are well-established.

We did find the Smarkets sign-up offer selections to be good. But, again, choice is nice, and both offers are generous, particularly the 60 days of 0% commission.

The odds at betting exchanges usually surpass those at traditional bookmaker sites. Better odds is a massive advantage of sports betting at Smarkets, although getting the liquidity on smaller markets is not always easy. 

 📢 "The Smarkets betting exchange provides punters with a the opportunity to take advantage of better odds than they would find on traditional sportsbooks."

We did (at a hectic time) on a Saturday afternoon, notice that live markets were lagging a little bit, perhaps due to volume.

Market variety is good, despite what we saw some users complain about. For example, we found football betting options well up to par in terms of variety on the Smarkets exchange.

The payment to the Smarkets account was easy enough via debit card. However, we were surprised about withdrawal times, as they don’t appear to be the quickest.

Customer service is decent with telephone support. Live chat is available day and night.

One area in which they do rate strongly is mobile betting apps. Their exchange trading platform app is slick and, importantly, very functional.

Smarkets UK
Smarkets UK Home Page.

Smarkets Score

Bonuses & Offers ⭐

Smarkets rank poorly for bonuses. Aside from the Smarkets sign-up offer, there’s little else.

Betting Variety ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Betting variety can’t be faulted. There’s excellent coverage on a wide range of sports and markets. 

Banking Options ⭐⭐⭐

About as standard as we would expect to see. They fell a bit short on e-wallet options, however.

Mobile experience ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 

Smarkets hit the mobile betting experience out of the park. Their trading betting apps are great.

Payout Speed ⭐⭐

We have seen reports of slow payment times by punters, so it’s a conservative rating in this Smarkets betting exchange review.

Security ⭐⭐⭐⭐

They are fully licensed and regulated and transactions are secure. 

Betting Experience ⭐⭐⭐

The Smarkets exchange platform itself is good, but our MansionBet experts couldn't always get the bet struck that we wanted due to lack of liquidity. The actual process of making a bet is easy, though.

Customer Support ⭐⭐⭐

24/7 customer support is available for customers. Plus, they do list a contact telephone number.

Smarkets Welcome Package

Bonuses and PromotionsYou've done a secure transaction to get funds into your Smarkets account. Now there's a bonus to grab, which we look at next in our Smarkets betting review.

New customers at Smarkets have a choice of one of two welcome offers. Whichever is selected, an initial minimum qualifying deposit of £10 is required.

Smarkets Welcome Bonus

The promo code must be entered at registration for either of the Smarkets Betting Exchange Welcome package selections. So make your choice before signing up.

Trade with 0% for 60 days OR Get a £20 cash refund

There is a Smarkets bonus code of COMMFREE 

Any cash refund balance will expire after seven days.

Smarkets Welcome Bonus: 0% for 60 days from the first deposit

The other option for a Smarkets welcome bonus is 0% for 60 days from the first deposit.

This option needs the Smarkets promo code COMMFREE.

After making a qualifying first deposit, all bets settled within the first 60 days will have a 0% commission rate.

If you don't plug in a promo code at registration, then the £20 cash refund promo is automatically assigned.

Smarkets Welcome Bonus Terms and Conditions

As with any betting bonus, there are T&Cs. It’s worth a look to cover yourself to ensure you meet the requirements.

Some of the key ones for the Smarkets welcome bonus are:

  • Smarkets promo code has to be entered during registration
  • Qualifying first deposit amount of  £10
  • First deposit by Skrill, Neteller, PayPal, Trustly or a virtual/prepaid card will not qualify for the £20 cash refund promo.
  • Eligible new users that haven’t entered the code COMMFREE or SMK20 during registration will automatically get the £20 cash refund promo applied to their account.

Smarkets Best Sports Features

After logging some of the main features, we move on to the next part of this Smarkets betting review. This is where we examine some of the best features in depth.

Features are things that are outside of the actual betting markets and price quotes. For example, enhancements like live streams and cash out can be considered features.

Smarkets Mobile App

Available on both iOS and Android, the Smarkets mobile betting apps are a huge feature.

It is just a platform for super-convenient betting on the go. There is in-play betting, trade and the full Smarkets betting exchange functionality on the small screen.

The Smarkets app is excellent, lightweight and gives access to all the sports, politics and current affairs markets with real-time prices.

Trade Out

The benefits of the Trade Out feature allow you to manage your active bets to lock in a profit or reduce exposure on a bet.

As it is possible to have more than one bet matched on a specific contract, punters can also cancel previous ones.

The Smarkets Trade Out can be activated via a green button on the market contract. The offer will come up, and you can confirm the Trade Out.

Lay Betting

The real beauty we hit on for this Smarkets betting review is being able to Lay a bet - acting like a bookmaker. 

An example is a Lay bet on England winning the World Cup, which essentially backs any other team to win the tournament except England.

Lay betting is an outstanding feature that gives you options you can’t get at traditional bookmaker platforms. Ensure you fully understand the liability of Lay betting, which is different from the liability (stake) on a Backed selection.

Help Guides

This isn’t usually a feature that we would include, but for the Smarkets review, it gets a mention.

If you want to get Smarkets betting explained, they have you covered.

There are many user-friendly explanations of the different aspects of Exchange Betting regarding the likes of trading out, expected value, matched bets and Lay liability.

Keep bets in-play

With this feature, you can decide whether to keep an unmatched bet live when the market has gone in-play, allowing more time for it to get matched up.

If the option isn’t selected, unmatched bets are cancelled when they move in-play.

Smarkets Sports Coverage

We found the sports coverage at Smarkets strong - from the different sports to the market options within.

One of the other major betting exchanges, Betfair, sets the standard for how extensive an exchange can be.

Do Smarkets better them? We have to say no, as Betfair excels at more niche sports and novelty markets. 

But all of the major sports we expect to find were in place at Smarkets.

Smarkets Football

 FootballBetting on football is one of the most extensive areas of sports betting in the UK. So naturally, we expect a strong presence of football competitions and match betting options at Smarkets.

It’s there. Even on minor games, including club friendlies, we saw more than 50 available markets per match. But, of course, that number goes up drastically for big games like the Premier League and UEFA Champions League.

Smarkets Tennis

 Tennis BettingWe did find extensive coverage of tennis. It is a sport that has a high turnover of matches daily. As a result, we found plenty of markets from even lower-ranked Challenger tournaments alongside the main ATP and WTA fare.

Smarkets Horse Racing

 Horse RacingHorse racing is a massive chunk of UK sports betting. Smarkets ranked well with us because of good international action in Japan, Australia and beyond, though to all the daily UK and Ireland racing cards.

Smarkets Novelty Markets

Another strong area of the Smarkets sportsbook is the novelty betting area. That includes things like current events, politics, TV and awards.

Smarkets Sponsorship Deals

Smarkets was a shirt sponsor of Championship club QPR, and they partnered with The Jockey Club for race sponsorship in 2018. However, they are currently not official sponsors or partners of any sports organisations.

Smarkets Betting Markets & Types of Bets Available

Strategies and Betting TipsWith coverage of the leading sports looked at, next, we dip into some popular betting markets and bets.

Smarkets Betting Markets

  • Outright - the simple selection of one outcome on a particular market
  • Over/under offers good options for sports like football when outright match odds are not favourable.
  • Margins are commonly played in rugby and football. It’s a set amount of goals or points that a team will win by.
  • Handicaps are a staple of football betting. It’s the go-to-market when there’s little value in the match outright.

Smarkets Types of Bets Available

  • Accumulator bets are hugely popular for football and horse racing betting in particular. The chance at a significant return through cumulative odds with a small stake gives enormous appeal.
  • Multiple Bets combine selections into one bet, like a double or a treble.
  • Full Cover Bets are bigger wagers that are usually played on horse racing. These are things like a Lucky 15, where four selections create 15 separate bets.
  • Each-Way is a staple of horse racing betting but can be utilised effectively in other sports. It’s beneficial for golf betting outrights. 

Do Smarkets allow matched betting?

Yes, and they have a guide to help with it. Matched betting is where you use a promotional offer like a free bet and then back or lay the opposite outcome with a real money bet. The Smarkets calculator can help piece a Matched Bet together.

Smarkets Mobile Apps

Mobile User ExperienceLinks to the Smarkets mobile betting apps for iOS and Android can be grabbed straight from their website.

The first thing we did with the iOS app was to hook it up with 2FA via Google Authenticator. Coupled with FaceID, it makes the Smarkets mobile app extra secure.

Keeping up with in-play bets and trade-out opportunities are considerable benefits of having it to hand. 

The app promises the whole exchange experience, and it doesn’t disappoint. The full range of markets and trading insights, along with a good search tool, are available.

Complete account management is there, plus we also noticed the Smarkets welcome bonus could be completed via mobile.

📢 "The superb Smarkets app takes the full betting exchange functionality and neatly packages it for mobile users."

Smarkets Sports Bonuses and Promotions

We have looked at some of the popular bets, markets and features of Smarkets and now circle back to bonuses.

Unfortunately, this is an area in which Smarkets don't rate well. We saw reviews from customers saying they have never had a free bet bonus from Smarkets despite being long-term customers.

It's not a bad thing - it's just something to consider. 

Smarkets Banking

  Banking OptionsAfter signing up, putting funds into the account is straightforward. We tend to stick to debit cards as they are secure and offer quick transactions, and Smarkets also recommend debit cards.

The minimum deposit amount at Smarkets is £10. The one exception is the PayPal deposit which is a £20 minimum.

Withdrawals at Smarkets

Want to get your winnings from the Smarkets betting exchange? Of course, you do. There’s a £10 minimum withdrawal amount, except for a Bank Transfer, which has a £20 minimum.

Withdrawals can range between 1 and 6 business days, longer for a Bank Transfer. Smarkets don’t charge withdrawal fees.

We pulled out winnings to a Visa Debit because of the standard closed loop set-up. The withdrawal link can be found in My Account by the balance.

It was a simple matter of selecting the withdrawal method and amount.

Smarkets Customer Support

 Customer SupportWe logged into the 24/7 Smarkets live chat to test support in the early hours of a Wednesday morning around 6am.

We did have to wait a few minutes to get an agent. It felt like a longer wait time than expected, especially at what should have been a quieter time.

The help we received from an agent called Sarah was concise enough. A request for information about account verification was dealt with professionally. 

All of the Smarkets contact details can be found in their help section. Their help section is excellent - there’s a lot of great information there, and it’s well worth browsing.

Smarkets UK How To

To help readers with this Smarkets betting review, we next break down some basics of getting stuff done with them.

➳ How to open an account on Smarkets

Click any link on this page to get to their website and then on the Create Account button. The registration screen will first ask for account details. This is where the Smarkets welcome bonus promo code goes.

From there, they will request personal details and then a deposit. It’s a secure signup process with your information encrypted.

  • Register at Smarkets
  • Click any link above to get to Smarkets
  • Click the Create Account button
  • Enter all details
  • Enter promo code
  • Select funding option and deposit at least £10
  • Enjoy the exchange!

➳ How to place a bet at Smarkets

Select your options from the markets, and choose whether to Back or Lay. Throw your pick over to your slip and double-check your details. You can create multiples in your bet slip. Enter a stake and place the bet.

➳ How to withdraw money from Smarkets

To pull out winnings from Smarkets, log in and visit the account management on their website or mobile app. You will see available withdrawal options based on your deposit methods. Unfortunately, UK customers can’t cancel pending withdrawals at Smarkets.

➳ How to claim a Smarkets bonus

The key things to claim one of the welcome bonuses are the promo code and deposit. Enter COMMFREE to trade with 0% commission for the first 60 days, or SMK20 to get a £20 cash refund on losses. For the last offer, the deposit must be via Debit card or Instant Bank Transfer.

➳ How to get a bet matched at Smarkets

Place a bet on a market, and you will see its status in your account. The market then needs enough liquidity for the wager to be matched. That could be instant, or you may need to wait until more action arrives on the market.

➳ How to place a Lay bet at Smarkets

Placing a Lay bet at Smarkets is the same process as Backing a selection. Make your pick and enter your stake. Note that liability on a Lay bet differs significantly from a Backed stake.

Frequently Asked Questions about Smarkets

What is the Commission at Smarkets?

Smarkets come in with a low commission of 2% on net profits per market. So it’s an excellent, competitive rate.

Who owns Smarkets?

The CEO of the Smarkets Exchange is Jason Trost, one of the founders.

Is Smarkets an exchange?

Smarkets is solely a betting exchange and not one of the traditional sportsbook betting sites.

Are SBK a part of Smarkets?

SBK, a mobile betting app platform, is a product owned by Smarkets. It’s a traditional bookmaker setup powered by the trading markets of the Smarkets exchange. 

Smarkets UKSmarkets UK
Trade with 0% at Smarkets for 60 days