bookmaker rating
Up to £25 or £100 in Bet Credits For New Customers
Bet £10 get £30 in Free Bets + £10 games bonus + 10FS
£10 Risk Free First Bet with Promo Code YSKAMR
Money Back as A Bonus up to £40 if your first bet loses + £10 Casino bonus
Get £20 in Free Bets when you bet £5
Get Connected online with £20 in Free Bets
100% Matched Deposit Free Bet up to £30
Explore Esports and Get up to £10 in Free Bets
£20 Risk Free Exchange Bet
£20 Free Bet Backup Bet offer
Sports Welcome Offer - Bet £5 Get £30
Royal Ascot Welcome Offer - Bet £10 Get £40
Place £10 First Bet and Get £10 Free Bet
Bet £10 on Betdaq Virtuals and Get a £10 Free Bet
Better profit with Smarkets £10 Welcome Bonus
Get a 100% Welcome Bonus up to £50 for new bettors
Up to £10 money back as a FreeBet!
Claim up to £100 in Free Bets with Redbet Welcome Bonus
New Customer Exclusive - Bet £10 and Get £40 in Free Bets
Welcome Package of up to £250 on your first 4 deposits
100% Welcome Bonus up to £150 for New Players
Claim your 100% Welcome Bonus up to £100 now
£100 Welcome Bonus Gift for Your First Deposit
Dive into the world of sports betting with VBet Welcome Bonus: Bet £10 & Get £10 Free Bet
100% Bonus worth up to £200 for New Stakers
100% up to £25 + £10 Safety Bet
Stake £30 and Claim £30 in Free Bets and Free Spins
Place £10 on Sports to unlock £10 Bonus Credits
50 Fantasy Contests for £24.99 with Welcome Top Plan
50% Deposit Bonus with up to £50 in additional Contest Credits
888 Sport review
Free Betting Tips from Stakers Community
All tips
888 Sport is one of our mid-scale international betting lounges at Stakersland and as such, it does not currently play a significant role within our amusement park.
It’s still a popular location though, so don’t get us wrong. Around 411.8K members have already walked through the 888 Sport doors, the majority of which are coming from UK and Spanish lands. The international feel doesn’t stop there either with over 35,000 Germans and Austrians lining up to enjoy the all-action Bundesliga football markets. You’ll also find over 30,000 Italians milling around and getting involved in the horse racing markets from the UK tracks as well. All those stakers are putting €7 Million into the pockets of the 888 owners on a monthly basis, so with this in mind, you can expect to spend around €15-20 on average when betting on the premises.
Speaking of limits, our internal investigations showed the maximum winning limits at the 888 Sport lounge to peak at €100,000. Be aware that these limits can drop to as low as €25,000, depending on the country in which you reside. In order to balance the books, 888 would need to operate 9.5 hours worldwide or almost 10 days in Germany alone. Regardless, any winnings would be available within 24 hours for processing, though this would depend on seasonal factors and the length of the withdrawal queue in front of you.
A total of 411.8K stakers have already signed up at 888Sport and we have calculated an average spend of around €15-20 per month. Limits are low but it only takes 9.5 hours of uptime for the sportsbook to balance out the books after a €100,000 win.
The 888 Sport annual profits at the end of the fiscal year 2019 came in at €80M. Compare this to the leading UK/Spain operator Bet365 who generated 40x more with a hefty €3 billion in gross gaming revenue, and you can clearly see the difference. But ladies and gentlemen, bigger does not always mean better at Stakersland. For further comparison we looked at Sportium, a non-British brand operating within Spain, and their gross gaming revenue came in at €200 million, which you can see again clearly exceeds the upper revenue numbers of 888 Sport.
888 Sport Offers
As we can see from our Stakersland statistics, the demographics of 888 sport is as follows:
| United Kingdom | Spain | Italy | Ireland | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| monthly | 148K | 90K | 61K | 13K |
| License |  |  |  |  |
Social Buzz
There had been more than 200 complaints recorded which were related to delayed withdrawals and account verification, most of which were connected to large withdrawal amounts. Most of these had been resolved as we see it though. The reviews stand at 4.8/10 with major complaints circling around customer relationship and their overall platform.
888sport is currently missing here although 888 casino is rated better on average. The negative feedback is mainly coming from British players with software glitches and bonus terms being their primary problems.
Bonus clash
Stakers can start their 888 adventure at Stakersland with a €10 entry fee and then receive three further €10 tickets on top. With all things considered, we think that this is the only safe promotion you can rely on at their online residence. Here’s what other stakers think:
“The good thing about 888 is that they make it clear that you should be looking for fixed odds wagering rather than bonuses. Their conditions are straight forward and average to the market, there should not be a problem.”
“They are obviously trying to make 888 a better place with their approach to promotions in the current tough market conditions. I would give them a try and use the site for fun betting on your favourites. I doubt there would be a problem if you can afford €10-€20 a month.”
“Takes a bit of time to figure out bonus terms, the T&Cs are vague and too general for specific promotions. One can expect the unexpected at any moment.”
“Bonus freebies are not welcome here with one single bonus for new players. It could be a bit tricky with the 5.0+ bets and the American acca without clear conditions for specifics, such as a pitcher change or push.”
Stakersland currently has three 888 offers for its members and these include the free bet for new players, a complimentary free bet worth €5 when you win a single 5.00+ odds bet, and that intriguing North American sports acca insurance offer.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
Bet £10, Get £30 in Free Bets  | free bet club | Minimum odds of 1.5 | Restricted for PayPal, Skrill and Neteller |
The unused free tickets usually expire in 72 hours with restrictions against other bonuses and promotions. Of course, those tickets can’t be converted to cash directly at the cashier and you are expected to wager the amount at least once over. The bonus is designed so that you can keep the winnings minus the bet amount if your prediction is right. Take our word and use this as a fun bet and not as a profit-making opportunity.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
£5 Free Bet every day when you win at 5.00+ | free bet club | Minimum odds of 5.0 | Available once a day |
A bonus for those who have no fear. Step into one of the most dangerous rooms in the 888 Sports arena as you are asked to pick out a winner with odds of 5.00 or more. Not for the fainthearted but this offers daily free bets if you do come out victorious.
| promo name | promo type | requirements | restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|
American ACCA | acca insurance | Five selections with minimum odds of 1.3 on each pick | Available for MLB, MLS, NFL, NBA, and NHL |
In this room, you are required to pick out a combined coupon of at least five selections, these must all be exclusively based on North American leagues. Should you lose one of them, the cashier will credit you up to €25 at the desk in the form of a free bet (to be used with further wagering requirements).
Conclusion
888 Sports do offer a few incentives to tempt you through their doors but there are no significant and recurrent bonus campaigns to keep you there. Saying that, we see no harm in taking up the three bets mentioned above but do be careful with any bets that push you over your budget. These bonuses are fine in a fun sense, but they do lack a clear procedure that underlines the situation in which you would want to make an appeal, so always bet with caution.
Sports betting
888Sport uses the Kambi sportsbook platform which is operating geo-location betting markets.
The team here are obsessives when it comes to betting and technology, and so we know exactly what to look for when scrutinising the infrastructure of all the bookmakers here at Stakersland. We examine every single detail to ensure the very best in modern technology is being used, so we can point our stakers to the best betting experiences. We want you to enjoy every moment, and so that’s why we keep up a constant inspection routine across the whole of Stakersland. No digital stone is left unturned in our park.
Sports
The major sports for 888 are Football, Tennis, Basketball, American Football, as well as Horse Racing and Greyhound Racing. The popular sports are specific to your location though and may vary from country to country.
Betting slip
An old-school betting slip without twists and up to 12 picks in the same coupon – wager single outcomes, combined, and a reduced system called ‘permutations’ without bankers and co-related options.
In-play stats
Featured with a field visualization tracker for major events and related sports information such as Form, Head to Head, and League Table. This is streamed as a generic Sportradar widget linked by the event ID on 300 other sites.
Betting markets
888 features live in-play Soccer events with up to 131 markets at the early stage, and 286 markets before kickoff. In Tennis, they usually come up with 47 live markets and 24 pre-live market. For Ice Hockey, we often see more than 107 live and 205 pre-match markets.
Margins
The sports betting margins 888 offer are in line with the market average. For three of the main sports we see that football has a pre-live margins of 2.86% and live margins of 6.52%. For basketball they range between 4.45% for pre-live and 3.86% for live. In Ice Hockey the pre-live margin is 5.33% and in-play margin is 5.77%.
Event results
888 does not offer its players the results and statistics for past matches. Though you may access head to head, standings, league table and other related information for upcoming matches through external links that open up a generic Sportradar site.
| Sports | margins | live margins | markets | live markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| tennis | 6.49% | 7.47% | 24 | 47 |
| football | 2.86% | 6.52% | 286 | 131 |
| basketball | 4.45% | 3.86% | 185 | 118 |
| ice hockey | 5.33% | 5.77% | 205 | 107 |
Compared with the competition, 888 takes an honorable 20th place and sits snugly in between Mr Green and TippX. Obviously, they could reduce their margins and offer event results and statistics to make their punters a little happier. And, of course, these positive changes would help to increase their ranking here in Stakersland.
Financial Limits
The Stakersland team are in full incognito when they carry out their regular inspections and this helps to retrieve and report on the all-important facts. Making sure that our fellow stakers are fully aware of all the financial terms and conditions is an absolute must for us. We aim to give you clear and concise information when it comes to the business side of Stakersland.
Payment Method Restrictions
Which payment methods are valid when claiming my bonuses?
E-Wallets such as Skrill, Neteller and PayPal are not valid for getting bonus offers at 888Sport and this includes the 888 free bet offers and no deposit bonus money deals.
The Influence of Third Party Agencies
What checks are being made and do they use any third party agencies?
The 888Sport team are obliged to meet the Know Your Customer and Anti Money Laundering checks that come under the rules of their betting license. This requires you to provide various documents to prove your identity, your address, as well as the ownership of the payment methods being used at the site.
Personal Data Transparency
Will they inform me about the automated checks being performed?
It is made apparent that your personal information will be used throughout your time at 888Sport and that your data will be shared amongst third party agencies, credit reporting agencies, and any associated affiliate and marketing companies as well. The use of third-party tracking technologies is also in use although the exact name of the trackers is not displayed. As such, it can be suggested that you will be followed across your internet journey if you sign up to 888Sport.
Social Media Communication
Will my financial disputes and complaints be answered on the social media profiles?
The 88Sport team do not respond to many staker requests via the social media profiles at all, so don’t go expecting your financial-based queries to be solved any time soon.
Gambling Anonymously
Are my banking transactions with the bookmaker private?
The 888 intermediaries offer privacy options for those stakers who like to keep their online betting lives private. This is done by showing generic names on bank statements and not the betting brand name of 888Sport.
Withdrawal Timeframe & Common Complaints
How fast are the withdrawals and what do stakers complain about the most?
888 is not the fastest company when it comes to withdrawals. The processing time may take up to eight days from which day one is the ‘Awaiting Process’ period, and the seven days thereafter is known as the ‘After Processing’ period. It all means that they are taking up to six business days for withdrawal requests to Credit Cards, up to eight business days for UK Debit cards and Bank Transfers, and two to three days for E-Wallet withdrawal requests.
Player-Friendly Withdrawal Limits
What are the minimum and maximum withdrawal limits available?
888Sport imposes minimum Wire Transfer withdrawal amounts of €15, or the currency equivalent. The minimum withdrawal for Skrill, Neteller, PayPal, UK Credit Cards via BACS, Credit Card, Debit Card, and Web Money is currently set to €4, or the currency equivalent. 888Sport also reserve the right to cap your withdrawals to €30,000 per month and cap winnings at €250,000 per day.
Withdrawal Options & Additional Costs
What are my banking options when withdrawing my funds and do they add fees?
The withdrawal options at 888Sport are sufficient and cover Credit and Debit Cards, Skrill, Neteller, EcoPayz, PayPal, MuchBetter and the Bank Transfer. Thankfully, there are no service fees or charges in place when moving your money to and from the site.
Regulatory Check Transparency
Are they clear about the Source of Funds and Source of Wealth procedures?
The automated checks at 888Sport are thorough procedures and they may be taking longer then anticipated which can lead to account suspension in the due time. They may go as far as to requesting notarisation of your documents and these terms are all clearly described within the withdrawal policy. Therefore, we strongly encourige you to complete all account verification procedures prior to making your first deposit.
Conclusion
All in all, most of the banking section at 888 Sports cannot be faulted with its full coverage of payment methods, and those generous deposit and withdrawal limits are always welcome. It’s the least you would expect from a betting brand as big as 888 and it’s something that many of their competitors should be looking to for inspiration. The data tracking, lengthy withdrawals, and poor social media responses are areas that need fixing, but, on the whole, the 888Sport financial setup shows a respectable level of service.
Customer Support
Customer support is not a strong point for 888 and so to better understand this bottleneck, our Stakersland team have been continuously performing competency tests of the virtual 888 premises. Only through constant testing can we get a real idea of the true levels of service that this 888 team has to offer.
The only available channel through which you can contact the 888 customer service is through their helpdesk or by calling a toll number in the UK, Germany, or Canada. We found no other options such as online chat or social network profiles, making contact complicated and time-consuming. The phone lines are manned from 9am to 12pm GMT and we found out that it’s this team who are also managing the helpdesk as well.
The Stakersland testing is a thorough process and it’s something that we don’t take lightly. So, we are currently using more than 10 different players to address the 888 customer service team. Using a line of questioning that tests their capabilities from all angles and at all times of the day, here’s what we have found so far:
Conclusion
We called their helpdesk and inquired as to why our emails were not being responded to by anyone at 888, they had no answer to this question. How much of a commitment to customer service do they have at 888? We didn’t see much evidence of it, in all honesty. It comes across as though they don’t care about the problem’s punters may face, and only take satisfaction from the number of active monthly players in their annual report instead.
Support Speed & Resolution
How fast do they reply to my general queries?
Our generic email queries related to available free bets were answered within 30-60 minutes, though all of them used the same template which included a link to the promotion page.
Live Chat Access
Is the online live chat tool available on the site?
There is no live chat currently available for 888Sport stakers.
Support Team Competency
How quickly will the support team reply to complex queries?
Our slightly more complex queries from new members failed to receive a response, they simply ignored new stakers who were asking too many questions. From our experience, this is a clear indication that staker members are not valued individually due to the present setup of their call center escalation process.
Level of Technical Expertise
Are the support agents sufficiently trained to answer technical queries based on odds, margins, and markets?
We continued our scrutiny with sports betting related queries, such as minimum odds and types of wagers required for the activation bet. We received a link to the general terms and conditions which missed the answer to our question completely. There was no response to our follow up and there seems to be a clear competence issue when it comes to technical matters.
Unregistered Staker Support
Will the customer service team interact with unregistered stakers and will I get a free bet?
The agents refuse to converse and respond to pre-sales queries from non-members of 888 and require a full account to be established before any level of support becomes available. This defeats the whole object of the free bet question. We expected to find answers about bonus rules and the terms of the promotions advertised on the home page, before opening an account.
Professional & Friendly Service
What type of response will I get when requesting a bonus from the service team?
Email and telephone are the only contact channels available for the casino’s customer service. However, the 888sport agents do not respond to any type of queries sent via any of the mentioned methods, and so there is no chance of receiving bonuses via the support team at this current time.
Customer Service Knowledge
Will the agents provide the correct information about payment limits when compared to the terms and conditions on the website?
Our payment requests were made to various 888Sport departments and via the different contact methods, but there have been no replies from the support team to our standard questions, let alone our withdrawal and deposit limit queries.
Willingness to Help Out
Will the support representatives help me navigate around their website?
The agents would be happy to assist you with navigating and accessing the basic parts of the 888 site such as the My Account section.
Tolerance Levels
Does the support team have a high tolerance level for repeated bonus requests?
There were no responses provided to any of our queries from the 888Sport support team for a total of eight days, and as a result, we have not been able to analyse the replies and their level of tolerance.
Onsite Support Efficiency
How efficient is their onsite Helpdesk compared to the competition?
The helpdesk link was difficult to find and their contact form encourages stakers to find the answers and resolve problems on their own using the frequently asked questions section. This precaution most likely means that the customer service team’s main duty is to answer the questions within the FAQ area.
Conclusion
We called their helpdesk and inquired as to why our emails were not being responded to by anyone at 888, they had no answer to this question. How much of a commitment to customer service do they have at 888? We didn’t see much evidence of it, in all honesty. It comes across as though they don’t care about the problem’s punters may face, and only take satisfaction from the number of active monthly players in their annual report instead.
Should you run into any problems with their customer services then this short FAQ should be able to help you:
Are you able to complain about 888?
You can complain but your query will be going through the internal complaints procedure and cycles, taking significantly longer then you would first expect.
Where can I complain if they refuse the withdrawal?
To escalate your query from the call center to a senior assistant, try any or all of the following: leave feedback on Trustpilot, open a dispute on AskGamblers, and submit a request to eCogra.
How do players rate the 888 customer service?
Quite negatively, and it has been this way for a few years for fellow stakers. You should be prepared for generic templates, SLA escalation and impersonal replies.
Up or down
The cyber doors of 888 towers are open most of the time and in accordance with our surveillance logs, their average uptime of 98.67% is slightly inefficient for a platform that offers live in-play events. Our spies in the shadows also found that the site is usually closed for business a few times per month, with each downtime lasting around 20-30 minutes each time. This is a little worrying and it all came to a head one day in November when the doors were shut for a total of 14 hours, sending all stakers scattering to competitor betting establishments nearby.
TECHNOLOGY
888sport uses ASP.net for their back-end infrastructure with a Microsoft-based web server. Their front-end is a mixture of the outdated version of jQuery and React which further loads the React bundle from Kambi of 2.9mb. Data is transported from the web server and back using HTTP Queries, and there are a number of websocket connections to their cashier and Kambi for the constant updates of odds.
DATA CENTER
888 is privately hosted within the VISL data center in Gibraltar. They are not using Cloudflare protection, which leaves their site vulnerable to DDOS attacks. This could lead to some other security problems in the future, and possibly one of the reasons why the 888 site tends to go down more frequently than their counterparts’.
SSL CERTIFICATE
888sport holds a wildcard SSL certificate which applies to their main domain and sub-domains. The main domain is not EV-signed and most likely has not yet completed the external compliance tests. The certificate has been issued by GoDaddy and uses SHA-256/RSA encryption. It’s estimated that $250 is required for 888sport to maintain their annual SSL certificate with GoDaddy.
All in all, 888sport is a marketing-driven site without proprietary technology. It comes with low uptime statistics and we found it to be fully dependent on third parties. In conclusion, we found that it would be a wise move for them to increase their site speed by moving static content to CDNs. This would not only improve their site but more importantly, this would make their stakers a little happier overall with the 888 service.
countries where 888 Sport is licensed
888sport is owned by 888 UK Limited, a company with their legal address based in Gibraltar and their marketing and legal offices in London and Dublin. Besides those brick and mortar buildings, 888 also runs development offices through subsidiaries in Romania (Sparkware Technologies) and Israel (Random Logic). Their customer service team is located in Antigua and work overnight to provide you with daily support in both English and Spanish.
Various betting licenses have been acquired to open the 888Sport sign-up form to countries around the world, including the UK, Malta, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Ireland, Gibraltar and Romania.
888 is currently holding gambling licenses issued by UKGC in UK, MGA in Malta, Ordenacionjuego in Spain, AAMS in Italy, Spillemyndigheden in Denmark, HMRC betting registration in Ireland, ONJN in Romania and the HMGoG in Gibraltar. An impressive list for sure and this enables 888 to operate across the globe, but the company doesn’t have a clean business slate in all these countries.
In August of 2017, 888 Holdings was penalised by the UKGC for €7.8m for failing vulnerable stakers, including someone who wagered more than €1.3m alone. More than 7,000 people who had voluntarily self-excluded from 888 were still able to access their player accounts, deposit and continue gambling. In their defence, 888 came up with a technical error that let players €3.5m and subsequently wager €51m from deposits and subsequent winnings.
According to various social networks, 888 players had noticed drastic changes in 888’s approach due to the customer due diligence scrutiny in December 2016. At Stakersland, we believe that the account suspension problems and the reduced promotions were both a direct result of the strict legal requirements, something that we needed to continue operation in the UK. It was just about the right time that was required by the UK Gambling Commission to start the investigation in order to hit 888 Holdings with the fine in August of 2017. It’s a huge mark down on the 888 slate and they’ll be dragging that around with them for some time to come.
Questions
How long does it take to them to settle bets and payout?
888Sport partners with tech provider Kambi Software. At the Kambi end, they use Betradar (and Sportradar) feeds to supply customers' sites with fixtures, odds, live score, and settlement data. For major leagues, the settlement should be instant, especially for the live in-play events. Minor divisions may take up to 24 hours as they are connected with the official results that often come through the next day after the match ends.
How to request a withdrawal and how long it may take?
888 banking is not a fast service and you should expect withdrawal times of up to eight business days for Debit Card withdrawals and Bank Transfers. They do clearly state the timing on their withdrawal page. However, as reported by stakers, you might be selected for extensive due diligence (source of wealth) with your account closed until fully verified.
Are multiple accounts allowed?
According to the user agreement, 888 does not prevent the registration of multiple accounts and they are tolerant for family members using the 888 site for gambling via the same devices and IP address. They do reserve the right to take action though and this includes retaining all monies at their own discretion.
Stakersland team strongly recommends avoiding the creation of multiple accounts. We understand that duplicate accounts (multiple accounts created by the same person) is a straightforward violation of their terms and conditions, and this is a valid reason for 888 to withhold your winnings at any moment.
Is it safe to open an account with 888?
Should you consider yourself a recreational player and prepared to spend anything from €20-50 a month, 888 is a safe and secure place as an evening entertainment add-on. However, should you wish to increase the stakes or you consider yourself as a high roller, we strongly advise contacting customer service and speaking with the betting manager about any VIP program conditions available to you.
VPN Usage Legal or Not?
888 does not state any VPN restrictions and you should have no problem with accessing their website through a remote connection. The major concern is whether they would consider your IP address as an attempt to obey their security protocol though. Or use it as a condition for duplicate accounts when you withdraw higher than expected winnings. Please note that the IP addresses of anonymisers, proxies, VPN, and public hotspots are available for detection through several commercial databases available to operators.
gross gaming revenue
customer base
time to make €100K
Social Buzz
Up or down
The major complaint centres around unspecific account suspension and withdrawal times for even minor amounts. Members Matt and Julian reported that it was taking more than 48 hours for them to receive their transaction, and another by the name of Steve added that 888 simply stopped replying to his emails.