888Sport Bookmaker Review Ireland

Full 888Sport Bookmaker Review

Highly rated by OLBG users and our Expert Team for offering standout American football, basketball and football betting, 888Sport also has Best Odds Guaranteed offers and sharp weekly prices across sports.

I love betting on the NFL and no bookie does NFL betting better. I can’t speak highly enough about 888Sport – it’s one of the best around.

The platform provides a smooth signup experience, quick deposits and withdrawals through a vast suite of options, including debit cards, PayPal, Skrill, Neteller, Trustly, with fast payouts typically within 24 hours. Licensed by the remotely under licence number 1010120, 888Sport operates under robust regulatory oversight, benefiting from decades of trust as part of the larger 888 Holdings (now Evoke plc) group.

Luke Bradshaw Lee

- Your Sports Betting Guide 👍

I focus on reviewing bookmakers with a punter’s eye. In this 888Sport review, I spotlight its strong American sports focus, market-leading odds, simple but fair welcome offer, solid live streams, all through a strong, regulated licence.

• Established in 2008

• 888 UK Ltd

• Remote licence number - 1010120

• Payment Options include: PayPal, Debit cards, Apple Pay, Neteller, Skrill and more

• Withdrawal Time: Instant in some cases

• Customer Fund Segregation Rating: Medium

• Mobile Compatible: ✅

• Customer Support: 24 hours

Advantages and Disadvantages

All explained in greater detail in this review, these pros and cons allow users to scan and understand where 888Sport's strengths lie quickly.

First Impression of 888Sport

My First Impressions

I really like the set-up at 888Sport. There are the usual array of promotional banners and current offers, but within that the markets and sports are easy to find and the different menus work very well. Everything is branded in 888Sport’s orange and black unless you switch to Casino (green) or Poker (blue) – it’s a nice way of always knowing you’re in the right place.

- Luke Bradshaw Lee, - Your Sports Betting Guide 👍

Live Betting

There’s plenty here. The menu along the top of the Live Betting section displays which sports have live markets, and how many there are of each. Expect to find football, tennis, golf, basketball and more. Within these events are live stats (as well as pre-game stats beforehand) regardless of sport. 

Live Streaming

888Sport offers plenty of live streaming options – horse racing for UK and ROW meets, selected football, basketball, cricket, ice hockey, rugby and darts. Just look for the small TV icon next to the event.

Betting Odds

After looking across other bookmakers in Ireland, plus going through some comparison sites, it seems as though that the odds offered at 888Sport are fairly competitive. We checked football, tennis and cricket for in-play odds, plus horse racing, basketball and rugby for pre-match and ante post odds. 

⚽ Football Betting

888Sport offers a huge variety of football markets, with odds that are super competitive. There’s obviously the major leagues and competitions, but bettors can also find domestic leagues as varied as Saudi Arabia, Uruguay and Costa Rica. There is a good range, but it wouldn’t be right up with the very best. There are also some decent promotions running that are football-specific. We rank every bookie, at every sport, and 888Sport is just a bit off our best football betting sites, but it’s still very good. 

Bet Builder 

888Sport has a fantastic bet builder feature, and makes our best bookies for bet builders. They offer both pre-match and live markets in which to create your bets, across different sports, with football the pick of the bunch. The bookmaker offers cash out on bet builders, assuming all markets are still winnable, as well as running specific bet builder offers like their Bet Builder Blitz, which enabled users to get their stake back as a bet if their NFL bet builder lost.

Bonuses

888Sport is a bookie that runs multiple offers and promotions all the time, on top of their welcome offer. There are free bets to be earned any time you bet on a different sport, including tennis, baseball, American football and more. In addition to those there is bet builder insurance, seasonal tournament offers, acca insurance and more. It’s a really strong part of 888Sports’ product.

Cash Out

Cash out is a very important betting feature for punters these days so it's crucial that bookies integrate this feature into their mobile betting apps. 888Sport have done this well, allowing their customers to instantly cash out their bets on any device they like.

🏇 Horse Racing

888Sport (as well as VBet, and Coral) offer Best Odds Guaranteed on race day anytime. If you place a bet at 2am, and those odds go way out by the time you get to the race, 888Sport will give you that starting price. It’s a standout part of their service. They also have no cap on benefits, another excellent feature. No Best Odds Guaranteed on greyhounds and no option to add to multiples stops it from being higher on the list of best bookies for Best Odds Guaranteed.

🇺🇸 US Sports Betting

A full range of American Sports is available, including all the major leagues, plus college games and the same sports across the globe.

🏈 American Football Betting

The best way of describing 888Sport’s American football service is that it’s what you’d expect from all sports in that nothing has been removed because it's a different sport. That means great odds, bet builders, cash out, acca insurance, promotions such as bet boosts and even live streaming. It’s such a bugbear when you’re used to certain features, but those are removed when you switch to other sports for no reason. At 888Sport you get everything you’d want whether it’s the NFL, college football or the CFL. It’s worth checking out our best NFL betting sites to see why 888Sport tops out. 

🏀 Basketball Betting

I think 888Sport has a great selection of basketball leagues to bet on, there are hundreds and hundreds of markets. There’s obviously the NBA, but 888Sport covers a wide range of EuroLeague and domestic world competitions, including competitions in Turkey, Indonesia, Finland, Slovakia and Argentina, among others. There are also plenty of markets per game, with game, team and player markets covered really nicely. I also really like seeing the NBA logos next to the team name – little things like that make a difference. You can also compare 888Sport to the best basketball betting sites.

⚾ Baseball Betting

Based on the rankings of all our data points, no bookmaker recorded a better score than 888Sport. Their odds are good (maybe not exceptional), but their event coverage and market depth within those events is ridiculously good. You can get each way terms on their baseball outrights, as well as bet in-play. On top of that, their stats are great. The 888Sport “Stats Center” gives punters incredible head-to-head stats, form guides, result history and plenty more. Keep tabs on the top baseball betting sites though, to see why they make it onto our list.

🏒 Ice Hockey Betting

The NHL takes up the bulk of space here, as expected. But there are also some Finnish, Swiss, and German fixtures included, among others. I selected an upcoming NHL game and there are loads of markets listed – more than pretty much anywhere else. For the smaller leagues that reduces a bit more, which is understandable. Overall, I think this is better than most from 888Sport.

🐕 Greyhound Betting

888Sport has a pretty standard greyhound section within its library. There’s the day’s meets, but also some ante post stuff. There isn’t a great deal beyond that, plus there is no live streaming or Best Odds Guaranteed, so it wouldn’t surprise me if greyhound fans look elsewhere. It’s pretty solid, without being anything more than that, and a bit off the best greyhound betting sites.

🎯 Darts Betting

Matthew Edgar

- Your Darts Betting Guide 👍

I really like what 888Sport do. There are markets for all the main competitions, regardless of how far away in the year they are and plenty of markets per match. For some upcoming Matchplay games, for example, I can see total legs, handicap, 180 markets, correct score and leg betting.

Compare to the best darts betting sites. 

Snooker Betting

Steve Madgwick

Editor-In-Chief

There are markets for a few different tournaments, including the World Championships and the Champions League, plus some smaller, upcoming tournaments such as the Wuhan Open. I do like the amount of markets per game that they offer – with Race to 2 (or 3) frames, Break 100? And correct score markets, among others – and generally the odds are pretty nice. This is definitely one of the better snooker bookies out there.

Compare to the best snooker betting sites.

🏉 Rugby Betting (Union & League)

By Luke Bradshaw Lee - This has pretty much every competition – domestic and international – that you’d want to bet on here, which is great. And that goes for rugby union and rugby league. If I were being super picky it would be great to see the Japanese league here, given how popular it is becoming, but that is me being hyper critical because overall, this is excellent event coverage compared to other bookies. The number of markets is fine, with a decent selection, although there is a lack of player markets such as try scorer or points scorer / total on player points. See how they compare to our best rugby betting sites.

🏏 Cricket Betting

James Banting

Expert Guide

This is really nice because 888Sport offers all the competitions that I’d expect to see, plus some more in addition to that. I also love how many markets are available here for each game, assuming it’s not miles away in the future before teams are announced etc. On top of that the in-play graphics and stats are great, and some selected matches are live streamed, also. Expect to find Odds Boosts, also, with a few different markets getting bumped.

We list the best cricket betting sites here.

🎾 Tennis Betting

By James Banting - At the time of review their tennis section has loads of different events, including plenty of in-play options. One nice thing – and this is repeated for a few sports – is that as well as the virtual sports section, you can find virtual betting in each sport’s section, so the tennis section has virtual tennis within it, for example. I love the popular bets that they list – it’s always good seeing where money is flowing and the in-play graphics are great also. Overall, this is very impressive.

 See if they make it into the top tennis betting sites on OLBG.

🏌️ Golf Betting

By James Banting - 888Sport’s golf offering is fairly standard. There are markets for the majors and the Ryder Cup, plus a few more. There are a few smaller tournaments happening right now, or due to start soon, such as the Phoenix Open, Astara Championship or Commercial Bank Qatar Masters, and none of these are listed in any form. I’d like to see a good bit more for me to consider using them consistently. It’s worth checking our best golf betting sites to see how 888Sport compares – but generally this is fine.

🏎️ Motorsports Betting

Andy Powell

Expert Guide

The motor sports here are okay. Everything is it’s own thing, rather than housed under a “motor sports” banner, but I can see Formula 1, obviously, on top of NASCAR and MotoGP. There’s nothing in the way of bikes, such as Speedway, or any Formula E, which is a little annoying. Overall I am impressed with the detail in the Formula 1 markets, however, and I do like the Top 5 Motor Racing Bets banner that is displayed across the top of the page.

Compare to the best motorsport betting sites.

🥊 Boxing Betting

Frank Monkhouse

- Your Boxing Betting Guide 👍

What ensures 888Sport makes it on our list of best boxing betting sites in the specificity of its markets. Plenty of bookmakers offer over/under bets on rounds within a boxing match – over/under 6.5 rounds, for example, and then not a huge amount else. What’s great about 888Sport is you can bet on anything from over/under one round, right up to over/under 11 rounds. It’s definitely something to take advantage of, particularly when betting in-play.

Compare to the best boxing betting sites.

Other Sports Betting

Whilst these sports might sound very niche, there is still a large enough market for fans, and millions of them in Ireland, so good coverage of niche sports and events is key to be reviewed on OLBG; let’s dig in a bit further.

888Sport offers extensive betting options for handball, volleyball, cycling, AFL betting, and esports. Handball includes global competitions; volleyball, covers European Championships and various tournaments; cycling features future tours and current races; AFL betting has comprehensive stats and esports offers all major games like League of Legends and CS:GO.

🗳️ Political Betting

Nigel Skinner

Expert Guide

888Sport houses its political betting under its own section, not along with Specials. The political betting is decent, maybe a little limited perhaps. There are some US Presidential markets, understandably, and odds on the next Mayor of London, plus a couple of more. Then there is also a smattering on Irish political market, including next Taoiseach and most seats at the next election.

🎭 Entertainment and Specials Betting

Jake Ashton

- Your Betting Odds Guide 👍

This is a very basic from 888Sport, with just one Strictly Come Dancing market housed under “Novelty Bets”.

Account Opening Process

A reassuringly easy process. At the top-right of the screen 888Sport has their “Sign Up” button. Bettors just need to select this and follow the simple steps as guided through. You’ll be asked for the usual information – name, date of birth, address etc – and once complete be sent a verification email. Clicking this from your inbox will redirect you to the site, and then you’re free to get betting.

Navigation and user experience [desktop v mobile]

I really do like the user experience of 888Sport, and I think that’s down to the interface that they use maximising the product on show. It can take a little getting used to – especially the way the menu drops down, rather than takes you through to another page, but once you get the hang of it I think it works really well, and does a great job of conveying what is available very quickly. 

Placing a bet

This section should only really highlight if there are issues, as the process is almost identical on every site. Within a few minutes of signing up to 888Sport I placed a couple of bets on different sports, one of which took advantage of the welcome offer, and I used their bet builder feature, which was very indeed. 

Managing your account

As mentioned above, the design really helps this along. On the desktop version, it’s stuff to the  left of the screen. On the app, it’s all at the bottom, with just the login at the top. I haven’t experienced any issues logging in, or finding customer service options, either. Overall, it feels like 888Sport has got this part nailed.

888Sport Responsible Gambling Features

As with all online betting companies, responsible gambling should be and will be an essential element of the service provided.

Expect KYC procedures and document supply as a matter-of-course, to confirm your account after you have deposited a certain level of funds and in the event of any large wins.

You can set limits for yourself across depositing options and daily staking options too, so you can set your levels and keep control of your gambling.

Expect 888Sport to contact you via your preferred communication method if there are suspicious activities on your account. This protects your account from being accessed by someone other than you and ensures you control your gambling activity. 888Sport have a legal obligation to question your activity if they believe it to be suspicious.

Bookie Review Expert Contributing Team

Opinion, research and data collection for this 888Sport review by

• Darren Brett (Greyhounds expert) 

• James Banting (Horse Racing, Golf and Tennis)

• Nigel Skinner (Football and Politics), 

• Matt Edgar (Darts)

• Frank Monkhouse (Boxing)

• Andrew Powell (Horse Racing, Ice Hockey and Motor Sports)

• Jake Ashton (Entertainment and Specials)

🛂 Fact Checked - Sam Darkens - Commercial Manager

✍️ Written by - Luke Bradshaw Lee - Commercial Content Manager

✏️📚 - Steve Madgwick - Editor-In-Chief