Sportingbet

Sportingbet is a sportsbook site which is owned and operated by the SportingBet group of companies, and one of the first things that strikes you when you pull up their home page is the thought that has gone into its design. They have adopted a basic red, white and blue scheme but have made things really attractive with plenty of good colour photos and some clear and logically organised sidebar menus. As far as "window dressing" goes, this site one of the best.

The site itself offers an impressive variety of bets, including a wide range of "bet in running" opportunities. Clicking on any of the left hand menu headings takes you to an overview page for the sport selected, allowing you to quickly home in on the event that takes your interest. The right hand menu of the home page contains a range of shortcuts to racing and football pages, including results, commentaries and individual race cards for the day.

One shortcut worth a special mention is the one that leads to the racecards for the day. These make the need for a separate newspaper redundant, and are attractively presented complete with jockey colours. It would have been nice to be given the option of viewing all cards for races at a particular meeting on one page (instead of each race being presented in a separate window), but that's a minor criticism and navigating from race to race is still very simple.

The actual betting pages of this site are perfectly functional and easy to use, but look rather bland when compared to the other pages. Still, they do they job well enough and if you're accessing the site from a mobile then the simple design is actually an advantage.

Clients of Sportingbet are able to take advantage of a number of special promotions that change from week to week. These include things like having your stake refunded if your horse is beaten by a short head and an opportunity to win a VIP day for two at the Epsom Derby via a free draw. Offering such promotions is just a small gesture, but it adds a final classy touch to what is, overall, an impressive site.

Operator

Sportingbet plc
6th Floor
Transworld House
82-100 City Road
LONDON
EC1Y 2BJ

Customer service is available from 9am-8pm BST each day. Customers calling from within the UK should phone: 08000 727 727. Customers in all other countries should phone: +44 207 553 4164.

Support is also available by e-mail (enquiries@Sportingbet.com) and via a live chat facility, where your questions will be answered in real time by a member of the customer services team.

Money

Opening an account involves going through a simply four stage process where your personal details are entered and confirmed. Money can be deposited to your account by credit or debit card, cheque or bank transfer. The minimum deposit is £10 and the minimum stake for a bet online is £0.50.