Who is Sky Bet?
Sky Bet, as the name would suggest, has its roots in the media giant Sky, but it’s now owned by Flutter Entertainment.
Flutter still uses the Sky name and logo under license from Sky limited. This branding relationship tricks the customer into thinking they are getting the service from Sky, when actually it's from one of the world’s biggest online betting brands that also own Betfair, Paddy Power, PokerStars among others.
Sky Betting & Gaming also have online gaming divisions - Sky Vegas, Sky Vegas Live, Sky Casino, Sky Bingo and Sky Poker.
Sky Bet use various known faces from Sky Sports to provide their advertising messages, with former Soccer Saturday presenter Jeff Stelling doing most of the heavy lifting on TV and online.
Why bet with Sky Bet?
Sky Bet provides a whole suite of betting and gaming options, but where it stands out is its range of free fun games such as Fantasy Football, Super 6 and Pick 7.
Underpinning it all is a quality sportsbook and casino operation with a clean, easy and unfussy online and mobile sites which are packed full of offers and loyalty rewards.
Because of its free games and links to Sky Sports this is a good choice for the recreational punter or someone beginning their online betting adventure.
What are the best features on Sky Bet?
Helpful user experience
Sky Bet is one of the more welcoming bookmakers on the market. Recognisable branding and quick and easy jumping off points, especially in the football markets, make it easy to navigate.
It also offers useful explainers to markets and its rules, making it easier for the occasional or weekend punter to find their way about without being baffled by betting terminology.
They provide plenty of sports and markets to bet on and their regularly updated offers, promotions and rewards are front and centre, so no scrabbling around in menus trying to get yourself a deal.
Request-a-bet
Sky Bet’s request-a-bet service provides a little bit of difference in a cluttered marketplace.
As the name suggests it allows you to construct your own bets and the request a price, however it’s only available in football and horse racing currently.
You can conjure up all kinds of weird and wonderful options for a Request-a-bet corners, cards, goals, shots on targets, the list is endless. But what that does come with is a pile of T&Cs that you’ll need to familiarise yourself before you get stuck in.
Request-a-bet has a nifty tool to use to get a price, or you can simply tweet your selections. For the super lazy you can look at everyone else’s request-a-bets and just go with one of them.
Free games
Sky Bet offers several free games with big prizes for those lucky enough to make winning selections.
Spearheading this is Super Six, where you must correctly predict the score of six matches to win £1 million. There’s £250,000 up for grabs for the top scorer if there’s no jackpot winner.
Other free prize-winning games included Match 5, Fantasy Football, Fantasy six-a-side and prize drop
In racing they have the daily ITV7, where you need to pick seven winners to win a £1,000
Sky Bet Club
Loyalty clubs are becoming a bit of a staple in the gambling industry as bookies try and stop their bettors wandering off to rivals.
The Sky Bet Club provides weekly monetary awards for those that bet a certain amount, there’s also various exclusive promotions and other rewards that you wouldn’t get if you weren’t part of the club.
As with everything, check the T&Cs as the free money always comes with some bar you need to clear before you can get your hands on the cash.
Betting odds and markets
Sky Bet is very competitive when it comes to horse racing and football odds, especially in the Premier League, as you’d expect when you market yourself as the ‘home of football betting’
There’s plenty of markets to choose from and they regularly throw in price boosts as the clock ticks down to kick off.
As you’d expect they cover the big sporting events well, but there’s plenty of scope to dig down into rugby union, cricket, golf, UFC, US Sports and even fishing.
Sky’s on-going relationship with darts gives them a strong hand in this field, with more choice of markets and offers than a lot of their rivals.
In play betting and live streaming
With Sky Bet’s history being camped in television production, they can still ride on those coat tails with an excellent live streaming across a lot of sports and in-play service.
There’s also a dedicated in-play section on their sites which offers a varied selection of markets as the games unfold. Cash out is an option, but can be suspended at crucial moments especially near the end of matches.