Sportsbet

Sportsbet Bookmaker Review

Welcome to the Cheeky Hot Press independent Sportsbet review. This is the go-to resource for punters by punters. Giving you everything you need to get started with online sports betting at a reputable Aussie bookmaker.

Sportsbet is one of the largest online gambling websites for Australians. They’ve been around since 1999 and are a real powerhouse since merging with the BetEasy brand. The power behind the group means Aussie punters have access to thousands of top markets across many sports and miscellaneous sports and events. Service comes first here if your a stickler for positive interactions with support and must have the highest priced odds then you’re in luck.

Before you have a crack, make sure that you read through this sports betting review. Doing so will help you pick a winner and avoid the heartaches and headaches that come when you shack up with a dodgy an online sports betting website.

Main Features of Sportsbet

• Access to great live streaming capability for Sky Racing.
• Members score exclusive priced odds on certain markets.
• Straightforward website layout and extensive multis

Summary of This Bookmaker

Is Sportsbet Safe and Legit?

Yeah mate, no dramas here with Sportsbet. They have 1.2 million Aussies placing bets with their app and website every year because of their reputation. It’s not some small-time setup; they employ well over 700 staff across their offices in Darwin, Melbourne, and Sydney.

They’re transparent with responsible gambling and really push this onto punters. They were actually one of the first to implement deposit limits which speaks volumes about their management direction.

Sportsbet is 100% safe and legit, licensed through the Northern Territory Racing Commission. They comply with all the regulations and requirements, so, don’t bother wasting your time if you are looking to do some dodgy stuff.

When it comes to storing your personal information like payment details and privacy aspects, the site is fully safeguarded with adequate SSL encryption technologies.

Website Design and Punter Experience

The Sportsbet website design is stock standard, looking much like most online sportsbooks. The branding is simple, but very noticeable, given their large share of the market in Australia, you shouldn’t have any issues recognising the site.

Traditional shades of blue with yellow highlights. The site itself is very punter-friendly, offering a good experience overall.

One aspect of the site that we really liked was the option to turn off the next races menu bar at the top of the website. If you aren’t interested in Sportsbet racing markets, then you can flick this feature off, and it removes a lot of the clutter at the top of their site.

Overall, navigating the site is very straightforward. The menu down the left side of the page is where all the quick links, their famous multi builders and all the miscellaneous sections live. The top right of the page is where your account balance and banking settings and options live.

Banking Summary

Overall, the Sportsbet mob have great banking options for Aussies. If you value speedy transactions, quick withdrawal processing, and no dodgy fine print to navigate before getting your hands on your cash – then you can’t go wrong here.

We’ve summarised all the best bits for you below.

Accepted Currencies

Sportsbet punters can deposit into their account with either Australian dollars or New Zealand dollars. Not both, as your account gets locked to one or the other when you set up and make your first payment.

Payment Methods

Straightforward payment options, including all the usual methods such as:

• Visa
• MasterCard
• PayPal
• POLi
• Bank transfer
• BPAY

All deposit methods feature a minimum amount of $5, which is relatively low overall.

Withdrawing Your Winnings

Getting your hands on those cash winnings is simple, and quite flexible too. It will ultimately depend on which method you opted for when you made a deposit. However, there are four options for Sportsbet punters:

• Visa or MasterCard credit cards
• Bank transfer
• PayPal
• Sportsbet Cash Card

You can only cash out to your credit card (no debit cards) if that was the method used to deposit initially. Otherwise, a bank transfer is your likely go-to. If you are going to be often betting, we recommend looking into the Sportsbet cash card.

The cash card with these guys will let you keep your money in your sports betting account, but still access it from a local ATM, in stores or for online shopping purchases. 

You’d be surprised at how great that flexible, quick access can be.

The maximum withdrawal amount in a single cashout is capped at $49,999.99 or $100,000 in 24 hours, both for credit cards. Otherwise, you’ll need to turn over your deposit amount before being eligible to withdraw your winnings.

Placing Bets at Sportsbet

A big part of what makes this bookmaker great is the simplicity. Both in design and the way you go about making wagers. They have a great Sportsbet guide on how to place a bet, plus the video below helps a lot.

When you are on the main page of the website, you’ll find all the racing markets set out across the bulk of the screen. Some of the great racing that you can wager on here include the trusty:

• Horse racing
• Greyhounds
• Harness racing

If having a punt on the racing isn’t your thing you can swap out the homepage by clicking on the sports tab in the centre of the screen. This will give you quick access to upcoming sports, as well as live bets and the upcoming popular leagues and games.

Check out the screenshots below for a preview of how the site looks.

Racing Bets

Enjoy the best in racing with live Sky Racing streamed and all the action from the best fields and tracks around Australia, Europe, USA, and the rest of the world.

Your options include:

• Australian harness racing
• Greyhound racing
• Horse racing

If you are looking for cycling, cars, and other motorsports racing – these are all kept under the sports category.

Why Bet on Racing at Sportsbet

Here are some of our best bits about gambling on the ponies, harness racing, and greyhounds at Sportsbet:

• Flexible bet builder
• Live streaming of the biggest meets
• Fast deposits and quick withdrawals
• Great bookmaker bonuses for failed multis and 2nd or 3rd
• Decent racing tips throughout their blog and emails

Sports Betting

From the outset, you’ll see just three of the most recent or upcoming sports to bet on in the left-hand menu. Underneath these three sports is an expanding button to show sports from A to Z., You can also set your favourite sports by hitting the star icon, which will pin these to the top of the sports and novelties page.

Sports available here include:

• American Football
• Australian Rules
• Baseball
• Basketball
• Boxing
• Cricket
• Cycling
• Darts
• Gaelic Sports
• Golf
• Handball
• Ice Hockey
• MMA (UFC)
• Motor Racing
• Rugby League
• Rugby Union
• Sailing
• Show Jumping
• Snooker
• Soccer
• Table Tennis
• Tennis
• Volleyball

ESports Betting at Sportsbet

You can jump onto the gaming bandwagon and place wagers across heaps of markets for the top eSports and more. The divisions, leagues, and games that can be bet on include:

• Counter Strike: GO Dreamhack
• Counter Strike: GO Intel Extreme Masters
• Counter Strike: GO ESEA Premier Division
• FIFA eSports Battle Cup
• FIFA eSports GT Leagues
• Dota 2 BTS Series
• Dota 2 Perfect World
• King of Glory

It’s not the biggest offering but its Respectfully filled with the well-known competitions.

Politics and Novelty Bets at Sportsbet

These miscellaneous markets are seeing a lot more traction as casual punters get into the mix. If there is an unknown outcome to happen at awards ceremonies, big-name television shows, or politics and elections – you can expect there will be a market for it here.

Some of the funniest novelty bets we checked out included:

• Academy Awards
• Australian of the Year
• Golden Globes
• Grammy Awards
• I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here
• Who’s the next James Bond
• Logie Awards
• Razzies
• Who wins The Amazing Race Australia
• Who wins The Bachelorette Australia
• Tony Awards
• Triple J Hottest 100

Punter Support and Service

What is really underrated is the Sportsbet help section. It’s choc-full of helpful articles and answers to hundreds of frequently asked questions. It’s certainly one of the most in-depth support sections we’ve ever seen among the top-rated Aussie bookmakers.

If you need to get in touch though, it’s easy with:

• 24/7 live chat with what appears to be a large percentage of homegrown talent (not all outsourced)
• Email via rsg@sportsbet.com.au
• Customer service on 1800 990 907 (Australia) 
• International dialers can contact support by calling +61 8 8989 3000 or +61 8 7980 8700

They’ve got a few different live telephone betting numbers that you can call too:

• Racing bets via 1800 132 387
• Sports bets via 1800 138 238
• International bets via +61 8 8989 3002 or +61 8 7980 8702

We researched some bettor perspectives around various forums and third-party reviews. There were plenty of conflicting arguments. A lot of punters crying foul, but when you inspect it further and use common sense, you get a better idea.

It’s pretty clear that a large portion of the negative feedback can be deduced to punters who can’t follow or don’t read the terms and conditions. Thus whinge when they realise they aren’t able to cash out a bonus or run off with a losing-bet cashback bonus.

Mobile Betting Experience

Mobile betting is good, and their Sportsbet app looks much the same on Android and iOS – just the slight differences in the design layout. If we had to pick a preference, we’d have to say the Android app for Sportsbet looks and feels better on mobile.

Placing bets is slightly different on each app. Android you start by tapping the hamburger menu button in the top left corner. Apple devices, select the sports or racing icon along the bottom of your screen.

If you don’t use the native mobile betting apps, you still have the option to visit the Sportsbet website on your smartphone or tablet. Their website is fully responsive, meaning it changes to suit the device you are on.

For beginners or anyone who gets a little lost when things are too busy, then the website version is better as it has larger icons and elements – overall, just a little less going on than the apps. Unfortunately, Sportsbet doesn’t support Internet Explorer as a web browser, but in all honesty, it’s best to use Google Chrome or Firefox anyway.

Sports Betting Promotions and Bonus Bets at Sportsbet

You’ve probably seen the Sportsbet ads on tv, they are consistent and typically market the promotions and bonus bets that you can get here. They only skim the surface on the offers though. To find these promos, you need to look for the ‘specials’ button on the left-hand menu.

Sportsbet gives punters a decent collection of deals to take advantage of. These are time-sensitive as they relate to sports events and matches.

Many of the sports betting promotions are focused around building multis.

Sportsbet Sign Up Bonus

They are looking to win punters over with their sign up bonus. It’s a great offer, giving an exclusive 100% deposit match bonus worth up to $100 in bonus bets.

While these types of bookmaker bonuses aren’t typically cashable, Sportsbet note on their landing page for this offer that they’re all about the no bullshit with bonus bets.

Meaning there are no turnover requirements, no minimum odds, no ineligible markets. You get to use your bonus cash your way.

It makes the Sportsbet sign up bonus lucrative, but it’s strictly limited. So, use the link below to sign up and get stuck in before it goes away.

Sportsbet Power Play Multis

Power Play lets punters increase their sports or racing odds on multis or fixed odds win bets. You get two of these Power Plays each day and using it is as simple as hitting the button to power those odds.

Horse Racing Protest Payout Bonus

Never come second on a close race ever again with Sportsbet’s Protest Payout feature. They commit to paying out both first past the post and the official winner from the steward’s decision.

Reduced Risk on Multis at Sportsbet

Aussies are becoming more and more in love with the Sportsbet multi builder than ever before. Firstly, it’s easy to put together and makes clear how to build great same-game or multi-sport parlays.

The problem with all those legs is the risk blows out of proportion. You can reduce your risk here by scoring some money back in bonus bets if one leg of your multi fails.

They offer these reduced risk offers on all types of sports and racing, for example:

• 4+ leg multi on football (soccer) leagues
• 3+ leg same game multi on cricket
• 3+ leg same race multi on greyhound racing
• 3+ leg same race multi on horse racing

On promotions like the examples we gave above, punters can score back up to $50 in bonus bets. Plus, often you’ll find there are up to three or more refunds per week with the football league multis.

Our Thoughts on the Sportsbet Bookmaker

Having spent considerable time working around the Sportsbet apps and their user-friendly website – we can confidently come to a conclusion. This bookmaker offers a punter’s safe and secure home to enjoy a flexible and wide variety of sports betting. Including all the best sports and leagues with terrific markets on top.

Signing up to become a member here gives you plenty of options, as well as those exclusive gold odds for better market prices on popular bets. No doubt, punters will enjoy the multi bet builders here – it’s one of their best product features (along with the live streaming from Sky Racing. Remember to enjoy their Sportsbet sign up bonus for that little extra head start next time you place a cheeky bet.

Getting Started with Sportsbet

Sounds great right? If you’re looking to get started, then we suggest hitting up our quick-link on this page to grab your exclusive Sportsbet sign up bonus worth $100 in bonus bets – plus access to those gold exclusive odds the Sportsbet mob feature. 

Registering your free player account takes no effort at all, you can sign up quickly with your Google account (so, your Gmail). Otherwise, you complete your personal details as usual.