The 888 Group, most famous for its award-winning casino product (888.com), joined forces with Bluesq Rank's telephone and internet betting business to produce 888sport.com. This is essentially a white label version of Bluesq but with a pan-European element to it. In addition to English, the site is available in Spanish, German, Swedish and Danish.
This venture is mutually beneficial to the two companies involved. It enables 888 Holdings to add sportsbook to other offerings such as casino, poker, bingo and backgammon in order to have a more complete package. It also makes sense that a company such as 888 who have invested tens of millions in sports sponsorship to use their brand in such a manner.
For Bluesq, it provides the opportunity to launch into international markets for the first time, piggy-backing a brand of massive international strength in the process.
The website uses a nice black and orange colour scheme, with the various sports listed in the left-hand margin and the latest ‘special promotions’ being advertised through rotating flash graphics on the right-hand side. The big upcoming events are also listed on the homepage, although the markets could be condensed in a better fashion and the various match lists look a little confusing with some of the information repeated.
There are fast links to live betting, horse racing, soccer and specials in the left-hand margin and the live betting console is one of the most impressive features of the website. All of 888’s expertise in the gaming industry has allowed them to produce something very slick and user-friendly, with the odds updating in real time and providing a dynamic In-Play experience.
As mentioned, 888sport will soon stop using Blue Square’s markets and odds as they assemble a trading team that is going to hopefully take the sportsbook to the next level. At present, the prices are identical to Blue Square’s which means that the odds are competitive across the board, although we will soon see how they differ. Our guess is that 888sport will operate pretty tight margins for the major sports and potentially supply an even bigger range of In-Play betting opportunities.
Their European-facing websites demonstrate that 888 and Blue Square understand what customers from their target markets want. Each geo-targeted site has good local content and the sports have been carefully hand-picked to provide a real national flavour. Once again, the odds will need to become more competitive, especially in Scandinavia where customers are more price-orientated and less brand-influenced.
You can contact 888sport by email or by telephone, with member support representatives available between 10am and 10pm. As they continue to grow, we expect 888sport to gradually offer 24/7 support to customers, although they do have an extensive list of FAQ’s available.
A £50 free bet is available if you sign-up to 888sport via links on bettingpro.com
This is a venture which has made the UK & European betting industry sit up and take notice. After all, you have one of the largest online gaming companies in the world going forth with a sportsbook offering, albeit a modest one at the time of writing. For UK customers, having an 888sport account would be exactly the same as registering with Blue Square, ie a good bookmaker to have amongst your portfolio, providing a solid range of odds and markets.
It's surely only a matter of time before the site diversifies from the Blue Square website and starts to develop a personality of its own. Especially on the In-Play side of things; the narrow offering is hardly in keeping with the brand's reputation for providing cuting-edge software and new developments.