SportPesa Sports Betting Review (2024)

Restrictions to UK players – This bookmaker no longer operates in the UK. You can check out similar betting offers here.

ꦕ Perhaps more of an unknown commodity in the UK betting scene, Kenyan-owned SportPesa is one of the new kids on the block – being established in 2014. Partnerships with Arsenal, Hull City and Southampton represent early success for the young bookmaker, and it’s about time ThePuntersPage ran the rule over them. So, will SportPesa sink or swim? Does the new kid match-up with the seasoned masters? Let’s find out in this in-depth SportPesa review.

🌱 Registering an account with SportPesa is an incredibly simple process. As the screenshot above depicts, step one in registration involves selecting your gender, first name, last name, date of birth and preferred email address.

ꦛ Once your personal information is out of the way, you’ll then move onto your contact information in step two. Here, you’ll be required to enter your mobile number, home address, postcode, city and select your country from a drop-down list. Easy peasy.

Now we’re onto the final stage. Step three involves conjuring up a username and password – which you’ll need to confirm – for your SportPesa account before selecting your preferred currency. As you can see above, this is where you can redeem a sign-up offer promo code🃏 if you’re fortunate enough to have access to one.

ꦯ SportPesa also allow you to set up deposit limits just before you complete your registration, highlighting their emphasis on responsible gambling – which we’ll get to later on.

🅺 Just click that big blue button and voila, your SportPesa journey has begun!

Following changes in UK legislation in April 2020, customers can no longer deposit money on betting sites using credit cards. SportPesa, meanwhile, offers a limited amount of payment options compared to other bookies.

There are four available to punters; debit cards (VISA or MasterCard) as well as e-wallets (Skrill and NETELLER) with the minimum deposits differing for each.

In the case of e-wallets, there’s a minimum deposit of £20 whereas with debit cards the minimum requirement is £10. Both include a maximum depositꦰ of £2,000 – which is considerably lower than other bookies. Paddy Power, for example, allows deposits worth up to £99,000 with debit cards. While SportPesa’s relatively low maximum deposit – when put into context – may put off the more seasoned punters, the importance of responsible gambling is once again emphasised, albeit more subtly in this instance.

🙈 Depositing funds, meanwhile, is as easy as it gets. The blue ‘Deposit’ icon is distinct in the top right-hand corner of the site and once that’s been accessed, the below image will greet you.

𒁏 Enter however much you want to deposit before clicking the green icon, which takes you to this screen…

ꦇ Then it’s the boring stuff; fill out all your card details, confirm your deposit amount and there you have it, you’re ready to explore SportPesa with a funded account.

However, your account will have to be verified🥀 before that first deposit is confirmed. This too is a simple process. All it involves is clicking on your username in the top right-hand corner, which will allow you to access ‘Account Verification’ and there you’ll be able to upload one of the many listed documents to confirm your identity.

Finally, regarding withdrawals♈ (minimum £10), SportPesa may ask for further identification before approving a withdrawal. How quickly such requests are processed is dependent on the method of payment used and the card provider involved. With debit cards, it’ll usually take between 2-5 days for the funds to arrive in your bank account, while the process is almost immediate with e-wallet withdrawals, although it can take up to 24 hours.

💦 While a swift bit of research shows that SportPesa did previously have a welcome offer of bet £10 and receive £10 in free bets, that, unfortunately, no longer exists.

🧔 Thus, there are currently no welcome offers available for new punters.

It’s imperative for bookies to separate themselves from the competition via unique and exciting sportsbook promotions🌌, and although SportPesa doesn’t offer a huge variety of such promos, there’s undoubtedly enough to intrigue the average punter.

While their ‘ADD-2-BET’ is a similar concept adopted by several other bookies, including Bet365, which allows punters to add extra selections to an open bet, SportPesa🎐’s ‘Pulse Bet’ and ‘ACCA+’ are innovative ideas which undoubtedly add extra excitement to football bets, in particular.

🐭 ACCA+ gives you the chance to win up to 50% more on accumulators which have five or more selections. The bigger the fold, the bigger the boost. For example, a winning five-fold will earn you a 5% bonus on your winnings, six-folds 10%, seven-folds 15% and so on.

ꦬ Pulse Bet is explained in greater detail below, but it essentially involves punters being rewarded for successfully predicting the time of the next goal in a given football match.

VIP/Loyalty Programmes

The SportPesa VIP program💖 is invitation only, with the criteria including deposits, withdrawals, turnover and amount wagered. A two-month period ensues once a customer has entered the program, during which they will receive a host of VIP rewards. So long as the customer’s account qualifies after the two-months, they are promoted to a VIP Platinum level. VIPs receive special treatment and have their own account manager, can access VIP-only promotions and are blessed with faster withdrawals with higher limits as well.

🌞 An area where SportPesa falls short is with its sportsbook offering. While the majority of bookies offer at least 30 sports for customers to bet on, SportPesa boasts a selection of just 15. Each sport, however, is complemented by a wide selection of leagues, games and tournaments.

🎃 Although, the number of markets and sub-markets is sub-par. On this particular day, the biggest football match had 158 total markets to utilise – a figure that doesn’t compete with the William Hill’s and Bet365’s of the world.

𒉰 Nevertheless, despite shortcomings on the sportsbook front, competitive odds would certainly give SportPesa a major boost.

Thus, to measure the quality of SportPesa’s margins we used the odds overround calculation🀅. This is a percentage figure which is obtained when all the probabilities of an outcome of a bet are added together. Logically, this figure should come to 100% however this does not take into consideration the profit made by the bookie. For this reason, it is commonly accepted that an odds overround of less than 110% indicates good odds.

ꦰ So, we picked three games at random from the FA Cup, La Liga and Coppa Italia to determine the quality of SportPesa’s odds and found the odds at 109.11%, 115.20% and 108.42%, which doesn’t exactly scream competitive and, instead, more inconsistent.

Nevertheless, at SportPesa you can choose to display your odds as decimals or fractions, with the minimum stake🐓 at 1p and maximum decided on a bet-by-bet basis – a click of a button allows customers to place the maximum stake with ease, though.

Esports

Now, this is where SportPesa excels. Their esports offering🌞 is fantastic. 42 events are available to bet on the day of writing, with tournaments involving Counter-Strike, League of Legends, Rainbow Six and Dota 2 all covered.

If you want to exploit the great esports offering that SportPesa provides, be sure to check out our top esports tips and strategies.

Other Specials

If you’re a bit of a novelty bettorܫ then SportPesa isn’t the place for you. There’s no predicting who’ll enter the jungle or what colour the liquid of the Gatorade bath will be for the winning coach of the Super Bowl with this bookie.

Cash Out & Bet Builder

You’re able to take full control of your bets with SportPesa’s Cash Out and Partial Cash Out features.

SportPesa’s bet builder♕, meanwhile, arrives in the form of ‘Your Bet’ in which customers can customise their own football and basketball bets using between two and six markets. This feature, though, is only available on the mobile app.

Overall, it’s fair to say that SportPesa’s live offering isn’t hugely advanced. While live commentary is provided on even the most obscure games, there’s no live streaming🉐 service and the statistics provided are pretty basic compared to competitors.

🌊 As you can see in the above image, only 19 in-play markets are on offer – although the fact this is a Bangladeshi Champions League fixture has to be taken into account. There are certainly more in-play options for customers in the most popular fixtures, but it still doesn’t compare to top tier bookies.

On a more positive note, Live Betting😼 is easily accessible with its own tab at the top of the homepage.

ꩲ Security is paramount with the top-tier bookmakers, and SportPesa certainly doesn’t fall short in this regard. Regulated and licensed by the , SportPesa boasts a comprehensive Privacy Policy which runs through data collection, personal data rights and cookies.

As we touched on earlier, their focus on responsible gambling is distinct. Any SportPesa🅷 customers concerned with the amount they’re gambling can set several controls, including Deposit Limits, Self-Exclusion – which can block you from accessing your account for at least six months – and Time Outs. They also encourage customers to contact their support staff via email if they feel their gambling is spiralling out of control, with tips provided on ensuring your betting experience is a fun one.

♉ The site’s use of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption, meanwhile, allows customers to feel at ease when transferring funds. This state-of-the-art technology ensures that every player’s transaction information is safe and secure.

꧑ Currently, SportPesa’s ‘Help’ section isn’t wildly comprehensive, although it’s certainly sufficient. A wide variety of FAQ’s are available, with detailed responses often on display. However, if your query isn’t covered, the bookie’s Support Team is on hand to provide further assistance.

🍸 But as you can see below, SportPesa’s Live Chat service is currently out of action ‘due to recent government advice’, meaning any queries will have to be directed via email.

♎ Although the current absence of a Live Chat service means SportPesa’s customer service isn’t incredibly efficient, the process remains quick and easy regarding queries. The site notes that this isn’t a 24-hour service, and instead, functions between 8 am and 9 pm.

ꦆ After clicking the big blue Live Chat icon which follows you in the bottom right-hand corner of the page, the above pop-up will appear. Then, all you have to do is enter your email address, the subject of your query, followed by the query itself.

💃 So, to test the efficiency of the service, we contacted the site regarding any potential welcome offers for new customers.

✅ We immediately received this response to say my query had been received…

ꩵ Followed by a succinct answer to our query merely 30 minutes later. So, while no current functioning Live Chat service means SportPesa’s customer service can’t be held in the same light as the very best bookies, they’re service is still quick, with the process simple. The staff seemed polite as well, offering coherent responses.

𝕴 A site drenched in minimalism, SportPesa certainly doesn’t use cheap gimmicks as a way of standing out from the crowd. It’s blue and white colour scheme looks smart. It’s also worth noting that any of the bookies’ unique features – demonstrated by ‘Pulse Bet’ below – are prominent on the homepage, with a concerted effort made to make such features and promotions distinct selling points.

♉ Regarding usability, the site is undoubtedly user-friendly with all offered sports easy to find. The search bar, as seen in the top left-hand of the screen, means punters can access any event they like in no time at all.

The betting process is uncomplicated, with your bet slip displayed in full view on the right of the page. The help – under which Responsible Gambling lies – and contact links can be found at the bottom of the page, with the ‘Join’ and ‘Login’ tabs visible in the top right-hand corner. Overall, SportPesa impresses in this department, with the technical performance of the site faultless as well.

🍌 A huge array of statistics can also be accessed on the site, although they are hidden away under the information tab towards the bottom of the homepage. Once discovered, though, customers will find detailed statistics on 32 sports. SportPesa’s blog, meanwhile, is in clear view at the very top of the page and is a tremendous feature despite not being regularly updated. Football previews and news are available for customers to read, while there was a dedicated Formula 1 section too – although that hasn’t been touched since 2019, which is a shame. 

SportPesa have a mobile app which is available to download on the App Store and Google Play, satisfying both Apple and Android users. Just like its website, the design of the app is slick and simple – following the same blue and white colour scheme.

൩ Overall, the app is well brought together, with its layout certainly user friendly. In-play markets, open bets and bet slips are easily accessible with their own tabs at the bottom of the page. This is also where customers can take advantage of SportPesa’s bet builder: ‘Your Bet’ – which is only available on the mobile app.

✨ Their app is strictly sports too, other products – which we’ll get onto shortly – are not available.

While SportPesa’s emphasis is undoubtedly on sport, there are other avenues for punters to venture into. The bookie offers a whole host of other products, including Casino, Live Casino and Virtual Sports♕. In total, there are 362 Casino games to enjoy. However, at the time of writing this SportPesa review, there are no welcome offers available.

While there are undoubtedly things to like about SportPesa, it’s hard to label them a top-tier bookmaker. They’re simply not on the same level as more seasoned competitors. Despite boasting a simple registration process, impressive security – they deserve credit for the emphasis placed on responsible gambling – and a well-designed site, SportPesa falls short in several key areas. A limited sportsbook combined with sub-par in-play markets as well as the absence of a welcome offer – which is almost unforgivable – means this bookmaker is certainly not an attractive option for veteran punters, and perhaps even novices too. So, while SportPesa shines in some departments, plenty of improvements have to be made elsewhere.