Sporting Index

Who Are Sporting Index?

Sporting Index arrived in 1992, offering spread betting to punters. Today they also offer fixed odds as part of their service. They consistently compete with Spreadex to offer the best prices in the UK. Apart from spread betting itself, Sporting Index rank in our Top 10s for rugby, in-play betting and Cash Out.

• Established in 1999
• Sporting Index Ltd
• UKGC licence number – 8835

First Impression of Sporting Index

This review will reflect the service offered at the time of writing. I signed up on the desktop version of Sporting Index, but also used the mobile version to compare, as well as downloading their app.

When you land at Sporting Index it looks like most other bookies, but once you take a look at the odds that are offered, you can immediately see the difference between spread betting and fixed odds. In terms of how the platform functions, everything looks very as you’d expect, but it’s important to remember that Sporting Index gives you the option of spread betting or fixed odds with all its markets. It’s worth noting that you can switch between the two incredibly easily.

What is Spread Betting?

So, a ‘spread’ is a prediction within a specific market for a particular sports event. It is expressed in a SELL-BUY range. For example, the market could be Total Goals in a football match, with the spread set at 1.8 – 2.0. If you think the outcome will be higher than the set spread (so more than two goals scored), you would BUY. If you think less than 1.8 goals will be scored, then you would SELL. The crucial difference in sports spread betting, as opposed to fixed odds betting, is that the more you are right, the more you win. For more information.

Sporting Index Live Betting

There are a lot of very good things going on here. All the sports that are currently live and have in-play markets are displayed clearly. During the time of this review that included tennis, football, golf, baseball, esports and plenty more. These in-play markets are fantastic, with plenty of betting options within each event.

Sporting Index Live Streaming

Sporting Index offers live streaming on some selected sports. Down the left-hand side menu, which lists its sports, there is a “Streaming” tab that lists all the current events that can be streamed. These include cricket, tennis, esports, horse racing and greyhounds. Even for sports that can’t be streamed on the platform where they can be watched, whether that be TNT Sports, Sky etc. clearly signposted. It’s a really good service, and overall it’s such a clear way of letting punters know what’s available to them really quickly and easily. 

Sporting Index Betting Odds

Overall, the fixed odds here are pretty good. They’re not the absolute best, but they’re better than the average that you’ll find elsewhere. That’s not the main draw, however, to Sporting Index, because it has the option to immediately switch to their spread betting odds, which only a select few other bookies can do, and even these probably don’t offer the same overall package as Sporting Index. These are literally among the best odds that you’ll get in the UK. There is greater risk involved, and it’s possible to lose more than just a standard sake when you BUY and SELL, but the upside is significantly more.

Sporting Index Betting App or Mobile Site 

The Sporting Index app is excellent. What I love about it is that it’s different enough from the desktop (and standard mobile) version, with different features that work specifically for its purpose, but still feels family enough that it doesn’t alienate.One of these features is their Top Tournaments, a menu of trending competitions that aren’t categorised by sport. Right now there is some IPL, MLB, Super Rugby and Premier League darts all included.

Sporting Index Football Betting

Sporting Index nearly makes our best football betting sites in the UK but miss out narrowly. The menu panel across the top displays the different options in terms of competitions, but you can also filter games that are being live streamed through the Sporting Index platform. There are loads of leagues around the globe included, however, compared to the very best football bookies in the UK there aren’t as many markets per match to bet on.

Bet Builder 

There is a bet builder at Sporting Index, but it’s not the best. As mentioned above, the amount of markets at Sporting Index aren’t huge – probably about 50% of what you would get at some other bookies – which does affect what you can bet on. The good thing, however, is that you can get a spread on their bet builder and get way more value than other places.

Bonuses

This is the most limited part of Sporting Index’s product. There is a welcome bonus to take advantage of, but beyond that the only thing I can find is an odds boost on accas. You can boost your acca up to 75%, but this depends on how many legs you have in your acca. The boost is pretty low at four legs, but it climbs with every leg that you add.

Cash Out

Sporting Index was one of the pioneers of in-play cash out, and remain one of the best bookies in the county for the popular feature. This feature is available for various sports including football, rugby, tennis, cricket, and horse racing. With SportingIndex Cash Out, bettors can react and adjust their bets as the action unfolds.

Sporting Index Horse Racing

The horse racing section at Sporting Index is pretty good. There’s a few promotions, but no Best Odds Guaranteed (BOG). There are three main features to do with their horse racing that are worth knowing about. There’s First Past The Post, 2nd To A Rag (which give you your money back if your horse is second to a 33/1 or greater winner) and Lucky Double Odds. This last one immediately doubles your odds for any Lucky 15, Lucky 31 and Lucky 63 bets made.

Sporting Index US Sports Betting

A full range of American sports is available. We’ll check out the major leagues, but also look into the sports further down the pyramid and, as well as around the world. 

American Football Betting

Sporting Index lists the spread from the off. It’s important to clarify here that “the spread” in American sports is not the same as spread betting. This refers to the points spread that you get with American football and basketball, in particular. Lots of UK bookies don’t list this despite it being the most integral market in these sports, so that’s a big feather in the Sporting Index cap. There are loads of markets, including player props that you may not find elsewhere.

Basketball Betting

There are so many different basketball leagues listed at Sporting Index, including competitions in Uruguay, The Philippines, Iceland and Greece. Of course there is the NBA and WNBA, as well as college games in the United States. Their bet builder can be sued, and a bunch of different player props have been recently added, with team scoring and match scoring markets much improved.

Baseball Betting

This has recently improved, and by quite a bit. Previously there was a real lack of markets, but Sporting Index has rectified this, and now the baseball offering is significantly better. Bettors will notice that a lot of the sections on the baseball menu are labelled “New” as a result. This includes Player Stats, Pitches, Half-Innings, Plate Apps and more.

Ice Hockey Betting

The NHL takes centre stage for this section of the site.. Generally, most other sportsbooks list a good many other leagues around the world, but there is definitely a smaller number here. Right now there is the Euro Hockey Tour, plus games in Finland and Kazakhstan, but you’ll find potentially 10 or more other global leagues elsewhere. The number of markets per game is fine, but it’s not incredible.

Sporting Index Greyhound Betting

Sporting Index has a great greyhound section, with all UK and Irish meets listed, plus those running further afield, including Australia. This gives punters plenty of options and, as mentioned, you can live stream a lot of these races, even the Australian ones. The downside is that there is no Best Odds Guaranteed, which stops it making our best greyhound betting sites.

Sporting Index Darts Betting

Compared to the very darts betting sites in the country, Sporting Index has some strengths and weaknesses. The number of markets for some upcoming Premier League matches is mightily impressive, with an absolute tonne of things to choose between. That said, the event coverage isn’t massive, and I’d like to see some of the smaller competitions here.

Sporting Index Snooker Betting

As with the best snooker betting sites, there are markets for a couple of different competitions, including the World Championships and the Champions League. Annoyingly I can’t get any outright markets on and of the other major tournaments, so no Masters or UK Championship, which isn’t great. And there are some smaller competitions that aren’t listed here which I can find elsewhere. Obviously the spread betting offers fantastic odds, but for market depth and event coverage this is somewhat lacking.

Sporting Index Rugby Betting (Union & League)

Sporting Index doesn’t offer any live streaming and their promotions are scarce if we’re being honest, but just based on the amount of games that they cover alone, you’re not going to find many better in-play options for rugby betting.

Sporting Index Cricket Betting

At the time I reviewed Sporting Index’s tennis section there was a nice amount of competitions featured. If there were some sport-specific promotions, or if the odds were a little better for their fixed odds, I could see Sporting Index being one of our Top 10 cricket betting sites. Overall, it’s pretty nice because Sporting Index offers all the competitions that I’d expect to see, plus a few more on top of that. I also really like how many markets are available here for each game, but the value here is just okay unless you spread bet.

Sporting Index Tennis Betting

Sporting Index’s tennis section features plenty of competitions. These games obviously cover the globe, Grand Slams right down to smaller Challenger events. The odds are fine, but there’s plenty of markets, including in-play markets. The in-play and live streaming for tennis is a real strong point, and the stats that are featured are excellent.

Sporting Index Golf Betting

This is really good from Sporting Index. There are markets for the majors and the Ryder Cup, but there are loads of other less high profile tournaments featured. The majors sit at the bottom (based on the fact there are more time-sensitive, upcoming events coming up), with the German Masters, Kansai Open, Mizuho Americas Open and a few others all listed here. The Adventhealth Championship has hundreds of markets, for example, and you can filter to US Tour and Other.

Sporting Index Motorsports Betting

The motor sports section on Sporting Index is very limited. There are just a couple of outright markets for the next Formula 1 championship, constructor’s championship and driver’s championship, plus Race Winner for the upcoming Grand Prix. After that it really is slim pickings. There is nothing in the way of Indy, NASCAR, Speedway, MotoGP so perhaps not somewhere motorsports fans will come.

Sporting Index Boxing Betting

Bformer professional boxer – There’s some upcoming boxing bouts to get stuck into here, but not loads – eight to be exact. Two of those, the two biggest have 40+ markets per bout, but all the others have four or less. Having more markets for bigger fights is completely normal, but I’d still like a few more for the smaller ones, and definitely more upcoming flights listed.

Sporting Index Other Sports Betting

Whilst these sports might sound very niche, there is still a large enough market for fans, and millions of them in the UK, so good coverage of niche sports and events is key to be reviewed on OLBG; let’s dig in a bit further.

Handball Betting

Betting on handball at Sporting Index looks very impressive. There’s actually over 90 games to bet on at the time of review, and that’s way more than most bookies. There aren’t loads of markets per game, but the odds are great and there are competitions in Bahrain, Portugal, Romania, Greece and more listed. Handball is increasingly popular and Sporting Index looks to be struggling in terms of providing a platform for punters to bet on various handball events and tournaments worldwide. 

Cycling Betting

Sporting Index offers betting on cycling for sports bettors who like to dabble in cycling betting, but it is very limited. There are odds on the next Tour de France General Classification winner, but that’s it. Neither of the other two Grand Tours, and definitely no Classics listed.

Aussie Rules Football Betting

As far as Sporting Index is concerned, their event coverage is pretty standard – they have most parts covered. The games, competitions and odds are good, but the actual list of markets isn’t huge per game. It’s not as great as some others out there, but overall they are still a solid option.

Political Betting

The politics betting at Sporting Index is split into US and UK politics, but there’s nothing from any other country. That said, the markets offered within that are pretty good, with nine markets for the next General Election, plus odds on the next Conservative and Labour leaders. It’s worth pointing out that the majority of markets for political betting are just fixed odds only. It’s a similar story for the betting in the US. It’s still pretty good overall, so check if it makes it into our best political betting sites.

Entertainment and Specials Betting

This is pretty poor from Sporting Index, with just BBC Sports Personality of the Year listed. There aren’t any other domestic reality shows and nothing in the way of major US awards ceremonies such as the Emmys, Grammys or Oscars. I can’t see many Specials bettors staying here to be honest.

Esports Betting

Overall, the esports betting at Sporting Index is decent. There’s a really good selection here, with Counter-Strike, Dota 2, League of Legends, Starcraft, Valorant and Call of Duty. Each game is represented well – there are hundreds across so many different esports titles at the time of writing.

Virtual Sports

Sporting Index offers no virtual sports betting at the time of this review.

Casino

Sporting Index does not have any Casino on their site.

Sporting Index Account Opening Process

A reassuringly easy process. At the top-right of the screen Sporting Index has their “Join” button. Bettors just need to select this and follow the simple steps as guided through. You’ll be asked for the usual information – name, date of birth, address etc – and once complete be sent a verification email. Clicking this from your inbox will redirect you to the site, and then you’re free to get betting.

Navigation and user experience [desktop v mobile]

I mentioned earlier that Sporting Index has a great app and the more I used Sporting Index, the more I loved the app. If you’ve never done spread betting before things can be a bit daunting, and obviously the ability to flick between this and fixed odds isn’t something that you can do on most other sportsbooks’ sites or apps. Sporting Index does an excellent job of making what is a great deal of detail easily digestible, and I think it works even better on the app. The styling and graphics are definitely dated, but you could argue that it  fits in the business-like tone of Sporting Index. Either way, from a product point of view, it’s exceptional.

Placing a bet

This section should only really highlight if there are issues, as the process is almost identical on every site. Within a few minutes of signing up to Sporting Index I placed a couple of bets on different sports, one of which took advantage of the welcome offer, and I used their bet builder feature, which worked well. 

Managing your account

As mentioned above, the design really helps this along. On the desktop version, it’s stuff to the  left of the screen. On the app, it’s all at the bottom, with just the login at the top. I haven’t experienced any issues logging in, or finding customer service options, either. Overall, it feels like Sporting Index has got this part nailed.

Sporting Index Responsible Gambling Features

As with all online betting companies, responsible gambling should be and will be an essential element of the service provided.

Expect KYC procedures and document supply as a matter-of-course, to confirm your account after you have deposited a certain level of funds and in the event of any large wins.

You can set limits for yourself across depositing options and daily staking options too, so you can set your levels and keep control of your gambling.

Expect Unibet to contact you via your preferred communication method if there are suspicious activities on your account. This protects your account from being accessed by someone other than you and ensures you control your gambling activity. Unibet have a legal obligation to question your activity if they believe it to be suspicious.

As part of Unibet’s commitment to safer gambling, they aim to make zero revenue from harmful gambling by the end of 2023.

Sporting Index Review Summary 

If you’re serious about betting and extracting as much value as you possibly can, then you have to consider spread betting. And Sporting Index is the best spread betting site in the UK.

There are some caveats, however. Some sports aren’t covered here, or included but not very well, such as motor sports. If you’re a fan of those and bet on them, then you are somewhat limited. These are in the minority though, and overall, the market depth is very impressive. 

If you spread bet, you can’t not have an account at Sporting Index, but even if you don’t it does offer a brilliant reference point when you’re checking different betting options available to you. This is because of the ability to see comparative odds, in-play betting and live streaming (or simply telling you where to watch events). Sporting Index has been doing this for a very long time, and it shows. One main piece of evidence of this is how digestible they make the service, despite it being quite complicated to get your head around if you are a total novice.