SMARKETS Review

Smarkets are a very unreliable and untrustworthy company. I highly recommend avoiding this company at all costs. After several months of using the service my account suddenly came under account review. This marked the start of a 7-month back and forth conversation with the support team as they attempted to get hold of absolutely every piece of information under the sun. (Bank statements, questioning individual transactions, asking for my father’s bank details, records and more). In addition to this they would rather slyly ask for information knowing full well no matter what I responded with they would ask for additional information. Instead of asking for the information in 1 email they deliberately ask in seperate emails which often take over a week to receive a response for. And after all this information was supplied they decided to keep my account suspended without providing any reason for it. My suspicion is the company do not like users who use the 0% commission offer with OddsMonkey. And given the large amounts I was staking on liabilities to cover matched betting outcomes, my account was providing no benefit to them. They only want users who are paying commission. Instead of having integrity they deliberately make the account review so ridiculously in depth and almost intrusive that people will either a) get fed up and give up or b) when they don’t give up just don’t unlock your account without providing a proper reason.I wasted several hours of my time screenshotting information for them which they clearly didn’t need. They’re a very sly and untrustworthy company and would avoid like the plague.

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Markets disappearing and being priced up incorrectly is ridiculous. when I questioned why a market was being offered at 1.67 verses 1.72 (118 Mark up) in a live superbowl market I got the response it’s price discovery! On a live market with 7 minutes left?? First to 15 points was 1.57 verses 1.87. I mean are you freaking serious?Also only offering odds on one team and not the other is terrible 6 minutes left and you go 2.12 Kansas but nothing on SF. You can offer odds on SF but not KC on a live line in superbowl. Frankly your traders should be ashamed.

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Just a shambles. Again at least 10/15 ticks lower than Betfair on the exchange sportsbook and if you go to take a price it’ll be 10 ticks below what’s on offer when you click place bet. This is bang out of order and needs looking at. It’s obviously done on purpose. Go to bet at 2.5 and get odds of 2.36??? Totally unacceptable Not to mention lots of grief with errors on the app and trying to get more than a few pounds on. I’m surprised they’re still in business. It’s amateur hourBack to Betfair and Mb.

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Struggling to get my bet matched on a Saturday afternoon. Only want a ton at even money. Max bet on sportsbook is 42€. I mean come on When I finally got my bet matched It was 1.90. dropping 10 ticks on a horse that is drifting isn’t good business. Especially as straight away after it went back to 2.00Email I received after trying to get clarification on the odds didn’t make any sense2.5 stars. Need to sort the liquidity out

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Very basic Really low stakes allowed Can’t do horse multies more than 5 Then when u get some together 9/10 it says they can’t be combined , eg few favs for Cheltenham Last resort bookies

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Tried to set up an account and it was immediately suspended as being a duplicate account. I have never had a Smarkets account before

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Terrible security. Allowed a hacker to add a payment card, remove my payment card info, and within minutes withdraw the entire balance to the new card, absolutely no checks could have been done. The closed loop system they claim to have was clearly ineffective. Took a day to “investigate” and determine their security and processes are not at fault. Please avoid.

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Not worth the hassleI genuinely forgot to opt in for my free bet, bet 50 get 10 free. When I contacted customer service they refused to add on manually claiming I would have to opt in and then bet the 50 again. What an embarrassing bunch of misers just for the sake of a tenner.Then when I bet the 50 again and got the free bet it’s changed again. Gone from on whatever you want to 10 only on an acca now it’s 5 acca 5 bet builder. I’ve never known a company so mean

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Tin pot operation, completely understaffed even the responses here are automated, waiting days between emails but will close your account in an instant

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Based review after 10 years of use.systems / staff they have in place for source of funds, AML and verification has become awful. This is a complinace issue mainly and they have had their hand forced by the UK gambling commission to pretty much enforce every aspect of their social responsibility contract. I deposited 3k in a weekend and their system shut me out of my account with open positions (this has never happened in 10years), and cost me several hundred £££ and when I quizzed them on it they couldn’t care less (who suspends account access, when they could of shut off deposits? Said enough was enough to myself and I wasn’t jumping through hoops and sending personal documentation to have limits on my account. When i advised i wouldn’t be giving them any more evidence to support my account, they immediately shut it down and returned funds. I gave them 3 stars, due to the past customer service and experiences. Apart from my recent poor experience, in the 10 years i used them i only encountered minor problems.Also If anyone has major issues with Smarkets, contact their CEO Jason Trust on twitter he’s pretty active and will response and sort most issues. twitter.comjasontrost

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Bizarre lack of security and checks for a company handling payments in this day and age.Didn’t blink when a device/IP address not associated with my account fraudulently added a new payment card and immediately withdrew the entire balance to it. Were more than happy to approve the withdrawal despite all the red flags. They then took an age to look into it and didn’t ask any questions about the situation before concluding they don’t have any process/security issues.

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Omg. This source of funds verification is nightmare. If you want to bet here you have to work somewhere from 9-17 getting regular income. They not even assume that there are so many self employers who get money from third parties for their job,so many full time bettors and traders who using winning money to fund their account. there are so many ways to get money to start trading.you can sell your old staff or a car,lend money from from parents and friends to fund their account. But they not accept anything except payslips to verify account. They asked tons of documents for 600 depositNot everyone is working from 9 till 5. There are plenty places where to get money. Betting,poker, casino , crypto, friends or parents.

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What a shambles It’s just one thing after another with this lot and I’ve have had a gut full I’m sick and tired of their inability to maintain a working app . One time fair enough but every other day there is an issue and this has gone on for months. I’ve never seen anything like it and I’m bored of it now. All Customer service do is just give you an apology and that’s all. God forbid they reimburse you for any costs they’ve caused or actually fix the faults.Good riddance, I’ve done with you now. I’ll vote with my feet

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Really strange logic. I received a source of wealth e-mail, asking how I fund my account. I explained I retail bet, I was asked for proof of this and I showed proof of the bets & the funds entering my bank/To Smarkets. I explained I only use funds from retail betting and not from any other source (e.g. work). Customer service then gets back to me and says thanks but retail betting and it’s trail isn’t proof of source of wealth (even though they asked for the proof after I mentioned it), they then ask for my work and income along with proof (even after specifically saying I DON’T use my work funds to bet, I keep them separate). What’s interesting is a lot of people are being closed down in this situation, yet someone who has a Twitter following who’s in the same situation (Tom Brownlee) gets some traction on his tweet and all of a sudden his account is instantly verified without jumping through these impossible hoops.

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I’m done with sbk. The app is shambolic, now uninstalled and I won’t be using againError after error after error. Nothing ever changesWhen you tell them all you get is an apology, that’s not going to pay the bills is it?

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I signed up, wish i hadn’t bothered and listened to the 74% of 1 star reviews.I placed a multiple, 1 of the matches was voided because they displayed the event with the wrong odds, asked them to void the multiple as a consequence. Said they would, checked this morning and they hadn’t voided it.Emailed them (didn’t respond). Waited for live chat at 9am, asked why, said they would escalate, got a response hours later saying that the multiple will stand and won’t return my £15.Disgrace of a company, as many others say, stick to betfair etc. Also they have 0 promotions, really poor company.

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I’m getting a bit tired of seeing odds on the sports book you can never actually get. for example you see 2.10 and bet it and it goes to 1.87 which you get, then after you’ve had to take that it goes back to 2.10 so you never can actually get the odds on offer. They can’t blame other people as they set the markets and you’re betting against themThey are also well below betfair too, example2.86 on betfair and only 2.62 on sbk.

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Out of the blue account suspended. Talked to live chat and they could not guarantee that I could place a bet later that evening so I withdrew my funds immediately(approx.2000euros). I’ll admit I did deposit and withdraw on a regular bases as I will never keep funds in my account as I don’t trust any of these sites. My profit for the previous month on smarkets was approx 1500 euros and the previous 9 months on smarkets profit was over 9000 euros. The next time I go into the smarkets app. I will be closing my account after reading all these negative reviews.

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All the negative reviews here are true – this company is an absolute joke. The verification team are non existent, I think it may be one single person working there. Waiting to get some feedback on the documents that I have submitted over 3 weeks ago (and counting) – zero correspondence I have read through all the negative reviews here and I can relate to them all.For God’s sake – use Matchbook, Betdaq or Betfair and avoid this joke of a company.

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Below is a list of requests for documents requested for account verification. I am of the opinion that once they decide they don’t want you as a customer, no amount of proof will be enough.Avoid at all costs.Firstly, we’d like to understand a little more about how you fund your Smarkets account. For example, are you employed or self-employed? And if so, what’s your occupation?If you are not currently employed, what is your main source of income and used to fund your Smarkets deposits?Do you have any other income streams or extra savings/investments that you’d like us to consider for the purpose of this review?-A copy of the most recent bank statement in PDF format, displaying your incoming pension.-A copy of the matching pension slip.-A PDF copy of the most recent savings/ investment account statement (if applicable).-A copy of the most recent bank statement in PDF format, displaying your incoming pension.Most recent bank statement for the account that receives your pension payments Most recent statement for any savings that you would like to be taken into account when setting any necessary deposit limits A copy of the 3 months’ worth of bank statements in PDF format covering 18 December 2021- 18 March 2022, displaying deposits to Smarkets A PDF copy of the January- March 22 bank statement from ****** ****** to verify the origin of incoming funds. A PDF copy of the March bank statement from the account where the transaction of £***** received on 3 March originated (They should be able to provide a bank statement even after the account has been closed) Additionally, if your savings were accumulated via matched betting, we would like to request screenshots showing your other bookmakers’ profits (2-3 most profitable bookmakers) as follows: One screenshot showing the P/L page on your other bookmakers’ accounts, displaying profits for the last 12 months and your current balance. Another screenshot from your other bookmakers’ accounts displaying your username/email and your current balance. A recent PDF statement for your Santander savings account. If you are unable to provide a full statement for this account then could you please provide a screenshot that shows your account ownership (name and address) alongside the dated balance so that we can verify your savings.

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Terrible service invasion of privacy on kyc checks, devision to close even though proven legit. Clowns. Support staff are terrible useless and the verification team are even worse. No wonder only 1.5 stars here joke

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Literally impossible for me to pass proof of wealth. I’ve sent them 2 types of copies of bank statements, directly downloaded from my bank and they are not accepting them

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You need either more bandwidth or an IT team that can actually operate and maintain an app because it’s not good enough and it really is poor. Other bookies seem to manage it fine so why is this app still a mess? Why not use a Web page instead? NUMEROUS Errors include timeout problems . Telling me you I’m not online when obviously am, markets being taken down early and markets disappearing, live video not working and crashesIf you complain you’ll never get a free bet ever regardless of how much their silly app has cost you financially. All you get is a useless apology, what use is that?, they’re obviously told not to give free bets out regardless what happens. That’s fine but don’t expect me to stay about

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Asking for proof of wealth (£50 for goodness she) and wanting bank statements of a recently deceased relatives as they paid money into my account 3 months ago. Disgusting company

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Excellent customer service, dealt with issues professionally and quickly. Very fast withdrawals too, so far very happy and delighted by their professionalism to customers, it’s very important and notes when give.

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Source of wealth becoming a joke. The amount of times they (finally) respond, asking for the exact documents sent 1/2/3 responses earlier, ridiculous.Account now suspended for however much longer this joke of a company take to accept I earn a living matched betting, which OBVIOUSLY means I’m now losing money because of them limiting my said ability, to match my bets!

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The liquidity to bet comes and goes as it pleases so you can’t use the site to trade with any confidence. You can be left with an open position which you can not close.

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I have used Smarkets for 7 years and unfortunately the Source of Wealth checks they are now undertaking are starting to get ridiculous. I have provided multiple bank statements, pay slips and I’m being asked over and over again to provide things that I have already provided. Add to this that Smarkets suspend your account for these when you could potentially have thousands at stake in open trades is beyond a joke. I currently have over £11,000 at risk in an open trade and have had my account suspended nearly a month.Please sort this out as other than these checks you’re great.Edit – Also you can’t access live chat when your account is suspended and there is no phone line to ring so you have to deal by e-mail which is very slow.

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Decent odds, easy to navigate. Excellent customer service, resolved my only query efficiently and in a very friendly manner

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Shambolic and its costing me moneyTry to place a bet at ascot at 1.83 and get told 30 pounds maximum stake. What a shambles. If you want to bet more you have to keep resubmitting it. For example if you want to bet 150 you’ll have to do it 5 times, so if you want to bet on a race you’ll need to do it 20 minutes b4 it starts or you’ll miss it.. Why have such small limits? Tbh it’s embarrassing. This would be bad enough at a small track but 30 at Ascot.If that’s not enough I’m also tired about errors on odds and live videos never working. I’ve never had so much hassle using a book. I’m going back to bet fair

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Just tried to get £50 on a horse at odds of 1.58 with the sportsbookI was offered maximum of 30£And I’m not even a winning punterWhat an utter embarrassment..Ps they have changed the bet 50 get 10 so you have to bet it on accumulators not singles

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I will start off by saying this used to be a really good exchange which is being absolutely ruined by their Safer Gambling team that are treating loyal customers like criminals.Unlike other bookmakers or exchanges they will out of the blue just suspend your account with high 4 figure balances and demand verification documentation on a whim even though you may have provided everything they are again demanding very recently.As a reasonalbe person I appreciate they are only pressure from the regulators – but there is a right way and wrong way to do this. You will get no warning, you will just one day try to log into your account to be told it is suspended.Unlike Betfair, Betdaq or Matchbook whom all give you two or three weeks to provide the information, they just suspend your account instantly.This causes punters great stress, positions can no longer be managed; it is quite frankly bullying in the extreme.And if you note the one star rating on here, my situation is no one off, in fact how can a betting company even operate with a one star rating?Even worse unlike every other bookmaker nobody from Smarkets seem to care enough to reply to posts on here as if they have given up.Nearly every bad review on here relates to their safer gambling team.I urge everyone of sane mind please please please just stick to Betfair, Betdaq or Matchbook (Neither are perfect) but all are a million times better options.Is sad as I have been a loyal customer to Smarkets for several years but there are limits.Harri

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Smarkets are not to be trusted. Zero customer care. Genuinely curious about how they let money be taken from my account. Do not open an account with these, they have no interest in customer welfare

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Absolute mickey mouse company. Closed my account because I was unwilling to give them my financial life history. That was with my account being £495 in profit. Asked for my personal information to be removed. Yes they said but only after 6 years. Hope they go under. Parasites

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WITHDRAW MONEY NOW. 18TH OCTOBER 2023. ”Smarkets has revealed a potentially crippling tax bill of £12.8m over historic outstanding additional taxes relating to business activities between 2012 and 2017, a bill which could potentially force the company to seek alternative funding. Smarkets losses before tax amounted to £17.7 Million in 2022”Check companies house for accounts released this week. Check glassdoor for employee statements.This company is in deep deep trouble. Withdraw.

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Trying to bet football for Saturday and half the time I can’t get a treble on as national league teams aren’t allowed (. Why nobody will tell me why)I finally pick my bet and I get told my bet which pays 4.2/1 is only allowed a max stake of 25.The liquidity is downright embarrassing. I’ve tried to tell their ceo and ask him why this is and he just ignored me. I’ve never known a business be run so poorly.From what I can see they seed their own markets and have market makers but none of them seem to want to lose more than 100 a bet

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What a joke site this is. Avoid at all costs. You can never get a bet on unless you offer way above odds SP. i had to give 3.5 for a greyhound that was trading on betfair at 2.1 this has happened lots to me. And opposite if you want to bet one you need to take lesser odds that is avalible on othersites just to get a bet on.

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I liked smarkets but since their patronising email gone right off them. Reduced my monthly deposit limit to £500 I asked for an increase and they said no as financially I can’t afford it and if I’m in a better situation in 6 months it will be reviewed! They know nothing about me financially if they had reviewed my bank account and asked for statements then ok but they have asked for nothing. I’ve never been in debt / over drawn etc. Awful. 2 stars generous

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Kyc is ridiculous proof of wealth is a joke ,A signed letter from a solicitor stating insurance payout isn’t accepted as proof of wealth due to it being post datedDO NOT OPEN AN ACCOUNT HERE

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I’m glad I came to read the reviews as I just opened account and in 2 seconds I received an email them telling me that after a review they will not give me a welcome offer which im entitled to or any other offers or free bets. I have been account holder with them for 2 minutes so what could they possibly review. I’m a person who works in finance with glorious background so clearly it’s none of that. When contacted they can’t give you valid reason which is pure discrimination. I’m closing it now and probably lucky as it doesn’t seem like a good company to deal with from what I’m reading here.

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putting your money in this broker is easy. getting your money out is impossible.I had my case reported to PR,O,U,P,S,H,O,T and I got my loss back.

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Was going well, great site, but then started doing random background checks on the account, provided more than enough information, but still ongoing, been ongoing since March and it is now August. The responses were not the clearest. Unfortunately, have since recommended different companies that do equally the same as smarkets for others to use. Shame, they used to be very good. Sent them proof of earnings over £55000 a year, but not good enough.The information they requested is extremely intrusive, bank statements, payslips etc… every single bit of money traced back. Very poor, no other bookie or exchange have asked for this level of information. All this to comply with internal and external Anti-money laundering and Responsible Gambling requirements.

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I don’t notice them on oddschecker so guessing no decent odds anymore? They went good odds on football but I’m not searching manually through every gameGo to place a bet Thursday pm in the soccer for Saturday and most of the games don’t even have odds up just blanks in the boxes I found two that did and they were ridiculously up at 1.55 v 2.1 and 1.66 v 1.99. tbf I would only have been able to get a score on at bestThis was on the SB so no excuse for no liquidityI contacted “support” who asked me what was so wrong with the odds on offer. How can you not know that those odds are over 110%? On a two event matchup It really is very poorly run. How difficult can it be to price the games up? They really don’t seem to care less. It’s very poorly runTook my wagers elsewhere. Not impressed at all. They hadn’t been great for a while but textbooks reducing football odds was the last straw for me

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I wish that I could not give any stars. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THIS COMPANY THEY’RE FRAUDULENT THIEVES AND SCAMMERS. I ordered a speaker they sent an electric toothbrush as the reviewer below stated. I then asked for return postage and not to resend a speaker, which they ignored and it is on its way. They won’t pay for the return postage off the electric toothbrush which will cost £30 to return plus customs and 21 e mails later I still don’t have my £99 refund.I’m going to try getting a refund via the bank, when I have proof of refusing the delivery of the speaker, which I asked them not to send. Hassle free returns, far from hassle free. I feel angry, duped, stupid, bullied and disrespected. PLEASE DON’T FALL FOR THE GLOSSY WEBSITE AS I DID. Thieves that’s all they are Scam scam scam.

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Jason Trost should be ashamed. Calls himself a businessman. I won 24k in 8 weeks account closes. No reason give. Why if its an exchange betting against others. Obviously it’s smarkets own money funding accounts, so anyone who looks like they may win will be closed. I have wrote to Jason a few times and guess what. No reply. Atleast have the balls to reply.

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Lowest of the low, closed my account after I requested the deposit limit to be removed. What sense does that make????? You were OK with me playing with 500 per month literally the day before I asked for this and then you decided to completely remove my account EVEN THOUGH I have sent you an account with 3k inside it and telling you I am literally matched betting and can’t lose. And even if I wasnt, WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEEEEEEM???? IF I WANT TO WASTE MY MONEY, LEEEET MEEEEE. BUT THIS IS NOT AN ISSUE ABOUT ME LOSING MY MONEY, YOU ARE COLLABORATING WITH THE BOOKIES AND GIVING THEM INFO ON WHO IS MATCHED BETTING, ONCE YOU GOT THAT INFO YOU SHUT MY ACCOUNT DOWN. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES AND WITH BUSINESS PRACTICES LIKE THAT YOU’LL GO OUT OF BUSINESS. INSTEAD OF THINKING LONG TERM TO BENEFIT FROM ME AS A CUSTOMER YOU CHOOSE TO GO WITH THE CORRUPT BOOKIES. CONGRATS

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This used to be a great company to bet with and i recommended them to many people. They now say they have to verify my account for no reason. The amount of information I have given them including every payment to and from my bank account for three months is still not good enough. It has become laborious and I can be bothered with them no longer. Byr bye Smarkets.

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Couldn’t even get 30 on a horse at 1.87 on the sports book. not only were the odds slashed to 1.76. I got told the stake was too large!I notice they can’t be bothered to reply on here. Doesn’t surprise me. I’ll stick to Betfair – at least you can get on there

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just a really dreadful, all round experience. please please avoid! their SOW checks are nothing short of disgusting!!!

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I joined this betting exchange over 2 years,and you if you asked what I thought I would have give it 5/5.However they asked me for a Statement of Wealth over 6 months ago,and I’m still waiting for an answer.I’ve been using other Exvhanges since without any problems.Get lost Smarkets

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