Sport Nation closed to the UK on 30th November 2022. From that date customers will no longer be able to deposit or bet but the site will remain open for withdraws until 7th December after which you can contact support to arrange a withdrawal ([email protected]).
The company behind them (Esports Entertainment Group (EEG)) is solvent for now but it is recommended you withdraw any funds as soon as possible. All ante-post bets that settle after 30/11/22 will be voided with all stakes refunded for withdrawal.
The Nasdaq listed eSports company EEG bought Argyll in 2020 but unfortunately a shocking performance in 2021 and 2022 led them to writing off a load of their eSports assets and slashing their asset and cash value as a result. This led to cost savings and as part of that Sport Nation, and sister brand Red Zone, have been pulled from the UK as a result.
The brands were well liked for doing things differently, especially with regards to odds value and loyalty points schemes. Ultimately sentiment doesn’t mean anything in business and eventually the brand failed. They also failed to pay advertising partners for many months and are unlikely to come back under their current name given they have a tarnished reputation now.
Sport Nation are one of the newer betting sites listed on this website, only launching in the UK in 2016 (under their original name Bet On Brazil) and re-branded in August 2017 to appeal to a wider audience.
In a short space of time they have greatly impressed with their attitude towards punters. Despite being new Sport Nation have some outstanding loyalty promotions and features that match, and often beat, some of the biggest names in the industry, giving consistent value, range and reward to customers.
Sport Nation is a UK focused bookie aimed at all levels of punters but suiting mid-high stakes bettors in particular. Their regular offers tend to have higher stake limits compared to others and their loyalty rewards scheme is excellent, allowing you to earn points that you can exchange for loads of goodies. They also have an outstanding virtuals section that is frankly better than those provided by the big high street names, and football punters will be impressed with the range and depth of markets on offer.
- Good For Higher Stakes Punters – No max withdrawal plus high winning cap.
- Existing Customers Rewarded – Free bet clubs, loyalty points, acca offers & tons more.
- Fantastic Football – 150 different leagues with plenty of betting markets from top to bottom.
Sport Nation: A Very Brief History
Sport Nation is a UK facing online sportsbook run by Argyll Entertainment, a Swiss company, and a member of the AHG Group based in the USA. At its launch in 2016 the site was known as Bet On Brazil but rebranded soon after in August 2017. Poor old Alan Brazil, who lent the initial incarnation his name, was too specific a brand.
If you don’t know who Alan is, he is an ex-international footballer who played for Scotland, Ipswich Town, Tottenham Hotspur and others in the 1970s and 1980s. Alan went into journalism following his successful career, initially as a Sky Sports pundit before hosting one of the longest running sports radio talk shows on talkSPORT from 2001. Alan has also written several books and is widely regarded as both a knowledgeable footballer and an engaging character. If you’ve ever listened to Alan’s show you will know he is passionate about a range of sports, football obviously, but also horse racing and golf.
Initially focused on football when the site launched for Euro 2016, the rebrand also prompted them running on a new SBTech platform which has broadened the range of markets adding much greater depth. This richer selection makes Sport Nation a complete betting site for the typical punters’ needs, and it is growing constantly. The new brand also added a casino and live casino section, further extending the company’s appeal.
From the very beginning, Argyll Entertainment set out to approach the UK betting and gaming market from a different angle. They realise the UK market is saturated with many websites offering the same old routine bonuses, rewards and features. Most betting sites don’t place much of an emphasis on being different when engaging the punter and this all too often results in a boring, very transactional, betting experience. Sport Nation’s mission to be different is one reason why they stand out so early on in their journey.
The sportsbook (under the original BOB name) hit the ground running in its first year launching a series of very high value offers for customers. Initial free bet clubs and accumulators free bet promotions demonstrated outstanding value compared to even the biggest betting sites. It was immediately clear that Sport Nation wanted to drive more of their resources into delivering the best day to day betting experience for the customer.
Sport Nation is still a growing brand but it is already putting its eggs in the right baskets, focusing on existing customer rewards and providing higher stake limit promotions. Early adopters will not be disappointed, but they will be handsomely rewarded.
The Book
When it comes to Sport Nation’s book, you would be forgiven for thinking you were looking at a betting industry market leader’s website. They now have over three times more markets than the old Bet On Brazil site, having a huge impact on the overall experience and catering to a more diverse range of punters. You can now bet on a much richer range of sports including cycling, trotting, and eSports alongside all of the more customary options.
Sport Nation could easily step in and replace your regular bookie without you missing much, especially if you bet on football, tennis, golf, or rugby. To give you an idea of what we are looking at here, there are 150 different football leagues to explore. If a bookie can offer you lines on the Gibraltar Premier League then it’s fair to say they are putting in the leg work for their customers. Their specials are well stocked too, although they focus mainly on politics rather than anything zany.
The depth of market for the events they list is just fantastic, with well over 100 different lines on major football matches for example (a recent Man Utd vs Chelsea fixture had 155+).
It’s also nice to see some creativity going on with the bet types. There is a shed load of them to pick from including Asian lines and plenty of specials, but the Player Props bet type is good fun and allows you to base your bet around a specific player’s performance.
Defying the Odds?
This is all great, I hear you say, but it’s irrelevant if their odds are utter garbage.
Truth be told they waver all over the place. There is often excellent value to be had in football markets, while golf, esports, and horse racing would also be hard to beat by any significant margin on an average day. Most everything else hovers around middling to good but one or two sports regularly drop the ball, so to speak, and don’t tend to offer good odds – sorry tennis fans.
So aside from the odd one or two categories you can pretty much guarantee a fair price at the very least, and sometimes odds that even challenge the market leaders.
To tip the balance in their favour, Sport Nation excel with promotions and extra’s. As well as regular offers (including some really intresting and unique exclusives) there are plenty of price boosts available too, mainly on football but also for other sports around bigger events. These are often great value and are either unlimited or have a high stake maximum. Best odds guaranteed on selected horse races displays an effort and desire to keep up with the longer established competition.
Odds prices are available in decimal, American, and fraction formats, and remember you are also earning points every time you bet, so in reality the odds prices are weighted slightly better due to this rebate.
In The Saddle
The interface as a whole is simple but effective. The whole design and ease of navigation has improved dramatically since the migration to the SBtech sportsbook platform to coincide with the relaunch as Sport Nation.
The site is easy on the eye with black text easily discernible throughout the otherwise white, and grey colour scheme. Orange is used sparingly to highlight key information such as current selections etc, which results in less brain strain. I particularly like their individual approach to creating promotional images.
The lack of flashy graphics and additional unnecessary sidebar options means the site not only stays snappy in performance but also feels calm and thoughtfully arranged with no distractions for the bettor. Instead, each section of the site is clearly displayed and most of them can be reached within a single click from the homepage; banking, promotions, customer care, etc.
If you have used betting sites before then the format will be second nature to you. There are plenty of filtering and categorisation options at each stage of the process and plenty of extra touches that show a user-focused approach to the site build. Sport Nation have worked out what punters might be wondering from one step to the next and employed useful icons to assist; for example, when looking at the list of all football leagues you can see which of them currently have live matches going on.
It did feel like more content required page reloads than at other sites, as opposed to being built into the interface, but this doesn’t apply to the betting which progresses uninterrupted.
Sport Nation have plowed most of their early development time into creating a good sportsbook with excellent promotions rather than focusing too much on prettying up the site – it’s fast and robust with plenty of depth, but not exactly a fashion icon. I don’t mind this at all, and to be honest they still have a much more attractive site than many others.
Money On My Mind
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Although the list of payment methods is small compared to other bookies, the most frequently used options are available so there won’t be many who feel excluded. It has to be said, though, that lower stakes punters may take issue with some of the withdrawal limits.
Conversely, Sport Nation is well suited to high stakes bettors who won’t even blink at a £25 minimum withdrawal (for Paypal) but will appreciate the fact that there is no upper limit. This, coupled with a high winnings cap, is good news indeed.
There is a £20k maximum deposit limit per transaction but if you have more than that to play with you can make more than one transaction.
The team say they will process all transactions within 48 hours (working days only) so if your request is at the back end of that timeframe you could be waiting a while for your money. The status of your withdrawal will be clearly shown in your account so you will know what stage you are at.
Winning Potential & Bet Limitations
Minimum bet is £0.05 although it may be higher for certain bets, and maximum stake depends on the payout maximum. The max bet button will let you know what this is without needing to commit.
At Sport Nation the specific maximum payouts by sport are very high, especially for a newer brand. Overachieving seems to be a common theme here.
For top level football, for example, you can win up to £500,000 in any 24 hour period; horse racing generally stands at 250,000, as does tennis, rugby, golf, F1, ice hockey, darts, cricket, NFL, and boxing. A few others sit at £100,000 or £50,000 while the lowest max payout is £25,000 for sports like wrestling, swimming, and squash.
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This is a brand that states they are suitable for all types of punters and this is reflected in these high payout limits which are better than some of the bigger high street names.
Reward Points
This wouldn’t usually merit its own section of the review but it’s such a great feature that Sport Nation earns it. Much more attention is given to the loyalty scheme here than at almost any other sportsbook.
The way it works is more or less the same as anywhere else; you are rewarded with points for your activity on the site. Where it differs slightly is that various different bet types will net you more points more the same stake, and these can be wildly different. Your rewards for a £10 bet on a 5-fold accumulator might be more than ten times what you would get for a £10 bet on a single, for example.
On top of this there are rewards rush periods and double points weekends which net you even more. Referring friends is another way to quickly bag extra points (and these really do add up).
Even if you aren’t all that bothered you will accumulate points without thinking about it, and these can be traded in for free bets, bonuses and cashback. There are even occasional opportunities to trade pointds in for real world stuff like Uber Eats deliveries etc., although this is always subject to change.
This is not just a rewards scheme for those who bet big either. Those with smaller stashes of points have plenty available to them, it’s just that their rewards will obviously be comparative to the number of points.
Mobile Money Maker
There isn’t a mobile app for Android users, but there is a mobile optimised website and an ios app. This, like the live streaming, this all about resource management, and we can tell by the quality of their site that they aren’t simply penny pinching. Plus, most apps these days are almost identical to the mobile sites so it won’t cause anything more than a minor inconvenience to most.
The mobile version of the site is fantastic and quite frankly leaves you wondering why they even need an app at all. The simplistic no frills design lends itself well to mobile devices offering a quick and easy to navigate sportsbook on the move.
Everything that loads within the interface does so in good time, although I wouldn’t call it smooth, and page reloads are too common an occurrence if you ask me and may illicit the odd tut or muttering of ‘come on’ under your breath. It’s worth putting up with this occasional frustration though because the betting features and extra touches add a lot to the experience and limit your workload.
Bettors are forced to use the main menu more often with Sport Nation as there is less opportunity to navigate from the homepage unless you want to bet on a specific selection of sports, although to be fair most regular punters will probably find their go to sport here, and there are quick links to deposit, open bets, and help among others.
In-play betting, as is par for the course with SBTech sites, is fantastic on mobile, losing nothing through scaling down and in some areas actually operating more effectively, with favouriting, pulse bets, stats, and game visualisation all still available without the punter having to go looking for them.
There are one or two kinks that need ironing out, for example if you try to use the search option from the scrolling menu bar you will have to sit through a page reload to do it, the same applies if you want to view all sports, but these teething problems, while annoying, are few and far between.
The Casino Wing
The casino at Sport Nation is powered by some of the best industry software providers out there, which inspires much confidence and provides a suite of over 450 slots plus plenty of table games, video poker, and a live casino to boot.
There is a points reward system in place over at the casino too, and this operator is very good at running linked promotions between casino and sports, so if you dabble in both it could be prudent to have a look and see what you think.
Live In-Play Betting
As we have come to expect from any online bookie worth their salt these days, there is a full in-play section at Sport Nation that covers all the sports listed on the site. For football, especially, there are an astonishing number of domestic and foreign leagues available to bet on during the match – it’s exceptional.
The live betting feature itself, like the rest of the site, is aesthetically simple but extremely functional and packed with lots of useful information. Placing bets is both quick and easy, and if you are someone who enjoys stats and analysis you can fill your boots.
Being built on the SBTech platform, Sport Nation has access to some excellent in-play features such as adrenaline boosting fast markets and – for my money – the best game visualisation tool in the business.
Markets can be favourited, odds update quickly and obviously but without flashing a disco at you, and punters can even keep an eye on other in-play fixtures while in the event view of another.
This package is detailed, diverse, and user-friendly.
Live Streaming
There is no widely available steaming available as of yet, although they have started broadcasting live horse racing which is a very promising sign for those who like to watch sports via their betting sites. Seeing as they have achieved so much in such a short space of time already, live streaming on other sports is a probability at some point.
For a new site like this the lack of live streaming doesn’t come as a surprise or as a disappointment. It’s a lot to ask of a start-up bookie as it is a costly feature, and Sport Nation do such a sterling job elsewhere as well as making a decent effort to get started here.
Troubleshooting
There are a few concerns in the customer service department. That’s not to say there is anything untoward going on, but you may need to exercise a little patience. Also, you will need to fit into Sport Nation’s schedule and not the other way around.
First of all, contact methods are limited to live chat, e-mail, and post I suppose, but who uses that anymore? The best option is to use the FAQ initially, it’s a little limited but the answers are short and sharp and to the point.
Emails will be answered within 48 hours – which is a long time to wait if it’s urgent – but live chat is available 24/7 which is a big improvement from their previously limited opening hours. While it is quick to connect though you can be waiting 5 minutes between replies and there isn’t a notification sound either, so you have to sit there staring and waiting or risk being cut off. Not good. There is no phone support available and the Twitter account is not a support service.
I want to be clear that Sport Nation are not avoiding their customers, and when staff are available they are helpful, they just need a larger pool of reps to cover the dead times. Hopefully, this will improve as the brand grows.
Three Paragraph Pitch
There is a different vibe to this online bookmaker. It is easy for new betting sites to claim that they are different but rarely do companies have any substance behind these statements. Sport Nation are different, and for me, that is a major selling point. They genuinely seem to want to deliver a different type of UK sportsbook, and clearly have a focus on keeping customers rather than just enticing new punters through the door then forgetting about them.
They’ve shown this by prioritising existing customer offers and features before anything else so if you like to grab a bargain and get a little extra bang for your buck Sport Nation has a lot to keep you interested.
Yes, this site is still up and coming and yes you can get more markets and features elsewhere, but only just. The breadth of what Sport Nation has available makes them real overachievers and the quality of their site belies their years. They are certainly worth trying out and keeping as part of any bettors’ portfolio, especially if you bet a lot on football. There is a lot of promise here.
Address Book
- Name: Sport Nation
- Registered Company Name: Argyll Entertainment AG
- URL: www.sportnation.bet
- UK Licence ref/No: 45143
- Customer Services: Live Chat: 24/7
- E-Mail: [email protected]
- Customer services & registered company address: Argyll Entertainment AG, Bahnhofstrasse 10, Zug, 6300, Switzerland.
- Phone betting: Not accepted
- Text betting: Not accepted
- Twitter: @TeamSportNation
- Registered Company address: Argyll Entertainment AG, Bahnhofstrasse 10, Zug, 6300, Switzerland.