Smarkets launches SBK app to enter sportsbook market

Smarkets, operator of one of the world’s largest betting exchanges, has today announced the launch of its new sportsbook product, SBK.

SBK is a sportsbook app that combines industry-disrupting odds with a social-focused interface to offer users the fairest and funnest app for betting on sport and politics. Prices on SBK are the same as those on the Smarkets exchange, which has the best odds in the world thanks to its peer-to-peer model and proprietary technology.

SBK will benchmark its prices directly against leading bookmakers and show users how often they are getting the best odds with the revolutionary SBK Price+ feature, which will initially compare odds on football before incorporating the app’s entire event offering.

Users will be able to sign up and start betting on SBK from tomorrow (Friday 9 August); the app has been in a private test mode, with a waiting list to join, for the last 12 months.

Smarkets CEO and Founder Jason Trost said: “We are extremely excited to fully launch SBK having made substantial improvements since the beta introduction last year.

“By combining innovative technology with transparent and fair odds, I believe we are able to offer a product like no other in the market, which will help us continue to have an impact in an industry dominated by a few big players who don’t seek to give customers the best value.”

The Smarkets exchange, which has processed over £14 billion in trading volume since launching in 2010, offers users more flexibility and trading options compared to the sportsbook user experience of SBK.

Trost added: “While some bettors prefer the advanced features of Smarkets, we created SBK for those customers who want the better pricing of an exchange with the cleaner interface of a sportsbook.”

SBK was built in-house, predominantly by the company’s engineering team in Los Angeles, and will initially be launched in the UK, with Smarkets also expecting to introduce the product to the developing US betting market in the near future.