The online sports betting sites in Ghana is traditionally dominated by a handful of world-class sites, and there is a growing number of up-and-coming upstarts that are looking to garner market share.
Simbabet.com.gh is one such platform, looking to provide local punters with an all-purpose betting portal, including a large and varied sportsbook, spin and win, live betting, virtual sports, online games, dice and roll and virtual games.
The variety on offer provides opportunities across the board, with bet markets fluctuating between live action and virtual betting.
The main landing page gives an indication as to the originality of the site from a design, look and feel perspective and is unlike many competitors in the West African country.
The landing page will show a viewer a directory of sorts, with all the features and options appearing in circled links. Many sites go straight to the action, but this landing page is indicative of a fresh take. The opening page has a sign-up or sign-in banner on the left-hand side, while centre right is six bubbles (links) indicating the featured activities. These same features are all shown on the menu directory running down the left-hand side of the landing page.
There is also an advertisement stating a player can earn a bonus for every bet made.
Clicking on the sports betting link will open the sportsbook, with a host of sporting codes and an abundance of football related wagering on show.
The menu directory, running down the left flank of this page shows the football markets, as well as all the other sports on offer. Next to each sport is the number of current bets on that activity and judging by the numbers simbabet is a growing site, and not yet as popular as many leading competitors.
The lay-out of the sportsbook page is indicative of the intention to promote a clean, crisp and varied market. The bet slip is conveniently placed on the top right corner of this page.
To find out more of the types of bets available, click on the ‘Learn’ tab, and general betting information will be provided.
The platform has a decent, if limited virtual play offering with football, horse racing and dog racing on the cards.
There is, however, high quality graphics and a substantial betting market, and bet-types.
The next game on offers is a virtual lottery-like feature, with a pick 5 and pick 10. To win a punter must predict numbers from 0-32, with odds and bet-markets indicating the amounts to be won.
This virtual lotto has draws taking place every five to 10 minutes and runs 24/7.
Clicking on the online games on offer at simbabet will take a player to an online casino – https://pashaglobal.com/slotsgames/index – which is an international external platform offering a wide variety of high paying slot action, as well as virtual roulette. The currency on offer is US Dollars.
The slot games are bountiful and have accumulator bonus jackpots, running into amounts exceeding 100 000 US Dollars.
The platform disappoints in that it does lack in showing off the relevant information such as banking options, promotions, ‘how to play’ sections and ‘how to deposit/withdraw.’
To access information about the site’s activities a punter looks at the bottom of the landing page and click on the terms and conditions link. The T’s and C’s are not comprehensive and apart from a minimum bet (.50 GHS) and a maximum pay out (250 000 GHS) there is not much to write home about.
There is more info under the FAQ section, also found on the menu directory at the bottom of the page, and details regarding how to cash out are explained. Despite this, there is still no mention of how to deposit, withdraw, and through which banking apps, or institutions.
From all the data gathered it seems the only way to play is through vouchers, and this process is well explained in the FAQ section.
There is info on topping up, loading vouchers, recharging accounts and cashing out.
Simbabet looks promising enough, with a decent sportsbook and a variety of virtual play and games, but there does some a real lack of methods to deposit and withdraw and this may explain why it is not as popular as some of the leading, or even middle-of-the-road platforms. Simbabet does not have a jackpot, similar to Odibets in Ghana.
The fact that the site’s online casino is a portal to an international casino and subject to that platform’s terms, conditions, banking options and more, is discouraging for Ghanaian punters.
For these reasons, the site is not recommended for Ghanaian punters, and until they sort out these issues, they well struggle to get a decent enough market share to continue in a crowded industry.