picklebet review
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Who are picklebet?
picklebet are a Australian based Online Betting Agency, located in Brisbane Queensland. They came onto the Australian betting landscape in late 2018, specialising in the esports betting market only.
picklebet (or Skrilla as it was also known as) is the by-product of a merger between two companies: Puntaa and Gamurs Group, both at different ends of the eSports industry. Puntaa being more of a technology development company, while Gamurs Group is more about media networking.
About picklebet
picklebet are regulated to operate in Australia, choosing to do so based on the maturity and strength of the Australian gaming and regulatory framework, which is one of the most robust in the world.
They are licensed in the Northern Territory, much like their online betting compadres, and have their administration offices based in Darwin, while the gaming business side of things (as mentioned) is based in Brisbane
picklebet’s two mainstays are Damon Oudejans and Nick Heaney, who were given support and backing from their parent company Gamurs Group.
Sponsorship
picklebet is not currently involved in any Sponsorship activity.
Brand
picklebet is now the brand name of this online product being promoted and reviewed here. It was previously known as Skrilla. The name change occurred earlier this year.
Company Website/App Overview
Sign Up Process
This is very straight forward. If you land picklebet’s main page, you can either login to your account, or click the green button to sign up. Work through the various sign-up screens (there’s not too many of them), and by the end of it, you will have confirmed your email, so that picklebet has your account verified. The only thing to do is to load up a deposit and you’re ready to go. Refer to the Deposit Methods section below.
Highlights
- As for the website, I do like the lime green on black background. Kind of similar to the PlayUp website and app, though the green is a little sharper on this one.
- The UI is very easy to get around, that’s because the platform has less requirements than the typical horse racing and sports betting platforms.
- The promotions section is good in that players can create a side-bar of virtual cash to help fund their gaming activity. Refer the ‘Promotions’ section below.
Website
The website layout is mostly uncomplicated. It has both sign-up and login buttons at the top, a horizontal slider in the top part of the main landing page, and then a list of all the upcoming tournaments and games on the schedule.
The platform essentials are listed in the top left hamburger menu. There are four main components: Betting, Fantasy, Coverage and Help.
Menu Options
- Betting returns a list of upcoming real money games.
- The Fantasy section displays the leagues where you can assemble a team of players. You participate as per an entry fee. If you’ve selected a team of players with the highest earning points at the conclusion of a game, you get the prize, whatever it might be.
- The Coverage section is a roundup of news and events by various esports reporters. I think this should be given a new name, something real simple like ‘News And Results’.
- The Help section takes you to a Zendesk question and answer type help system. I’m not really a fan of these, as not all people understand how they work, funnily enough. Something a little bit more obvious (that leads a horse to water) would be much better.
On my connection to the Internet via 4G Mobile, I found the website speed and navigation to be slightly slow, and it took a few seconds to change from one menu option to another (say from Betting to Help).
Also, when opening out to the Help screen, this should open out to a new tab, not use the existing tab. This could cause issues if you have a live betting slip open for instance, but generally, all help screens should open separately.
Mobile App
From what I can tell, this is not available yet. I had a good look around for it, but neither was it mentioned on their website, nor on any other website. It could be in their development plans for the future.
Funding Types/Deposit Methods
Deposit Options
picklebet allows for deposits via Credit and Debit Cards, as well as Instant Bank transfer via POLi. More deposit methods will be added in the near future.
Withdrawal Options
For Australian customers, Bank Transfer is the only withdrawal method available at present. Set up your bank account details on the picklebet platform. if you get stuck, click on the Help menu option, then enter ‘withdrawals’, a help screen will display.
For European and American customers, withdrawing to a Skrill account is the only method for now.
VISA/Mastercard Option
This is not available on this platform.
Market/Activity Types
PickleBet are exclusively within the domain of eSports. So if you’re looking to bet on horse races and sports events (other than eSports), you’ll need to find another online betting agency.
Promotions
There are numerous was exisiting customers can earn what picklebet calls ‘promotions funds
Betting Types/Features/Odds
On the picklebet platform, players have the ability to create single conventional bets, as well as multi-bets. There are no place bets or exotics, just a straight out win bet, multiplied by the stake you put up with real money. In this case, you get your original stake returned, plus the win multiplier.
$10 bet, $1.50 odds, returned $15 (stake plus mulitipler (10 x 1.50 = $15)
The bet slip also allows for promotions funds to be used, however, only the winning amount (not the promotional stake applied) is returned to you.
$10 promotional funds bet, $1.50 odds, returned $15 (mulitipler less stake (10 x 1.50 = $15 less stake $10 = $5.00 returned)
For multi-bet, you can select teams to win across multiple games, click on one of the bets, both will go through to the betting slip, then click on the multi tab, both options you selected should be there, add a stake which is applied to both games, and voila it’s done.
The betting process is easier on picklebet than on any other horse racing/sports betting app.
Turnover prior to Withdrawal
picklebet’s turnover requirement for deposited funds is at least once. You will be notified of this requirement if you withdraw funds. If the turnover requirement has been satisfied, your withdrawal will continue on.
Other Betting Features
We make a list of all the features we see across most/all online betting agency platforms, and check to see if the particular agency being reviewed has them.
Live Broadcasting
It does appear that you can watch some live games on the Platform. If you bet on some of the Daily Fantasy games, there is a ‘Watch Live’ button available on some games.
Featured Bets
Not applicable for eSports.
Fluctuations
Not applicable for eSports.
Bet Tracker
Not applicable for eSports.
Speed Map
Not applicable for eSports.
Form Guide
Not really a form guide as such, but you can refer to the Menu >> Coverage section to read news, previews and reviews.
Tips
Refer to the Menu >> Coverage section to read news, previews and reviews.
Help
Responsible Gambling
You have to search in their Help section to find this. It’s certainly not in a prominent place, like the footer of the main landing page, which is where it probably needs to be. However, you can read it here: click here..
Customer and Online Help
picklebet has a Live Chat function, and a support email: support@picklebet.com.
There is no contact phone number, if a customer needs to talk to someone earpiece to earpiece.
The rest of their online help is in the form of a self help question and answer structure, set up in a ZenDesk environment. Good for some, awful for others.
My observation? Needs some improvement in this area. Certainly not to the level set by other online Sports Betting Agencies.
In Summary
Considering this is the sole eSports betting platform based in Australia, there are certainly a lot of differences when comparing picklebet to a Ladbrokes or a BetEasy platform.
It’s pretty easy to get around, the betting options makes it a less cluttered eco-system than other online options. Plus the promotions area is one of its highlights.
No Android (and I assume also no iOS) app is a bit of a let down, and obviously at the moment.
Not so good points? The transition speed between screens is noticeably slow (mind you there could a thousand reasons why speed through my connection is slow).
The customer interfacing tools might be adequate for the business, but I’d suggest it isn’t for the customer. Some parts of the betting experience including easy to find contact details other than live chat need to be made more prominent, and not buried three layers in a help system.
A good start by picklebet, but improvements are needed along the way to make it an all round excellent customer experience into the future. In time, I’m sure this will come.
