
Let’s take a tour of BetStars! We will stop at all of the operator’s main attractions during our BetStars review – including the answer to ‘is BetStars reliable?’ You’ll see from our BetStars ratings that the operator offers competitive odds.
As BetStars is the specific name for the sportsbook section of PokerStars, we will focus on sports in this BetStars review. By the end, you should have a good idea of whether or not the operator is worth packing your suitcase for. If not, read our gambling reviews for more options.
The first stop on any tour we take to an operator we haven’t visited before is always its available bonus offers. So that’s where we’ll start this BetStars review too. Let’s take a look at what’s on offer – and for this we’ll use the UK promotions.
When we first head over to the ‘Promotions’ page, we (and no doubt anyone reading this) are extremely disappointed to see that there is only one sports promotion, which is available for all existing customers, while there is no kind of sign up or deposit bonus at all for new customers.
The one and only sports promotion currently available in the UK is the Sports Leaderboard. To take part in this, you simply opt-in to the leaderboard via your ‘Challenges Window’. You must then place winning bets on any sport, pre-match or in-play, to earn points and climb the leaderboard. You get 1 point for every £1 in net winnings. The example used on the website: for a winning bet of £10 at odds of 1/2 (1.50), your net winnings will be £5 and therefore you’ll earn 5 points.
At the end of the promotional period, the top 100 players share £10,000 worth of prizes. Here’s a breakdown of how the prize pool is shared out:
Any type of bet made on any sport is eligible for this challenge. There are no minimum odds or minimum stake requirements. The only wagers that don’t qualify are bets placed using free bets, bets that are cashed out, or void bets.
Once the Sports Leaderboard has ended, all prizes will be paid out within 48 hours. Any free bets you receive will be credited in the same currency as the original stakes of your wagers. These free bets will expire after 7 days of being credited, and can’t be used on system bets (e.g. Yankee, Lucky 15, etc.) or on Spin & Bet.
This is a relatively unique and fun promotion that anyone can take advantage of. It’s always interesting when you compete against other bettors, and it’s great that as many as 100 customers can share in the prize. However, having said that, this offer clearly benefits regular bettors and high-stakes gamblers. If you’re a casual or low-stakes player, it’s unlikely you’ll get anything out of the promotion.
This BetStars review also has to take into account the lack of any other sports promotion, particularly a bonus offer aimed at attracting new customers. It is unusual to find an online betting website that doesn’t offer some kind of sign up or deposit bonus these days, and it’s likely that new customers may be deterred from creating an account, instead favouring one of the countless operators that does offer perks and bonuses. Therefore we’re forced to give below average BetStars ratings in this BetStars review.
If you like the look of this offer and are interested in learning more about it, we recommend you take our dedicated tour by checking out our BetStars promo code review. And feel free to let us know what you think!
BetStars, just like its parent site PokerStars, has a colour scheme of black and white with hints of red. This is an effortlessly elegant theme, and proves that a little can often go a long way. The sportsbook has a straightforward design that is easy to navigate around. Everything you need is in sight from the moment the page loads.
The most popular sports to bet on are listed across the top, with a drop-down A-Z section at the far right. Below this navigational bar, from left to right, are images of popular events and promotions, next to popular links to the top leagues and bets, and then your betslip. There’s even a small drop-down list where you can change the odds format you are shown. The betting markets and odds are listed at the bottom left; you can toggle between popular and in-play; and if you scroll down you’ll see odds boosts and the next scheduled horse races.
You can also easily access the poker and casino sections of the PokerStars brand by clicking the links in the top left corner. The theme is consistent throughout all three products the brand has to offer. This helps to make the entire PokerStars brand feel uniform, rather than disparate like some operators who try too hard to make each product section stand alone.
In terms of the mobile app, it’s as aesthetically attractive and easy to use, and it has all of the same features and betting markets as the desktop counterpart. The one minor flaw is that it can lag at times, but we’re sure any bugs will be fixed soon.
Overall this BetStars review is going to give the desktop site and mobile app above average BetStars ratings when compared to competitors.
The deposit methods that BetStars accept are as follows:
As you can see, not only does this list include pretty much all of the most popular payment methods, including PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay, it also has some lesser known and lesser used options, such as NeoSurf – as well as an exclusive PokerStars payment option. It’s always great to see such flexibility in deposit methods, as there’s no doubt everyone will be able to use their preferred way to pay.
Minimum deposits are £10. Deposits are instant if you spend a little extra time setting up a Fast Deposit account – though unfortunately this is only available on desktop.
Most of the listed deposit methods also work for withdrawals, except for PaySafeCard, NeoSurf, PokerStars TopUp and certain types of card and bank transfer. Check the website to make sure your preferred withdrawal method works.
Minimum withdrawals are £20. Once you request a withdrawal, it can take anywhere from a few hours to 10 days, depending on your chosen payment method, to receive your funds.
Though not the quickest withdrawal times we’ve ever seen, the impressive number of accepted payment methods is enough for our BetStars review to award above average BetStars ratings for this aspect of the operator.
Next in our BetStars review, we will go through the customer support options. This includes the FAQ section and the different ways you can contact the support staff, as well as what times the staff is available and how helpful and responsive they are.
Whenever you run into some kind of problem, the first thing we’d recommend is to take a look at the site’s FAQ section. Whether it’s an issue with your account, your bets, your bonus offers and/or rewards and loyalty program, your deposits/withdrawals, or any other difficulty or query you may have, it’s likely that you’ll be able to work it out for yourself – especially if it’s something common or minor.
BetStars has one of the most extensive FAQ sections we’ve ever seen. As well as the standard FAQ section, which you can find by clicking the ‘Help’ link, there are also many sections specific to the sportsbook – a ‘How To Guide’, ‘Sports Rules’, ‘Sports Betting FAQ’ and ‘Deposits & Withdrawals’. Each of these has many questions under multiple headings. So you should definitely be able to find the answer to any question you may have. And don’t worry about trying to find the exact question you need, as there’s a search bar to help you.
However, if you do end up having to contact customer service for whatever reason, there is only one way to contact the support staff – via email. Usually you’ll find at least two if not three contact methods, so this isn’t ideal – especially with the lack of a live chat feature, which is by far the most convenient way to talk to support staff at almost every other operator.
The good points are that the support staff are available 24/7, and when you do email them you will find the responses quick and helpful. Unfortunately this isn’t enough for us to give the operator better than below average BetStars ratings in this section of our BetStars review.
It’s time we stick to the promise we made in the intro to this BetStars review by answering what is probably the most important question that we all ask ourselves when searching around for the ideal betting destination – ‘is BetStars legal?’
The reason this question is so essential is because unfortunately there are some untrustworthy online betting sites out there that don’t care about integrity and therefore ruin the industry for the majority of operators and their customers by trying to scam as many people as possible before word gets around and they’re boycotted and/or shut down.
So how does BetStars hold up? Well the operator holds a license with the UK Gambling Commission. Having such a license is a sure sign of a reliable online betting site, as the UKGC is renowned worldwide as one of the ‘Big 4’ when it comes to regulatory rules and licensing standards. We can practically hear you asking what the other three top regulatory bodies are; well to satisfy your curiosity, they are the Malta Gaming Authority, the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority and the Alderney Gambling Control Commission.
So when it comes to the all-important question ‘is BetStars secure?’, we’re sure you agree that the answer is a resounding yes. Therefore we’re awarding the top possible BetStars ratings in this part of our BetStars review.
However, if you still aren’t completely sold, you should take some time to compare BetStars with one of its competitors. To do that, simply read our answer to the question ‘is Xpressbet legit?’ And if you do end up on the wrong end of a BetStars scam, let us know!
BetStars’ rewards and loyalty program is called Stars Rewards. Basically, you earn reward points every time each of your bets is settled (or when you play other real money games across the site’s other products). As you collect points, your progress bar fills; and when it is completely full, you’ll win a Chest loaded with personalised rewards.
Possible rewards include free bets, cash rebates, StarsCoins that you can spend in the Rewards Store, and a variety of tickets and items tailored to you and the games you like to play. There are six different types of Chest, increasing in size and value (from Blue to Black).
You need to win at least one Chest in every rolling 28-day period to remain on your current Chest level. If you win 10 Chests within a 28-day period, you’ll be upgraded to a larger Chest. If you don’t win a Chest within the 28-day period, your progress bar will reset and you’ll be moved to a lower Chest level. The larger the Chest, the more points required to unlock it, but also the bigger and better the rewards that you’ll receive.
You earn reward points at different rates, depending on your gaming activity. For sports, you will earn 3.3 reward points for every $1 you wager when making a single bet. As for multiple/accumulator bets, you will earn 9.3 reward points for every $1 you wager. This is applicable across all regions – bets made in non-USD currencies will be converted to USD based on the current exchange rate for purposes of calculating the reward points you will earn.
You will not get any reward points for cashed out bets if the cash out value is equal to your initial bet amount.
Reward points are not awarded for bets that are cashed out if the cashed out value is equal to the initial bet amount. For example, if you make a £10 wager and cash out for £10, you won’t receive any reward points. But if you cash out for more or less than £10, you will receive reward points.
This rewards and loyalty program is similar to the standard program seen at most other online betting sites. The one problem is that it’s slightly more complicated than you may be used to if you’ve used this type of rewards and loyalty program at other operators before. Overall our BetStars review has decided to give average BetStars ratings.
There are currently around 25 different sports listed on BetStars, as well as a section for ‘More Sports’ and one for ‘Specials’ – the latter of which currently includes the Eurovision Song Contest, UK and French Politics, and the Brazilian edition of Big Brother.
In terms of the sports available, there are the world’s most popular sports to bet on like football, American football, basketball and horse racing, as well as less common options such as athletics, futsal, handball and volleyball.
There are also eSports and virtuals. The eSports include Call of Duty, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Dota 2 and League of Legends. The virtuals consist of rush football, horse racing, motor racing and greyhounds.
As for bet types, all of the more common bet types are available, though you won’t find anything particularly unusual or groundbreaking. The most popular leagues and competitions will usually have 100 or more options available for any given game.
In order to test the operator’s odds, we performed an odds comparison between BetStars and one of its close competitors, DraftKings (which we briefly mentioned earlier). To conduct this test, we compared the full time result odds for the upcoming Champions League semi-final second leg between Chelsea and Real Madrid. Here’s how the operators’ odds compare:
This odds comparison shows that although BetStars does offer relatively competitive odds, they are slightly worse across the board when compared to DraftKings. If you fancy checking out the winner of this odds comparison, you can read our DraftKings review.
There are in-play betting options for most of BetStars’ available sports. The odds are updated instantly, and the betting markets are of the standard variety. There are also live stats, though these aren’t as in-depth as you may be accustomed to. The operator’s unique Spin & Bet feature is also available in-play.
Live streaming is also available, on select events – most notably horse racing. The races that you can live stream are indicated by a red triangle next to the course name.
There are no specific betting limits, but the operator has set maximum payouts on all bets in any single day. This is irrespective of stakes, odds or number of winning lines. These maximum payouts are dependent on the sport you’re betting on. Bets on major football leagues and competitions have the highest maximum payouts, at £1,000,000. The lowest maximum payouts listed on the website are for greyhound races; these are £10,000.
So there is a wide range of sports with a decent if not quite so extensive amount of betting markets; the odds may not be the best out there, but they are competitive; and although the live betting still has room for improvement, it’s a great advantage to have live streaming available, even if it’s only on select events. The maximum payouts may seem restrictive to high-rollers, but for the average bettor these won’t even come into consideration.
Overall, BetStars is an impressive sportsbook, and there is still much room for it to grow. The future looks bright for this operator.
You will find on your travels that there are countless online betting sites around the world, each with their own benefits and flaws. And there are even more springing up every year. You should always search the market thoroughly for the operator that best suits your needs. If you think BetStars could be that operator, then take the guided tour with us.
Online betting websites are always adding and updating their bonus offers. Be sure to check out our dedicated BetStars review to see the most up-to-date information.
Finding out if an operator is reliable is so essential these days because there are a small number of untrustworthy online betting sites out there that don’t care about integrity, and therefore ruin the industry for the rest of us by trying to scam as many people as possible before word gets around and they’re boycotted and/or shut down. Read our review to find out our conclusion.
Our BetStars ratings show that this operator is an above average betting destination overall. Though there is no bonus offer for new customers and only one sports promotion for existing customers, and the customer support contact options aren’t ideal, every other aspect of the sportsbook is average or above. That’s relatively impressive, especially when you consider that we’ve only touched on one part of the PokerStars brand in this review – so if you enjoy poker and casino games as well as sports betting, be sure to visit BetStars now!
If after everything you’ve seen, you don’t think BetStars is worth buying a ticket for, then take a look at our TVG rating and our TwinSpires review for more great getaways.
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