BetStars Review

The BetStars name may not be familiar to a lot of people in the betting world. It’s a relatively new brand, making its way into the market when it launched on September 13, 2018, following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn PASPA earlier last year.

What bettors will probably be familiar with, though, is BetStars’ sister brand, PokerStars, which became one of the biggest players in the online poker world. Now, BetStars is using some of that same technology, innovation and features that launched it to the top of the online poker world to hopefully do the same for it in the world of online sports betting.

Read on for a more detailed review of every aspect of the BetStars sports betting platform.

Bonuses

Just like PokerStars, BetStars is big on promotions and bonuses. The site offers a great welcome bonus that works as a refund if you lose your first bet. BetStars will refund the amount of your first wager after you sign up for a new account if that wager loses, up to $500. It’s akin to a freeroll in poker.
The free bet can only be used on parlay bets and straight bets. One other thing to keep in mind is players who make their first deposit using Skrill or Neteller are not eligible for the welcome offer.

Additional Sports Betting Promos

In addition to the welcome offer for new players, BetStars offers a plethora of ongoing promotions and special offers. They offer free bets galore, such as an NBA Finals $20 Free Betwhere if you place three $20 bets on any NBA Finals game, you get a free $20 bet from the site.

BetStars also offers ongoign promotions such as their Weekly Bonus Club. When you bet on any sports market between Monday at midnight and Sunday at noon of the same week, you will qualify for the Weekly Bonus Club. A wager total of $25 on any sports market will give you a $5 Free Sports Bet. A $50 wager total will give you two $5 Free Sports Bets, and a wager of $100 or more will give you two $5 Free Sports Bets and a $10 Spin & Go ticket.

BetStars also offers a Cash Out feature, where you can lock in a profit by cashing out your bet early before the game is even over, or mitigate your losses if the game doesn’t look like it’s going your way. Since BetStars runs so many promotions, the best thing to do is to visit their promotions webpage at https://www.betstarsnj.com/promotions/ to see what they’re currently offering, as it changes frequently.

Banking

BetStars adopted the payment system that PokerStars perfected, and it’s reflected in the speed of the transactions and the number of options that are available. BetStars doesn’t give a specific amount of time that it will take to complete the processing of deposits and withdrawals, although they say they will make ”resonable efforts” to ensure they are done in a timely manner.

Deposit Options

Each of the deposit options at BetStars has a $10 minimum. In all, BetStars offers 10 deposit methods, and five of them are offered as a Fast Deposit option (more on that in a bit). The most common deposit methods are Visa, Mastercard and Instant eChecks, all of which are eligible for Fast Deposit. Third-party applications Skrill and Neteller are the other two.

Fast Deposit allows you to make a quick deposit to your account after you make your first deposit. The first time you make a deposit, you will enter in all the pertinent information and then select that payment method as a Fast Deposit option. Future deposits can be made quickly through that deposit method by simply clicking a suggested deposit amount, which doesn’t require you to enter in all the payment information again.

BetStars also offers five other deposit methods. This includes third-party applications PayPal, PayNearMe and the PokerStars Play + Card, as well as Stars Transfer, which allows you to securely connect your bank account through an online portal. Finally, you can also make an in-person deposit at a Resorts Casino cage in Atlantic City.

Withdrawal Methods & Payout Times

BetStars again says it will do its best to ensure timely payouts, but it doesn’t specifically list any waiting or processing times. Withdrawals can be made to each of the above listed deposit methods except for four – Visa, Mastercard, Stars Transfer or PayNearMe. If you use one of those methods to make a deposit, you will have to select another method to make your withdrawal.

BetStars’ Sportsbook

BetStars doesn’t have a lot of sports markets from which to choose at this time. It is beginning to add some more, but for now, the markets it offers include:
• Baseball
• Basketball
• Boxing/UFC
• Cricket
• Cycling
• Darts
• Football
• Golf
• Hockey
• Motor Sports
• Rugby Union
• Soccer
• Tennis
The site also highlights special events, such as the Women’s World Cup, on its main navigation page.

Line Selection

Despite being short on betting markets, BetStars offers quite a lot of lines on the games it does offer. BetStars offers a ton of lines on any number of games, and it’s especially strong in soccer, which is not the norm in the American market. In fact, one thing that BetStars doesn’t offer currently is teasers, which is a popular bet in the U.S., so they made need to do some work still to adjust to the market here versus overseas.

That being said, there are plenty of available lines on all the games that it offers, which is a very good amount overall.

Betting on Other Markets

BetStars doesn’t offer any other markets at this time.

Betting Limits

BetStars does an excellent job of laying out the maximum payouts for each sport on its Rules page, which can be found here, https://www.betstarsnj.com/games/rules.

Interestingly, the two sports that offer the highest payout maximums are soccer ($1 million) and golf ($500,000). There are much lower limits on football, basketball, baseball and hockey, which all have a $250,000 limit. Again, this might signifiy that BetStars hasn’t adjusted to the American market just yet, as the more popular sports to bet on in America have the lower maximum payout limits. Soccer and golf are two sports that are much more popular overseas.

Live Betting

BetStars was sure to offer the increasingly popular Live Betting feature, which they call In-Game. In fact, they even feature it on their navigation bar in the homepage, listing it before even any of the sports. The site offers a good amount of In-Game betting options that get updated throughout the games constantly. You can view all of the available In-Game options by visiting that page on the site.

While BetStars might not have as many In-Game betting options as some of the other sportsbooks online when it comes to some of the more off-the-beaten-path games, the main featured games of the day all have a good amount of In-Game betting lines from which to choose.

Mobile Betting

One of the areas where BetStars thrives is with its mobile betting offering. This is no surprise, as the company already had a beautifully-designed mobile platform for its PokerStars brand. So when it entered the sports betting market, it was ready to go.

The mobile version of the site is very easy to navigate and is very pleasing on the eyes. Players can easily complete any task they’d want to, almost as easily as if they were using the desktop version of the software. While at first the site launched with only a mobile app for Android devices, the company has since made things right by offering an app for iOS devices as well.

If you’re looking for a great mobile sportsbook feature, then BetStars is the site for you.

Customer Service

The customer service at BetStars is a little disappointing. While the site offers a top-notch information page and FAQ, it seems that the direct customer support area was something that was overlooked or not emphasized well enough. The company touts that it has 24/7 customer support, but in order to speak with someone directly, either through email or phone, you have to submit a form on their website. That page can be found here, https://contact.pokerstarsnj.com, which you’ll see is a link to the general PokerStars support form.

BetStars does offer a Live Chat feature, which is nice, but it would be much better if the company offered a cleaner and more prompt way to contact someone from support directly.

Conclusion: A Solid Option for Sports Bettors

People who played online poker at PokerStars will love what BetStars is doing. The company built a solid reputation for having front-line mobile applications, tons of promotions and bonuses, and an excellent cashier system, and they didn’t disappoint when they entered the world of sports betting in New Jersey. BetStars is a solid option for sports bettors who crave simplicity and ease of use.

The more experienced American bettor may not prefer BetStars, though, at least compared to some of its competitors. That’s because the number of sports markets available isn’t as wide, the lines are sometimes not as good, the site doesn’t offer teaser bets, the customer service isn’t wonderful, and the maximum payouts are fairly low for the popular American sports.