Online punters who enter the URL https://www.betstar.com.au into a browser address bar, or save it in a favourites list or place a shortcut on their desktop will quickly find themselves on Betstar’s main landing page. Join Betstar Here
One of the first things that will be noticed at that point is a dark blue bar across the top. On the left side of that bar is a notice that Betstar uses 2048-bit encryption to secure client identity information and funds. For all intents and purposes, this level of encryption cannot be broken.
Toward the right-hand side of the screen are unobtrusive links labeled “Join” and “Contact Us,” followed by the date and the local time. Displaying the local time is a nice feature, one that is duplicated on every page. For any market where, for example, you see an event in the Next To Jump section, if it says a race starts in 22 minutes that time has automatically been converted to the user’s time zone.
Directly below the dark blue bar is a pleasing to the eye royal blue background. Near the right side of that section are the client sign-in boxes.
Things get interesting after that, a black bar running from left to right has tabs labeled Home, Racing, Sports, Live Betting, How To and Contact Us. The tabs change colour to orange when selected, so it is quite simple to know where in the site you are at all times. At the right of the black bar is a tab for the betslip, displaying the number of selections on the betslip if the user has chosen to close it to free up more space on the screen.
From that point, the Betstar user interface uses the familiar three-column layout that has market categories on the left, followed by detailed market information and a panel that displays information regarding promotions. The final panel on the right is blank, unless the bet slip is open. This effective design is a simple case of there being no need to reinvent the wheel.
The next session down has three columns labeled Live Betting, Next Race to Jump and Next Sporting Event. The left panel below that contains Quick Links, then descending vertically, Racing, Sports, and finally Featured Racing.
This Home screen requires the most scrolling, depending on how the user’s computer display is configured.
For testing purposes, we selected AFL matches and were given a page that shows the upcoming round in descending order from soonest to latest. Most AFL games have a minimum of 160 markets. Beneath the upcoming matches is a section for season-long markets.
Finally, at the bottom of the page, visitors are offered information on Betstar affiliations, deposit options and various and sundry other administrative links.
Website Observations
It takes only a matter of minutes to gain sufficient familiarity with Betstar’s Home tab and from that point, further pages are arranged in a similar fashion, making site navigation easy and intuitive.
Betstar’s heritage is as a racing site, since the father-son Eskander team that started Betstar in 2007 were rails bookmakers. The racing pages do exhibit a keen attention to detail and one thing we especially enjoyed was that following a click on a track, and then selecting a runner, a nice form guide window pops open. A box in the left corner opens up a much more detailed form guide that is as good as any we have seen.
Above the field window are tabs for viewing the odds on Win/Place wagers, Quinella, Exacta, Trifecta, First 4 and Full Flucs.
Ongoing Betstar racing promotions that have proved popular with clients are the option of Best Tote or SP for many races, Protest Payouts and a Pick Your Own Odds option that might come in handy when in possession of a hot tip.
Betstar Sports
Earlier, we mentioned that when it comes to the Sports section on the left side of the Betstar window, it requires a good bit of scrolling. We would like to clarify that statement further. The scrolling only becomes necessary if you want to have a look at some of Betstar’s more exotic offerings, things such as curling or darts. The major sports are easily accessible near the top.
Betstar does not offer as many markets as, for instance, Sportsbet, when it comes to, for example, AFL matches, but honestly, is it really necessary to have obscure propositions simply for the sake of bragging rights?
Betstar offers all the key markets and the typical list for a footy game is more than long enough for anyone. Join Betstar today Click Here
Betstar Financials
The key criterion of which to be aware are odds and margins. As we surfed the Betstar site for this review, we found markets where Betstar had inferior odds, markets where their odds were superior, and the majority of markets were equal. For entertainment purposes, shopping odds is quite fun, but for those who cannot be bothered, Betstar’s odds are competitive enough to get by.
In terms of bookmaker margin, Betstar is just a bit higher than the average online bookmaker, but only by so little as to be irrelevant to any but the higher frequency punters.
Betstar Mobile
Punters can download free mobile apps for Apple and Android devices, or use the mobile version of the website. We performed a more thorough review of the mobile platforms elsewhere, but suffice it to say that Betstar, thanks largely to the parent corporation Ladbrokes, has mobile offerings that are entirely adequate and quite fun to use.
The apps can be found in the Apple Store or on Google Play. They also have strong encryption features and do not seem to make excessive demands on storage or resources.
For an even simpler way to download and install the apps, using a mobile phone’s QR scanning app on the code on the website instantly supplies a link to the app. One click to download and one to install is all it takes. Total time for us to install on an Android device was under two minutes.
Minimum funding deposits, minimum wagers and maximum payouts are some of the best going. The Australian dollar is the only currency accepted for punters in Australia and New Zealand.
One niggling quibble was that Betstar does have a potential $25 inactive account fee if you should not make a punt in over six months. We are not sure why anyone would do that, but perhaps one of you with excessive money at your disposal could enlighten us.
Conclusion
There is plenty to like and scant little to dislike about the Betstar online wagering operation. Racing punters will probably be the most likely candidates for being Betstar clients, but a sports punter would also find them of value as either a sole source or one of several. Join Here
