StarSpreads is a spread betting market that was created by the same team behind Star Sports Limited. StarSpreads was created in the year 2009, and it is licensed and regulated by the Revenue Commissioners. According to StarSpreads, they created this betting site to provide players with a dedicated spread‑betting service. The website covers over 10 sports, including horse racing, football, tennis, and basketball.
So, is StarSpreads worth trying? In this review, we’ll bring to you all we found about this bookmaker, and we’ll share our expert opinion on every feature so that you’re able to decide if this bookie is right for you.
StarSpreads Limited is the company that operates Star Spreads. It holds a valid remote bookmaker licence from the Revenue Commissioners. This licence can be confirmed from the revenue commissioner’s public registry.
StarSpreads has 2 welcome bonuses, but you can only select one of the bonuses. The first is what is called a Safety Net Sign-Up Promotion. If you choose the safety net promotion, the bookmaker gives you back your net losses up to the value of your first deposit, and the maximum you can get back is €150. But you must claim the bonus within one month of opening your account.
While the second welcome bonus is called the First 5 Bets “Middle of Spread” Offer. Here, the bookmaker gives you back the spread you paid on your first five bets, whether you win or lose. These bonuses have their unique requirements, and there are specific processes you’ll need to go through to get them. We’ll get to that later.
At the time of our review, StarSpreads didn’t offer any no-deposit bonus.
The only ongoing promotions on StarSpreads are the 2 welcome offers that were explained above. At the time of this review, there were no ongoing promotions for existing players.
There are no seasonal offers or event-specific bonuses available on the StarSpreads promotion page.
StarSpreads does not have a dedicated mobile app. So there are no bonuses that are exclusively for mobile app users.
StarSpreads does not currently offer a loyalty or VIP club bonus.
You can complete registration on StarSpreads in less than 5 minutes. Here’s what the registration process looks like:
When you open StarSpreads on your browser, you’ll see a page that looks just like this. Click on the “Register now” button that pops up on your screen.
Here’s where you input your personal details, including Title, First & Last Name, D.O.B., Email, Phone No., and address. Ensure that the details you provide here are accurate because they will be used for verification purposes.
The next step is where you choose the type of account you want, you choose a username and password, and then you proceed to accept the terms of the bookmaker to continue.
This is where you have to verify your email. A link will be sent to your email address for verification of your email. Click the link, and your account will be ready for access.
After you have completed these processes, you have one more thing to do. To have complete access to your account and every other feature of the bookies, you need to verify your account with either a copy of your driving licence or passport. An email will be sent to you, and you can reply to the email with the requested documentation. Without completing your registration, you won’t have complete access, including getting support from the support team. If you’re having verification issues, you can contact the support team for help, and they’ll hop on a call with you to resolve the issues if you want.
StarSpreads has over 10 sports that support spread markets, and these sports cover top tournaments and hundreds of betting markets daily. Sports like Football, tennis, and basketball are covered, as well as Irish-specific tournaments like horse racing. Here we the sports you’ll find on StarSpreads’ sports section:
Betting tools definitely help players make better betting decisions more easily. We checked for the available betting tools on StarSpreads and found just 2. Here are the available betting tools on StarSpreads:
The traders there to assist are very professional, and they respond very fast. They literally answer in minutes. We used them to take a few trades, and they responded very fast. We recommend using the trader-assisted bet if you’re new, and if you need help learning how to place trades yourself, there’s a team to help direct you.
StarSpreads’ odds are a bit different from the types of odds you may be used to. It offers spread betting odds, not the regular sportsbook odds you’ll find on most sportsbooks. In the spread betting market, the bookmaker sets a predicted range for each event, and they set a small margin. If you don’t know what the margin does, it shows how much the spread is above or below the likely expected result. The spreads on different matches are updated live, so you can place bets on markets as matches are being played.
We’ve checked the margin on all of the sports, and the sports with the most competitive odds are basketball and football.
You can make a payment on StarSpreads via 2 methods at the moment. The methods that are currently accepted are Bank Transfer & Nuapay. Any deposit you make via these methods will be processed in less than an hour, while withdrawals will have to go through approval from the bookmaker before they’re processed. You can deposit and withdraw as low as €5 using any of the deposit methods. And there’s no limit to the amount you can withdraw. All of the payments made on StarSpreads are made via EUR, and cryptocurrency payments are not supported at the moment.
Here’s a table showing the payment options.
At the time of the review, these are the available payment methods that are accepted by StarSpreads. Though we reached out to the customer support and asked if more options would be added and they responded by saying they’re working on adding bank card options like Visa and Mastercard. StarSpreads may most likely add card payments with time, but for now, these are the methods you can use to make payments, and they do not have any limits. You can deposit as much as you want and make as many withdrawals as possible.
If you prefer betting via mobile apps, StarSpreads does not have a dedicated mobile app. All of the betting activities are done via the website. We tested betting on the site and it works just fine. If you’re totally an app person, you may not find the website interesting. But we recommend trying it out first before concluding.
StarSpreads has one of the best customer support teams we’ve seen, testing many sportsbooks. They offer support via live chat, phone, and email. The live chat support option connects you to a customer support agent in just a few seconds after clicking, which is unlike many bookmakers’ sites that you’ll have to prompt several times before you’re transferred to a customer agent. And if you prefer getting issues resolved via the phone, you can call their phone support. They’ll respond in seconds. While the email support responds within an hour. After testing all of these support, our most preferred has to be the live chat support. It’s quick and the agents are very professional. We needed their help to verify our account, and the agent was very helpful; he even asked if we were available for a phone call to get the account verified. From our experience, customer support is very helpful. StarSpreads customer support is available in English only.
Most of the licensed bookmakers in Ireland have a dedicated section for responsible gambling, and you’ll also find organization support that provides professional support to players struggling with gambling addiction. We checked for these responsible gambling tools and organization support on StarSpreads, but we didn’t find any.
StarSpreads not having this important feature appears to be a downside. One of the features we consider to be very important for every bookmaker is the responsible gambling section. It should be on every bookmaker’s site. If you still choose to bet at StarSpreads, you should consider putting relevant structures in place to keep yourself safe. For example, you should set a specific amount you must not exceed when betting, and you should monitor the time you spend gambling. Also, if you notice you’re struggling with gambling addiction, you should seek help. You can search for organizational support like GamCare, Gamblers Anonymous, and Gambling Therapy. We strongly recommend contacting any of these organizations to get professional help if you find yourself struggling with gambling addiction.
After testing every aspect of StarSpreads, we took quality time to go through many users’ reviews on trusted review sites, one of which is Trustpilot. We read through all of the reviews on Trustpilot, and the results show a few positive reviews and a lot of room for improvement.
Quite many players have commended their customer support, which we agree to be true; many have also spoken positively about their withdrawal time and the registration and verification process being easy. Some players have openly criticized StarSpreads for their accounts being blocked unjustly, while others spoke against the trader-assisted betting being rigged. Here are some of the reviews we read on Trustpilot.
Nick 2/5 Stars
“Initial experience was good with them; however, I have noticed lately that the trader appears to be doing tricks. Every time I place a bet on any market, it reduces the line by a point or two if I am selling, and if buying moves the point up by 1 or 2, which seems very weird. Today I tried to place a bet on cricket, and it showed me a message showing I do not have funds for a bet, and the next minute it accepted my bet on a point where a boundary was scored, and my bet was in progress. very disappointed with what they have turned out to be.”
Alan Parkes 4/5 Stars
“Can be a bit slow to put up their prices, and some of the spreads aren’t the narrowest, but I have found them to be honest and dependable. No problems putting bets on and always pay out promptly when requested. Based on my own experience, I would recommend the firm.”
At the time of our review, StarSpreads did not have a dedicated casino section. They only operate a sports betting spread market.
There are no live casino games on StarSpreads. You can only place spread bets on the bookmaker’s site.
The promotions available on StarSpreads are just for the sportsbook section. And they are exclusively for new players. Existing players do not have any bonuses to claim.
There are no extra casino features; the features available are exclusively for the sportsbook section.
To start with, StarSpreads has one of the best customer support teams we’ve tested in Ireland. They have different channels that are very responsive, helpful, and professional. The sports they offer are just a few, but they’re well arranged and contain advanced betting options.
The bookmaker does not have a dedicated mobile app, but the website is fast, simple, and intuitive. One of the most important features of this bookmaker is that they provide detailed educational content to help players get familiar with how spread betting works. So if you’re not familiar with how it works, you can just check out the materials.
Some of the things that appear to be the downside of this bookie are the unavailability of responsible gambling tools, which we consider to be a must-have for a good bookmaker; they also do not have some of the Irish loved sports like Gaelic football and hurling, and they lack promotions for existing players. If you do not mind the absence of promotional offers, and you want a bookmaker that takes users’ complaints and enquiries seriously, then we recommend this bookmaker for you.
