StarSports

StarSports sister sites include McBookie, NE Bet and AK Bets.
StarSports (starsports.bet) is operated by Star Racing Limited of Star House, 255 Old Shoreham Road, Hove, BN3 7ED.

StarSports Sister Sites 2024

Star Racing Limited operates three StarSports sister sites, but there’s a fundamental difference between the StarSports sister sites and StarSports itself. StarSports (sometimes known as StarSports Bet because of its URL) is the only betting site that Star Racing Limited owns and operates directly. The three other sites all run on a white-label basis. That means that StarSports is both the shop window site and the flagship of its network. However, that doesn’t mean that the StarSports sister sites necessarily have less to offer. Click on the link to Star Racing Limited to find out more about the operator, or stay here to discover the StarSports sister sites.

McBookie

While the name of McBookie might lead some of you to believe that McDonald’s has finally branched out into gambling, that isn’t (yet) the case. Instead, McBookie is exactly what you think it is. You don’t need to be an expert in the terminology and parlance of the British Isles to work out that McBookie is a betting site with Scottish origins. The brand has been online since 2009, so it’s demonstrated some considerable staying power to keep on ticking in such a competitive market. While McBookie isn’t exclusive to Scottish players, you get the feeling from its website that it would prefer to be. The wording of the “about us” section makes reference to betting on Scottish sporting triumphs, so if you’ve taken leave of your senses and you think Scotland might be a viable bet to win the next World Cup (it could be the World Cup of any sport – they’re all just as unlikely), McBookie is the site to place your wager at.

NE Bet

StarSports is the oldest site on the Star Racing Limited platform. When Star Racing decided to start adding StarSports sister sites, McBookie was the first that they came up with. Two became three in 2018 with the launch of NE Bets, which is something of an enigma. It’s possible that the NE in NE Bets stands for “North East,” but there’s no confirmation of this anywhere on the website. In fact, the “about us” section of NE Bets provides us with less information than almost any other “about us” entry we’ve ever seen. Alternatively, NE Bet could mean “any bet,” as in, “this website is happy to accept any bet.” That would make a degree of sense, but what we can’t make sense of is the presence of the Illuminati-style eye logo. Is NE Bet a portal to a secret society? Probably not – but it does offer text and telephone betting to go with its standard web-based wagering.

AK Bets

AK Bets is a name that might be familiar to a few of you as a real-world brand. It started life at Killarney as an on-track bookmaker in 2021. As is often the case with first-day bookies, the owners of AK Bet lost more than £1000 more than they took, but they weren’t put off. The next day went better, and just eighteen months later, the AK Bets website was born. AK Bets went live as the newest of the StarSports sister sites at the beginning of 2023, and launched a series of apps just as soon as the website went live. It claims to take more than seventy thousand bets every day, and specialises in horse racing – not that specialising in horse racing is out of the ordinary on this iGaming network. There’s nothing out of the ordinary at AK Bets, but it’s put together well.

Can StarSports Be Trusted?

★★★★★

StarSports is a 3 Star trusted casino.

1. UKGC License	StarSports is listed on the UK Gambling Commission licence of Star Racing Limited (no. 9177).
2. UKGC Fines	The UKGC completed a review of the operator’s licence in April 2023 and concluded that it hadn’t upheld conditions regarding social responsibility, customer interaction, transfer of funds and AML protocols. Star Racing Limited was fined £594,000, given an official warning, and now has further conditions attached to its licence.
3. Customer Service	Via telephone or social media, but not live chat or email.
4. Trustpilot Score	After around 100 reviews. StarSports has a poor average rating of 1.9 out of 5.0.
5. Company Location	The headquarters of Star Racing Limited is in Hove.
6. Visible T&C’s	All key terms and conditions at Star Racing are easy to find.
7. Social Media Presence	StarSports is active on both Facebook and Twitter/X. It uses the latter to provide customer support.
8. Number of Sister Sites	There are currently three StarSports sister sites on the Star Racing Limited platform.
9. Games portfolio	There’s a reasonable casino attached to StarSports, but it should be seen as a sports betting website.
10. Gamstop links	A very small GamStop logo can be found in the StarSports footer and works as a clickable link to the organisation and its services. It should be bigger and easier to find than it is.
Overall SCORE >	★★★★★ – 3/5 Stars

StarSports Review 2024

StarSports has been around since 1999 and describes itself as “the UK’s leading luxury bookmaker.” Like a couple of the StarSports sister sites, the brand began at the side of a racecourse before finding its way online. The company relocated to Brighton in 2009 after acquiring other family-run bookmaking brands like Vickers, although Vickers and the other brands that StarSports cites ownership of actually belong to Playbook Gaming Limited in the eyes of the UK Gambling Commission. Another of the sentences of praise that StarSports heaps upon itself is “the most exclusive private bookmaker in the world.” It talks the talk, but can it walk the walk?

StarSports Welcome Promotions

Promotions aren’t StarSports’ forte. There aren’t a great deal of promotions of any description for players to enjoy at this site, and there are none at all that are aimed at new or would-be players who might be considering signing up to StarSports and giving it a try. There are promotions that you can take advantage of the moment you sign up, but no specific sign-up bonus. It’s odd that a supposedly exclusive private bookmaker or luxury betting brand wouldn’t roll out the red carpet, but it doesn’t.

Other Promotions

Quite a lot of the promotions you may or may not come across at StarSports will depend on what sporting events are happening that day or week. You’ll always find special bets attached to the day’s football action if there are big games happening, and there are sub-sections of small promotions for the afternoon’s greyhound or horse racing. In other words, the promotions section of StarSports is live and constantly updated. Among these temporary promotions are a few that hang around for longer. If you lose your bet on the first goalscorer in a football match, for example, StarSports will refund fifty per cent of your stake if your chosen player scores second instead.

There will be some – not many, but some – players who come to StarSports to play its casino games rather than to bet on sports. A limited number of promotions at the casino are available, but the terms aren’t all that inviting. The biggest ongoing promotion at the StarSports Casino is Star Casino Club. It offers one hundred free spins per week with no wagering requirements attached, but only to players who’ve spent £500 or more on slots during the previous week. That’s a lot of spending for not a lot of bonus action.

Pros and Cons of StarSports

Pros:

This is a very comprehensive sports betting website operated by a brand that’s been around for a long time and is seen as trustworthy. The combination of telephone and social media customer support that it offers means that there’s always someone to speak to if you need assistance.

Cons:

StarSports doesn’t offer many promotions, and those that it does offer aren’t particularly attractive. Worse than that, the site seems to be stuck in the past when it comes to banking. There aren’t many options to choose from and no way to get an instant or even a same-day withdrawal of your funds.

Top Games at StarSports

To ask us what the top games at StarSports are would be to fundamentally misunderstand the site. This is a sports betting site, and the fact that it also offers casino games is more a nicety than an attraction. If you really want to know, the top slots in the StarSports Casino are Hot Pepper and Spin and Score. For 99% of players, though, the top games are the top sporting fixtures that StarSports offers odds on.

Every betting site on the Star Racing Limited platform leads with horse racing, and StarSports itself is no exception. Football takes second billing on the homepage, followed by tennis, golf, and cricket. There’s also more coverage of American Football at StarSports than you’ll find at most UK-facing sports betting websites. For enhanced odds or unconventional betting opportunities, look in the “Star Events” heading on the sub-menu. It could include anything from odds on the next Prime Minister to odds on the next winner of Britain’s Got Talent.

Withdrawal Processing & Support

If you were paying attention when we ran through the pros and cons of StarSports a few moments ago, you’ll remember us saying that payment processing was a major weakness of the site. If you want to conduct transactions with StarSports, you’ll have to do so via bank transfers or debit cards – there’s no support for any other payment methods. One of the consequences of that old-school approach is that you won’t get your money quickly. Debit card withdrawals will take between two and five business days, and while the turnaround time for bank transfers isn’t quoted, it’s probably safe to assume that they take even longer. To cut a long story short, don’t expect fast withdrawals from StarSports – it’s not going to happen.

Customer Services & Licensing

The fastest and easiest way to get in contact with StarSports is to give the team a call on 01273 936840. That’s the dedicated customer service line, but you could also call the betting line on 08000 521321 if you’d rather place bets over the phone than over the internet. Your other option is to contact StarSports via Twitter/X.com, where you’ll find them under the handle “StarSports-Bet.” The UK Gambling Commission licence that covers StarSports is number 9177 and is held by Star Racing Limited. The operator was fined by the regulator in 2023. You can find more information about that in the table above.

StarSports – The Verdict

StarSports makes some very bold claims about itself in the “about us” section of its website, including a suggestion that it’s the UK’s biggest luxury bookmaker and the most exclusive bookmaker in the world. We’re all for a little hyperbole, but we think StarSports went a little too far there – it’s nowhere near being able to back the statements up. Its sportsbook is fine, and there’s plenty to bet on, but until it offers a suite of payment options fit for the 2020s and upgrades its promotions, it’s not going to reach the level that it believes itself to be on.

What are players saying about StarSports?

Here are our condensed / reader’s digest summaries of recent player reviews of StarSports.

• 12 Oct 2023 by Paul:
  I had a terrible experience with their customer service. I asked Anita about monthly rewards and was met with a rude response. No loyalty to customers at all. I’d recommend steering clear of this company. – source: Trustpilot
• 3 Oct 2023 by Christopher:
  I’ve been waiting for two weeks for them to resolve a glitch with my bets. Their customer service has been unresponsive. I wouldn’t recommend this site. – source: Trustpilot
• 2 Oct 2023 by Wayne:
  I had a good experience. After verifying my ID, I won some money and received it in my account within hours. The slots are fair, and payouts are quick. – source: Trustpilot
• 7 Sept 2023 by Tufty:
  The website is okay, but adding a new card caused issues. They asked for too much information and seemed to dislike that I was a responsible gambler. I closed my account because of this. – source: Trustpilot
• 27 Aug 2023 by Frank:
  I feel scammed. I placed a bet on a horse race and won, but they claimed I bet on a different horse. I’m convinced this is a rogue company. – source: Trustpilot
• 22 Aug 2023 by Diana:
  I wouldn’t even give them one star. They’re fake. – source: Trustpilot
• 16 Aug 2023 by William:
  They’re not paying out my slot winnings of £1,114. My winning spins disappeared from their records. Highly suspicious. – source: Trustpilot
• 16 Jul 2023 by Customer:
  Terrible company. They offered me a laughably low maximum bet amount. They’re an embarrassment to the bookmaking industry. – source: Trustpilot
• 9 Jul 2023 by Natalie:
  They’re awful. I had to wait for an hour after a football game to get my winnings. Customer service is unprofessional. I’ve switched to Smarkets for a better experience. – source: Trustpilot
• 7 Jul 2023 by Kev:
  I was doing fine until they suspended my account. They asked for extra ID, which I provided, but I’ve heard nothing back. Terrible communication. – source: Trustpilot