About STS

STS is one of the newer online betting sites in the UK and as such, is not as well known on the market as many of the others, such as Bet365 or William Hill. It is operated by STS Bet Limited is owned by Vivaro Limited and has its headquarters based in Malta. It is licensed by the MGA and the UKGC. The company originated in Poland and have been providing a sports betting service since 2013 – although it is new to the UK market. The company may not be very well known in the UK currently, but it is growing… and is very popular in its homeland of Poland, where is sponsors a number of the major sports teams in the country.

In this STS review, we will be looking at all areas of the site to make sure that it offers its players a good customer experience. We will be checking out the value and quality of the odds on offer, for those looking for value. We’ll also be looking at the STS welcome offer and other bonuses and promotions that are available on the site – for the bargain hunters out there – so you can see if you get value for money on this site, compared to other more well-known brands. We’ll also be checking out the variety of payment methods, withdrawal and deposit limits, the customer service. Mobile app and lots more. Furthermore, we’ll dig down into how safe and secure it is, so you know that you will get a great – and secure bookmaker experience…

Market Offering

Overall, the STS sports and market offering are pretty good. You have to remember that this is not a UK centric bookmaker, so it tends to focus more on European sports rather than UK – for that reason, you won’t find horse racing or greyhounds. However, you will find sports such as football, tennis, darts and cricket, which are always very popular. You can also have a go at some of the lesser popular sports as well if you’re feeling adventurous, such as chess or even sailing. There are plenty of options to choose from if you don’t mind going elsewhere for The Grand National or Cheltenham! However, football is clearly the biggest sport on the site, and as such, it offers plenty of leagues and markets – with odds on leagues in different countries such as England, Italy, Germany Spain and even the leagues in Belarus, Russia, China, Nicaragua and, of course, Poland. You can also place your bets on all the major tournaments around the world, of course.

If you are looking to bet on the Euros, or World Cup final, then you’ll be inundated with pre-match and live betting options and markets, including match winner, correct score, BTTS and lots more. The bigger the game, the more options you’ll find.

The main sports on offer are

However, it seems that it isn’t just sports that the STS betting sites promotes, as there are a number of esport betting opportunities as well. You can bet on games such as e-football, League of Legends, Dota 2, Overwatch and King of Glory.  Furthermore, you can also have a go at betting on politics in countries such as UK, Australia, USA, Poland and New Zealand. Then, if you want to bet on something a little more lighthearted, then you can put money on TV specials and movies – such as the next winner of Love Island – or Dancing on Ice.

Overall, there are plenty of options to bet on, so it offers pretty much everything – apart from horse racing. Obviously, this is a big hole missing in the sports section, but you can always look elsewhere to get your horse racing kicks!

In-Play Betting

Because of the speed on which you can bet on sports nowadays, live and in play betting has never been more popular. It makes watching the match even more exciting if you can quickly put your money on the result of the match. Well, STS doesn’t let you down there. STS in play betting looks good and plays even better. The live betting interface is designed really well, and the background really adds to the overall experience.

You can enjoy live and in play betting on sports such as football, tennis, volleyball, baseball and hockey. Furthermore, they also allow you to use the ‘favourites’ option where you can choose your own picks to make it that little bit more personalized. On the negative side, however, we weren’t too sure about the overview of betting markets in the in-play section as it looked a little confusing for our tastes.

If you want to see the full list of betting markets for a match, then you click on the event. As well as the odds and betting markets, you will also see a stream of what is happening in the match – but not a live stream. This is, however, really helpful as this might help you to make a more informed decision, and not every bookmaker offers this. Unfortunately, though, STS doesn’t offer a live streaming service at the moment, so it can’t compete with some of the bigger sites such as William Hill or Bet365.

Odds

One thing that is very important when it comes to overall user experience on a betting site is the quality and value of the odds on offer. Firstly, it’s good to note that whilst the default display of odds is in decimals, you can actually change them to whatever suits you. Simply scroll to the bottom of the page and you can choose to see the odds displayed in fractional, American, Hong Kong, Malay and Indo – so a big thumbs up there…. But what about value?

Well, when comparing them to other sites we noticed the following… We took a look at major football tournaments and compared them to two other sites, and it came out right in the middle. Overall, the overround was 108.3%, compared to 109.1% and 102.8%. However, it was easier to browse the odds on the STS site, so the experience was a little easier. In other sports we also found that STS was middle of the road – beating some bookmakers on some sports and losing out on others. It’s definitely worth looking around several bookmakers to see what has the best on offer for what you are looking for.

Bonuses

T&Cs Apply

Welcome Bonus

If you’re looking for a very generous welcome package, then you need look no further than the STS sign up offer. This is a very competitive market, and STS is really pulling out the stops to compete for custom and is doing so with a very generous sports welcome package. Overall it comes to £150 split into three different parts:

• 100% up to £25 (min deposit £10)
• 25% up to £50 on second deposit (min deposit £10)
• 50% up to £75 on third deposit (min deposit £10)

This is very unusual as you’ll often see free bets on offer. However, you need to be aware that although the numbers are big, it isn’t quite as much value. If you play with another bookmaker and claim their £30 free bet on a stake of £10, this is a 300% bonus. However, the bonuses here are 100%, 50% and 25%…. so not as much band for your buck. To get bigger bonuses you have to make bigger deposits.

So, how do you get the STS welcome offer and what terms are attached? Well, getting it is really rather simple. Simply sign up to the STS bet website with your email address and password, then click on join at the top right of your screen. Then you can claim your bonuses in the bonus section of your account under the sportsbook tab. The deposit at least £10 to automatically activate the bonus. You can receive your next bonus as soon as all the requirements for the first bonus have been completed.

There are T&Cs attached, but the main ones are as follows:

• The bonus is only available to new STS customers
• The minimum deposit to activate all bonuses is £10 per bonus
• Bonus funds must be wagered 10x before they can be withdrawn – so if you claim a £25 bonus, the wagering requirement is £250
• The wagering requirement for the first bonus must be fulfilled before you can claim the second bonus
• The wagering requirement for the second bonus must be complete before you can claim your third.
• Deposits made with Skrill, Neteller or EcoPayz don’t count
• Bonus funds must be wagered on minimum odds

Check the site for other T&Cs.

Other Offers

As you spend time on the site, you will come to see that there will be other offers that come your way, depending on what is happening at the time. There are bound to be plenty of football promotions, especially when the big tournament promotions are on. The current promotions available are:

Weekly esports £5 Free Bet

STS offers a £5 free bet each week on esports. Simply log into your account, play on esport related markets during the week from Monday to Sunday and if you win £50 or more, STS will give you a £5 free bet that you can use on any esports match. (T&Cs Apply)

Extra 6+

STS Extra 6+ is a smart way of adding insurance to your football acca bet. If one of your picks loses from your accumulator of at least six matches, STS will give you your stake back as a free bet. (T&Cs apply)

Security & Regulation

One of the most important aspects, in a practical sense, is making sure that the betting site is totally safe and secure. The fact of the matter is, you will be putting personal and financial information into the site. You need to know that the site is completely safe and secure. That your information – and money – is in safe hands. The first thing we look for, therefore is that the site has been licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. The UKGC is responsible for looking after and protecting customers on betting sites. It makes sure that the site is completely fair and is operating in a safe way. It also ensures that the betting site has put everything in place to make sure that your funds are protected. If it isn’t UKGC registered, then we would not recommend it. Fortunately, STS is licensed by the UKGC. So, you can rest assured you are betting on a safe and fair site.

As well as this, STS also strongly promotes responsible gambling and works with both GamStop and GambleAware. Furthermore, it is also associated with IBAS (Independent Betting Adjudication Service), which means any disputes that arise are dealt with by a fair and objective third party. Also, there are a number of checks that are put into place to make sure that there are no people able to gamble underage. On top of this, the site keeps all data safe and secure with the use of SSL encryption technology so you will be assured that your data is kept safe from outside sources.

Banking Options

STS is quite a new site in the UK. However, there are plenty of options available for you to deposit and withdraw with. Enough to keep most people happy. You can make transactions with debit cards (although as of 14^th April credit cards cannot be used on any UK gambling site). Obviously, this is the most popular way to make payments. However, you can also make transactions via a number of ewallets including Skrill, Neteller and Trustly. However, PayPal is currently not accepted at this point in time, which is a shame.

The current methods that you can use to make your STS deposits and withdrawals are:

• Visa
• MasterCard
• Skrill
• Neteller
• Trustly
• MuchBetter
• Ozan
• Wirecard
• EcoPayz

Pretty much, there is everything you would want to use, except for PayPal. However, credit cards and PayPal are missed on the site and 2 very popular methods previously.

Currently, there is a minimum deposit of £10 on all banking, which is what you would expect in any betting site these, days, with a few notable exceptions. There Is also a maximum deposit of £5,000, which is reasonably high – and high enough for most. All deposit methods ore completely immediate and free of fees.

Withdrawals are limited to £10,000 maximum and £10 minimum, which is decent unless you have a big win, in which case you might need something a little more. When withdrawing with bank cards it takes between 1 to 3 days. For all other methods, it generally takes under 24 hours to get the money into your account. However, KYC checks can add to the time when completed. The accepted currencies are – EUR, GBP and NOK.

Customer Service

Nothing in life goes perfectly all the time, no matter how good the site. As such, it’s important that the customer service is top-notch. The good news is that the STS customer support team is really good. Firstly, which is a huge plus, they are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This isn’t the case with all bookmakers, so it’s great news. Another big plus from us is that it has a great live chat function, which means that you can contact anyone quickly, as and when you need. These are answered in a matter of minutes, so are perfect if you have an urgent issue you need to deal with. As well as this, they also have an automated email form in the Contact Us section of the site, which is god for general queries or any issue you don’t need to be dealt with urgently. Unfortunately, though, they did not have a telephone contact number that we could see, which is a shame as some people do like to speak with a person when having issues.

As well as all of this though, they do have a very decent, simple yet effective FAQ section on the site. This is very user friendly and allows you access to the answers to all sorts of general queries that you might have. Here you can find out information on areas such as account queries, deposit and withdrawals, terms and condition and minimum betting stakes. This is the best place to go first to see if you can find out what you need here first.

User Experience

One of the things that will make you go back to a betting site, again and again, is the overall user-friendliness of the site. If it’s not easy to use, chances are, you’ll look elsewhere for one that is. When we loaded up the site, we saw that it was laid out in a site similar to many other good and well-loved betting sites – although with its own distinct blue and orange colour scheme. We found the site to load up quickly and with minimal delay and lag… and there weren’t any annoying popups at the beginning.

Finding the login and sign up buttons was easy – so it is easy to get going in the first place. Besides this, you could also find other handy areas of the site, including customer support and all of the site’s current promotions and offers. As well as this, to add to the user-friendliness, you could also change the format of the odds as well as the language of the site if necessary.

However, the main thing is that placing your bet is simple. And it is. All you have to do to make your bet is simply click on the sports tab that is located at the top. You then scroll down all of the sports that are available on the site, on the left-hand side of the page. When you find your sport, find your match, then click on the odds of your selection. This will then add them on to your betting slip. You then add in your stake and wait for the outcome.

This site looks really attractive and is really easy to navigate. It’s user-friendly and does everything you want it to do quickly and easily.

Mobile Experience

We are living in the day of the mobile. This means that more and more people are making bets on their phone and on the go. As such, it’s vital that any betting site has a good mobile site and/or betting app. STS bet ticks one of these two boxes.

Let’s start with the box that it does tick – the very good mobile optimized betting site. You can open the STS website in your mobile browser, and you’ll be more than happy with what you see. It looks brilliant and its also great to use. Everything you want to find on your mobile is just a tap or two away. It’s also very intuitive, which is just what we like. At the top of the mobile site, you can check out areas of the site such as in-play betting and pre-match betting. Furthermore, you can also access the casino section of the site if you like. Once you click on the area of you like, the mobile site works very much like the desktop site – find your sport, find your match add your bet to the slip and get going. You can also add to your account, contact customer service or access any STS promotions on mobile. It’s every bit as good on mobile as it is on desktop.

However, there is a box it doesn’t tick. It currently has no dedicated STS mobile app on iOS or Android. Generally betting apps are useful as they are more personalized and make life easier. However, STS doesn’t have this, which is a shame. The mobile site does make up for it though and is a very good alternative.