Draftstars review & rating Australia 2024
Visit! INFO
- URL PlayUp.com.au
- Licence Northern Territory Racing Commission
- Type: Daily Fantasy Sports
Draftstars is one the top real money fantasy sports or tournament betting sites in Australia. DraftStars, while claiming “this is not fantasy” is probably the most popular tournament betting option down under, having been formed by what is today the PlayUp bookmaker. All of the major Australian sports, like the AFL and NRL, are covered extensively by Draftstars which means you should not have much trouble finding something that interests you. Draftstars can be accessed on the PlayUp.com.au website by desktop, mobile and even via their apps, which are available for Android and iOS smartphones. Continue reading our Draftstars review to learn all about what is on offer at this online betting company.
How to register at Draftstars
Draftstars like we previously mentioned is now available on the PlayUp.com.au URL, which is kind of cool, given that you can now use the bookmaker and DFS with one account.
Registering at PlayUp + Draftstars is straight-forward and involves filling in a digital form, like the above image, with things like your name, email, address and a password.
Most Australian customers at PlayUp will auto verify their account with the details they provide during this stage. But know that registration at Australian betting sites must be verified to comply with laws set out by state governments.
Draftstars tournament betting – How does it work?
Tournament betting allows you to bet against other punters in a tournament environment, with the winner declared the person who gets the most points. To play DraftStars tournament betting follow these steps:
- Open a new account at DraftStars
This involves handing over your personal details via a digital form, with things like your name, address, email, date of birth and phone number required.
- Funding your DraftStars account
One of the most important parts of playing real money fantasy sports is funding your account. While Draftstars deposit options are not as plentiful as other Australian gambling operators, they do have your standards like credit and debit card and POLi.
- Select your event at Drafstars.com.au
Now you have funded your Draftstars account, you are ready to choose what tournament you want to enter. These generally grow in number over the weekends, although you will also find plenty of events on during the week.
- Pick your team
Using NRL as an example, at the time of writing our DraftStars review, there was a tournament running on Monday’s matches. This means you need to choose your line-up from the players taking the field on this chosen day, while managing to keep them under your salary cap. One you have done this, hit submit line-up and your officially entered.
- How to get the results of your DFS event at DraftStars
You can either follow the tournament live or check back in after the matches to see how your team went. The more points each of your team score, the more likely your team is to win.
- Cashing out winnings at DraftStars.com.au
If you are lucky enough to win at DraftStars.com.au, you will need to be able to cash out your winnings, which can be done via bank transfer or by transferring back to the card you used to deposit.
- DraftStars account verification
When gambling with real money in Australia you need to verify your account before you can withdraw, or use it consistently. The DraftStars verification process is usually done automatically during the sign up process, but if for some reason this is not approved, you may need to fax or email in documents proving your identity. This means it’s crucial you give the correct details during the DraftStars sign up process.
** Each sport with Daily Fantasy Sports surrounding it will have slightly different rules and scoring surrounding it, so be sure to read the fineprint before committing real money.
DraftStars Australia review
While daily fantasy sports is massive in the USA, it is definitely more of a niche in Australia, where online betting has been legal for many years. Having said this, we found writing our DraftStars review, that this website is a really cool Australian facing version of DFS.
We are traditionally wary of fantasy, because it’s easy to get swallowed up by a good forecaster, who has crunched the numbers, but we will often enter their AFL tournaments. Largely because you can win so much, from a little outlay.
DraftStars does not operate like a traditional bookmaker, which means you won’t find hundreds of different sports available to bet on. Rather you will find sports that have keen interest in Australia, with these generally including the football codes, horse racing and other sports with major events surrounding them.
You can enter DraftStars betting tournaments as many times as you like, which can be frustrating for those of us with smaller bankrolls, when someone comes along and enters a tournament 20 times. However this does not tend to happen with the smaller value tournaments.
While we did not check every sports we found player values in the NRL and AFL to be spot in and roughly adapted from Champion Data, which is the top statistical analysis of these two sports. When choosing these players the interface is well laid out, with all sorts of information like their average points scored and current form displayed.
What betting tournaments are available at DraftStars?
There are various sports available at Draftstars with betting tournaments surrounding them. At the time of writing this DraftStars DFS review the following sports had tournaments surrounding them
Draftstars Rapid Fire review
DraftStars Rapid Fire is a unique event that allows you to bet on selected player matchups 1 v 1, which is a cool little twist. Rapid fire is designed to be finished quickly and only runs on certain events, but we really like this product and an see it being expanded in the future. There are two diferent types of Rapid Fire games available at DraftStars AU.
Rapidfire 3: Pick 3 out of 5 winning player match-ups with this netting you a payout of 1.8x your initial stake.
Rapidfire 5: Pick five out of five winning player match-ups with this winning your a return of 20x your bet.
DraftStars mobile review
DraftStars is accessible across all devices, including mobile, which is important given this is how most people do their gambling in modern times. DraftStars mobile is accessible via both their mobile website and their downloadable apps.
The mobile website is essentially a strip-backed version of the desktop website, but the good news is you can access everything you want in terms of tournaments. The navigation was reasonably simple after you have used the mobile Draftstars site for a while, with it easy to enter and view tournaments after they are underway.
When playing at DraftStars you will also have the option to access tournament betting via their apps. The DraftStars Android app can be downloaded directly from their website, with this standard practice for this type of smartphone application.
The DraftStars iOS and Apple app is slightly different to access, with customers needing to open a new account at DraftStars before being prompted to download the app when they visit the site on their iPhone or iPad.
In summary, we found everything to be above board and in order when writing our DraftStars mobile review.
DraftStars login & URL
- URL: https://playup.com.au/
- Login: Login
Draftstars is exceptionally easy to access with the URL found at https://playup.com.au/ with it possible to login here via both desktop computer and mobile devices. You can also login and sign up for a Draftstars account via their apps, which are available for both Android and iOS smartphones.
Draftstars sign up offer and promotions
Unfortunately DraftStars does not have a sign up bonus offer or free bet available, with these outlawed under Australian law. This means DraftStars is not on their own when it comes to this situation, with no bookmakers allowed to offer new account incentives.
This essentially means websites like the Australian Gambling List are unable to market any of the promotions available at DraftStars and the operators themselves can only market them to you once you are logged in. This means as a punter it pays to have several different accounts and check back before each time you bet.
Draftstars AUD deposit options
Draftstars has got plenty of convenient deposit options for Australian dollar deposits, with these including payment options such as web wallets, debit and credit cards and even unique options like cash payments.
While Drafstars deposits are generally instant, there can be a slight wait on withdrawals. For example, when cashing out with Paypal, it can take anywhere between two and eight days for the money to hit your account.
The full list of Draftstars payment types include:
- Paypal
- American Express
- Discover
- Mastercard
- Visa
- Cash-In
DraftStars history in Australia
Draftstars history is not long in comparison to other Australian online betting sites, having been launched in 2016. Originally owned by Crownbet and 7 Media, DraftStars was sold to PlayUp in 2017, with Daniel Simic taking charge.
DraftStars did require some propping up from investors but seems to have stabilised in recent times and has found a niche in Australian sports betting.
This tournament betting website has got a Northern Territory Racing Commission license, putting them on par with bigwigs in the Australian betting industry like Sportsbet and Neds, which should fill you with confidence that this is a safe place to play real money games.
DraftStars Australia review 2024
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Draftstars is one of the few limited Daily Fantasy Sports options that Australians can access and while we are not the biggest fans of this type of gambling, because it’s so heavily stats driven and has been taken over by algorithms, we have no hesitation recommending it.
DFS in comparison to the USA is not as popular in Australia, because sports betting sites have been legal for many years. However, the growing component of Australians wagering on US sports has sparked more interest. This has lead to greater variety in the tournaments at DraftStars and we have entered horse racing and NBA ones recently.
Overall, if you are looking for a Daily Fantasy Sports site that is legal and accessible to Australians, DraftStars is a strong option.