PokerStars Ontario Review 2023: Poker & Casino Online

Take a look at this Pokerstars review for the Ontario site. Sports betting, casino gaming, and competitive poker covered within.

Pokerstars review of the main sportsbook 

Despite the very name of this site having the word ‘poker’ in it, this isn’t all that these guys have to offer. In fact, we wanted to start this Pokerstars review off by talking about one of the more recent additions to the platform – Pokerstars sports betting. This product has officially gone live in Ontario during the mid-point of 2022. And punters are already getting wild about it due to the extensiveness and quality of the sports betting offerings.

Concerning the actual range of sports covered, the selection already looks promising. Pokerstars Ontario has implemented plenty of solid markets for sports like basketball, tennis, baseball, soccer, hockey, and plenty more. Given that these are sports that most Canadian punters will follow, it’s obvious that Pokerstars has done its homework about what to focus on. It’s also important to know that Pokerstars offers both pre-game as well as live betting across the board.

Then for the actual markets, we cannot complain about the overall depth either. For mainstream sports, you’ve often got a choice of moneyline, under/overs, handicaps, and many others to consider. Yet if you’d prefer a different route, you can bet on various outrights and futures. These markets usually relate to things like tournament/competition winners.

Pokerstars sports betting odds and associated limits

Since sports betting is more of an add-on rather than the main product on this site, as we assumed previously, the odds are usually around the market average. Then again, this is better than the odds being below the average! And from time to time, we have noticed that certain Pokerstars sports markets do receive a boost. This can often be the case for major events relating to the mainstream sports leagues in North America/Canada. Just to clarify – this includes leagues such as the NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB, and others.

Then when you look into the betting limits, things still look positive. There is a typical $1 minimum bet level for all of the pre-game markets. And in similar fashion to other sports sites, this is lowered if you choose to make any in-play wagers. You have nothing to worry about in terms of limits relating to maximum payouts either. With Pokerstars being such a major brand, they will payout on bets that run deep into the five and six-figure range.

So unless you were planning on betting thousands for any of the Pokerstars sports markets, you will be just fine.

Pokerstars Review of other platform features

We’ve given you the scoop on the Pokerstars sportsbook at this point. However, with these guys being so formidable within Canada and elsewhere, there is obviously more on the table than just sports betting. Therefore, we just had to ensure that we factored a Pokerstars review of the additional products into the information shared today. Not only that, but in the interest of letting you know what to expect for other important features like banking, support services, and more, we’ve also covered these details.

So, if you’re ready to really dive deep and see what else the Pokerstars Ontario site has available, we suggest you keep going.

Pokerstars Canada streaming options and live betting review

Before we turn our attention to the other products that Pokerstars has, we wish to stick with the sportsbook for a few moments longer. Specifically, it’s time that we talked about the top features. And as you can see, the two features that we want to address right now include streaming and in-play betting. But let’s begin with live streaming since many punters like to use this for an immersive experience.

We are choosing to start with this to get the bad news out of the way first. So as you’ve probably guessed, live streaming isn’t an option at Pokerstars Canada. This means that you cannot actually watch HD sport for any event, which is a bit disappointing. However, coming back to a more positive point now, in-play betting is very much available. In fact, Pokerstars offers live betting for practically every sport covered on the site.

All you have to do is navigate to the main live betting section to see what’s on offer. And despite streaming not being an option, there are other helpful tools that you can use for live betting. These include things like analytics and graphical representations of the event in question.

Cashing out wagers for Pokerstars Sports

It is well known these days that cashout tools can help to improve the value of any bets made. We don’t mean this in terms of the potential payout on your bets. Instead, we mean this in terms of the luxury of being able to end your bet early. Of course, by having such an option you are given an obvious choice. You can either take the offer given to you, which will end the bet, and credit the value to your account. Or you can ignore the offer and keep the bet in play.

The choice is ultimately yours, and it depends on your confidence in the wager. Should you feel that you are on to a winner, you may want to let the bet ride to try and redeem the full potential payout. However, if you’re a little shaky about the wager, ending it early might be a smart move. With this said, of course, Pokerstars does offer cashouts, and they tend to do so for most of the main markets. As a refresher, this relates to options like moneyline, props, handicaps, and a few others.

The Pokerstars app reviewed in detail

With any brand the size of Pokerstars, you’d expect a native app to be available. Therefore, we can confirm right now that there is an app available. It can be installed on both Android and iOS devices, and the main products can be accessed through the app. This includes poker, casino gaming, as well as sports. The app is visually pretty stunning, in our opinion, and it is a walk in the park to find your way around. This makes it feel like a high-quality platform while maintaining a fantastic user experience.

You’ve even got access to many of the premium features through this app too. Key examples include live betting, cashouts, and even access to the live casino – all through one Pokerstars app. So for us, this app is obviously powerful, extensive, and it deserves full credit for how it’s been built.

Banking at Pokerstars Ontario

Banking is another huge element to look into when reviewing a site. And when we review this for any platform, there are a few things we look for. Firstly, we like to check out if there are any fees, of which Pokerstars has none. Secondly, we look into how fast the processing speeds are, for which they are instant. And thirdly, we like to see a user-friendly transaction minimum. For this part, we can confirm that Pokerstars has just a $10 minimum transaction value.

Yet this only identifies the positives of the overall banking structure. There is still the availability of methods to discuss. So on that note, we’d like to state that you can process transactions through methods like MasterCard/Visa, Interac Online, PayPal, Skrill, Play+, and a few others. Most of these methods are available for both deposits and withdrawals, which is another positive.

Support options available on the Pokerstars Canada site

If you ever have problems with using Pokerstars, the first thing you should do is check out the FAQ section. Here you can find answers to all kinds of common questions relating to banking, wagers, and more. Yet if you really want to gain support from an agent, there are a couple of options you may use. These include both an email contact address as well as a live chat option. Of course, it’s handy to have a live chat option especially as this gives you almost immediate access to a support representative.

But we must admit, it’s surprising that there is no phone support. Usually, these bigger sites cover all angles, but Pokerstars Ontario has chosen to ignore the phone option.

General user experience

Pokerstars has clearly structured its site to be visually pleasing. We have been impressed with the aesthetics and various dynamics of the site. Yet it’s fantastic that Pokerstars Canada has kept the performance of the site very high too. We say that because some sites that have great aesthetics can then fall short regarding things like loading times. However, Pokerstars is not one of them. And it’s very simple to navigate around key products through large menu items, as well as through the various verticals once you’re inside these products too.

Alternative products – Pokerstars review

You can see from the very title that Pokerstars has multiple products available. Once you’ve signed up in Ontario, you are given access to all of them. With that said, we haven’t yet provided a Pokerstars review for the casino or poker gaming sections. So let us change that right now.

Pokerstars casino

When you dive into the Pokerstars casino, you will be blown away by the range of games. Currently, Pokerstars has over 1000 for you to experiment with. Many of them have come from providers such as Playtech, IGT, NetEnt, and others too. Since these are heavy hitters of the software world, you can rest assured that the quality of the games in the Pokerstars casino is generally excellent. As for key sub-products, you can browse through live dealer titles, slots, table games, and even jackpots. All of these features qualified PokerStars to join our exclusive list of best online casino reviews.

Poker

Come on, did anyone think that ‘Pokerstars’ didn’t offer online poker gaming? Of course, poker gaming is one of the main products that this site is known for. This platform is home to a barrage of awesome poker variations too. Things like cash games, tournaments, and multi-table events are all listed here. As for the variations, all of the classics are there. Players can pick from Texas Hold’em, Stud, Hi-Lo, Omaha, and countless others.

Pokerstars Review Summary – a diverse and high-quality platform

Now that we’ve covered every angle that we wanted to in this Pokerstars review, there’s just one more thing to do. Since potential customers like to know what the overall rating of a site is, we’d go with a 4.5/5 here. And to be honest, Pokerstars Ontario deserves such a high rating due to the quality that it radiates across the board. Furthermore, we’ve only shaved a half point away for a few minor details too.

These details include things like the absence of live streaming. But let’s be honest, these are things that can be overlooked.

Next, check out our list of the best sports betting sites im Ontario.

Published on March 21, 2023 , Updated March 27, 2023

By Anna SANTOS