To sum up, StanJames are personally one of my favourite bookmakers and I would recommend them to anyone. Their excellent customer service, solid odds and wide variety of markets are key reasons behind my desire to have them in my bookmaker portfolio. I dislike their bet procedure and navigating around their site but I can live with these relatively minor issues. What StanJames really must address is the problem of the site going so slowly at busy periods which must be as frustrating for them (through loss of revenue) as for us (the punters who cannot get our bets on). Regardless of this though, StanJames is a top bookmaker, who continues to improve, and one that you can feel confident that not only your money is safe but that the odds you are getting are likely to be close to the highest you will find. Moreover, their in-running coverage is superb and they will happily take a sizeable bet off you which is impressive these days when many bookmakers are afraid to do so. Therefore, in my eyes, a StanJames account is simply a must-have.

Entrepreneur Steve Fisher began with a handful of betting shops in Berkshire, UK, but after successfully offering phone betting and now internet betting to his customers, has established StanJames as one of the leading sport bookmakers on the net. StanJames opened its first betting shop in 1983 but soon moved to Gibraltar to set up an office there and enjoy the tax relief benefits it offers. They may now be based offshore but StanJames has retained the same characteristics as most British-based firms and remain extremely reliable.

Opening account
Opening a new account with StanJames is very simple. All you have to do is fill in your personal details and your account information (username, password and security question), agree to their terms and conditions and then you are free to deposit and place your first bet. StanJames allow you to select three odd types: Fractions, Decimals or American and offer more currency types than nearly anyone else with an amazing 26 different currencies accepted.

Transactions.
There are numerous ways in which you can fund your StanJames account since Debit Cards, Credit Cards, Western Union, Neteller, Moneybookers, cheques, bankers’ drafts, money orders and bank transfers are all accepted. The minimum deposit varies between £5 and £10 depending on the payment method you use but there are no transaction fees for depositing. You can make as many free withdrawals as you like back to your card or your Moneybookers account but only one free Neteller withdrawal every 30 days is allowed. If you choose a bank transfer then you will be required to send security documents to confirm your identity, your address and your card. It is possible to register more than one card and use other payment methods at the same time which is useful if you want to spread where you deposit from. In terms of speed, StanJames are always quick to process withdrawals, almost always within 48 hours of submitting a request although it obviously takes longer for withdrawals by cheque or bank transfer. As soon as you make a deposit, your account balance is updated and you are able to bet. I have never had any deposit or withdrawal problems with StanJames.

Navigation.
BetFred, BoyleSports and StanJames all use the same software so the navigation is the same at all three and it certainly is not the best out there. It is easy enough finding the sport you want to bet on as these are all displayed on the left but then it all gets a bit more complicated. The default setting when you click on football (for UK users at least) is English football with the match odds for all English games StanJames have appearing. Next to each match is a more bets icon and if you hover over this you can move down to the market you want, such as correct score. If you do not want to bet on English football then there is a drop down menu at the top where you can select the region you want and then all of the odds for that country’s games appear. There is also an option to select Next Events Off where the odds for the next games to kick off appear. In theory this format is appropriate but when their server is playing up, the more bets option does not work properly so you have to select the country from the dropdown menu, then the competition from the next dropdown menu, then the match from the next dropdown menu and finally, the market you want and as this only happens at busy times, you can imagine how long this takes as each time it has to load the next dropdown menu. StanJames do have a Fast Bet Find option where you can enter a keyword to get to your bet more quickly which is useful when the site is slow and dropdown menus are not working as they should.

Webistes graphics and design.
As mentioned in the last section, StanJames uses the same style as both BetFred and BoyleSports. There are slight differences, however, such as in colour, but they share many traits. The design is quite complex but well-thought out with the betting options on the left, links to livescores, live commentary, football stats, horse form and promotions beneath these. On the right hand side of the page you will find quick links to the next horse race, greyhound race, football match and other sporting events to start with links to the casino, poker, slots and games at the top. In the top left you will find a link to an in-running diary which shows all of the events that are live on TV that day and what channel they are on which is a tool that I find really useful and that nowhere else seems to offer. At the top of the page in the centre you fill in your account details to login. You can change what odds are shown in the middle with my default being live betting odds on TV in UK but also available are live betting odds on TV outside of the UK and “What’s on” which describes what betting highlights are available on that day with quick links to the markets promoted. All in all StanJames’ design is very good as it has clearly been engineered to make the customer’s life much easier which is always a good thing.

Refreshingly few graphics are found on the StanJames site. Next to each highlight in the “What’s On” section there is a small image relating to the sport in question and there are also a couple of images relating to current promotions and the payment methods accepted found at the top and bottom of the home page respectively. The speed of the website is one of my main concerns. During off-peak times, StanJames loads very quickly but at peak times, such as on a Saturday afternoon, the sites labours to load and in the past I have been unable to place bets because of this delay. It is certainly infuriating and something StanJames needs to address but if you are desperate to place the bet just before kick-off you can always bet by telephone. During busy periods, even once logged on, it can take an age to get from one screen to the next and this has to be one of the major criticisms of StanJames.

Betting at Stan James.
Once you have found the market you want to bet on, to place a bet at StanJames you simply click on the box of your selection and click view betslip. A pop-up showing your betslip will then appear on your screen where you can type in your stake. To place a multiple bet you can just keeping adding selections until you have all of the selections you want, at which point, you again click view betslip and choose the type of combo bet you wish to choose (double, trixie etc…). At any point you can click view betslip at the top of the page or at the side where it shows you the number of selections you currently have in your betslip. There is no information about what the market limit for that bet is which is something that can be frustrating. Once you have typed in your stake and pressed place bet, you will be taken to a new screen where you will have to confirm the bet before your bet is actually placed. When the site is running slow, this process can take a long time as it takes a while for it to load up the confirmation screen. When you place a bet in-running, you have to wait for the bet receipt screen to show but this takes no longer than any other bookmaker who puts a delay on accepting in-running bets and it is made clear to you whether your bet has been accepted or not.

Customer service.
StanJames’ customer service is one of the best I have come across. They often reply within ten minutes when I have had any queries and their replies have always solved my problems. Importantly their customer service is manned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and you can contact them by phone, email or even by post! They have contact numbers for the UK, Spain, Greece and “Outside the UK.” When I have asked them when odds for specific markets will be put up, they have always responded to my emails quickly and put the markets up within an hour maximum (often as little as ten minutes after receiving my mail) which would suggest they do care about their customers. If that is not enough then they have a Live Chat option which is becoming increasingly popular with punters as it allows queries to be settled very quickly. I just cannot fault StanJames in this respect.

Reliability
Established originally in the UK, you can be sure that StanJames is very reliable. I have never read or heard of any complaints about deposits or payments and their excellent customer service shows they are committed to helping their customers in anyway they can. Being based in Gibraltar could worry some but this is purely a cost-saving exercise rather than anything malicious. You can feel confident betting large sums of money with StanJames as your money is definitely safe with them.

Odds.
StanJames odds are very competitive and it is not rare to find them being near to the market leader on one side or the other. Their traders seem prepared to take a stance, one way or the other, which is to be applauded when these days many bookmakers just seem to copy the others. When betting on certain markets, I always wait to see StanJames’ odds before placing my bets as I know there is a good chance they will have the best offer. Unlike many UK bookmakers, StanJames will bet at 10/11 (1.91) on both sides in most events with two outcomes rather than 5/6 (1.83). That said, recently StanJames has been betting at 5/6 (1.83) on both outcomes on in-running events which is a little disappointing. What is noticeable is StanJames’ willingness to take a large bet on the odds they offer. I have found that StanJames are happy to accommodate bets up to at least £1,000 and they are not known for slashing prices unduly.

 www.stanjames.com