2024’s Premier Sports Betting Sites: Expert Ratings, Rankings, and Reviews.
Betting on sports online has transformed into a significant enterprise, with Americans investing billions annually in legal wagers on the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, and beyond. Many enthusiasts opt for online sportsbooks to place their bets thanks to technological advancements and expanded access to online betting services.
It’s All About the Location
Thanks to the 2006 UIGEA bill, Americans have lost access to several gambling sites, sportsbooks among them. You’ve come to the right place if you live in the USA and want details on American-facing books. All of our writers are based in America, and they have experience depositing to top rated US-friendly sports betting websites. We’ve reviewed all the major places you can wager on sporting events while living in America.
We’ve also got experience dealing with Canadian-friendly sportsbook sites and help you find the ideal book for your needs.
Canadian sports bettors have seen some of their deposit and withdrawal methods limited in the past decade, thanks mostly to proximity to the USA. Canadians aren’t as restricted as Americans in terms of finding a legal place to bet. Still, they face headaches regarding account registration and financial transactions that can make it difficult to find a decent place to make a wager. Our reviews of Canada-friendly books go into details that are specific to the needs of bettors from the Commonwealth.
Identifying Trustworthy, Elite Online Betting Sites
Our content provides comprehensive information to guide your betting choices, covering everything from deposit and withdrawal processes to thorough analyses of different sportsbook practices.
Don’t worry if you’re a sports fan who’s never placed a bet before – we’ll walk you through the process.
Our general betting guides over subjects like moneylines, point spreads, and game totals. We’ll also be posting other strategy content to help people step up from amateurs to seasoned veterans. These guides are here to offer information that we wish people would have offered us when we were just starting out.
Sportsbook Reviews
We’ve all read reviews that failed to do anything but promote a book. That’s not what we’re about – since the goal of this site is to connect wannabe-bettors with services that fit their needs, we’ve included specifics on each book, both good and bad. Included in our reviews are details about payment methods, available markets, and other facts that will actually prepare you to place a bet. If you’re sick of thinly-veiled advertisements and want to read actual review content, you’ve found the right place.
Depositing Guides for each Sportsbook
The best way to learn the ins and outs of depositing and withdrawing cash from online betting sites like Bovada is to listen to the experiences of people who’ve done it before. We cover American- and Canadian-friendly deposit methods in detail, including information on pending times, time-in-transit, and any available bonuses you can claim by using a specific method. Yes, pulling off a financial transaction with a betting site can be a chore, but it’s nowhere near impossible – provided you have the right information.
Signup Bonus Guides for each Sportsbook
Our guides to sign-up bonuses and promos are written with the end-user in mind, rather than as advertisements for a specific book. We’ve got current details on promotions and other sign-up offers available at USA- and Canada-friendly sportsbooks. Though the North American market for gambling has locked up significantly in the decade since the passage of anti-gambling legislation in America, promotions are still a big part of the industry, used to entice customers to make deposits, refer customers, or reload their accounts.
Advantages of Betting Online
At one point, the only place in North America where you could be a serious sports bettor was in Las Vegas. It was the only place that offered a full menu of betting options, but most importantly, it was the only place that provided a competitive marketplace for bookmakers. There were a variety of bookmakers, large and small, looking to attract the betting dollar. This also meant that different odds were available at different books, and the ‘shopping points’ process is one of the most effective tools for a long-term successful sports bettor.
Times have changed. Las Vegas is all but trying to get out of the gambling business, favoring the ‘no downside risk’ of big shopping malls and EDM nightclubs. This is particularly true of sports betting, which, unlike slot machines, is a beatable discipline. The Nevada sports betting market has consolidated, and the state’s regulatory and governmental oversight entities are more concerned about shielding the big casino companies from competition and not creating an environment where the industry can grow.
Why You Should Bet Online
Even in Las Vegas, the ‘sharp’ players know the advantages of betting online. All of the major sportsbooks offer an online or mobile interface, and that’s the preferred choice of most smart players. More significantly, the overwhelming majority of ‘sharp’ Las Vegas sports bettors also play at any number of the online sportsbooks.
More Convenient: You can access a wide menu of betting options including bet types and sports that Las Vegas won’t touch. The entire betting board is available from your computer and in most cases your tablet or mobile phone. You don’t have to hang out inside a smoky, dingy casino to place and follow your bets. You can do it from anywhere.
Greater Variety of Bets: You’ll not only have access to features like live betting but the average sporting event will have significantly more types of bets available at online sportsbooks than at even the best Las Vegas sports book. You’ll be able to bet on individual periods, quarters and halfs. You’ll have multiple lines available at different prices for the same games. You’ll have a full menu of innovative proposition bets that you won’t find in Las Vegas. You’ll also have access to a wider menu of betting options including European basketball and hockey, a world of soccer betting and even sports that are unfamiliar to American bettors such as snooker and darts.
More Competitive Odds Environment: This is the most significant advantage of betting online. You have a much more competitive odds environment than any land based casino jurisdiction. More importantly, you can ‘shop points’ at the touch of a mouse to find the most advantageous price at which to place your bet. This may seem like a minor advantage but these types of incremental edges add up which is why professional bettors shop prices religiously.
The online betting marketplace is nothing like it was in the early days. There are industry leaders with a proven track record for solid customer service and prompt, accurate payouts. These are serious businesses that do their level best to provide the best sports betting experience anywhere.
Finding the Right Online Betting Site
In the early days of the online betting boom it was a never ending struggle trying to keep track of the many places to bet. New sites were coming online every week, many offering very attractive bonuses and other perks. Few, if any, of the sites that offered ‘too good to be true’ bonuses are still around.
Times have changed and the online betting sites that have endured since the early days have for the most part earned the trust and respect of the betting community. Stories of ‘scam books’ that pop up, take players’ money and disappear are few and far between. The majority of the top online betting sites available to players today are decent, with the top tier being as trustworthy as any bank or financial institution.
Here are a few tips for finding an online betting site that provides a great betting experience and that you can trust:
Get a recommendation from an experienced bettor: You can start by asking around. You’ll likely hear some of the same names come up over and over again. If you don’t know any experienced bettors you should take advantage of the expertise provided on this site. We’ve got in depth reviews of our most highly rated books so you should be able to get a good idea of which one is right for you.
Check out their website and bet offerings: A fancy, flashy website doesn’t mean much. You want to find a website that is functional and utilitarian with an easy to navigate betting menu and a quick and intuitive bet placement process. You should also check out the variety of sports offered. Most highly recommended books will have all of the major betting sports-football, basketball, baseball, hockey, etc. If you’re looking to bet on European sports like rugby or if you want an extensive selection of world soccer leagues make sure to check it out.
Look for competitive odds: In theory, you want to have ‘multiple outs’. This means you should have accounts at more than one sportsbook so that you can place your bets at the most advantageous price. You’ll always find some differences between sports books but it’s a good idea to compare the prices at any book you’re considering with what is found elsewhere. If you notice that the book you’re evaluating is *always* less advantageous than other books you might want to keep looking.
Check deposit and withdrawal options: For a US based player, you’ll have to accept the fact that you just won’t have as many banking options as other countries in the world. That being said, you want to make sure that a site has multiple options for making deposits and withdrawals. You’ll likely find a similar offering at every US facing sportsbook. One of the best options for banking now is Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. More and more sportsbooks are offering this option and that might also be a consideration.
Read reviews: First a word of warning-you can’t always trust review sources. There are some ‘review sites’ that are actually owned by sportsbooks. Others will give a positive review in exchange for ‘financial consideration’. Some even use boilerplate reviews actually provided by the sportsbook being reviewed. This site is a good place to start. Our reviews have been conducted by longtime sports betting veterans who have experienced on both sides of the counter. Not every book is the right fit for every player and we try to write our reviews so that you can make a solid decision of a sports betting provider for your betting style and bankroll.
One thing that you will notice-no matter which method you choose for evaluating an online sportsbooks you’ll hear the same names come up over and over again. You’ll also see that many of those names are the sportsbooks that we have highly rated. There are good new sportsbooks that come online now and then but there’s just not a good reason to go anywhere other than a highly recommended, well established online betting site.
Mobile Sports Betting
Now that so many mobile-oriented betting options are available, we thought it would be nice to offer a set of mobile-specific articles for those customers interested in sports bets on-the-go.
The mobile revolution is upon us – actually, it happened a couple of years ago. Now, it’s difficult to find a betting website that doesn’t offer some form of mobile interaction. Technology has improved a lot, so now there is little difference between the traditional desktop display and the display for mobile customers, except for the size of the screen. If you’re interested in mobile betting, be sure to spend some time with these articles.
Opening a sportsbook account means more than just making bets and making deposits. It’s difficult to find detailed information on every aspect of Web-based betting – but not anymore. Our goal is to help you learn everything you can about this fast-growing hobby before you open your account, so you feel more confident at every step along the way.
Online Sports Betting Questions and Answers
If you have any questions about online betting, then you can review the following Q&A; section, which covers many common betting inquiries.
In the United States, online sports betting is a murky and complicated matter, with individual states making it a prosecutable offense to wager on sports. These states include: Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington.
Many offshore sportsbooks avoid offering services to one or more of these states, but they still serve the vast majority of the US. As long as you live outside of the aforementioned states, you should have no trouble wagering on sports.