Sportsbook Reviews: What is the Best US Online Sportbook?

US sportsbook reviews are trending due to the expanding nature of American sports betting. On May 14, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court repealed the Professional and Amateur Sports Betting Act (PASPA), which governed US sports betting for the previous 25 years. Overnight, it was legal for individual US states to legalize retail and online sportsbooks.

Since then, sports betting ads dominate tv broadcasts of US sports. Slots Guys has decided to embrace the uptick in sportsbook interest by posting our own reviews of the top online bookmakers. Our goal is to post many online sportsbook reviews, plus a few land-based sportsbook reviews. Keep reading for our introduction to US sportsbook reviews, and read five mini-reviews of the best online sportsbooks.

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Sportsbook Reviews

As more US states legalize retail sportsbooks and mobile sports betting apps, sportsbook reviews become more important. Thus, we plan to visit the top retail sportsbooks in America and review each of them. With some minor differences, this review process mirrors much of what you’ll see in the online sportsbook reviews below.

The setting is important with retail sportsbooks (the common name for land-based sports betting operations). If you drive to a brick-and-mortar sportsbook, it should have plenty of seating, good food and drink, and enough tv screens that you can keep an eye on your game. Also, betting in person should be easy, while the tech used for live betting should allow seamless betting.

In addition to dining, drinking, and viewing sporting events, our sportsbook reviews incorporate most of the factors that online sportsbook reviews include.

Online Sportsbook Reviews

Before publishing an online sportsbook review, we look at a number of key factors. Readers should use these same factors as a checklist of criteria when they choose an online bookmaker site. The factors we consider include:

Signup Process
Bonuses and Promotions
Sports Betting Markets
Live Betting
Sports Betting Odds
Deposits and Withdrawals
Customer Service

Signup Process

Signing up for the sportsbook should be easy. When you click “Register”, the popup registration form should work easily. The information required should be to the point: name, address, username, and email address. Either the site shouldn’t require a bonus code or it should be easy to acquire the bonus with the promo code.

Sportsbook Bonuses

Speaking of bonuses, the online sportsbook should have lucrative offers for people who use credit cards and crypto methods. Also, the wagering requirements should be simple. If possible, the site should offer a risk-free bet for new depositors, too. This encourages sports bettors to make a big bet on the first deposit but with 50% of the risk they normally would face.

Betting Options

The sportsbook should have odds on all the sports: American football, European football, basketball, baseball, hockey, golf, tennis, and MMA. Beyond that, the sportsbooks should have odds on the NFL, NCAA football, NCAA basketball, NBA, MLB, and NHL. Soccer bettors should be able to bet on the English Premier League (EPL), La Liga, Series A, and Bundesliga. The MLS should be available.

Other major sports organizations should be represented. That includes the PGA, the ATP, the WTA, and the UFC. A few little-known sports should be available, such as handball and darts. If international bettors are welcome, sports like cricket should be available. Also, Esports should have sports betting markets. Prop bets should involve sports, entertainment, awards shows, and politics.

Live In-Game Betting

Not only should all of that be available, but live in-play betting should be an option. The Live Betting page takes all of the sporting events above and sets odds and prop bets while the event is taking place. Bettors should be able to wager on full-game and half-time bets, while the point spread, run lines, and puck lines should change throughout the game.

The live betting page should have live streaming of the event, or at least live updates of the score as the game happens.

Competitive Odds

The odds should be competitive. While a single sportsbook isn’t likely to have the best odds on every sporting event or sports betting market, it should be the best at many of them. Bettors should shop for the best odds before they make their sports wagers. Learn how to read odds, then figure out which sportsbooks consistently post the best odds.

In our sportsbook reviews, we compare the different bookmaker sites’ odds. One might be better at baseball, while the other is better at NFL football. Or one sportsbook might have better point spreads, while another one might have better over/under bets or moneyline bets. This is important stuff.

Software and Betting Controls

The software package should make betting easy. For instance, most sportsbooks offer Daily Boosts, same-game parlays, and Parlay Builder tools. These help a gambler access a full range of bets, while also getting the best deals on the sites. If the software package isn’t good enough, making a parlay bet or finding the best odds possible becomes difficult if not a nightmare.

Thus, a sportsbook’s software package is massively important.

Deposits and Withdrawals

One way offshore online sportsbooks separate themselves from licensed bookmaker sites is the sheer number of payment options. Sites like BetUS accept all major credit cards and debit cards but also offer deposits with Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies, money orders, and cashier’s checks. Licensed sportsbooks tend to have one or two credit cards, PayPal (maybe), and ACH.

This becomes really important when we get to withdrawals. Usually, a sportsbook requires you to withdraw winnings with the same banking method that you used for the last deposit. Credit cards aren’t always payout methods, while debit cards never are. Thus, crypto withdrawals become important, because they are faster, safer, and cheaper than courier checks or bank wire transfers.

Customer Service

While we hope that a bookmaker site never has technical issues or software glitches, these things happen. When they do, the customer service reps should be knowledgeable, helpful, fluent, and friendly. Just as important, they should be available 24/7 via live chat, telephone, and email.

The Best US Online Sportsbooks

Now that you know what factors create a good online sportsbook, let’s take a look at the five best US online sportsbooks. In the space below, we review five top US online sportsbooks. We start with the BetUS Sportsbook review, which we rate the best site of them all.

BetUS Sportsbook Review

The BetUS Sportsbook is easy to navigate because it has everything in a menu at the right side of the page. The list of sports includes football, basketball, ice hockey, baseball, golf, tennis, soccer, martial arts, and horse racing. Because it’s a US sportsbook, it places special links for NFL Futures and College Football Futures at the top of the menu.

Below the main sports, BetUS also has a “Today’s Tracks” link for horse betting. Under that, you’ll find links for boxing, table tennis, NASCAR, other motorsports, rugby, cricket, darts, handball, and snooker. If you don’t want to bet on traditional sports, you’ll find links for E-Sports, Politics, Entertainment, and Financials.

You’ll also find a “Novelty” link, which includes New Year’s predictions, a human mission to Mars, and whether ChatGPT will win a Pulitzer Prize (it won’t). This section includes bets on TikTok, Twitter, Elon Musk, the Vatican, and Harry & Meghan.

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BetUS Sportsbook Bonuses

BetUS Sportsbook has a 125% sign-up bonus that includes 100% for sports and 25% for the casino with a 10x rollover on sports. It also has a 200% Crypto Signup Bonus that includes 150% on sports and 50% on casino games. This offer has a 15 rollover on sports. Both have a minimum deposit requirement of $100.

If you want a simple sports bonus, you can accept the 100% Crypto Sports Bonus up to $2500. This has a minimum deposit requirement of $100 and a 10x rollover on sports. If you prefer a pure sports betting-related crypto bonus, you can choose the 100% Sports Bonus up to $2500. This also has a 15x rollover and a $100 minimum deposit requirement. In all, BetUS has 12 different signup bonuses. Here are the four that most sports bettors will prefer.

125% Signup Bonus – JOIN125

200% Crypto Signup Bonus – JOIN200

100% Crypto Sports Bonus – SU100CRYPT

100% Sports Bonus – RU100CRYPT

Offshore Sportsbook Reviews

Our top pick is BetUS Sportsbook because it has all of the bets you could want plus a bunch of lucrative bonuses. That doesn’t mean BetUS is the perfect sportsbook for everyone. To give US bettors other options, we’ve included a few other offshore sportsbook reviews below. Next up are two excellent bookmaker sites: MyBookie and XBet.

MyBookie Sportsbook Review

When you visit MyBookie, you’ll see the “Featured Odds” section, which includes the popular bets of the day. Currently, this includes the 2023 Leagues Cup Odds, EUFA Europa Conference League, 2023 Women’s World Cup, PGA Odds for the 3M Odds, UFC 291 Odds, NFL Preseason Odds, and WNBA odds. Below that, you’ll find links for golf, basketball, hockey, soccer, tennis, Esports, futsal, and rugby.

You’ll find live betting links for MLB, MLS, WNBA, NFL, NCAA Football, Golf, Boxing, MMA, Tennis, Motor Sports, Soccer, NBA, NHL, and 23 other sports betting markets. It’s a huge list of sports betting opportunities.

The cashier sections include deposits using Visa, MasterCard, Bitcoin, and ten other cryptocurrencies. When it’s time to make a withdrawal, you’ll withdraw using Bitcoin or bank wire transfers.

MyBookie Sportsbook Bonuses

With the bonus offers, MyBookie Sportsbook keeps things simple. Its first deposit bonus is up to $1000, while you also receive a $10 casino chip. This is the 50% Sports Welcome Bonus. Later, you’ll be able to access the 25% Sports Reload Bonus for existing customers and the 8% Horse Rebate Bonus for existing customers.

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XBet Sportsbook Review

We like the layout of XBet. If you want to wager on specific sports, it’s easy to navigate the site. For instance, the Featured Odds menu is grouped by sport. Thus, the NBA Basketball Odds section has sub-sections like NBA Game Odds, NBA Championship Odds, NBA to Make the Playoffs Odds, and Playoff Series Prices. All of the other sports are the same, so you’ll find Champions League Odds and Champions League Futures, for instance.

XBet has a “Live Lines” section, so you can see the sports that are active at the moment. Below that, you’ll find all of the betting lines. Thus, if the NFL or NBA isn’t active at the moment, you can scroll down the page to find NFL Futures or NBA Futures. The same goes for the Live Betting page. In all, you’ll find 35 different sports available on XBet.

That includes less popular betting options like lacrosse, water polo, table tennis, volleyball, and handball. It also includes ESports, entertainment, and political bets. If you want to bet on HBO’s Hard Knocks featuring the New York Jets, it’s available on XBet Sportsbook. The XBet cashier includes Visa, MasterCard, Bitcoin, and 10 other crypto methods. It also includes Person2Person, which lets you move money from peer to peer. If you want to deposit using Dogecoin, BNB, or Shiba Inu, XBet is the sportsbook for you.

XBet Sportsbook Bonuses

New depositors at XBet Sportsbook receive the first deposit sports bonus of up to $500. This is a 50% match bonus with a $45 minimum deposit requirement and a 7x rollover requirement. To activate the bonus, use the promo code XBET50.

XBet also has a 25% Reload Bonus with a $100 minimum deposit requirement and a 5x rollover. The bonus code for the reload bonus is XB25. If you bet on horses, XBet Sportsbook offers a 7% Horse Rebate on weekly losses. It’s a competitive bonus package, along with a first-class sportsbook and live betting page.

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Other Books We Have: Bonus Sportsbook Reviews

Those aren’t the only sportsbooks we highlight. Below we have two more bonus sportsbook reviews for US sports bettors: Bovada and BetOnline. These are two of the most famous sportsbook sites that accept US players. Both are offshore sportsbooks, but they are everyday names in the online and mobile sports betting world.

Bovada Sportsbook Review

For American gamblers, Bovada Sports has a full range of betting markets. Bovada is the US-facing counterpart to Bodog Sports, so Bovada is designed with US sports bettors in mind. The Bovada sportsbook has pages for football, baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, and golf. It also has a 12-sport “Trending Events” menu, so you won’t miss any major betting opportunities.

Also, Bovada Sports has a live betting page. The sheer number of sports betting markets is impressive. As I write this, the list includes Spence vs. Crawford, UFC 291, The League Cup, the FIFA Women’s World Cup, soccer club friends, and even alien prop bets. It also includes a prop builder tool to help people make the bets they want to make.

Bovada Sportsbook Bonus

Bovada has a $250 welcome bonus when depositing with Visa or MasterCard. It also has a $750 Crypto Welcome Bonus when you deposit using Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Tether. To receive this bonus, use the deposit bonus code BTCSWB750.

The rollover is 5x for sports betting, 5x for horse betting, and 30x for casino betting. The rollover requirements are the same for the $250 Welcome Bonus or the $750 Crypto Sports Welcome Bonus. Live dealer games don’t apply to the casino bonus.

BetOnline Sportsbook Review

The interface for BetOnline Sports is immediately impressive. When you first visit the site, in red you’ll see the Live Betting link. You’ll also see a special link for props bets, Odds Boosters, and Same Game Parlays. These are the special promotions that many sportsbooks offer, but the list of Odds Boosters and Same Game Parlays is much larger than the licensed sportsbook sites.

Under the special deals is the main sports section on BetOnline Sports. That includes baseball, basketball, football, hockey, boxing, golf, martial arts, soccer, and tennis. Props and Futures bets are at the bottom of the page. You can set up your favorite sports under “Favorites”, while you’ll find everything else in the “Other Sports” section.

In the Other Sports section, you’ll find Aussie rules football, auto racing, cricket, horse racing, lacrosse, snooker, Rugby Union, table tennis, swimming, water polo, and wrestling bets. You’ll also find entertainment bets, politics bets, lottery gaming, and financials. Esports is a betting option, while everything is available on the BetOnline Live Betting page.

Look on the right side of the page for the Bet Slip, which makes it easy to make straight bets, parlay bets, teasers, and If Bets.

BetOnline Sportsbook Welcome Bonus

The BetOnline Sports welcome bonus has a 50% match bonus up to $1000 when you use the promo code BET1000. It also has a 100% 1st Time Crypto bonus of up to $1000 when you use the bonus code CRYPTO100. This has a 14x rollover requirement, along with a $20 minimum deposit amount.

If you’re an ongoing sports bettor, you can access the 25% Sports Reload Bonus when you make a $100 deposit and use the bonus code LIFEBONUS. If you prefer to use crypto payments, you’ll receive the 30% Crypto Reload Bonus when you make a $100 deposit and use the bonus code CRYPTO30.

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Sportsbook Reviews FAQ

What is a sportsbook?

A sportsbook is a gambling operator that keeps a book on all of the major sporting events of the day (and some minor sporting events). The sportsbook, also known as a bookmaker, hires an oddsmaker to set point spreads, moneyline odds, and totals bets on each game. They also create proposition bets, including game props, team props, and player props.

Meanwhile, a sportsbook has live betting on games, also known as in-game betting. A sports bettor can walk up to the cashier, place a bet, sit in a comfortable room, and have food and drinks while watching the game. A sportsbook does all of this, and a sportsbook is all of those things.

In the online gambling industry, a sportsbook does most of those same things (except for food and drink). The sportsbook sets lines, totals, odds, and prop bets. That same sportsbook takes a fee for setting lines, then offers them to the public. Such sites also offer welcome bonuses, risk-free bets, daily boosts, and parlay builders to encourage players to play.

Sportsbooks must have a reputation for fairness and fast payouts, or the operation fails. Bettors wouldn’t visit such places and pay the vig if they didn’t trust a sportsbook to keep things fair.

How do sportsbooks make money?

Sportsbooks make money from the vigorish, also known as the vig or the juice. The vig is the sports betting equivalent to the rake in poker. To compensate itself for setting the lines and handling the bet fairly, the house takes a 9% to 11% skim of the turnover. That is the vig.

That’s why a typical moneyline for a 50-50 game is -110. This means you have to bet $110 in order to receive a $100 payout. If it was an even-up bet, then you would only have to bet $100 to receive a $100 payout. That’s the juice at work, and it’s why sportsbooks thrive.

An axiom in sports betting exists. For a sports bettor to break even, they must win 52% of the time. That’s because of the vig.

Are offshore sportsbooks legal?

Absolutely, at least from the perspective of a US sports bettor. If you wager at an offshore online sportsbook or mobile sports betting app while residing in the United States, you won’t be prosecuted or fined for gambling online. No US citizen has ever been prosecuted for betting on sports online. What you do in the privacy of your own home is your business. The same goes for a mobile sportsbook app anywhere in your home city.

What any US ban on online sportsbooks applies to is the operators. If a person set up a sports betting site with servers in that state and took bets on them, they would be prosecuted. Offshore sportsbooks operate beyond US jurisdiction, so US bettors can play there with no trouble. In fact, offshore sportsbooks tend to be licensed in other countries.

The real concern for US bettors at offshore sportsbooks is safety, fairness, and reliable payouts. While you won’t face legal consequences, you don’t have legal protections if the bookmaker stiffs you. Therefore, you should read online sportsbook reviews to assure you pick a safe and trusted online bookmaker site.

What sportsbooks are legal in Florida?

At the moment, none of the legal online sportsbooks are “legal” in Florida. Also, Florida doesn’t have legal retail sportsbooks at the moment. The State of Florida signed a sports betting compact with its key land-based casino operator, the Seminole Tribe of Florida. Unfortunately for Florida sports bettors, a U.S. federal judge threw out the sports betting compact as unconstitutional.

In 2021, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Seminole Tribe of Florida Chairman Marcellus Osceola Jr. signed the sports betting compact. The two originally agreed on a 30-year sports betting deal. Described as a “hub-and-spoke” deal, bettors anywhere in the state could have wagered on sports. The hub was the Seminole Tribe’s reservation lands, where the servers for the mobile sports betting operation would be based.

Two other Florida gaming venues filed suit against the deal. The owners of Bonita Springs Poker Room in Southwest Florida and Magic City Casino in Miami-Dade County claimed the deal would undermine their pari-mutuel wagering businesses. In November 2021, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich ruled that the compact was illegal. Friedrich stated that servers hosted on the reservation were not the same as visiting reservation lands to gamble. Thus, the deal violated the 1988 Indian Gaming Act and the Florida Constitution.

Florida appealed the decision and, in June 2023, a 3-judge appellate court ruled that Dabney Friedrich erred in her November 2021, so it appears the sports betting compact will go ahead. It’s too soon after the decision to see how the appellate court’s ruling will affect Florida sportsbooks, though.

What should I look for in an online sportsbook?

Different bettors have their preferences, but a complete online sportsbook would have each of the following factors:

The Most Betting Markets: A good sportsbook should have odds on at least 20 major sports. Also, each sporting event should feature lots of sports betting markets: game props, team props, and player props.
Reputation and Security: Decide whether you want to bet at a legal online sportsbook or an offshore bookmaker site. Both of these have advantages. In either case, pick a site with licensing, regulatory oversight, and a good reputation.
Best Welcome Bonuses: Offshore sportsbooks offer the best welcome bonuses. Often they have a risk-free bet, while they also have crypto bonuses.
Top Other Promotions: Reload bonuses are also important. So are the aforementioned risk-free bets, which are called No-Sweat Bets in the regulated gaming market.
The Best Odds: More than any bonus, sportsbooks with the best odds save you money. If a team has +350 odds one on site and +400 odds on the other, you make money choosing the +400 sportsbook.
Banking Options: The more payment methods, the better the sportsbook. That’s especially true if a site has your chosen payment method. We prefer sites with crypto deposits and crypto bonuses.

What are the licensed online sportsbooks?

The licensed or “legal” sportsbook sites receive licenses from 20 or more US states. A short list of these sites includes FanDuel, DraftKings, Caesars, BetMGM, and Bet365 Sports. Bet Bally is only licensed in 6 US states, but it has dealt with Gamesys and Kambi, so it might become more prominent (and competent) in the coming months and years.

What are the offshore online sportsbooks?

Sites like BetUS, MyBookie, XBet, Bovada Sports, and BetOnline Sports are offshore sportsbooks. Browse the article above to read offshore sportsbook reviews for each of these sites.

What are sweepstakes sportsbook sites?

Sweepstakes gambling is legal in 30 US states, so some American entrepreneurs have launched sweepstakes casinos and sweepstakes sports betting sites. These have complex currency systems using Sweepstakes Coins, Sweepstakes Cash, and Experience Points (XPs). It gets complicated and a little confusing, but it’s a way to get free cash to play for real money. Fliff is an example of a sweepstakes online sportsbook.

What are daily fantasy sports sites?

Daily fantasy sports have one-day contests on the same fantasy sports you’ve played your entire adult life: fantasy football, fantasy basketball, and Rotisserie baseball. Instead of season-long contests, these involve single-day contests. It’s essentially fantasy sports combined with sports betting, though DFS operators insist they aren’t really gambling sites.

Real money fantasy sports sites divide between player-vs-player (PVP) and player-versus-oddsmaker sites. Of the two, you should avoid the ones that have you pitted against professional oddsmakers. Yes, DFS sites have professional fantasy sports players called “grinders”, but at least you enter the contest with a fair shot.

How do I choose a good sports bet?

Make sports bets on the popular sports that you enjoy and know well. The more you know about a sport, the better of a sports bettor you’ll be. Also, shop for the best odds. Look at three to five competitive sportsbooks and pick the one with the best odds on that. For that to happen, you’ll need to learn how to read odds. Learn about moneyline bets and point spread bets on our pages about each subject.

How do sportsbooks set lines?

Sportsbooks set lines according to a variety of factors. Oddsmakers look at home-field advantage, weather factors, injuries, matchups, and the relative strength of each team. In many cases, they have specific formulas to determine how to set the line.

For instance, home-field advantage is worth 2.8 points in a typical NFL game. Most sports bettors simply state that home-field advantage is worth 3 points. For an NBA regular season game, home-court advantage confers a +3 or +4 advantage. In that way, oddsmakers determine lines in a semi-scientific fashion.

Setting lines is still as much art as science, though. The bookmaker isn’t predicting the winner of the game. Instead, they are predicting what the betting public’s mood is going to be. Because of the vig, if an oddsmaker can set a line where half of the money goes to one side and half to the other, then the sportsbook makes a certain profit from the vig.

What is the best sportsbook?

That depends on what you want. If you want US-licensed sportsbooks that operate in many states, FanDuel or DraftKings might be your choice. If you want US-licensed sportsbooks tied to Las Vegas casinos, then you might prefer Caesars Sportsbook, BetMGM, or Bet Bally Sportsbook. It all depends.

But if you want the biggest sports betting bonus or a risk-free bet, then BetUS, MyBookie, or XBet are the best sportsbooks. If you want sites that can offer sports betting plus online casinos and poker, then you might prefer Bovada or BetOnline. Ultimately, you can’t go wrong with BetUS, MyBookie, or XBet.