It wasn’t so long ago that sports betting was only a fringe activity available in Las Vegas or risky offshore sites. Now, it’s starting to go mainstream as legal and regulated sportsbooks open and grow in number across the country. The Supreme Court decision on sports betting has left it up to individual states to decide whether or not to allow it, and many have. This means there are now a variety of online and mobile sportsbook options for US bettors to choose from.
There are now 24 states plus Washington, DC that offer some form of legal sports betting. Some have more than 20 sportsbooks to choose from, and new betting apps are continuing to launch. The best place to find a legal sportsbook online is to look at a site that has been certified by state regulators and has a solid reputation for safety, security and fair play.
Caesars Sportsbook, for instance, offers first-bet insurance of up to $1,250 as well as a free bet bonus and access to the casino’s rewards program after you sign up. The sportsbook also has an impressive range of markets and bonuses such as reduced juice lines and profit boosts.
You can bet on a wide variety of events at sportsbooks online, from MMA fights and golf to rugby league and cricket. You can even bet on darts, boxing, snooker and table tennis. The most popular bets, however, are on football, basketball, baseball and hockey. The oddsmakers at a top-rated sportsbook will set over/under lines for these games, and you can place a bet on the total points, goals or runs scored in a game.
The best online sportsbooks will accept a variety of payment methods. This includes credit and debit cards from Visa, MasterCard and Discover as well as e-wallets like Skrill and PayPal. Some will also accept cash from a local PayNearMe store, or an electronic check from a bank account. Some sites will also accept prepaid debit cards from the brand’s own Play+ card network.
Skin in the Game
While there is plenty of chatter about making bets on political events, it’s still illegal to wager on them in the United States. Legally licensed sportsbooks will not take bets on politics, and you won’t see a lot of odds for events like the presidential election.
The best online sportsbooks will be secure, with a high level of encryption to protect your financial information and personal details. They will also use a secure certificate to verify their identity, and will have an easy process for reporting suspicious activity. This is vitally important as scammers can take advantage of the lack of laws regulating sports gambling. They will often target those who make the most money from bets, and will use sophisticated tactics to steal their information. Legally licensed sportsbooks will have a much stricter set of rules to ensure that your data and funds are safe. Sadly, many unlicensed offshore sites do not follow the same standards and could put your details at risk.