These days, Americans have access to all sorts of sports bets. The goal of our betting guides is to teach bettors about a sport, then show them where and how to place intelligent wagers on that sport. Gone are the days when online sports betting meant wagering on football, baseball, basketball, or hockey. The best US-facing sportsbooks list dozens of available sports markets and this guide will link to you our more “all-inclusive” betting guides (for each individual sport). Enjoy!
Daily fantasy sports is the fastest-growing way to gamble on sports. Combining the traditional playing style of fantasy sports with high-stakes betting and more regular contests, DFS (as it’s known among fans) is a hot topic because of the attention paid to it by state lawmakers. Our guide to daily fantasy sports includes notes on legality as well as the traditional information found in a gambling review.
Belize is an online gambling licensing jurisdiction, & while locals cannot gamble at these sites, they can wager at offshore sites licensed by other regulators. Soccer betting and bets online with the worlds top sportsbooks and soccer betting sites online. Almost all the films about stakes, excitement and bookmakers are fascinating stories in the genre of detective, action, crime drama or action movie, and sometimes all at once. Shares Facebook Twitter Google+ Evernote Pinterest Gmail Like You love???rt? Thrill of?thl?t???nd teams?f such??m?l?r caliber??m??t?ng?g??n?t one another????m?l??n?x.
Bitcoin is a new type of currency, and guess what? It’s starting to be accepted as a payment method at several online gambling sites. Bitcoin isn’t exactly a new phenomenon. People have been using the digital crypto-currency for seven years. One new aspect of Bitcoin is the use of the brand-new currency for gambling deposits and withdrawals. Bitcoin has several features which make it an ideal fit for online gamblers. Discover how online betting is better with Bitcoin in our guide to Bitcoin betting sites.
The majority of online sportsbooks offer some form of live betting these days, and this new way of wagering over the Internet requires a new approach. What is live betting? It’s wagering in real time, featuring hundreds or thousands of fans placing bets on live odds as the game takes place. Live betting odds are dynamic, and current information about the game (the current score, elapsed time, etc.) is displayed on a live ticker. Many sports betting sites host game streams for live events so you can watch as your bet plays out.
E-sports refers to organized video gaming competitions, either between individual players or teams of gamers. The list of competitive games includes some familiar names like StarCraft2, League of Legends, Counter-Strike, World of Tanks, and Quake. Because this form of betting is so new, with little in the history of sports betting to compare it to, you’ll really want to study up on our e-sports betting guide, to learn how to handicap these events, where to find the info you’ll need to handicap, and to understand trends in the sport.
Finally, onto a traditional sports betting subject. Betting on college basketball is probably as old as the sport itself. Basketball has a lot to offer sports bettors – small team sizes makes research relatively easy. Then again, these are college players, without the polish and experience of older professional ballers, and more prone to emotional mistakes and streaky play. Read our NCAA basketball betting guide for an all-access pass to the ins and outs of wagering on March Madness in particular and college basketball in general.
Among the most popular sports in the United States, college football attracts plenty of attention from punters year in and year out. The reason for the sport’s popularity is complicated – while the NFL is by far the most popular American sport, the college version of the game isn’t far behind. Because the NCAA football season is longer and more intricate than the NFL season, some suspect that it’s not long before college football is our most popular sport. Before you place a wager on your alma mater or drop a $20 bill on the CFP championship, check out our college football betting guide.
Invented sometime in the 1500s, this bat-and-ball game predates baseball by centuries and captivates audiences the world over. As the British Empire expanded, cricket spread from country to country, eventually becoming something like the world’s favorite pastime. Though cricket isn’t all that big in the US, America’s status as a home and haven for immigrants from all over the world means that you can occasionally find a hardcore cricket fan stateside. Our betting guide will help you become more familiar with the sport even as you learn where and how to place wagers on the game online.
Betting on darts is as old a hobby as drinking in bars. Americans may not be that familiar with it, but competitive darts is a big sport in other parts of the world. If you plan on wagering on professional darts and you have no experience with the sport, our betting guide is designed to get you in fighting shape in no time.
Professional cycling is a major force in the world of sports. Millions of people count themselves as dedicated fans of cycling, tuning in for ever-expanding coverage of bike race events. Read our betting guide on cycling to discover why this is one of the easiest sports to handicap, and thus one of the easiest sports to place sports bets on.
Every four years, when the Olympics air, Americans re-discover handball. It’s by far the most American sport … that Americans are terrible at. We’ve never sent a team to the Olympics that finished better than ninth. We’re big fans of handball, not just because it’s an exciting and high-scoring affair, but because like basketball, the teams are small and the players easy to handicap. Never heard of handball? Our betting guide should fill in the blanks for you.
Betting on wrestling ranges from wages placed on the outcome of WWE events to bets on amateur, college, and Olympic wrestling events. Most people who get into wrestling bets are either fans of professional wrestling on TV or former wrestlers themselves. You also get the usual compliment of Olympics-obsessed bettors who pop up every four years or so. If you plan on wagering on wrestling, in any format, please check out our guide to online wrestling wagers first.
Yet another Olympic category, winter sports bets are pretty much only a big deal during the Winter Games. Outside of the US, winter sports betting is a slightly bigger deal, thanks in large part to the fact that most winter sports take place outside the US. Study our Winter Sports betting guide before the next Winter Games, to stay a leg up on the competition.
One of our favorite ways to wager at online sports betting sites, Politics bets reward good handicapping skills as well as research skills. Bettors who make money in the Politics tab at their favorite online sportsbook are often the best of the best, advantage gamblers who know how to find and exploit the tiniest advantage. We also love politics betting because it’s an endlessly researchable subject, with no seasons and an ever-rotating cast of fascinating characters.
Our mobile betting guide is the result of years of experience placing on-the-go wagers. Mobile betting is just now becoming a big enough deal in the US to warrant an entire betting guide. With new options, new ways to pay, new games, and new bonus features to talk about, it’s no surprise that our mobile betting guide keeps growing in size. If you’re new to the mobile gambling market, or if you just need to polish off your skills, start with our massive mobile betting guide. The rest will fall in place as you play.
As an increasing number of countries choose to legalize and regulate online sports betting, wagering options for fans are greater now than ever before. Today, punters in most parts of the world can choose from dozens of sports betting sites that are legal, licensed and safe.
Our role in all of this is to help readers navigate the sports betting landscape by providing honest sportsbook reviews and recommending bookmakers for punters of all persuasions. This includes country-by-country recommendations, lists of the best betting sites for specific sports and much more.
This page serves as your guide to finding sports betting websites by the criteria that matter most to you. Below are recommendations categorized by sport, mobile app experience, welcome bonus and so on. Use the table of contents above to jump straight to recommendations that suit your particular needs.
The following pages recommend betting sites by sport. Fans of any particular sport can visit the corresponding page below for bookmaker recommendations tailored to that sport. The listings on each of the following pages take into account the average number of markets offered for that sport, types of wagers on the menu, live streaming video options, odds offered and sport-specific offers and bonuses.
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You’ve already seen our top picks for the best online sportsbooks. We stand by these picks but also understand that many punters have specific wants and needs. To that end, we have a large collection of online bookmaker reviews that are unbiased and straightforward in nature.
We take a deliberate approach in structuring our betting site reviews to discuss specific aspects that impact the customer experience. These include going over each site’s long term reputation, its licensing status, its customer support options, the generosity of its odds, deposit methods, payout speeds, bonuses and other gaming options.
Most sports betting sites advertise a welcome offer inviting you to sign up and play. Sports betting bonuses are usually a good deal and provide added value that you wouldn’t otherwise see at a traditional brick-and-mortar bookmaker.
Bonuses are not the only promotions you’ll see. Online bookmakers are always coming up with new promotions and betting offers to reward their customers. Some of the most common types of promotional offers you’re likely to see include:
You can read all about these types of promotions and see a list of the best betting bonuses here:
Regular sports bettors should definitely take advantage of any loyalty schemes or promotions offered by online sports betting sites. Rewards programs at online sportsbooks are designed to reward loyal customers for continuing to play and can be a great way to boost your bankroll.
Rewards can vary from free plays, bonus offers, or even tickets to major sporting events.
Generally speaking, the more you wager online the more you benefit from sports betting rewards programs. Spend a little time looking at the loyalty schemes of the different online sports betting sites to find out where you can best be rewarded for your business.
Today, fantasy sites host contests with million-dollar prizepools and a chance for players to compete for serious sums of money.
The best fantasy sports sites are marked by high traffic levels, big prize pools and fast payouts. A handful of brands dominate the daily fantasy industry, but some sites are better than others for fans of specific sports. See our DFS section for daily fantasy information and recommendations by sport.
Betting exchange sites provide a unique and potentially lucrative twist on the traditional sports betting model. Exchanges act more like the stock market than a regular bookmaker in that exchanges match customers who want to back opposite sides of any particular wager. Rather than betting against the bookmaker, you bet against other customers who take the opposite view.
For example, you can back a selection to lose and then be matched with another customer who is backing that selection to win. Customers are able to set their own odds and lay a bet that other users can decide to take or not.
The end result is a free market solution for online sports betting. In certain cases, online betting exchanges offer better value for sports bets than traditional bookmakers.
In-play betting offers yet another twist on traditional sports betting. In this case, you are able to place bets after an event has already started. As a football match progresses, for example, you can place additional wagers on the outcome of the event at updated odds. Or, you can even bet on short-term events such as who will score the next goal or what the outcome of the next penalty kick will be.
Thus, you can watch a match in real time and place bets as events unfold before your eyes. The oddsmakers in the background follow the match as well and offer a constantly-updated list of bets based on what’s happening right now.
The legal status of sports betting sites depends on where you live and how you interpret the law.
Legislation around the world lags behind technology.
In many countries, sports betting laws are open to interpretation and largely unenforced. Each year, more countries license and regulate online sports betting sites and mobile sportsbook apps.
Our country-by-country discussion of gambling laws around the world offers in-depth analyses of legal sports betting options and regulations in most countries.
It is safe to bet on sports online as long as you limit your wagers to reputable and safe bookies.
Safety is always my primary concern when looking at sports betting websites. I talked about researching each site’s reputation earlier on this page, but some of the other things I like to consider include customer support, speed of withdrawals, player complaints posted in gambling forums and social media and the overall sense we get when placing wagers as customers ourself.
Gaming licenses are useful but don’t always tell the whole story. Licenses from major gambling jurisdictions such as the UK hold a great deal of weight because they are backed by functional governments that are serious about regulating the industry.
We also look at online bookmakers financial stability. This information isn’t generally released to the public, but you can get a good idea for how a sportsbooks finances are doing by monitoring social media accounts for complaints and unresolved issues.
Consistency of payouts is just as important.
If a once-reliable site suddenly has a batch of slow payouts, it’s can be a sign of payment processing problems, liquidity issues, or just a temporary hiccup.
The main thing for you to know is that it’s best to signup at sports betting sites that have positive reputations. Our top picks (listed near the top of this page) meet all the most important requirements that I have when determining which sports betting sites are safe places to wager at.
There is much to learn before you can become a successful sports gambler. The most profitable handicappers spend a lot of time researching picks, looking for trends, and searching for value.
Identifying value is imperative to making money over the long term. Sometimes there is no “correct” bet to make on a particular sporting event and a savvy sports bettor knows when to keep out of the action.
By putting some effort into learning about the industry, it becomes much easier to get a decent return on your money. It pays to be diverse – consistently backing odds on favorites is unlikely to pay in the long run as it might only take one or two upset losses to wipe out your profits.
Mixing up your bets with a combination of favorites and over-priced underdogs, and placing these options at the right time is a better approach.
Visit the following pages for a more in-depth discussion of some of the most important concepts in online sports betting.
To be serious about winning, you need to manage your bankroll properly.
It can be frustrating losing several sports bets in a row, but increasing your stakes to chase your losses is not the way forward.
Stick to your stakes and size your plays according to the confidence you have in a pick – not based on previous results. As you do well and your bankroll grows, then you can consider increasing the size of your units.
The general rule of thumb for sports betting is to risk no more than 5% of your bankroll on any single bet. This is a pretty safe way to go because it helps minimize the damage done by bad streaks.
No matter how confident you are in any single bet, the 5% rule should be in effect.
If you think about it, the 5% rule makes perfect sense. Even the best handicappers are happy to achieve a 55% to 60% win rate. That means you can expect to lose 40% to 45% of you wagers even if you are really good at what you do.
At those win-rates, anything can happen in the short term.
Over the long term, skilled handicappers can expect to see a general winning trend. But over the short term, everyone sees swings in both directions. By sizing your bets properly, you minimize the chances of going broke due to variance.
Even the best sports bettor in the world will lose their bankroll if routinely risking 20% or more of a bankroll on every wager. Smart bankroll management is one of the absolute fundamental keys to successful sports betting.
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