The basic steps of placing sports bet online are simple – first, you find a sportsbook you trust that accepts bets in your favorite markets, then you send them some cash, and finally you can start betting. In practice, though, finding the best online sports betting sites in 2021 is anything but simple. Knowing who to trust among a crowded field of betting sites requires serious study, hours of reading reviews, analyzing fine print, and zooming in on financial details.
We’ve put together a list of the five best online sportsbooks for the year 2021, updated with details relevant to today’s sports bettors. Our team has done the hours of fine print analysis you don’t want to do, and many of them can speak from personal experience about doing business with these operators.
Our Criteria for Choosing the Best Sports Betting Sites
Rather than selecting books based solely on a single feature (“this book has a great set of deposit options” or “you can bet on the widest variety of sports at ____”), we decided we wanted to approach each online sportsbook from many angles.
Our team of writers and editors sat down and agreed on five factors that will influence an online sports gambler in 2021:
- Available Markets – While many sports bettors stick to the “big four” of the NBA, MLB, NFL, and NHL, our team is composed of people who like to wager on college games, Olympics cycles, European sports like darts and cycling, and even the occasional political race or reality show outcome. Ranking online books at least in part by the variety of sports and games you can bet on makes sense in a time when customers are looking for a wider variety of markets. In some cases, US-facing online sportsbooks seem to be one-upping each other in terms of the number of obscure markets they can handicap.
- Deposit & Withdrawal Options – American gamblers are particularly preoccupied with available deposit and withdrawal options, handcuffed as they are by financial restrictions put in place over the past couple of decades. In short, the more deposit and withdrawal options a book has, the more customer-friendly that book is. Then again, some gamblers may only have access to one or two deposit methods and may only be looking for sites that cater to that method. We consider a book’s financial details at least as important as the variety of bets available.
- Bonus Offers – Less important than either of the above two factors is the slate of bonus offers made by a particular sports betting site. For some customers, bonus offers may be the most important factor in choosing a book.
- State Restrictions – For bettors in some states, it’s important to consider whether an online sportsbook restricts access. Sports bettors who live in Delaware, Hawaii, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, and Pennsylvania face restrictions from certain US online sportsbooks. Our writers include details about which online books won’t do business with gamblers from certain states.
- Review Consensus – Finally, we wanted to include the voices of other writers we respect as well as reviews written by everyday bettors. A consideration of a book’s general reputation and performance is included in our criteria, and where it’s relevant, we’ll include that information in our reviews and other material.
For a book to make our list, it needed to perform well in each of those five categories. Using these criteria, we located five sportsbooks that we feel confident in calling the best online sports betting sites in 2022.
The 5 Best Sports Betting Websites for 2022
Below you’ll find a list of the five best online sportsbooks for 2022, along with a brief guide to each book’s features. We’ll link to our reviews and other information about that book directly from this page.
We haven’t put the books below in any order. We’re fans of all five of them and think they each have something different to offer online sports bettors. Compare them using our reviews and other detailed information and you’ll be more confident in choosing a place to make your wagers.
1- BetUS
BetUS at a Glance:
Welcome Bonus: 100% up to $2,500
Best Feature: long-term industry experience
Worst Feature: limited deposit/withdrawal options
Restricted States: none
BetUS is a US-facing sportsbook with an attached casino and poker site. The site’s been open since the year 2000, making it an elder statesman in the world of Web-based sports betting. BetUS offers 6 welcome bonuses aimed at different kinds of bettors. You can deposit money to your BetUS account via Visa, MasterCard, or American Express, with credit card deposits capped at $2,499. The site also accepts crypto deposits (Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Ethereum only) of up to $50,000, with no associated fees. Withdrawals to crypto wallets come with a $5,000-per-day cap. Non-crypto withdrawals are more complicated – the site encourages players to contact their account manager to arrange “cash or electronic” payouts. No surprise that BetUS has among the biggest variety of betting markets of any American sports betting site, with plenty of straight bets, props, futures, and other bet formats in all the major sports as well as niche markets like eSports and European league football.
2- MyBookie.ag
MyBookie.ag at a Glance:
Welcome Bonus: 50% up to $1,000
Best Feature: large number of available markets
Worst Feature: high rollovers for bonuses
Restricted States: New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania
In business since 2014, MyBookie.ag is an explicitly US-facing sportsbook and casino. MyBookie’s six deposit methods (VISA/Mastercard, Person2Person, MoneyGram, and Bitcoin) and three withdrawal methods (bank wire, check by mail, Bitcoin) make it above average in terms of US sports betting financial options. The site’s deposit maximums are lower than other options on our list – you can deposit up to $10,000 at a time with Bitcoin but are limited to $2,500 at a time using a credit card. Payout maximums are a bit higher – up to $50,000 a day via bank wire, or $10,000 a day using Bitcoin. You can bet in about two dozen different sports and events at MyBookie, depending on the sports seasons in play when you visit. It would be nice to see MyBookie expand into newer markets like eSports and political futures, but those aren’t yet available.
3- Bovada
Bovada at a glance:
Welcome Bonus: 50% up to $250
Best Feature: financial options
Worst Feature: relatively small variety of betting options
Restricted States: Delaware, Maryland, Nevada, and New Jersey
Bovada’s best features are their deposit and withdrawal options, which are among the best in the US-facing sports betting business, and the inclusion of a racebook along with traditional sports markets and a few newer markets as well. You can deposit to your Bovada account with a credit card (MasterCard, Visa, American Express) between $20 and $1,500 per transaction, and your first such transaction is free. If you choose to deposit with Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash, your deposit range is from $10 to $5,000, and you’ll never pay a fee for any crypto exchange. Withdrawals come via cashier’s check or Bitcoin – the check option takes up to 15 business days and is limited to $3,000 per transaction, while a Bitcoin withdrawal takes about 24 hours and incurs a $9,500 per transaction limit. Bovada has as many betting markets available as any other US sports betting website, including some markets and betting formats not normally available to American bettors.
4- BetOnline
BetOnline at a Glance:
Welcome Bonus: 100% up to $2,500
Best Feature: financial options
Worst Feature: limited bonuses
Restricted States: none
BetOnline has been in the online casino and sportsbook business for close to twenty years. They offer a variety of deposit and withdrawal options that’s competitive with anything else American sports bettors have available. Depositors can take their pick of a dozen methods from credit cards and money orders to bitcoin and bank wire transfers. You’ll be limited in the size of your deposit – the max is anywhere from $2,500 to $25,000 depending on the method you choose. Of those twelve deposit methods, nine of them are available for payouts, which max out between $400 and $25,000. Fans of bonuses may not be fully satisfied with their limited welcome bonuses and high rollover requirements relative to their competition.
5- SportsBetting.ag
SportsBetting.ag at a Glance:
Welcome Bonus: 50% up to $1,000
Best Feature: best variety of major sport betting options
Worst Feature: limited deposit/withdrawal options and amounts
Restricted States: none
Sports bettors looking for variety in terms of markets and betting formats will appreciate the options at Sportsbetting.ag. You’ll find a sportsbook and racebook, a library of casino games, and live poker options all at the same site. Bettors can deposit to their Sportsbetting.ag account with a number of methods, but potential customers should take note of the relatively low deposit maximums. Credit card depositors are limited to $2,500 per transaction, with Bitcoin deposits limited to $3,500 at a time. The same goes for withdrawals – you can request payouts nine different ways, but with limits lower than you’d find at their competitor sites. Checks by mail, cashier’s checks, and bank wires are limited to $2,500 each, much lower than a typical US-facing sportsbook.
Conclusion
Placing sports bets online can be a safe, entertaining, and rewarding way to get more involved in the sports you love. Web-based sports betting is convenient and thanks to a wide variety of options in terms of which sportsbook you choose, you can tailor your experience to your exact preferences.
Our team of writers and editors has done the hard work for you, producing reviews, offering details, and giving our general take on the most popular and best-featured online sports betting websites. Comb through the material provided here, visit the sites for yourself, then make an informed and confident decision about where to send your first deposit.