Americans love to bet. It’s a part of US history. Without state lotteries and other games of chance, the history of the United States would be quite different. It’s strange, then, that the best USA sportsbooks are all pretty much offshore gambling sites at this point. Sports betting in the USA is complicated by gaming law and a marketplace decimated by changes to Web-based betting at the federal level.
This page collects all of our information about the best American sportsbooks in 2022 and presents it in a neutral tone to give newcomers and veteran bettors alike a chance to compare and consider the options available to them. Offshore betting sites are the most convenient and accessible way Americans have to wager on their favorite sporting events. We take our evaluation of those sites and their offers seriously, as millions of Americans turn to the Internet to take part in a hobby they’re increasingly cut off from.
This page contains notes on how we evaluate USA sportsbooks, a word on sportsbook bonuses in 2022, and tips to help US sports bettors wager safely in the 2022 offshore gambling site marketplace.
How We Evaluate Sportsbooks
Some of what makes one sportsbook better than another is subjective. One bettor may prefer things one way, while another bettor finds that way totally distasteful. We try to evaluate sportsbooks that serve American bettors without using any value judgements or commenting too much on the subjective.
We evaluate US-facing sportsbook websites in the following categories:
Reputation – What do sportsbook review sites have to say about a book? What about user reviews? You have to take everything you read in this space with a grain of salt, as some content is clearly advertising disguised as a review. But given time and experience, you should be able to get a general sense of an offshore book’s reputation and become aware of common trouble experienced by their existing client base.
Customer service – Does the book have a customer service department? Are they available when players need them? Do they offer live chat, email, phone, and other methods of contact? These are important questions, since most of the time when you need to contact customer service at a gambling site it’s because something really serious has happened. Problems contacting customer service as a potential customer are a big red flag.
Market coverage – What markets does the book cover? Will US bettors be happy with the variety of games and bet styles available? Does the site just cover major sports or are niche contests and futures markets also available? Since different bettors have different preferences, it’s important to consider a site’s complete library of bets offered. Some folks may only ever wager on the NFL, others want to have as many opportunities to wager as they can get.
Financial options – The US betting market is rife with pitfalls, and financial methods are a big part of that. Depositing money to a book is complicated by laws that restrict how financial institutions do business with known gambling providers. Books have worked hard to create ways for US bettors to fund and withdraw from their accounts, but it’s important that a book has a method that will work for you the individual bettor.
Bonus offers – Some bettors are heavily enticed by match bonuses, deposit bonuses, reload bonuses, and the like. Other bettors don’t care for these promotions at all. Matching your level of desire with a book’s level of bonus offers is important, though if you don’t care about this kind of reward, you’ll probably not spend time researching these options.
USA Sportsbook Bonuses in 2022
While not every bettor prizes these special offers made by US-facing sportsbooks to their customers, for some gamblers they are a big part in the process of deciding where to send their gambling bankroll and place bets.
The bulk of a sportsbook’s promotions lie in their welcome bonus offers. These are match bonus offers made to new customers, whereby the casino will give bettors a certain amount of money to gamble with, usually based on a percentage of their first deposit. These offers come with a catch – you’ll only earn the bonus cash by placing real-money bets over time at the book. This is called a bonus offer’s rollover requirement, and in the US-facing market, these requirements tend to be really steep.
Here’s a brief guide to some representative welcome bonus offers currently available to US sports bettors in 2022:
BetUS – First-time depositors can earn up to $2,500 at a match rate of 100%. You have to deposit at least $100 to trigger this bonus, which requires a 10x rollover. You have 14 business days to claim as much of this bonus as you can. That means a bettor hoping to earn the entire $2,500 available would have to bet $25,000 in their first 14 days of membership. The bet limit towards the rollover is $5,000 per wager.
MyBookie – The welcome bonus at MyBookie is worth up to $1,000 at a match rate of 100%. The deposit minimum for this bonus is $100, and it comes with a 10x rollover requirement. However, MyBookie requires you to rollover the amount of the bonus and the deposit. That means a deposit of $100 would actually require $2,000 of bets before a customer’s $100 in bonus money is released.
BetNow – BetNow’s welcome bonus is a 100% match offer worth up to $500. The minimum deposit to trigger the bonus is $50, with a 15x rollover requirement. To earn the bonus max of $500, a bettor would have to deposit $500 then place $7,500 worth of bets that follow the offer’s other terms and conditions. BetNow’s rollover requirement for the sportsbook used to be 10x, lower than the casino or racebook, but they recently changed the policy. There’s no more premium for sportsbook welcome bonus chasers.
Bovada – The most modest of US-facing sportsbook welcome bonuses, Bovada’s offer is a 50% match up to $250. Bovada’s offer may be the smallest in terms of cash amount, but it has the most achievable rollover requirement. Sportsbook bets only have a 5x rollover requirement. That means earning the entire $250 available is a matter of depositing $500 and placing $1,250 in wagers. Some sportsbook bets have an even lower rollover figure – check the sportsbook terms and conditions for specifics.
Betting Safely with Offshore Sportsbooks
While many US-facing betting sites are legitimate businesses, paying out winnings in a timely manner and operating in good faith, it’s clear from the industry’s history that this isn’t always the case.
This section offers some tips to help bettors in the US sportsbook market place their bets with confidence:
Look for a sportsbook’s gaming license.
As long as you understand the risk involved, betting on sports with offshore books is totally safe. Some offshore sportsbooks are totally unlicensed and unregulated. Others hold licenses and are regulated by what may seem like legitimate gaming authorities. The truth is, no offshore sportsbook doing business with US customers can be licensed by a legitimate authority. That said, you’ll have some semblance of recourse when doing business with a book that holds a license of some kind. Doing business with a completely unregulated betting entity is a “buyer beware” situation.
Read reviews from real users.
Type a sportsbook’s name into a search engine and dig around until you find a page listing user reviews. Understand that you’re dealing with people who may be angry after a big loss, or disgruntled customers who are upset with a long delay in payment or something like that. Take what you read with a grain of salt, confirm with other reviews, and write down any questions you have to bring up with customer service.
Contact customer service and ask questions.
At this point, if you are still interested in sending your money to a particular offshore book, it’s time to contact customer service. Hopefully, you can use a live chat feature – a sign of a reputable book that wants to communicate with customers. More likely, you’ll find a phone number. The ease with which you were able to contact a book is a good sign of their customer service abilities in general.
Read the terms and conditions.
Reading the fine print is an unfortunate but necessary evil in the age of the Internet. Look for information about licensing, customer restrictions based on geography, and contact info for various departments. Sometimes the terms and conditions hide really meaningful information that will sway your opinion of a particular sportsbook.
Make a small test deposit.
Find out a book’s minimum deposit and make a deposit of that size to test out their services. At most US-facing books, you can send as little as $10 or $20 to play with, test out the payment times, make some bets, and get your feet wet.
Conclusion
The more research a customer does before engaging with any business, the better off that customer will be. It’s possible that you won’t find anything particularly off-putting while researching a specific book. It’s also possible that you’ll uncover something that completely sours you on their services. The riskiest way to place bets with offshore sportsbooks is to send a bunch of money to a site you don’t know anything about.
Making confident sports bets in 2022 means using offshore sites. Since these sites are operating in what is at best a legal gray area, you can’t always 100% trust the books you’re forced to do business with. Following the advice on this page will prevent the worst possible outcomes and help bettors enjoy their hobby rather than worry about being ripped off.