Comprehensive Guide to Sports Betting Sites
Notice to US Players: www.bovada.lv currently has the highest acceptance rate on VISA debit and credit card deposits. You can attempt to use your credit card at any of the other betting sites listed below. Understand, if your card doesn’t work, you’ll need to use the sportsbook’s live chat feature and ask for instructions to make a Western Union deposit.
About SBS
| Top Betting Sites | Sign-up Bonus | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bovada.lv |
50% to $250 Free Play |
| 2 | 5Dimes.eu |
Reduced Juice (-105) |
| 3 | Bookmaker.eu |
50% to $300 Free Play |
Sports Betting Sites is an honest international guide to online betting. We are owned and operated by a professional bettor which helps set set us apart from other betting websites. If you navigate our website you’ll find we cover the issues players need to be aware of and are never shy about outing dishonest online bookies. While we are in the business of recommending betting sites, all recommendations you’ll find on our website are entirely sincere. We only link to sports betting sites we honestly believe are best.
Where to Bet Online
Understand while there are many reputable online sportsbooks servicing players from the United States, there are just as many scams. I’ve written a lot on this website about WagerWeb confiscating balances and also the Oddsmaker.ag scam. If you care about cashing out your winnings from an online sportsbook it’s important to use companies with a great track record for payouts and fair resolutions for when the occasional disputes come up. The below sites are my top recommendations for US players. I do however encourage you to read disclaimers on my page US betting sites
Bovada is Best for Most Players
www.bovada.lv is an all in one gambling sites exclusive to the US market. They accept VISA cards issued by US banks, offer the best live-in play betting platform, and have great software for both for their internet site and mobile betting platform. Here you’ll find betting odds on all the popular US sports such as NFL and college football, as well boxing and UFC and tons of European soccer leagues, to name only some of the sports covered. They have an integrated racebook that pays daily rebates on horse betting, one of the easiest to beat online poker rooms around, and a state of the art casino with great bonuses and promotions. They offer all this plus a 50% up to $250 initial deposit match bonus to new players. Considering they also have an overall positive track record dating back over a decade, this is the betting website that best meets the needs of most recreational US players; serious punters keep reading.
5Dimes Offers the Best Odds
www.5dimes.eu is the website US players can use to get the best odds. When you visit, you’ll notice there are several bonus packages available. The default option of reduced juice (instead of a bonus) is best. This gives you -105 (risk $1.05 to win $1.00) base-pricing on most US sports, instead of the -110 (risk $1.10 to win $1.00) other US betting sites charge. Just in the time it takes to clear most bonuses offers, you’ll come out ahead with this option. Here there are many deposit options including credit card, cash transfer, bitcoin, and more.
Bookmaker.eu – a Trusted US Betting Site
www.bookmaker.eu (currently low success rate on credit card deposits) is the betting website we most trust and they are a US friendly version of BetCRIS. The reason I like this brand is because they’re truly the company who started it all. Back in 1985 their founder Ron Sacco, better known as Cigar, moved from the US to the Dominican Republic and began running a toll free phone in betting shop. As the first to do this his business grew massive in a hurry, and in time CRIS was so large they were able to start setting lines well before Las Vegas opened them. When their betting website launched in 2000, it branded with the words “Where the Line Originates” and this slogan has proved to be far more than marketing hype. Many other online bookies and Las Vegas sportsbooks watch for the lines to open at Bookmaker, and then they merely copy them, and go from there; seriously, that’s how it works.
Bookmaker is where the large bettors wager, but they’re also friendly to low-limit players as well, with a $1.00 min bet and a $40,000 max bet for major sports. Speaking of high limits while many sportsbooks have low maximums on live betting (in-play bets) at Bookmaker up to $2,500 can be bet on most in-play markets. What I like most about Bookmaker is they have a policy – NO LIMIT COLLARS! on major sports. No matter how much you manage to win betting football or basketball point spreads and totals your action is still welcomed. Seriously, serving the US market from offshore headquarters for 27 years now, CRIS has never missed a payout. When other sites were having trouble with UIGEA, or Black Friday / Blue Monday, CRIS didn’t miss a beat. Bookmaker also offers unlimited 20% reload bonuses every Tuesday and Wednesday and you can use your VISA credit card to deposit and still get the bonus. To learn more read my bookmaker.eu review. One last note: credit card processing here is hit or miss. If your card doesn’t work contact live chat as Bookmaker will pick up the fees on Western Union and MoneyGram deposit of $300 or more, or you can use alternative methods such as bitcoin to deposit
US Poker Sites
While our focus is and always will be sports betting, due to a high number of issues involving the poker rooms of betting sites we’ve created the page Recommended US Poker Sites for 2015. If you enjoy playing poker online, I strongly suggest reading this article.
Be Careful of US Betting Scams
The method our competitors use for selecting recommended sports betting sites is generally “how much are you willing to pay”. As you can read about on our news wire, there are many less than reputable online bookies touted as best. Where the real concern comes is many betting websites promote scam bookies such as WagerWeb, SBG Global and Oddsmaker.ag – click any of those links to view the reasons you shouldn’t trust recommendations made by affiliate driven portals. While at SBS we’re affiliates as well, we’re first and foremost professional sports bettors. And with that, you have our old school gambler’s guarantee all sports betting websites linked to on this website are ones we personally use and have no problem storing our own bankroll with.
To see our opinion of which which online bookies are the safest to use, refer to our Sportsbook Ratings.
Online Betting Outside the US
Where to bet online is such a loaded question. The correct answer depends where you live, what sports you prefer, how much you’re betting, whether you’re betting mostly points spread (Asian handicaps), moneylines (home/away), totals (over/under) or other bets such as props or futures. Our website has detailed information on specific sports such as F1 betting, and specific currencies. It’s advised you spend some time navigating our website in order to familiarize yourself with various betting sites. I will however provide advice for residents of certain countries here on home page.
Asian Bookies
The Asian bookie we most recommend is 188bet.com. These guys are industry leaders for live in-play betting as well as Asian Handicap (hang cheng betting). No matter if you’re interested in betting English Premier League, Spanish La Liga, Italian Serie A, UEFA Champions League, Liga Super Indonesia, India I League, Liga Super Malaysia or any other football league they have you well covered. They of course like most Asian Bookies offer wagering on all other sports and have awesome live dealer casinos with multiple versions of baccarat. Great news for those living in Indonesia and Malaysia 188Bet offers IDR Indonesia Rupiah and MYR Malaysian Ringgit they also have special banking methods that allow you to deposit easily and get paid winnings for free to your local bank account without it showing it came from them. Other currencies offered at 188bet include RMB, SGD, VND, EUR and GBP. This is our #1 one pick for anyone living in Asia.
UK Licensed Bookmakers
UK punters might be surprised to learn that three of the largest high street bookmakers Ladbrokes, William Hill and Bet Fred do not pay UK tax on their internet profits. These bookies operate their internet divisions from Gibraltar using a Gibraltar Regulatory Authority (GRA) license. Although the mentioned sites are reputable, those wishing to support the local economy, UK football and UK horse racing might be interested in playing at the following highly reputable UK licensed betting sites.
Bet365 is the world’s largest online betting site. They operate in dozens of languages and currencies and service punters from all over the globe. On their website you can bet sports, casino games, poker and bingo. They are best known for having the largest number of markets per match, the best live in-play betting in terms of matches covered, software and markets, and the best bonus offers. UK punters are welcomed with a 100% up to £100 initial deposit match. This is a cash (not free play) bonus that requires just three times rollover prior to withdrawal. Understand Bet365 is based in Stoke-on-Trent, is licensed by the UK Gambling Commission, is Stoke’s largest private employer and owns the Barclays Premier League franchise Stoke City FC. This is a very reputable online bookie worthy of trust.
Coral is the largest UK retail bookmaker that operates their internet division under a UK gambling license, and is the third largest overall. Their parent company is Gala Coral. The Gala side has 143 bingo halls across the country, where the Coral side has 1,629 UK betting shops. They have about 20% market share of the UK’s brick and mortar gambling business. Here you’ll find all the features you can expect from a large online bookie including live-in play betting, mobile betting, and generous free bet offers. At the moment you can claim a £30 free bet offer on their website.
ToteSport is the online division of the Tote. Their horse racing pools are available for wagering in more than 7,000 UK betting shops. Their online division offers fixed odds sports betting, live in-play sports betting, horse race betting, casino and bingo games from the same website. They are highly reputable with a history dating back to 1928 when under the direction of Sir Winston Churchill they were founded by the UK Government. In 2011, they were purchased by BetFred and now operate 1,350 betting shops in the UK under the ToteSport and BetFred names. Only the Totesport side of this company is licensed by the UK gambling commission and this is a great gambling site for UK punters to use. You can claim a £10 free bet offer from their website.
While not UK licensed, two additional alternatives to UK bookmakers you’ll certainly want to know about are Pinnacle Sports and Betfair. Pinnacle is by far the largest and most trusted betting website in terms of volume. They offer the highest betting limits, best odds and fastest payouts. You can learn all about them in my Pinnacle Sports review. Betfair is a gambling website that offers the world’s largest peer to peer betting exchange. I’ve written a comprehensive article on How Betfair Works that is near certainly a must read.
Sports Betting Sites for Canada
The suggestions on the top of this page are geo-targeted. If you’re accessing our website with a Canadian IP address you’ll see recommendations for Canada. To note this is a unique market. Most Canadians prefer betting the same sports as US Americans, and also prefer US odds format. Really though there are much safer and easier gambling sites to use than the US friendly ones. A top one that comes to mind you can read about in our Bodog.eu review. This site is focused on the the Canadian market and accepts deposits via direct bank transfer (DBT), Interac e-Transfer, credit card and Skrill Moneybookers. You can also scroll up a few paragraphs and check out Bet365. These are two of the best choices for residents of Canada.
Sports Gambling Sites by Region
Sports Betting Sites has an international audience with visitors from over 120 different countries. Our page on Asian bookies is a must read if you live in Asia. We also have pages on Indian rupee bookies, US Sportsbooks, and a page on South Africa licensed bookmakers. This goes with our articles on PLN betting sites for Poland and our top choices UK bookmakers.
Future Plans
Our website is still growing. Our founder, known in the industry as prop, has been a professional sports bettor since since he was 20-years old; he’s now age 35. Over the past 15-years he’s accumulated vast knowledge on many sports and specializes in NFL football, international basketball, volleyball, and Formula 1. In time he’ll be sharing many helpful handicapping tips here at SportsBettingSites.org. While it will take a while for this site to grow, check back here often and you’ll continue to find more and more valuable sports betting content. A final word of advice, before doing any online betting refer to our Sportsbook Ratings.
A final heads up by Prop – Don’t Trust Sports Betting Portals
Even the most honest review portals are tempted. I was once a broke teenager when a site I wasn’t too confident about offered me $30,000 for a one year featured advertisement on my home page. I’ve seen other MAJOR betting websites corrupted as well, honest guys who had $200,000 offers to let a less than reputable betting site take over their forum. This is big money business and the temptation to sell out is great. If you want sincere honest advice about sports betting websites don’t look to websites which are filled with paid advertisements or affiliate links. You’re far better off inquiring with your peers. One place to do this is 2+2 via their Sports Betting Forum.
Full Disclosure: I have an affiliate relationship with some, not all, of the websites recommended here. I however also have a policy of not linking to gambling sites I wouldn’t store a portion of my own bankroll with. If you do your own research and ask others about the sports gambling sites recommended here at SBS, I believe you’ll soon discover this website is an honest guide to sports betting sites. Although, I won’t get it right 100% of the time, I do have ton of knowledge about sportsbooks and bookmakers and make a dedicated effort to only recommend reputable betting sites.