If you’re in the United States or are planning a visit, you’re probably wondering how to get in on some of the action – or are asking yourself whether legal sports betting even exists in the United States. Is it possible to do online football betting? Which are the best online football betting sites, and what are the sports betting laws that govern them? This article will help you unpack all your questions about online football betting so that you can get in on the action ASAP.
| Hard Rock Bet | Up to $100 back | Start Betting! | NJ Only. 21+. T&Cs apply. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800 GAMBLER | |
| Borgata Sports | Bet $20 get $100 | Start Betting! | T&Cs apply. Must be 21+ and physically in the state | |
| Caesars | Get up to $1,250 on the house | Start Betting! | T&Cs apply. Must be 21+ and physically in the state | |
| bet365 | Bet $1 & get up to $200 on the house | Start Betting! | T&Cs apply. Must be 21+ and physically in the state | |
| BetMGM | Get up to $1,000 on the house | Start Betting! | T&Cs apply. Must be 21+ and physically in the state | |
| BetRivers | Get up to $500 in bonuses | Start Betting! | T&Cs apply. Must be 21+ and physically in the state |
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A History of Sports Betting in the United States
American people have always wanted to indulge in sports betting, and indulge they have right since 1607 – when the first settlers arrived. Ever since, the State’s stance on betting would continue to be inconsistent at the very least, with the country often taking one step forward and two steps back.
Lotteries would often get banned and unbanned, as was the case with horse racing. Boxing eventually became one of the most lucrative sports to bet on in 1910, but as elements from the world of organized crime began to make their way into gambling, any form of betting was crushed by the full force of the law.
Recent History and the Black Sox Scandal
In 1919, the Black Sox scandal threatened to permanently condemn the future of betting in the US. The players in the Chicago White Sox were bribed $10,000 to lose the series to the Cincinnati Reds, triggering widespread outrage and a negative perception towards sports betting.
While Nevada legalized sports betting in 1949, Congress tried and failed to curb the influence of organized crime in illegal sports betting, by passing a number of bills to curb match fixing and the rise of predatory debt sharks. Despite these laws, illegal bookmaking continued to be rampant as the American people wanted the option to bet on their favorite sports teams.
In the 20th Century until the present day, the realization has dawned that perhaps the best way to make betting less influenced by organized crime, is to legalize betting it – paving the way for legal online football betting sites to change the face of sports betting as we know it.
Is Sports Betting Legal in the United States?
In 2018, the United States Supreme Court struck down an unconstitutional federal law that forced states to ban the best online football betting sites and other forms of sports betting. This paved the way for the rest of the United States to legalize sports betting in all forms, including football gambling, college sports betting, and more.
With States being finally given the prerogative to legalize sports betting – both in the real world and online – the state of sports betting, online football betting, retail sports betting, mobile sports betting, and more, is a lot different from what it used to be before the landmark ruling.
Punters will be delighted to know that legal online football betting is now available in over half of the United States. While each state has taken different approaches to legalizing sports betting, the future looks bright for legal online football betting sites.
Where is Online Sports Betting Legal in the USA?
List of states with legal online and offline sports betting:
- Nevada
- New Jersey
- With no betting on in-state college football or teams.
- West Virginia
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- With no betting on in-state college teams.
- New York – poised to legalize mobile sports betting
- With no betting on in-state college teams.
- Iowa
- With no prop bets on in-state college teams.
- Oregon
- The sportsbook app operated by Oregon Lottery doesn’t allow betting on in-state college football.
- Indiana
- With no betting on in-state college teams.
- Illinois
- With no betting on minor leagues or in-state college football.
- Michigan
- Colorado
- Washington D.C.
- With no betting on in-state college football teams.
- Tennessee
- Mobile betting only.
- Delaware
- In-person betting only.
- With no betting on in-state college football teams.
- Mississippi
- In-person betting only.
- New Mexico
- In-person betting only.
- With no betting on in-state college football teams.
- Arkansas
- In-person betting only.
- With no betting on in-state college football teams.
- New Hampshire
- Mobile betting only.
- No betting on in-state college football teams.
- Montana
- In-person betting only.
The Future of Legal Sports Betting
With the aforementioned list of states having legalized sports betting in some form, this effectively means that over half of the United States can now indulge in legal online football betting.
Sports bettors would also be happy to know that this list of states is only the beginning, with many more poised to legalize sports betting – creating more opportunities for Americans and visitors to experience live football betting.
The only state that could completely write-off in this regard is Utah. Their Constitution is inherently anti-gambling, which means the odds of accessing the best online football betting sites, and legal football gambling in any form are low. Don’t place your bets on their legislation drafting up a sports betting bill anytime soon.
Getting Started with Football Betting – Daily Fantasy Sports vs. Online Football Betting
Now that you know the states that have made sports betting legal, you may have noticed that yours is on the list and want to get started. You’ll find that the first step in your sports betting journey will be wrapping your head around the numerous ways you can get into betting. As important as understanding the game is understanding where you can do legal online football betting, and small but important things like finding solid football betting promo codes. Take your time to learn about the various options available – there’s something for everyone.
To broadly summarize, there are two major forms of sports betting (or predictions for money, if you want to be precise about this) that all sports betting invariably falls into – whether it’s sports betting apps or the best football betting sites: Daily Fantasy Sports betting and Traditional Sports Betting. Everything from fantasy leagues to simple retail betting falls into one of these categories.
Top Football Betting Apps for 2022
- BetMGM Sportsbook
- Unibet
- WynnBET
- PointsBet
- Betrivers
- Caesars Sportsbook
- DraftKings Sportsbook
- Betway
- bet365
- PlaySugarHouse Sportsbook
Traditional football gambling has also greatly evolved in the digital sense, with some of the best NFL betting opportunities being those found in the palm of your hands. Every good sportsbook will offer an app for both iOS and Android devices. This gives bettors the opportunity to experience NFL betting sites on the go.
Traditional Sports Betting
This is the form of sports betting that started it all, and it will always remain one of the most adrenaline-packed, fun ways to bet on your favorite sports teams. Traditional sports betting involves doing your research, understanding the different teams in a league and their unique play styles, and making calculated bets on the likelihood of certain outcomes taking place. In traditional sports betting, one puts money down on the outcomes – and payouts depend on the betting odds and whether the outcome actually came to pass.
When one bets on unlikely, improbable outcomes, they stand to gain significantly more times their investment than if they had taken the safer option. However, these payouts are far from guaranteed. At the same time, betting on highly likely outcomes will pay less but will at least do so consistently. The decision is yours – whether you’d prefer to place calculated bets and win small amounts of money regularly, or risk it all for that one blaze of glory.
While it is called ‘traditional’ sports betting, there’s hardly anything traditional about it these days except the most basic rules. The modern game allows one to place bets on more than just simple probabilities – with options such as propositions, joint-spreads, over-under bets, parlays, and more.
Starting an online sportsbook account is incredibly easily, with a number of the best online football betting sites coming from the most reputed long-standing names in the business. One of the most popular forms of sports betting in the United States is to follow FOX Sports programming and make a bet on the incredibly popular FOX Bet app. This is one of the best sports betting apps for beginners and intermediates alike, with a number of betting options for one and all. The app regularly releases a number of football betting promo codes.
Pros of Traditional Sports Betting
Sports bettors most often start off with traditional sports betting, and never leave once they’ve tasted the thrill of winning one of the many college basketball pools or their first NFL wagers. As the most timeless form of betting, traditional sports betting has several pros that still make it one of the best ways to bet on football in the United States – or anywhere else in the world, for that matter.
- You can get creative. Traditional sports betting sites and even retail sportsbooks – to an extent – allow you to make truly creative bets that go beyond simple outcomes. For instance, one can make use of the many prop betting sites to get into proposition betting, or make a number of parlays, over-under bets, and a number of other diverse ways to bet.
- You have more options. A reputed gambling site for traditional sport betting is but a click away, with significantly more options available for traditional sports betting than any other form. Websites and apps like BetRivers, BetMGM, and Caesars offer lucrative football betting promo codes and other bonuses to beginners for a seamless entry into the world of online sports betting.
- Lower commissions. NFL bettors will be pleased to know that traditional football betting involves much lower commissions for bookmakers. Bookmakers typically charge a 10% commission on the bets themselves – not the winnings – which means that if one follows the betting odds and wins about 50% of the time, they only pay about 5% commission on average. Online gambling can be quite affordable, provided one places their football bets wisely while playing football online.
- It completes the live sports experience. Sporting events are the greatest, period. But they take on an entirely new level of largeness when paired with well-organized, safe, and fun betting. Betting on real world outcomes makes the actual event so much more fun to experience – after all, nothing beats watching your favorite win the league after betting on the football online. In-play betting adds another dimension to this experience, making traditional sports betting one of the best ways to experience both sports and betting – whether you’re following the football odds or defying them.
Daily Fantasy Sports Betting
Fantasy sports are an exciting product of the digital age of sports betting, and are a whole new way to explore betting tactics, strategy, and bankroll management. You’ve probably heard of many daily fantasy sports betting apps running across the entire NFL season, and there’s a reason why they’re so popular.
Daily fantasy sports involve a whole new level of strategy, tactics, and that slight touch of madness to take a risk when it’s called for, and can make you feel like you have a lot more control over the outcome since it’s possible to mitigate risk by planning for various outcomes.
Playing in daily fantasy sports is simple. Beginners usually play tournaments that have a large pool of contestants. One pays a mandatory fee to enter – which could be considered as something of a qualifying bet – and gets matched up against the entire pool. Payouts are predetermined depending on where one places in the tournament, with payouts typically being handed out from the middle of the table and upwards.
More experienced players can opt for heads-up daily fantasy sports betting, on some of the online football betting sites, and many of the other online sports betting sites. The world of online sportsbooks has several interesting DFS tournaments happening on the regular, for your daily fix of online sports betting action.
The only catch with daily fantasy online sports betting is that it isn’t legal in every state, including some of those that have moved to legalize sports betting.
Daily fantasy sports betting is illegal in the following states:
- Arizona
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Louisiana
- Montana
- Nevada
- While Nevada is the hotbed for online sports betting in the United States, it surprisingly hasn’t been receptive to DFS online sports betting. USFantasy is the only app with a license, but hasn’t been approved by Nevada’s gaming control board yet.
- Washington
Pros of Daily Fantasy Online Betting Sites
The daily fantasy format can deliver some of the best NFL games online, in a sports betting context. It is also offered by many legal online football betting sites. It’s no wonder that daily fantasy is a hit at online sportsbooks, with every major online sportsbook offering some form of daily fantasy football.
- Forget the odds. Daily fantasy football doesn’t involve odds set by bookmakers, which gives NFL bettors the opportunity to have a little more control over the outcome of their bet. One can offset the odds of a key player getting injured by having a suitable backup on the bench, while making one’s best touchdown scorer the captain can lead to a practically guaranteed increase in points. The emphasis on strategy and skill is far stronger in this form of betting, which is why it’s a hit at every major online sportsbook.
- You aren’t up against bookmakers. A huge positive when it comes to daily fantasy sports is that one doesn’t need to beat the bookmaker, but other players just like themselves – making it far more likely for one to win. Many online sportsbooks such as FanDuel arguably the best online football betting site for fantasy NFL games), DraftKings, Yahoo, and Monkey Knife, offer generous joining bonuses and even one free sports entry to get a taste of NFL betting action.
- It’s a lot like chess. Just like how chess involves different strategies, daily fantasy sports betting on online sportsbooks gives you the opportunity to create a strategy of your own. Experiment with different lineups and play all of them at once in the same tournament, or use the one lineup you know is guaranteed to win.
The Four Major Football Leagues In The USA
While there are so many ways to bet on some of the best football betting websites, there are just as many forms of the game itself to bet on.
The NFL
The NFL is the biggest American football league, featuring 32 football teams divided equally between the American Football Conference and the National Football Conference. The NFL is one of the biggest sports leagues in the world, and features the best online football betting scene as well.
The NCAAF
NCAAF football is also known as Division I-A, and is the largest college league football tournament in the United States. It is the highest level of college football and one of the most followed sports by fans and NFL recruiters alike. While some states restrict betting on in-state colleges and games, the betting scene in the NCAAF is certainly ripe. The best sportsbooks provide options for betting on the NCAAF.
The USFL
Started by FOX Sports, the United States Football League is the newest kid on the block as far as leagues go. Started only in 2022 – although there have been previous attempts to use this name for a league – the league had 43 matches in its inaugural season and is almost certain to have many lucrative betting options on FOX Bet – one of the best football betting sites. As the league continues to grow and gain in popularity, more sportsbooks will offer betting on the USFL.
The XFL
Headquartered in Arlington, Texas, the XFL is the premier minor league football tournament in the United States, with games held from February to April every year. While it isn’t one of the most largely viewed sports in the country, it is still one of the four major leagues and a number of the best XFL betting sites offer fun, low-stakes bets on games that could be a great foray for beginners to enter the world of sports betting.
We hope we have helped pique your interest in the world of NFL betting sites, football betting sites, and more. Here are some answers to questions you may still have.
| BetMGM | Get up to $1,000 on the house | Start Betting! | T&Cs apply. Must be 21+ and physically in the state |
FAQs
Can I bet on football games online?
Yes. Traditional sports betting, in game betting, live betting, prop betting, daily fantasy betting, are just some of a number of options one has to bet on the several football betting sites. Following a rigirous tesing process across multiple platforms, we've handpicked the top online sportsbooks that our readers should consider signing up with.
Is football gambling legal in the USA?
Football gambling is legal in 22 states at the moment, with a landmark Supreme Court verdict paving the way for legalization of sports betting in a number of states - with the exception of Utah, which is unlikely to ever legalize an NFL betting site or any form of betting on football online. Sports bettors have several options at the moment and the list of both states as well as the best NFL sportsbooks is only expected to grow.
Are there promos and bonuses in football betting?
Yes, there are sportsbooks offering bonuses to new players. Many brands have monthly promos and bonus codes, as well as a selection of other welcome bonuses and offers for new and existing players.
Ben Brown is a diehard football fan who has been watching since he was a kid. After college he focused on his career, but never gave up his passion for the game. Now in his 40s he is the proud owner of thehogs.net.