PA Online Sports Betting Sites — Best Pennsylvania Sportsbooks
Published on 24 Jul 2020
Pennsylvania was one of the states that made sports betting legal. Since the repeal of the PASPA law in 2018, the Keystone state licensed thirteen online sports betting sites and sixteen retail betting shops for placing wagers in person. As one of the states with the highest gambling tax, Pennsylvania gets much profit from local bookmakers and thus will most likely grow further. In this overview, we will show you the best PA online sports betting sites, tell you how to find the best sportsbook, and give you some tips Pennsylvania online sports betting.
What’s Happening in Pennsylvania Sports Betting Now
So, Pennsylvania legalized sports betting in 2019. To become a legal sports betting site in PA, a company must obtain a license from Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, a gambling authority existing from 2004. What is more, Pennsylvania is one of the few states that allow online casino games and online poker. It means that many sportsbooks, like DraftKings or BetMGM offer more facilities on the PA territory. Besides sports betting markets, they offer slots, table and card games, live dealer tables, and online poker rooms.
Overall, the market seems to develop very quickly. Some though it would not: the gambling tax is one of the highest in Pennsylvania after New York, Delaware, and Rhode Island.
However, it didn’t prevent top gambling brands from coming to the local market full of sports fans and profit from their lost wagers. At the moment, the PA betting industry might expect a new step that will involve opening of more mobile sports betting apps and sites as well as retail facilities.
The latest events include the following:
- March 2022: Parx Casino started offering online betting and gambling services again after a relaunch with the support of Playtech, a famous casino gaming provider. The same months showed decrease in net revenues;
- April 2022: PaySafe started working with betPARX, the online betting site in PA. Besides, this month saw a launch of the famous PointsBet brand in Pennsylvania. It had already come with a sportsbook app earlier this year, and now offers casino games, too.
The Scale of the Pennsylvania Sports Betting Market
Sports betting sites operators in Pennsylvania seem to flourish: the accumulated revenues are pretty impressive. The thirteen online sports betting sites collect approximately $60 million per month on average, and the figures keep growing. You can check the revenue stats for the last year at the official source.
How PA Online Sports Betting is Regulated
As you already know, Pennsylvania gambling is regulated by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. It controls the performance of all online and retail sportsbooks in the state. Let’s look at the local gambling laws in more detail.
Is Sports Betting Legal in Pennsylvania
The short answer is yes, sports betting is legal in all its forms. Retail sports betting shops, online and mobile sports betting options are legalized as well as online casino games and poker. You need to be 21 to play. Every local registered bookmaker must verify customers’ age and address, to make sure a person is eligible to join the gambling fun.
So, prepare to send your ID and address proof to online sportsbooks — or just show your driving license or passport when you visit a retail shop.
An important detail that actually relates to all states that legalized gambling: you don’t need to constantly live in Pennsylvania if you want to bet on sports. It’s enough to be physically located in the Keystone State when you place online sports bets or go to a brick-and-mortar casino.
Sports Betting in PA and Other States
One of the major things that make PA sports betting different is the gambling tax. Although it doesn’t affect players at all, bookmakers might find it a bit harsh to pay a 36% annual tax. However, some states have even higher rates: for instance, New York law obliges all sportsbooks to pay 51% of the revenue to the state authorities. Compare it to, say, New Jersey, with its 14,25% or South Dakota with 9%.
Another thing to note is the gambling age. Many states allow you to wager as soon as you turn 18, but Pennsylvania state a minimum age of 21.
Finally, betting markets. The betting offer is not quite different in PA: you will find the same disciplines and odds. Like most states, Pennsylvania doesn’t allow you to bet on college sports props. It doesn’t prohibit offshore sports betting, though, so you actually have more options without any limitations when you register at a foreign bookmaker.
How to Start Online Betting in PA?
Obviously, online betting starts with finding the best online sports betting site that will fit all your needs. However, it’s not enough to check out match coupons and get inspired by a welcome bonus. It’s essential that a sports betting platform is safe, reliable, and of course pays off quickly and fairly. We prepared a rating of the best online sports betting sites in Pennsylvania to make your life easier. However, you can find more options online, and even try out some offshore ones — and we will tell you how to do it safely.
Best Legal PA Sports Betting Sites
All the bookies from this list are licensed by the local PA authority e.g., Pennsylvania Gaming Board. All of them are the famous brands that you can come across at most other states that legalized sports betting. However, you can also try casino gaming using the same platforms: thanks to PA lax laws, it’s perfectly legal.
| Sportsbook | License | Top popular sports |
|---|---|---|
| DraftKings | PA Gaming Control Board | American football, basketball, tennis |
| BetMGM | Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board | American football, basketball, baseball |
| FoxBet | Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board | American football, soccer, basketball |
| PointsBet | Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board | American football, ice hockey, basketball |
| FanDuel | Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board | American football, basketball, baseball |
Types of Bets at PA Betting Sites
If we speak about local PA betting sites, they are not really generous when it comes to various betting options. Some of them provide players with hundreds of props for a single event; the others feature exciting Bet Builders, but the overall selection might be a bit limited for everything but the major US leagues. So, what will you find for sure?
PA Sports Betting Market
The easiest and the most popular wager type is the Moneyline, or Match Winner.
You simply wager on the game outcome predicting who will win, that’s it. There are also moneylines for halves and quarters, so you guess who will score more goals during a particular half or quarter.
Point Spread.
Another bet that you will always find at any sports betting site. You wager on the difference between the score: for instance, that a Team A will win with more than 1,5 points margin.
It’s also simple:
you bet on the total number of goals scored within the game, a half, a quarter, including or excluding overtime. You don’t need to guess the exact number. Instead, a bookie gives you a number like 3,5 and you predict if the score will be more or less. This is why such a bet type is also called Over/Under.
Proposition bets, or simply props, are wagers on various events during a game
They are not related to the game outcome. For instance, it can the First Player to Score, or the Team to Score Last and Win. As you might guess, the number of such props can be almost unlimited.
Besides single bets, when you just choose an event and wager on a particular outcome and then wait what will happen, there are also multiple bets. There are many of them, and some are pretty complicated, but most US bookies do with the only variant which is called Parlay. To create a parlay, you need to add several picks from different games.
You collect them in your bet slip and combine in a parlay wager which multiplies all odds.
The main difficulty: it will win if all legs of the parlay win. Some PA sports betting sites offer parlay insurance: it allows you have one pick lost and still get your winnings from the rest of the picks.
How do We Rate Pennsylvania Betting Sites?
So you saw our rating, but you don’t have to take our words for granted. We suggest that you double-checked all the bookmakers yourself to make sure it’s the best choice for you. After all, it might be about your personal taste, and even a bookie’s design might be the decisive thing. However, there are a list of criteria that a good sports betting site must have. We will describe them in detail in the following block of this review.
Sports Betting License and Legality in PA
The first thing to look at is of course the gambling license. As you already know, PA legal online sports betting sites must have the PA Gaming Board permit. If there is one, you can safely join a site: you are protected by your local authorities. If you have any issues with a sportsbook, you can always apply to the Gaming Board and ask for help.
What if you wager at a site registered outside Pennsylvania? It’s not illegal, but it makes sense to check its license, too. If there’s none, it’s a pretty bad sign. Most remote bookmakers work under the Curacao or the Isle of Man license, and it means they are regulated. However, you won’t be able to complain about such a site, and your local law won’t protect you in case of any issues or even scam.
Reputation
License is important, but reputation is probably even more important. It especially concerns sports betting sites working outside the USA. You know that you don’t have any insurance that a PA Gaming Board gives you, so make sure you deal with a platform having crystal clear reputation, when you wager at offshore sites. The local PA brands are all very reputable, so you will barely have any problem.
Available Betting Markets
Your fav bookie must have it all: sports you love, sports betting markets you prefer to bet on, casino games that entertain you the most. So, take your time to see what a sportsbook offers. Some bookies have great pre-match lines but almost nothing in the live betting section. The others specialize on the in-play wagering.
Besides, a nice choice of disciplines can give you a hint on the betting software quality. The more sports and markets it offers, the better might be the odds and the overall performance of the site.
Betting Odds and Lines
As a casual bettor, you might seek for nothing but fun at various sports betting sites. However, you obviously don’t want to end up with much lower winnings than you could have.
So, shop the lines and compare various offers. It makes sense to join a couple of bookmakers to wager with better profits.
For instance, the first one will offer a great NBA promo, while the second one will feature boosted odds for the most wanted NFL competition.
Bonuses at PA Sportsbooks
To continue the bonuses topic, we must say that it is not probably the best way to choose a bookmaker. A lucrative $1,000 risk free bet or even a bigger deposit match promised by every new customer might turn to be a very unprofitable deal. Always mind the wagering requirements and other bonus terms. For instance, many bonus offer have particular betting limits or imply you need to bet only on selected markets. However, a good bonus might be a very pleasant gift, so we collected the best ones in the table below.
| Sportsbook | Bonus type | Bonus amount |
|---|---|---|
| DraftKings | First Deposit Bonus | Up to $1,000 |
| BetMGM | Risk-Free Bet | Up to $1,000 |
| FanDuel | Risk-Free Bet | Up to $1,000 |
| BetRivers | First Deposit Match | Up to $250 |
| Betway | Risk-Free Bet | Up to $1,000 |
Latest Bonuses
Mobile Betting Availability
Statistics say, most sports bettors prefer mobile experience, and most bookmakers get traffic from mobile devices. We suppose most of our readers are not an exception, so it’s obviously important to have a great app of your fav bookie on hand. Luckily, most PA sportsbooks are available in native apps for iOS and Android. The launch of the mobile apps was not the first thing that bookies did when entered the market, but now mobile betting is finally here.
Sports Betting Apps Legal in PA
| Sportsbook | iOS Version | Android Version |
|---|---|---|
| DraftKings | Yes | Yes |
| BetMGM | Yes | Yes |
| FoxBet | Yes | Yes |
| PointsBet | Yes | Yes |
| FanDuel | Yes | Yes |
Live Betting Availability
Live betting is a great thing for many reasons. It gives you bigger chances to win, it allows you to make last-minute bets, it’s fun and thrill, after all. Not all sportsbooks pay much attention to in-play betting, though. Some of them offer too low odds, the others have a little choice of events.
Sometimes live betting turns into a disaster, when your bets are not accepted quickly enough to fix the odds.
If you love live betting like we do, stick to sportsbooks that have a quick bet feature, live streaming services, live statistics, many live betting events and markets available daily, and some extra options. For instance, a cash-out feature is a great chance to get an extra insurance for your wagers.
Popular Sports for Online Betting in PA
Pennsylvania is a home to many popular pro teams. There are two cities hosting the major leagues franchises: Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, so there are plenty of betting options and twice the fun for bettors. Besides, you can wager on college sports. Local bookies are allowed to offer games with participation of the local teams, but you won’t find any props for Penn State, Pitt, Villanova, and Temple. Besides the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL, PA bettors have an interest towards European soccer, tennis, and UFC fights. The least mainstream sports are darts, cricket, lacrosse, chess, Aussie rules — but you can still find odds for such niche disciplines at the PA sports betting sites.
NBA Betting
Pennsylvania is the home for Philadelphia 76ers, the member of the NBA Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. With three won championships, five conference and twelve division titles, the team remains one of the strongest NBA clubs. Its rivalry with the Boston Celtics is the oldest rivalry in the league history ever.
NFL Betting
Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers make a so-called ‘Battle of Pennsylvania’. This interconference rivalry attracts thousands of sports fans and bettors and brings a good deal of the revenue to local bookmakers.
NHL Betting
Another Battle of Pennsylvania takes place within the major ice hockey league. Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins matches usually gather the largest crowds at the stadiums and attract sports fans all over the country.
Conclusion
PA sports betting is rapidly developing and shows pretty nice revenues. Despite a high gambling tax, top US gambling brands willingly opened their doors to PA bettors. Besides, retail casinos and the overall permission to offer casino gaming services also makes Pennsylvania a lucrative market. Being a home of top major leagues teams and having thousands of avid gamblers, it might be the next New Jersey after a time.
FAQ
At the moment, there are several available retail betting locations in brick-and-mortar casinos and horse tracks. They are Harrah’s Philadelphia, Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course and casino, Mohegan Sun Pocono, Mount Airy Casino, Parx Casino, Presque Isle Downs, Rivers Philadelphia, Rivers Pittsburgh, South Philadelphia Race & Sportsbook, The Meadows Casino and Racetrack, Valley Forge Casino, Wind Creek Casino.
PA law states that a sports betting site, retail bookmaker, or an online casino must pay a 36% tax to the state. It’s the fourth most expensive state in terms of betting taxes, with the first place going to NY (51%).
Sports betting was legal in PA since 2009, but the launch of online wagering was in 2019, after the PASPA law was repealed.
It used to be so, but luckily things changed and local sports betting brands now offer top-notch mobile experience via native mobile apps for iOS and Android.
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