Are you looking for the best sites for betting on sports and horse racing? Well, stick around, because this is all about showing you the best online betting sites.
Minimum Deposit: $5. Maximum Deposit: $10,000. Every time you deposit with Bitcoin a new Bitcoin address will be generated. If you use the same address for other deposits the transaction will be delayed and subject to a management fee. There is no daily or monthly limit on the amount of Bitcoin deposits made to your account. Minimum Deposit Amount. The 'Minimum Deposit Amount' set by a sportsbook usually varies depending on the circumtances. Are you depositing for the first time? Are you depositing for a 2nd or 3rd time, or are you depositing in order to qualify for a special bonus offer? Deposit amount is imortant to keep in mind. Bookmaker bonuses and minimum deposits. If you intend to deposit the minimum allowed when opening your account, bear in mind that the bonus or special offer that is available may have a higher deposit requirement than the allowed minimum. While the lowest deposit allowed may be, for example, £5.00, the amount to trigger the bonus or other. Taking all of this into account, and knowing that Bovada is very secure and reliable, gives us good reason to name Bovada #1 in our list of top 5 online sportsbooks for U.S. Bovada Minimum Deposit: $20 Bovada Minimum Internet Bet: $1 To sign up at Bovada: Join Bovada For a full review of the Bovada sportsbook: Bovada Sportsbook Review. Place live in-play bets, cash out your wagers early, and take advantage of several other exciting features. The minimum $5 deposit amount is also quite appealing to novices and those on really tight budgets. The DraftKings app uses the most up-to-date geolocation technology. This ensures all bets are legally placed within New Jersey’s borders.
Here are the 3 Best Online Betting Sites / Sportsbooks
Bovada
Bovada has changed the face of Sports betting online. They have a great sportsbook, racebook and one of the largest online poker rooms for players in the US. Their racebook is only open to North American thoroughbred and harness races.
Bonuses
Bovada offers a 50% signup bonus up to $250 and a bitcoin sports bonus of 50% up to $500 with a promo code. There is also a 100% match bonus eligible up to $1,000 and a bitcoin casino signup bonus of 150% match up to $1,500, both of which are redeemable up to three times. You starting bonus requires you to bet 5 times the amount of your initial deposit and bonus.
Deposits and Payouts
They only offer two ways to make a deposit and that is with credit cards and bitcoin.
Their payout system has improved massively over the years. In the past, this was the main complaint about Bovada, but now that they fixed it by speeding up the process and being one of the first online sports betting sites to offer bitcoin withdrawals.
The minimum deposit amount is only $20.
Customer service
They offer 24/7 toll-free customer service via telephone. They can help you in English, Spanish or Portuguese, and they don’t offer live chat, the wait time is about 1 minute on phone calls and a few minutes for emails. Bovada covers all the major sports. They offering straight bets, teasers, if bets parlays, futures, and props on just about any sport. This makes Bovada one of the best Online sports betting sites.
BetOnline
BetOnline is great for sports gambling online in many ways, but especially with baseball. They constantly work to improve the online experience with their bonuses and other elements such as betting types.
Bonuses
BetOnline has a 50% signup bonus up to $1,000. There is also a 25% reload bonus eligible up to $1,000 and a $100 bonus for every friend who signs up and makes a deposit.BetOnline also has free play reload bonuses.
Deposit and Payment Options
You can make a deposit with Visa, Mastercard, Discover Card, Diners Club cards or American Express. They also accept Moneygram or Western Union transfers, bank wire transfers, Bitcoin and Etherum deposits, checks, or you can send money from your Skrill account. Offering so many options makes them one of the Best Sports betting sites.
The minimum deposit amount is only $10, which is the lowest you’ll find.
Customer Service
They have great, round the clock customer service. BetOnline has live chat, a toll-free phone number both can be reached 24/7 in English or Spanish.
Having separate email addresses for the casino, racebook and sportsbook is a huge plus in terms of getting results when you have a problem.
BetOnline is a great gambling site because they put lots of effort into their Racebook. They have a well-run blog that offers advice for gamblers of all skill levels and they really know how to keep novice bettors interested and coming back.
MyBookie
MyBookie is another place which offers Sports betting online. They are newer than the others but already have a great reputation online.
Bonuses
They 50% signup bonus up to $1,000, a 100% casino signup bonus up to $300. While the refer-a-friend bonus is only 10%, that can be offset if you refer high ticket customers to them. They also have a 3- tier loyalty program that offers free payouts, birthday gift cards, game seats, and more bonuses.
Deposit and Payment Options
They accept Visa, Mastercard, Bank Wire, Check, and Person-to-Person Transfer for deposits. The minimum deposit amount is $50. You are allowed one free payout, then you’ll be subjected to a fee for each withdrawal.
Payouts are completed within 48 hours. This makes them a top sites out there.
Customer Service
They offer a live chat customer service or you can call them 24/7, but they only support English. They are one of the newest betting websites, but they’re one of the top sites for Sports gambling.
These websites are Best Sports betting sites because they value their customers and constantly work to make improvements.
Credit card gambling sites are simply online casinos, sportsbooks, or poker rooms that accept credits cards as a method of funding a player’s betting account. It can also be equated to using your credit card as a cash advance for betting purposes as online sportsbooks don’t offer credit like some brick and mortars.
To make things easier for you, we’ve compiled the above list of some of the best sites that provide the best credit card banking system for their players.
Betting Site | Bonus | Bet Now | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | up to €30 Free Bet | Go to Site | |
| 2 | 22Bet | 100% up to €122 | Go to Site |
| 3 | 100% up to €200 | Go to Site | |
| 4 | 10Bet | 100% up to €50 | Go to Site |
| 5 | 100% up to €50 | Go to Site |
Types of Cards
Most of the sites that we review accept Visa first and foremost, but Mastercard is close behind. Other more frequently offered card payments include:
The prime areas that the site services determine the cards that are accepted but, for US and UK sites, Visa and Mastercard will rank the highest.
Why Are Credit Cards So Popular for Online Betting?
There are many ways to fund betting accounts these days, as it seems like new financial services are popping up monthly, but most customers have at least one credit card.
On the merchant’s end, credit card acceptance is typically at the top of their list banking methods as these sites want to cater to as many potential bettors as possible.
Unlike the US, in locations like the United Kingdom, where online betting is legal as long as the site is licensed by the UK Gambling Commission, credit card acceptance is practically a slam dunk. Players will still come across a few banks here and there that may decline an online gambling transaction anyway, but most people shouldn’t have a problem.
Don’t Present That Card Just Anywhere
You may have your Visa in hand ready to buy some chips or spin those reels, but you don’t want to use a credit card with the first site that pulls up on your search. You’ll want to factor in reputation, fee structure, and payout processing into your decision-making process.
Credit or Cash Advance?
Using a credit card is essentially taking a cash advance from your bank or credit card provider and, even though most transactions aren’t recorded that way for everyday purchases, gambling may trigger an additional cash advance fee.
It’s entirely up to the issuer of the card, but they can code your transaction as a cash advance and tack on those higher interest rates that accompany that additional service. It can get pricey for players who use a site that charges for the transaction and then have their bank apply cash advance fees as well, so credit card use may be the easiest, but it’s certainly not the cheapest.
The Fees
Putting aside the APR (Annual Percentage Rate) that banks charge monthly for any carryover of a balance, the casino, sportsbook, or poker room may also tack on some costs of their own.
This is a more common practice with sites that allow for players from the United States. You’ll find that the UK or European servicing websites that prohibit US registration are much more generous in their banking policies and are typically fee-free.
The mention of any charges being assessed for credit card use may bring to mind withdrawal fees but, believe it or not; some sites charge players to transfer into their betting account as well. One well-known sportsbook charges 5.9% just to make a deposit using Visa or Mastercard, and then there are other costs added to the reverse transactions as well.
One other thing to take into consideration is the way you’re initiating your deposit. A fee-free designation or the posted rates, if there are any, apply to transactions made using the automated system hosted within the website. This is the most straightforward method as players can input their card information, the amount they want to transfer, and then the bank makes its approval decision, all within seconds.
If on the other hand, you go to the customer service department and make a charge by phone request, you could be looking at extra fees. It’s not uncommon, even for a betting sites that offers free banking, to charge something for payments by phone.
There’s one other fee that could be assessed depending on your location and that of your chosen gambling site, and that’s the international service fee. In some cases, you could be charged a percentage of your deposit and/or withdrawal for currency exchange.
Turnaround Time for Credit Card Transactions
One of the benefits of using a credit card to transfer money to a gambling site is the speed of the transaction, at least for deposits. Payments made using the automated system are approved (or denied) in a matter of seconds, and that money is then immediately made available for betting use.
Payouts, on the other hand, are an entirely different story. We’ll get more in depth with withdrawals in a moment but, but credit card payouts are not always an option.
Sportsbook With $20 Minimum Deposit
The websites that do allow for those reverse transactions still take much longer than instant deposits that are just so appealing.
Cashing out any winnings first has an internal approval process by the sports betting cashier attached to make sure that any bonus wagering requirements have been met and that the payout is in line with its policies.
Then, there could be another waiting period as the payment request is sent to the credit card provider for processing. Some websites will promote fast turnarounds within a few days, but some have as high as a 7-10 business day window before you’ll have cash in hand or, more accurately, “cash on card.”
Non-Credit Card Payouts
Sports betting sites require their customers to use the same method for both deposits and withdrawals but, in the case of credit card users, that’s not always an option. If we had to estimate, we’d say that only about 40% of sites will offer credit card payouts and they’re usually not the ones that allow US players to join.
If your chosen gambling provider doesn’t allow for credit card payouts, the default method is generally a check or some bank or wire transfer which, in both cases, will hold up your payment anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, so know these requirements before depositing with a credit card.
The 7995 – AKA the Challenge For US Players
The legality of online gambling for US players has never been well defined, so that everyone would be on the same page. But, the one highly referenced act, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 is the one that sent US-based online gambling providers packing.
Although they moved their physical operations, where does that leave players?
Well, the act doesn’t state that online gambling is illegal. What it addresses is the payment processing for internet betting, directly targeting banks and the operators but not the customers who use the services.
Credit card companies use a coding system involving a list of merchant codes that, in the most general terms, defines the purchase being made. For example, if you paid for a meal in a restaurant, it would fall under the “dining” code.
When there was nothing on the books officially allowing for online betting anywhere in the US, transactions were categorized under one main code, 7995.
The New Jersey, Nevada, And Delaware Effect
In 2013, when online gambling was officially legalized in the states of New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware, players and operators still faced the challenged of the dreaded 7995. Even though the transactions should have been approved, financial institutions retained the blanket decline without any further investigation.
As you can imagine, that did not sit well with the casinos or the customers so, in 2015, new codes were added by Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express to define further the transaction that was initiated.
The three new codes categorized the following:
- Government-run online lotteries
- Regulated online casinos
- Regulated events for online horse and dog racing
Mastercard also has a newer code that is used for cash advances for legal gambling.
This doesn’t open up approvals across the board but does allow for easier use within the state lines of Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey.
Non-Direct Use Of Credit Cards
Even if you aren’t able to use your credit card for a straight deposit into a betting account, there are still some ways you can use it, and you may even save yourself some money by taking a different route.
These days, gambling sites have expanded their menus, adding to the traditional credit card and wire transfer methods to include e-wallets like Skrill or PayPal as well as Bitcoin. Bitcoin has become one of the more favored ways to conduct financial transactions as there isn’t an overseeing authority designating how you can and can’t use your money.
e-Wallets Betting Sites
Online Sportsbook Minimum Deposit $10
Can be funded with a credit card by using an exchange company like Coinbase. You set up your credit card and transfer in from your local currency, and it can then be exchanged to Bitcoin and put into your wallet for a direct transfer to any sportsbook or casino that takes this cryptocurrency.
In some cases, depending on your “between” method used, you could save yourself some fees that the sportsbook may apply to credit card transactions.
Bitcoin Betting Sites Evolving into Credit Card Sites
In 2014, Bitstarz became the first Bitcoin-only casino to start taking credit cards. It may seem like an odd thing to do because Bitcoin allows for such easy deposits and withdrawals, but if you think about it, it makes sense.
Credit cards have a higher acceptance rate for deposits than payouts and players don’t want to wait weeks to receive a check in the mail or be made to set up a bank transfer.
Accepting credit cards for deposits and then converting to Bitcoin for withdrawals allows for nearly instant transactions in both directions for the customer, as well as a way to put some Bitcoin away for investment purposes. If cash in hand is needed quickly, though, an exchange service can also transfer that Bitcoin to your designated traditional currency and put it in your bank account or credit your card.
Debit, Prepaid, And Gift Alternatives
We’re talking specifically about credit cards here, but there are plenty of similar card alternatives that may offer easier acceptance and lower fees.
Debit cards have been used as long as credit cards in the world of online betting and usually go hand in hand with the credit card structure. So, instead of saying credit cards and debit cards are allowed, the site may just put all Visa designated cards, Mastercard and Maestro into one category. The fee structure is typically the same, and the acceptance is still in the hands of the bank or card provider.
Gift and prepaid cards that have the Visa designation or are provided by another primary card company will usually come with the same charges attached, if any, but may allow for easier approval.
These types of non-credit based cards act as cash transactions as the prepaid cards are loaded with a designated amount of money and your debit card is pulling directly from your checking account based on your available balance.
The Benefits to Credit Card Gambling
- Speedy deposits so you have your money available for betting in an instant
- Allows for currency exchange
- Many players have at least one credit card
- Depending on available card credit, you can keep overspending at bay
- Outside of the US, most credit card transactions into a casino, sportsbook, or poker room are free
- Can use credit cards to fund alternative methods like e-wallets or Bitcoin
The Downside to Credit Cards
- Not always offered as payout alternatives
- The approval is up to the card issuer and not always tied to your available balance
- US players have a much smaller chance of being approved
- Banks can consider your transaction to be a cash advance and charge you a higher percentage rate
- Casinos, sportsbooks, and poker rooms may charge fees for credit card use and a higher rate for international transactions
- You can bet above your means and you’re using money you have to pay back