You should avoid offshore gambling sites if you can bet with a legal United States gambling site instead.
Offshore bingo, casino, poker, and sports betting sites are legal in their country of origin, but the United States has a different opinion.
That said, the probability that you’ll face any kind of legal issues when betting at offshore gambling sites is minimal.
You should be more worried about having trouble depositing and withdrawing money from these offshore sportsbooks.
Below, I offer some recommendations about which offshore sportsbooks might best suit your needs. But I remind you to take everything you read online with a grain of salt, including this.
If you want to skip the list and just get started, BetUS is probably the best offshore gambling site option for most US gamblers.
Also, if you’re looking for a more general list of gambling companies, you can find that in my post on the subject here.
Table of Contents
My List of the 5 Best Offshore Gambling Sites for 2023
Here’s my list of the 5 best offshore gambling sites for 2023, in alphabetical order. I don’t recommend any one site over any other, necessarily. Further on in this post, I’ll share some thoughts on which sites are better or worse than others for specific types of gamblers.
- Betonline
- BetUS
- Bovada
- Mybookie
- Sportsbetting.ag
I provide detailed reviews below, but first, I should discuss the legalities involved with gambling at offshore sportsbooks.
Categorizing Online Sportsbooks and Offshore Gambling Sites
You could categorize online sportsbooks in multiple ways, but the broadest categories I can think of are 2:
- Legal, regulated online sportsbooks
- Offshore, unregulated online sportsbooks
If you live in a state where you can bet on sports online, you should always choose one of the many reputable sportsbooks operating in the United States.
In many states, though, if you want to bet on sports online, you must do business with a neighborhood bookie or an online gambling site.
I recommend trying a local bookie if you can, but those are guys are operating on the outskirts of the law, too.
If you’re determined to gamble at an offshore sportsbook, stick with the ones recommended in this post.
You’re unlikely to face legal trouble betting at an offshore book, but it’s not impossible. I’m not a lawyer.
I do have dozens of friends who have bet on various sporting events at different offshore sites, and many of them have been happy with the experience.
Betonline
They also have some of the biggest deposit maximums on the internet. You can deposit up to $100k with multiple different cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin and ethereum.
Their signup bonus offers are better than you’ll find at many of these sites.
My favorite thing about BetOnline is their live betting tab. This allows you to bet on games while they’re being played.
BetOnline offers live betting on most major sports, like baseball, basketball, and soccer. The options are, of course, limited to events that are already underway.
The odds change fast in the live betting screen, so if you see lines that you like, jump on them.
You can place single bets, multiple bets, and even parlays in the live betting section.
BetOnline has excellent live betting options.
BetUS
BetUS is far from new, having been launched in 1994. The sportsbook operates from San Jose, Costa Rica. You can bet on sports here, of course, but you can also play any of a couple hundred casino games.
BetUS, like Bovada, specializes in serving gamblers from the United States. Their target market is “the average sports bettor.”
The biggest perk of gambling here is the user-friendly mobile interface, which you can use from anywhere with an internet connection. Everything happens through your browser; you don’t need to download an app.
BetUS also offers fast payouts to winners.
My favorite thing about BetUS is the variety of prop bets you can place there. A prop bet is a bet on something other than the outcome of the game. For example, you might bet on who’s going to score first during a game. The lines on prop bets change often based on lineup changes.
Prop bets make gambling on sports more exciting. They usually feature longer odds, which means you can see a greater return on your investment when you win one.
Here are some more examples of common prop bets:
- How many points will be score during the game?
- Will the first team to score also win the game?
- Which team will call the first time out?
You should get the idea from those examples, even though that’s a woefully short list compared to the actual options you’ll find at BetUS.
You can also place futures bets, which are special kinds of prop bets on something that’s going to happen in the future. For example, you can bet on who’s going to win the Super Bowl at the beginning of the season. You can also bet on who’s going to win which conferences and which divisions early in the season.
Prop bets aren’t limited to football games, either. You can place various kinds of prop bets on baseball, basketball, and hockey games, too.
Bovada
If you’re a beginner to sports betting online, try Bovada. They have the friendliest user interface and the most deposit/withdrawal options.
Be sure to consider betting with bitcoin at Bovada, because they’re very friendly to bitcoin betters.
They also offer casino games and poker. If you’re looking for that kind of action, you can find it at other online bookmakers, but Bovada offers a much more robust set of games.
They also might have the best overall reputation of any of the sites listed here.
Mybookie
If you’re interested mostly in live betting and/or prop bets, try Mybookie.
They’re one of the newer books listed here, and they have a relatively high rollover requirement on their deposit bonuses.
MyBookie is probably better for low rollers because the biggest deposit you can make there is $25,000 — but that’s only for Bitcoin users.
If you’re using MasterCard or Visa, your maximum deposit is $1000.
SportsBetting.ag
Sportsbetting.ag offers one of the most diverse range of betting opportunities on the internet. Also, SportsBetting.ag is less skittish about serving professional gamblers than most other sites. If you’ve been run off from other offshore sportsbooks because they think you’re a pro, consider signing up here.
In fact, some sportsbooks have what’s called “dual lines.” These sportsbooks have one set of lines for their average gamblers and another set for the “sharps.” SportsBetting.ag doesn’t participate in this practice.
SportsBetting.ag also offers some of the best betting limits and a wider selection of deposit and withdrawal methods online.
How to Choose an Offshore Gambling Site
You should put some effort into choosing an offshore gambling site. Read some reviews, check out some player forums, and think about what your goals are at the site you’re thinking about signing up with.
Don’t forget that you’re looking for a trustworthy site.
In this industry, that’s relative, but some sites are better than others.
Every betting site on this list is different from every other betting site on this list. They almost all offer different bonuses and set different odds for various bets.
They also usually have differences in terms of which banking methods are available.
Some of them just offer sports bets, while others also offer casino games and/or poker.
Things to Consider When Making Your Decision
Here are some things to look at and think about when deciding where to sign up:
- Which sports can you bet on?
- What kind of customer service do they have?
- How can you deposit and withdraw funds?
- What are other bettors on the internet saying about them?
- What kinds of bonuses do they offer?
In some respects, offshore gambling sites are often similar, but they have major differences as they relate to all of the above factors.
You should make sure you understand which of those criteria are important to you and decide accordingly.
What Are Your Goals?
Do you just want to bet on football games each week?
How about getting the best odds on multiple sporting events? Is that important to you?
Do you want to make exotic bets and parlays?
These are just a few of the questions to ask yourself before making your decision about the best offshore gambling sites for your needs.
If you go into the decision-making process blindly, without any thought to what you’re hoping to experience, you’re going to make a mistake when choosing from the offshore gambling sites above.
Finally, have an idea of what your risk tolerance is like.
Finally – What You Really Need to Understand about Offshore Gambling Sites
I want to suggest again that if you can play at a licensed online sportsbook headquartered in the United States, never sign up for any of the offshore gambling sites available to you.
Use caution with any offshore sportsbooks you do business with, too. Make sure that you’re not betting money you can’t afford to lose.
And spend a little time investigating the reputations of the sites you’re considering before making that first deposit.
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