Best Sports Books
DraftKings
Pros – more promos than the average book, good app
Cons – deposit bonus is not very good and deceiving
Fanduel
Pros – promos aside, probably the best book to bet on, typically lowest juice, “risk free” refunds to balance rather than in free bets,
Cons – few promos
PointsBet
Pros – tons of promos, very good live chat/support, user-friendly app
Cons – free bets aren’t always distributed without asking, lines don’t always come out as soon as other books, live bets take longer to place and are often denied.
BetMGM
Pros – significantly more promos than most books, daily “Lions Boost” promo, parlay multiplier bonus.
Cons – possibly the worst app of all sportsbooks
Betrivers
Pros – typically have lines before other books (for example, had lines for every game of NFL season before the season started), best app for betting on round robins because of the setup to track them and payout, 50% boost on one NFL game each week.
Cons – It's geolocator is annoying, bad app, single-game parlays not available in all sports and not available in round robins.
It is important for serious sports bettors to be on multiple books. Not only does it allow them to shop for the best line, but it also allows them to take advantage of more promotions, bonuses, and odds discrepancies. Not all books are created equal, and some are definitely better than others. Highlighted below are the books that are best in each respective aspect.
Best Book for Sign-Up Promotion – Betrivers
Betrivers will match your deposit 100%, which is one of the highest matches among books. This is not matched in free bets like many other books such as PointsBet, but instead is a bonus balance. Unlike DraftKings and many other books that match a certain percentage of the deposit and have a playthrough requirement of 25 times, Betrivers only requires you to bet the amount of the bonus once! Bettors are able to spend this extra balance however they like. Bettors can even put half of the bonus on one side of a game and the other half on the other, which would make the withdrawable bonus nearly double what was deposited. Overall, this is consistently the best bang for your buck in terms of deposit bonuses. (Disclaimer: Other books may temporarily offer better deposit bonuses so it is still worth shopping around)
Best Book for Daily/Weekly Promotions – PointsBet
PointsBet offers a promotion nearly every day of the week, and typically has multiple each weekend. PointsBet has a “free money” bet, such as “Detroit Lions +45 points against Green Bay Packers” every three or four weeks. PointsBet also has soccer and tennis promos every day of the week throughout most of the year. Sometimes these are risk-free and sometimes they are profit-boosted. They may be pre-match or live depending on the week, but avid tennis and soccer bettors should use this book. PointsBet offers profit-boosts for parlays each day. PointsBet also frequently offers “Make-It-Rain” promotions which allows bettors to receive an extra $3 for every 3-pointer made by their team or an extra $6 for each touchdown by their team. There are many other promos each week, especially in-play and risk-free promotions. The only book that has close to this amount is BetMGM, but the promotions are typically not as good.
Best Book for Parlays – BetMGM
The reason BetMGM is the best book for parlays is because of its profit-boosts. BetMGM offers single-game parlays like most other books. It also offers parlay insurance if the entire parlay hits besides one leg. However, what makes BetMGM special is that you receive an extra 15% in profit on 4-leg parlays, 20% on 5-leg parlays, 30% on 6-leg parlays, and 40% on 7+ leg parlays. These bonuses apply to the first parlay hit on each day.
Best Book for using its App
Fanduel and PointsBet have the best apps. Fanduel has the best app for placing bets while PointsBet has the best interface for looking at past bets, live chat support, and account information. Most other apps are still good, but there are a few that are bad. BetMGM and Betrivers both have poor apps.
Best Book For Each Sport
Baseball – Line shopping is more important in baseball than any other sport. If I had to pick one, I’d say Fanduel because in general they take the least juice. PointsBet will take the most as the moneylines grow.
Basketball – PointsBet as long as they continue to do “Make-It-Rain” promos, it is best to bet on this book. Although, it really does not matter too much for basketball.
Soccer - PointsBet more soccer promos than any other book
Tennis - PointsBet more tennis promos than any other book. Occasionally Betrivers will run tennis boosts on Tuesdays and Thursdays but it’s not as good as PointsBet.
Football – BetMGM Lions Boosts are typically very good, usually have good in-play promos