PA Online Sports Betting

PA Online Sports Betting is fully live, legal, and available, which means online sports gamblers in the Keystone State can join the party so many Americans are enjoying. Ten online sportsbooks are available in Pennsylvania, with at least one more on the way.

We consider DraftKings Sportsbook PA to be the best sports betting app in Pennsylvania. It features the most modern and well-built interface, seemingly unlimited betting markets, and a slew of unique wagering options and ongoing odds boosts.

Sign up here to utilize DraftKings Sportsbook’s excellent new-user promo that fetches PA online sports bettors an incredible, limited-time Bet $5, Get $200 Instant Bonus.

Considering Pennsylvania led the online gaming and betting charge— ultimately doing the most to inspire the Supreme Court to overturn PASPA, the law that prohibited states from legislating legal online sports betting and gaming—it’s not a surprise that the state features both online sports betting and online casino gaming.

Interested PA Online Casino gamers can check out Crossing Broad’s excellent casino section. Nonetheless, here’s everything you need to know about online sports betting in PA:

Top 8 PA Sports Betting Apps

With sports betting being live in Pennsylvania for some time, there are a variety of sportsbooks and sports betting apps to choose from, including DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, and Caesars. These sportsbooks offer great signup bonuses for new members, providing a great choice.

Here’s our ranking of the best sports betting apps in PA and their currently best available signup bonus as of September, 2023:

1. DraftKings Sportsbook

DraftKings Sportsbook

States: AZ, CO, CT, IA, IL, IN, KS, LA, MA, MD, MI, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY

GET THE APP

PROMOGET $200
BET $5BET NOW

Read more about DraftKings Sportsbook PA

DraftKings Sportsbook is one of the best all-around sports betting apps in Pennsylvania. It features class-leading technology, lightning-quick live betting options, unique ways to play, and DraftKings Online Casino. Their recent partnership with Michael Jordan only further catapulted them into the mainstream, and their recently claimed 30% market share in live online sports betting states solidifies the view.

One of the best compliments we can pay to a sportsbook app is to say that it is our go-to to quickly check odds and real-time action. More and more, we find DraftKings to be one of the most reliable betting apps in Pennsylvania.

Pricing is in line with market norms and often seems to be a tick better than competitors. Promotions are easy to find and opt-in to and often present genuine value, such as loss insurance, profit boosts, and bonus bets.

New DraftKings Sportsbook users can also get an exclusive Bet $5, Get $200 Bonus offer if they sign up using this link.

2. FanDuel Sportsbook

FanDuel Sportsbook

Must 21+ and present in participating state. Gambling problem? Call 1 - 800 - GAMBLER.

CLAIM OFFER

SIGNUP PROMOGET $200 BONUS BETS
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Read more about FanDuel Sportsbook PA

FanDuel is the biggest online sportsbook, in terms of handle, by a pretty wide margin over DraftKings. FanDuel Sportsbook is also one of Crossing Broad’s preferred sportsbook and sports betting app choices.

While both were neck and neck throughout the course of the first full football season following the overturn of PASPA, FanDuel has steadily (and arguably) gained an advantage since. Part of the reason, we suspect, is due to MASSIVE onboarding offers surrounding Super Bowls. A 55 to 1 odds blitz was blasted across all marketing channels this year and undoubtedly onboarded a substantial number of new customers.

Although that would be more than enough to put them over the hump for many sports-betting experts, there is a myriad of reasons why FanDuel Sportsbook is the top dog.

FanDuel Sportsbook’s mobile app has one of the best interfaces of any sports betting app. It’s clean, simple to use, and instantly makes sense to betters and non-betters alike. On top of the app’s functionality, its same-game parlay feature is a welcomed feature and its signup bonus does have a unique advantage.

3. Caesars Sportsbook

Caesars Sportsbook PA

PENNSYLVANIA

GET BONUS!

PROMO CODE:

BROADXLFULL

SIGNUP BONUS$1,000
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Read more about Caesars Sportsbook PA

As of September 2022, Caesars PA Sportsbook has joined the legitimate party. No longer do PA online sports bettors have to use Caesars Sportsbook in conjunction with a land-based partner. Caesars Sportsbook in Pennsylvania is offering the same new-user promo as the majority of the legalized online sports betting states: a Bet $20, Get $250 Bonus.

The acquisition of William Hill by Caesars changed the online sports betting landscape in a big way. Caesars’ tech improved dramatically which now places the app near the top of Crossing Broad’s rankings.

4. BetMGM

BetMGM Sportsbook

STATES: OH, MA, MD, LA, AZ, CO, IL, IN, IA, KS, MI, NJ, PA, TN, WV, VA

GET BONUS

21+ and present in a state with legal sports gaming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler.$1,500
FIRST BET OFFER!CLAIM OFFER!

The newest entrant to the PA betting market, BetMGM simultaneously launched its sportsbook and casino app in Pennsylvania in December 2020. What was initially an also-ran product when it launched as “PlayMGM” in New Jersey in 2018, the gaming behemoth has poured money and marketing into its BetMGM product. As a result, MGM has a compelling offering that gives online incumbents a serious run for their money.

The league partnerships and Jamie Foxx commercial don’t hurt either.

5. Betway

BetWay Sportsbook

PENNSYLVANIA

GET THE APP

SIGN-UP BONUS$250
FIRST BET BONUS!BET NOW

Betway PA Sportsbook is now live in Pennsylvania. Pounce on Crossing Broad’s best Betway PA Promo Code en route to capturing an incredible $250 in Bonus Bets.

6. BetRivers

BetRivers.Sportsbook

Pennsylvania

GET THE APP

PROMO CODE:

SPORTS

SIGNUP BONUSUP TO $500
2ND CHANCE BETBET NOW

BetRivers promo code

Formerly SugarHouse Sportsbook, BetRivers offers a wide range of deposit options (some of the best in the industry) and a strong $250 deposit match, which means they will match your first deposit up to $250 and you only have to play with that money once before it is eligible for withdrawal. This is the most straightforward and user-friendly bonus in the industry.

BetRivers is not the prettiest betting app (that goes to FanDuel). But once you get past their pedestrian look and feel, you find a robust set of action, blazing-fast in-game odds, and straightforward and player-friendly promos and bonuses.

The site also features a shared wallet with BetRivers casino, which offers slots and table games. Read more about online casinos in PA.

7. Unibet

Unibet Sportsbook

Pennsylvania

GET THE APP

SIGNUP BONUS$500
SECOND CHANCE BET!BET NOW

Read more about Unibet PA Online Casino

Unibet struck a partnership with Mohegan Sun Pocono to bring its popular sports betting app to PA.

An Eagles partner, Unibet presents a fairly straightforward betting experience that falls short of what DraftKings and FOX offer. But it gets the job done.

Unibet offers a great signup bonus. The platform is currently offering a $10 first bet with no deposit and then a $500 bonus bet for Pennsylvania sports gamblers.

The signup bonus alone is enough reason to sign up for Unibet.

Sportsbooks Potentially Coming Soon

BetFanatics

Now that PointsBet arrived and Caesars is fully operational in the online sense (not requiring a land-based partner to take bets), next on the big-boy list for Pennsylvania online sports betting operators is BetFanatics.

When BetFanatics officially launches its online sports betting platform is still up for debate, but the industry knows they’re coming.

Check out Crossing Broad’s dedicated BetFanatics page for the very latest.

ESPN Bet

PENN Entertainment’s recent pivot from Barstool Sportsbook to ESPN Bet ensures that the new powerhouse sports betting app will enter the PA Online Sports Betting market.

Wherever Barstool Sports was (and/or still is) available, is where the ESPN Bet Sportsbook App will initially launch. Of course, Pennsylvania is one of those states.

Expect ESPN Bet to launch in the Fall of 2023, more specifically with a target month of November 2023.

Online Sportsbook Apps in Pennsylvania

Not all online sportsbooks in Pennsylvania offer apps across every mobile platform. Here are the currently available apps on iOS and Android:

iOS (App Store)

• DraftKings
• FanDuel
• Caesars
• BetMGM
• Betway
• BetRivers
• Unibet
• PointsBet

Android (Google Play)

• DraftKings
• FanDuel
• Caesars
• BetMGM
• Betway
• BetRivers
• Unibet
• PointsBet

PA Sports Betting Promos

PA online sports betting is available across a number of top sportsbooks and therefore offers a range of promotions and signup bonuses. From no-deposit bets, free $50 first bet, or up to $1,000 bonuses, there are lots of fantastic sports betting promos in Pennsylvania to take advantage of.

Here are currently the best available PA sports betting promos offers from some of the top PA sports betting apps:

Where Else Is Online Sports Betting Available?

Several states in addition to Pennsylvania offer online sports betting. Here are our guides on how to bet in other states:

• New Jersey
• Indiana
• Tennessee
• Illinois
• Michigan
• Colorado
• Virginia
• West Virginia
• Iowa
• Arizona
• New York
• Connecticut
• Kansas

Read about the best sports betting sites.

Dates PA Sportsbooks Launched

PA online sports betting has been legal for some time, however, not all of the currently available sportsbooks launched at the same time. Below you can find when each of the PA sportsbooks launched:

How To Bet on Sports in Pennsylvania

Online sports betting is fully legal in PA. In addition to betting at eight physical sportsbooks, users can bet online through the web and on mobile apps. You must be 21 or older and physically located in the state to place a bet.

Deposit methods

Online sportsbooks offer the following deposit options:

• online banking
• credit or debit card
• PayPal
• Prepaid cards
• Pay with Cash at 7-11
• Cash at Cage
• wire transfer

Generally speaking, online banking is the easiest method as cards often get declined by banks for reasons outside the control of any one operator.

Types of bets

Pennsylvania allows the full range of sports wagers, including spread, moneyline, over-under, parlays, teasers, and more.

Sports available

There are a host of popular sports and several major sporting events available through PA online sports betting. However, unlike in New Jersey, users can’t be on events with predetermined outcomes, like the NFL Draft.

FAQ

PA Online Sports Betting Locations

PA Online Casinos

In addition to PA online sports betting, there are several online casinos in Pennsylvania. Some even combine their online sports betting and casino games into one app. Customers can share their wallets and bonuses across games such as Blackjack, poker, slots, and jackpot games with the sportsbook.

Read more about PA Online Casino.

PA Sports Betting Map

PA Sports Betting Background

The push for mobile sports betting

There were two themes at the East Coast Gaming Congress, and the biggest one was the importance of online betting. Something like 70% of the market in Europe is mobile or real-time betting, also called live betting. Many of these are prop bets. This is the growth area, no doubt about it.

Consider this stat: There is $150 billion wagered on sports in the US each year. Only $3 billion of that is in Nevada. The other $147 billion is either through illegal bookies or non-regulated offshore sites.

The gaming industry wants a piece of that market.

They will compel states to adopt favorable regulations in order to offer competitive mobile betting products. This centers around real-time or “in-play” betting.

This takes many forms.

The most obvious example is a second-half betting line that may be available during a basketball or football game. But the ubiquity of mobile devices creates many more possibilities. You can bet on the next series, drive or play. It’s the second screen experience for sports– everything from “who hits the next three-pointer” to new moneyline odds being offered throughout the game. This type of betting is arguably more fun (and addictive) and is the growth area for the industry.

How to compete with offshore sites

The industry is well aware that anyone can go online and place a bet today.

How do they beat the offshore sites?

The main message was that aggressive tax rates would pass along costs to the customer, presumably in the form of poorer odds. They showed studies indicating that a 10%-15% tax rate is the range that guarantees the greatest output for the state before significant customer losses. Again, Pennsylvania is currently at 36, which means PA sports betting sites will have to deal with significantly more costs, limiting the amount operators may want to focus their efforts. We have spoken to several books that have no plans to even enter the PA market. This is doubly a problem when you consider that PA casinos will have to brand their apps with their own names, thus not allowing for DraftKings or FanDuel to have their own apps in the state (they’ll have to settle for “powered by” or something similar). This gives SugarHouse, and maybe BetStars, an opportunity to gain market share since they won’t be competing as hard with the big brands.

Further, the offshore market excels in online betting. Some states, like Mississippi, will legalize sports betting but not allow it online. That is a mistake. It misses the entire point of this movement (for states), which is to maximize tax revenue. Not allowing online sports betting leaves a lot of money on the table… or perhaps just sends it to Costa Rica, where many of the offshore sites are located.

League partnership

One way the regulated space could have an edge over offshore sites is in partnering with the leagues, both in terms of branding (expect sponsorships) and data.

Think about real-time betting, perhaps a wager on pitch speed (will someone throw 100 mph this game?). Who verifies the data? Unlike scores and basic stats, which can be easily checked against an official box score, data required for prop bets may need a trusted partner. This can both provide a competitive advantage over the black market and create revenue opportunities for the leagues, which can license the data to sportsbooks.

To be clear, the gaming industry wants to partner with the leagues– they just don’t want states to mandate a 1% integrity-free, something which thus far has been met with resistance from the states anyway. The league will profit regardless through increased interest and viewership, but it seems the way to get money directly from the operators is through direct business relationships.

The Sixers – along with the Devils – just announced a partnership with Caesars, while the major professional basketball and hockey leagues have announced licensing, content, and data deals with MGM.

Frictionless experience

Thankfully, the legalization of online gaming for poker and such in New Jersey and Delaware has paved the way for sports in Pennsylvania. Credit card processing was an early hurdle in those verticals because banks were worried about fraud. Once the gaming industry proved that it could effectively police itself, Visa, MasterCard and others became more amenable to handling the transactions.

The gaming industry knows it needs to make depositing (and withdrawing!) money a painless experience if PA sports betting is to gain traction. This creates a literal instant advantage over the corner bookie, and having a regulated operator take your action is a safer experience than playing with offshore sites.

Geo-fencing

Anna Sainsbury, the CEO of GeoComply USA, a company that provides geofencing services for iGaming products, talked about ways to effectively ensure players are in-state. That part is relatively simple. But consider the PA commuter who works in New Jersey or Delaware. What if they can’t place a bet from work? With these states being linked, there was some discussion about allowing wagering across state lines. That’s an area that has yet to be fully worked out, though the industry is aware that creating a consumer-friendly solution is important.

Federal regulation

Geoff Freeman, the outgoing CEO of the American Gaming Association, said there was essentially no chance of federal regulation for sports betting. It sounds like it will remain a state issue.

Sponsorships

This goes without saying, but as more states come online, gambling sponsorships will begin to pervade sports. Almost every major soccer team in the Premier League has a gambling partner. Expect much the same in Pennsylvania.

PA Online Sports Betting History

This section was put together by Mike Lyon. He is an attorney in Montgomery County, PA specializing in litigation and gaming law. He tracks all developments in sports gambling in the United States, with a particular interest in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. The information provided in this post is not intended to be and should not be construed as legal advice. You should not act or rely upon the information contained in this post without specifically seeking professional legal advice.

When the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) in Murphy v. NCAA, et al. in May of this year, a day that many sports fans had dreamed of became a reality. With PASPA nullified, legalized sports betting had finally become a possibility outside of Nevada.

All the attention being paid to the legalization of sports gambling in New Jersey and Delaware has left many fans in Pennsylvania wondering when it will come to the Keystone State. As of press time, while PA sports betting is, technically, legal, regulated sports betting has not yet begun. While the exact date that betting will begin in Pennsylvania is still very much unknown, potential bettors should rest assured that it should begin very soon.

In October of last year, Governor Wolf signed into law a massive expansion of gambling in Pennsylvania. That legislation allowed sports gambling to be legalized if the existing federal ban in PASPA was first repealed, which thereafter occurred when the Supreme Court nullified PASPA in Murphy.

The gaming law restricted the possibility of hosting sports gambling to Pennsylvania’s 12 casinos, any of whom could apply for a “sports wagering certificate” with Pennsylvania’s Gaming Control Board (GCB). Holders of a sports wagering certificate would be permitted to take in-person wagers in a designated sportsbook or area within the casino. Online betting was also legitimized by the statute, and certificate holders would be permitted to take wagers through a mobile app or Internet site.

The law provided a 120-day window for the GCB to accept applications for sports wagering certificates, which it began to do on May 31, 2018. Given how popular legalized betting was thought to become, and the national attention paid to Murphy, it was thought that applications would come quickly. Many surmised that sports wagering would be operational in Pennsylvania long before the start of the NFL season in early September.

But the fees to be paid by potential applicants for sports betting certificates likely caused (and may still be causing) significant hesitation. The gaming expansion statute required any sports wagering certificate applicant to pay a $10 million initial fee to the GCB following approval of the application. It further requires a renewal fee of $250,000 to be paid to the GCB every five years thereafter. Those entry fees dwarf the comparable fees in New Jersey, which required casinos to pay just $1.2 million in licensing fees (which also include the fee required to carry an internet gaming platform, which is not yet operational in Pennsylvania and not a part of the $10 million initial fee).

In addition, the taxes payable on PA sports betting proceeds are substantial. The gaming expansion law provided a whopping 34% tax rate on gross sports gaming revenue to be paid to the state, plus an additional 2% to be remitted to local or municipal taxing authorities. That makes for an effective 36% tax rate on all betting proceeds. This dwarfs the 8.5% rate for in-person bets or 13% rate for online bets over the bridge. The taxes and fees make for a good reason to be cautious about beginning sports betting operations in Pennsylvania.

Legalized betting in Pennsylvania is inching closer. Whenever the first bet is placed, Pennsylvania certainly appears to be ready to reap substantial financial benefits from what should be a very popular endeavor for fans across the Commonwealth.