Having grown from a trio of British betting shops into a global juggernaut, bet365 has the experience and resources to compete with the leaders in the U.S. sports betting space.
In 1974, a British businessman named Peter Coates purchased a trio of betting shops, eventually growing them into 49 Provincial Racing sportsbooks spread throughout England. In 2000, he and his daughter, Denise, became co-founders of the online gambling company bet365, which is now among the world's largest betting brands, with over 100 million customers and 9,000 employees across the globe.
Bet365 launched its U.S. sports betting app in New Jersey in 2019. But instead of quickly expanding its American footprint, bet365 opted for a more patient approach with its sportsbook, waiting three years before going live in Colorado in 2022.
Today, bet365 accepts sports wagers in 11 states: Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana (except in parishes where betting has not been approved), New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
With 25 years of experience in the mobile sports wagering space and a formidable financial war chest, bet365 is considered among the greatest threats to give FanDuel and DraftKings a run for their money atop the American sportsbook dogpile.
Only bettors aged 21 and older can place wagers on bet365's online sportsbook. And while those bettors needn't be a resident of a legal wagering jurisdiction, they must be physically present in one where bet365 is licensed in order to wager on the platform from their mobile devices.
Should a question or concern arise in the course of wagering on bet365's mobile sportsbook, there are several ways to get in touch with the operator's customer service team around the clock. Bet365 account holders can reach out via live chat from the app or website, email (supportusa-eng@customerservices365.com), or a toll-free telephone line (888-8-BET-365 or 833-754-8200).
After registering for your online bet365 Sportsbook account, you must deposit money to take advantage of any welcome offers and start betting. Herein, the following forms of payment are acceptable for depositing money into your bet365 Sportsbook account: debit card, credit card (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express), online banking (via Trustly), Venmo, PayPal, PayNearMe, Skrill, Paysafe Prepaid Card, and cash.
As for withdrawing money from your bet365 Sportsbook account, that can be done via debit or credit card, online banking, PayPal, Skrill, Venmo, or cash.
Players who register for a sports wagering account with bet365 get a choice between a bet-and-get welcome offer or a first bet safety net. The bet-and-get offer rewards you with $200 in bonus bets once you place a qualifying first wager of $5 or more, while the second offer is a first bet safety net of up to $1,000, in which your first bet will be returned as bonus bets (which expire after seven days) if you lose.
Note that you can only claim one of these bonuses and, once you’ve done that, the other will no longer be available. These stipulations serve as helpful reminders to always review a sports betting operator's terms and conditions, be they for a specific bonus offer or for the sportsbook at large.
Seeing as bet365 has been involved in legal sports betting for a lot longer than many of its rivals, it should come as no surprise that its selection of athletic events on which to bet is among the industry’s most comprehensive.
Depending on the state in which they're betting, bet365 account holders can wager on the following sports: Australian Rules Football, baseball, basketball, boxing, cricket, cycling, darts, esports, football, Formula 1, golf, handball, hockey, horse racing (fixed odds), lacrosse, MMA, NASCAR, rugby, snooker, soccer, table tennis, tennis, volleyball, and winter sports. And under its "more sports" tab, bettors in certain states will discover the opportunity to bet on ultra-niche activities like floorball, futsal, Gaelic sports, surfing, and water polo.
Bet365 Sportsbook has seen wagering on its women's sports markets spike dramatically in recent years. Furthermore, while online horse betting is usually done through a separate parimutuel platform, bet365 is the first U.S. operator to offer fixed odds for horse racing, which has enabled it to fully integrate the sport into its online sports betting menus in Colorado and New Jersey.
Some states prohibit wagering on events involving in-state schools and also bar the placement of prop bets on individual players. These restrictions are typically adopted in order to preserve young athletes' mental health and the integrity of the competitions in which they engage.
If you simply want to bet on a team or athlete to win, that's called a moneyline bet. For instance, if you're keen on an up-and-coming boxer who's a +220 underdog to defeat a seasoned middleweight, a wager of $100 would earn a $220 profit, or total payout of $320. Conversely, a bet on a -220 favorite would require a $220 wager to win $100 – or a $22 wager to win $10.
When your team is favored to win, a wager on them to cover the spread is often a more attractive option than a moneyline bet. For example, if Notre Dame is a 10.5-point favorite (-10.5) to beat USC, a bet on the Fighting Irish would cash if they win by 11 points or more.
If you want to bet on the total amount of points you think two teams will score when pitted against one another, that's an over/under bet. If bet365 Sportsbook sets the total for a game between the 76ers and Pacers at 207 points, an over bet would cash if they combine for 208 or more, while an under bet would pay out at 206 or lower and the score landing at precisely 207 would result in a push, or your money back.
Tails never fails, eh? While it's true that some sportsbooks offer prop bets on the result of the pregame coin toss at the Super Bowl, American sports bettors have come to view props as part of a balanced wagering diet. A player prop in basketball might involve the odds on Kevin Durant personally eclipsing 30 points in a given game, while a team-oriented prop could be the first squad to collectively reach 30 points in that same contest.
Futures bets are great for diehard fans who feel that this is going to be the year that their team finally wins the whole shebang. These wagers can either be placed before or during the season starts, with sportsbooks offering futures odds on the likelihood of a team or player attaining certain year-end statistical milestones (such as a set amount of wins or rushing yards) or honors (like a conference title or MVP award).
On the other end of the patience spectrum is live betting, also known as in-play or in-game wagering. Here, you can bet on lines that are adjusted in real time during the course of a game or wager on something as microscopic as what the result of the next drive will be in a football game. This latter type of wager is occasionally called a microbet, and at bet365 Sportsbook, microbets are referred to as Flash Bets.
With high risk comes high reward, a space occupied by parlay wagering in the American sports betting ecosystem. A parlay is a single bet involving two or more straight bets, or legs. With few exceptions (see below), in order for a parlay to cash, each and every leg -- be it two or 20 -- must deliver a successful result. The more legs that are added to a parlay, the longer the odds – and the juicier the potential payout.
You know how we just said that every leg of a parlay needs to hit for a bet of that nature to be successful? Well, that's not always the case, as bet365 Sportsbook offers an early payout (EPO) option for bettors looking to cash out in light of a shaky leg or two that look as though they might well fail.
Bet365 Sportsbook also offers in-app streaming of over 600,000 sporting events worldwide each year, including livestreams of NFL and NHL games, Grand Slam tennis tournaments, and top European soccer leagues.
For in-game betting, bet365 features the aforementioned Flash Bets, while profit boosts are offered on parlays and other select wagering options.
Horse racing is, obviously, a sport, but when the term "sports betting" gets bandied about in the U.S., the sport of kings is often curiously absent from that conversation. That's because the parimutuel pools into which American horse bettors have traditionally cast their lot function far differently than fixed odds, which are the standard for other sports.
With fixed odds, a bettor is playing against the house. Bet something at 7-1 and that price is immediately locked in, regardless of how the line moves after the wager is placed. In parimutuel pools, however, bettors are playing against each other and odds can move right up until a race starts. Wherever the odds eventually settle is the price everyone gets, even if those odds are far worse (or better) than they were when an individual’s wager was placed on the race.
If there's been a reluctance among bettors on other sports to wager on horse racing, it can be at least partially attributed to discomfort over this last-second line movement. But overseas, fixed odds have long been an alternative for horse bettors -- and thanks to bet365, that's now the case in Colorado and New Jersey, where horse racing is listed alongside every other sport on bet365's mobile sportsbook.
There are several warning signs that you or a family member has developed a gambling problem. Among these, according to the responsible gambling page on bet365's website, are uncontrolled spending, lying about gambling behavior, borrowing or stealing in order to keep gambling, losing interest in other hobbies, and neglecting work or studies to gamble.
To either prevent or combat such behavior, bet365 Sportsbook gives its customers the ability to track their betting activity, voluntarily self-exclude from betting on the app for set periods of time, or, short of that, proactively place limits on how much time or money they can spend gambling.
If you ever suspect that your gambling has crossed the line from casual entertainment to something resembling addiction, call 1-800-GAMBLER or a state hotline to receive immediate help or learn about treatment and counseling options.
Bet365 Sportsbook offers comprehensive responsible gambling tools and resources, including limits on access time, deposits, and wagering amounts. Must be 21+ to wager. Terms and conditions apply to all offers. Please see bet365 Sportsbook for details. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER.