Las Vegas is usually the destination associated with sports betting in Nevada, but there is much more to sports betting in this state than the glamorous sportsbooks in the middle of the desert. We’ve looked into this in great detail throughout this article.
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Live online betting apps
This may come as a surprise to many given that Vegas is pretty much the world’s epicenter of gambling. There aren’t actually any desktop sportsbooks in Nevada, as the state has still only approved certain platforms for mobile app betting. It would still seem that a large number of sports bets within Nevada are placed at physical casinos, but there is a growing trend for Nevada residents to look for online sports betting options. Let’s look at the top three here:
Caesars
As an interesting fact, in early 2021, Caesars announced the completion of their acquisition of William Hill. And so currently, they have the largest number of sportsbooks throughout Nevada. William Hill had been doing it successfully for almost a decade, and now Caesars have their own branded mobile app available for players based in Nevada to use.
Golden Nugget
Much like William Hill, Golden Nugget is also in operation across numerous states in the USA, not just Nevada. While the Golden Nugget Casino has been doing well in Nevada for years, the sportsbook app only launched in 2017. They have a solid welcome offer, but there is an interesting restriction – you cannot bet on the Houston Rockets through the Golden Nugget app, as the owner of Golden Nugget Casino also owns this prestigious basketball team.
PlayMGM
Play MGM is an extension of the MGM brand that you will see in Las Vegas. The only downside with this app is that you need to first fund your account from the associated physical casino, and only after you have done this can you deposit directly from the app. Besides that, the app is very visually appealing and covers many popular North American sports.
Planned launches
Interestingly, the number of legal sportsbooks emerging in Nevada is nothing like that seen with other states in the USA. We have no doubt that the major reason is the fact that only online mobile app betting is permitted, so unless a sportsbook has the money to both obtain a license and launch a mobile app, the Nevada market won’t look particularly attractive. That being said, we do have a couple of sites in mind that could make the transition to Nevada.
Sugarhouse – Not yet Live in Nevada
While we cannot confirm whether Sugarhouse will make this transition, we are making this prediction based on a few factors. Firstly, Sugarhouse already has an extremely successful sportsbook in New Jersey, where sports betting was first legalized outside of Nevada. This brand also has a significant budget behind them, so they can certainly afford to gain any necessary licenses and tap into the Nevada market.
Unibet – Not yet Live in Nevada
Unibet also has a very successful sportsbook in New Jersey, and this brand has a major global presence. They’ve got betting licenses in Europe, Australia, and now the USA, so it’s impossible to deny that the brand is expanding rapidly. Unibet is a platform that is highly popular among the younger betting generation too, largely thanks to the more engaging features of their brand in general. Since they seem to have an appeal for this age bracket, it would seem that now is an ideal time to possibly explore then the Nevada market.
888 Sport – Not yet Live in Nevada
888 may be a newcomer to the USA betting industry, but much like Unibet, they have enjoyed wide-scale success all over the world. The brand is well-known for being an extensive provider of casino games, but they also have a top-quality sportsbook offering as well. Given that they’ve already entered the New Jersey market, we would be surprised if a brand this big wasn’t already thinking about the possibility of expanding into Nevada.
Once again, we would like to say that these are only educated estimates and nothing has been confirmed as of yet. Announcements and new proposals are constantly hitting the headlines, and we will be keeping a close eye on this space throughout 2024.
Physical casinos with sportsbooks
Caesar’s Palace
Caesar’s Palace is owned by the gaming giant, Caesars Entertainment. You may have realized earlier that they have a functional mobile app, but they also have one of the most impressive sportsbooks on the Vegas strip. The sportsbook is located inside the building, attached to the standard casino. They offer a wealth of markets ranging from basketball to soccer, and it’s fair to say, all Vegas visitors have Caesar’s Palace as one of the main places to go and bet.
Wynn
Wynn holds a prestigious spot towards the end of the Las Vegas strip. The building is just unmissable, with its large glass panels reflecting the desert sun all year long. Wynn Casino is very impressive, and the sportsbook has grown to become a hotspot for sports bettors who grace Vegas from time to time. Wynn also holds a great reputation for the odds that they provide across various markets, as well as giving customers the chance to cash out bets early.
Planet Hollywood
Planet Hollywood may not hold the same prestige or breathtaking architecture as some of these other sportsbooks, but it does have one unique element to it. It is one of the most lively casinos on the Vegas Strip, and this spills over into the sportsbook too. The sportsbook is kind of tucked away in the corner of the casino, but they still have a wide range of betting markets along with many HD TV sets.
Legality of sports betting in Nevada
Sports betting in Nevada goes back decades, but it has certainly become a lot more commercialized and safer than it used to be. As it happens, the first legal sports bets occurred in Las Vegas back in 1949, but no, there was no connection between this and the end of World War II!
Nevada essentially had a sports betting Monopoly for decades, and in 1992, a bill was passed that prevented other states from legalizing sports betting. This further extended the monopoly that Nevada had on the market, right up until New Jersey started to challenge this bill in 2011. New Jersey was the main state that was driving this push, but governors were also getting involved as well as major sports leagues, and eventually, it had to be decided in the US Supreme Court.
Almost 2 years ago now, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of New Jersey and other states who were looking to incorporate sports betting into their own micro-economies. Unfortunately for Nevada, losing this court case meant that the monopoly they had held for so many years was now gone.
Main sports betting laws in Nevada
Many visitors go to Nevada, mainly Vegas, with the idea that it is a lawless state – that anything goes there, which is just not the case. This is especially true for sports betting, and there are strict rules/laws that everybody must adhere to.
- Mobile app betting
As you may already know after reading the first part of this article, sports betting has been legalized for a long time in Nevada. Despite this being the case, government legislation has been very restrictive concerning sportsbooks making the transition online. As it stands in Nevada, players can only make online sports bets through a mobile app, and not through any main desktop site.
- Legal sports betting age and location
In order to place any sports bets in Nevada, both online and offline actually, you need to be at least 21 years of age. If you do sign up with any of the available sportsbooks and you proceed to place bets from the app, your location will be monitored. This is because it is only legal to place bets from inside Nevada borders, and if you are outside these borders, your bet will simply not be accepted.
- Sports that are banned
Nevada does seem quite flexible concerning what sports players can bet on. The only sports that are currently restricted according to Nevada law are high school competitions. This is because high school competition would be regarded as an amateur sport, and it also involves participants who are under the age of 18.
Additional info about the Nevada sports betting market and how it functions
Most popular leagues/sports in Nevada
Generally speaking, there is nothing that is off-limits concerning sports betting in Nevada. Through mobile app betting as well as through the physical sportsbooks, you will find markets for MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, MLS, tennis, horse races, golf, rugby – basically everything under the sun, including esports!
They are definitely one of the more relaxed states regarding what is permitted and what isn’t. This is evident by the fact that they even allow Nevada residents to bet on Nevada based college teams, which is something that not many states have allowed so far. It’s also quite interesting that they allow wagers for esports, which is again, something that not many states have chosen to implement.
Are there further prohibited sports?
At this moment in time, Nevada sportsbooks have only specifically listed high school competition as being prohibited. It isn’t too long ago that other sports were prohibited including all bets involving universities based in Nevada, and all forms of esports were completely banned up until recently. Even betting on the Olympics was banned up until 2015, due to widespread fears of corruption involving multiple nations.
There are absolutely no signs that Nevada will relax the restrictions placed on high school sports betting anytime soon. With that being said, even if they did choose to allow high school betting in the future, we are fairly confident that the markets wouldn’t become anywhere near as popular as a professional sport.
Types of bets you can make in Nevada
This is where the Nevada sportsbooks almost enter a league of their own, as they have an incredible number of bets that you can actually make within the state. Let’s get into a few of these bets right now, and of course, you can ultimately decide which ones you would like to make.
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Futures
Futures bets can be quite attractive for two main reasons. Firstly, you are betting on a market that may not happen for weeks, months, or even years into the future. This means that the odds can often be highly appealing as there are simply not enough factors to calculate an accurate prediction, at least from the sportsbook’s perspective. This ties in quite nicely with why future bets can work in your favor.
Let’s use a quick example to show you just how favorable this type of bet can be. A few years ago, you could have chosen a futures bet on Novak Djokovic to win more grand slams than both Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in his career. Given that he didn’t have too many at the time, at least compared to these guys, you would have gotten very high odds for this market, and now he’s on the brink of overtaking them both.
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In-play
An in-play bet is exactly how it sounds. In many Nevada sportsbooks, both offline and online, you can find a range of live betting markets for the majority of sports. Live betting is often advantageous for sports bettors due to the large fluctuations in odds, which of course provides higher value than you would get for any pre-match market. The only thing with in-play bets is that there is additional risk based on what is occurring in the game.
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Props
Props are bets made where you do not actually need to wait for a game to finish to know if it is a winner or not. For example, you could make a bet that Cristiano Ronaldo would score a goal from outside the box during a Champions League game. Needless to say, if he did this at any point in the game you would win your bet and you will not need to wait for anything else to happen during the match. Specifically for North American sports bettors, Nevada sportsbooks have started to offer markets for both NFL and NBA drafts.
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Parlay
Parlay betting is very exciting, but it is also a very risky form of betting, which is why people often tend to go for a lower wager with these bets. A parlay bet is simply where you have combined multiple sports betting selections into the same betting slip, and the odds are significantly higher by doing this as they are multiplied together. On the downside, you must get all of your predictions correct to win anything at all.
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Totals
Total betting markets consist of anything that can reasonably be calculated at the end of a sports game. For example, in soccer, you can bet on the total number of goals scored in a match. In basketball, you can get on the total number of 3-point shots sunk during a game. There are tons of totals betting markets open for business in Nevada, and they are particularly popular among the more speculative sports bettors.
- Moneyline
Finally, we have the standard moneyline betting markets. This is where you bet on who will win the game, unless there is the possibility of a draw, in which case you can also bet on this market. There is nothing more to it than that, and the odds that you see will always reflect the form and prestige of the team or individual.
How to sign up with a Nevada sportsbook
To sign up with any Nevada sportsbook you will need to do so through the mobile app, given that the state has not approved online sportsbooks as of yet. It is usually a very simple process however, as you can download the relative app, then proceed to enter a few personal details in order to create your account.
Most of the time, this process will take no longer than a few minutes, although Nevada does operate slightly differently from other states in one respect. Occasionally, you may need to go into the physical casino to make your first deposit, and this is sometimes done in order to verify your identity too.
How to make a sports bet in a physical casino
It is perfectly possible to make sports bets across a wide variety of Nevada based casinos. Of course, to make a bet in these casinos you must first get there, and then find the sportsbook which is often located inside the main casino. Once you’re in the sportsbook, you can easily browse what markets are available now or upcoming, and then proceed to choose which wager you would like to place.
The bet minimums can range between casinos, but as a general rule of thumb, you will be required to make at least a $5 bet for it to be accepted. This can be done by heading over to the cashier and handing in your betting form along with the cash.
Betting on mobile apps
For any of the Nevada mobile apps, the first thing that you need to do is open an account. After you have done this, you will then need to login to your account and deposit an amount of money that you are happy with before making any sports wagers. This can usually be done through a range of payment methods such as Visa and MasterCard as well as E-wallets.
You will see that when you start using the mobile app, it is basically a virtual representation of a regular sportsbook that you’d see at a physical casino. You can browse through the range of betting markets, find an event where you think the odds are reasonable, determine the amount that you wish to wager, then simply place your bet. It is often more convenient to bet from these mobile apps as you don’t even need to leave the house, and bets can be made very quickly.
Nevada sports betting FAQ
What can I use as proof of address and identity for my account?
For proof of address, you can send through a copy of a recent bank statement or a utility bill that clearly shows your home address. For proof of identity, most platforms will accept a picture of your passport or driving license to confirm your account.
Is there a cap on how many bets I can place?
No there isn’t, but it is always advisable to gamble within your means. This basically means do not wager more than you can afford to lose and do not rely on profits from gambling in order to pay for any life essentials such as food and rent. You can actually set restrictions on many of the mobile apps, and if you feel that you are prone to losing control when gambling, we would encourage you to do this.
Do Nevada sportsbooks limit the amount you can win?
There aren’t any Nevada sportsbooks that give a specific number for how much you can win, but the limits are generally very high. This is especially true if you place bets on major sports events like the Super Bowl or World Cup soccer.
How do I know if a mobile betting app is legal in Nevada?
From the moment that you start using any mobile app, you should be able to find a license number towards the bottom of the screen. This information will show what company owns the app and what betting license it holds. If you cannot find it at the bottom of the screen, this information can often be found through the FAQs.
last update : November 2024