475
21Top features:
Top features:
Bonus:
125% up to $3,125 475 21
312 23Top features:
Top features:
Bonus:
50% up to $1,000 312 23
112 15Top features:
Top features:
Bonus:
50% up to $250 112 15Our experts have ranked the following three sites as the best sports betting sites in California based on the best bonuses and market coverage.
BetUS Sportsbook, licensed by the Curacao Internet Gaming Association, has been a trusted platform for sports betting since its inception in 1994. This top California sportsbook, owned by Firepower Trading Ltd., is a secure betting platform for California players.
You can bet on a wide range of popular sports, including various leagues such as the NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL, as well as college events like March Madness.
As a member of BetUS, you can benefit from their loyalty program, which is divided into six levels, starting with Blue, with Black being the top one. You will earn points to move up the tiers as you wager on your favorite sport.
Best Sportsbook Bonus in California
The platform welcomes you with a generous bonus offer – a 100% up to $2,500. This bonus, with a moderate 10x rollover requirement, must be used within 14 days, or it expires. This bonus has a $100 minimum deposit requirement. Remember to use code JOIN125 to activate this bonus.
BetUS offers various deposit options, including Visa, Mastercard, wire transfer, and major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. The minimum deposit requirement is $50 for traditional methods and $10 for cryptocurrencies, catering to a wide range of CA bettors.
A decade after BetOnline was launched in 2011, California bettors welcomed another top sportsbook – Bovada. Operated from Canada and licensed by Curacao Gaming Commission, Bovada became the best mobile sportsbook in California within a few years. It still is.
Bovada covers all sporting events alphabetically, which can be seen on the top right side of the homepage. However, once you click the ‘All Sports‘ icon, you will see trending events, like NFL, NFL Futures, and college football, on the left side of the screen.
Bovada’s prop builder tool is the best feature of the site. So, if you’re a football fan looking for the most exciting props, try Bovada’s Prop Builder.
Sports Betting Bonus
California sports betting fans can grab the best crypto sportsbook bonus thanks to Bovada’s 75% up to $750 crypto sports welcome bonus. This top-class crypto offer is available for Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV Deposit, Litecoin, and USDT. Use bonus code BTCSWB750 and clear the bonus terms with a 5x rollover.
MyBookie Sportsbook is a premier choice for sports betting enthusiasts, especially those based in California. Launched in 2014 and licensed by the Curacao Internet Gaming Association, MyBookie is a subsidiary of Lynton Limited – a group that owns prestigious sites like XBet.
This top CA betting site offers competitive odds on popular US leagues such as the NBA, NFL, and MLB. If you’re into esports or horse racing, MyBookie has you covered as well. The platform provides a variety of betting options, including straight wagers, specials, futures, and prop bets. However, we are particularly impressed by their live in-play betting feature.
One of the most exciting features of MyBookie is its ongoing contests, which allow you to win real money prizes every quarter. Currently, they offer ‘Squares,’ an exciting contest for football fans in California.
Up to $1,000 Bonus
MyBookie offers a 50% sports welcome bonus of up to $1,000 with a 10x rollover. This decent welcome promo is available for all California bettors who sign up on this site, make a minimum deposit of $50, and use the promo code MYB50.
MyBookie provides 13 deposit options, including ten cryptocurrencies and two cards (Visa and Mastercard). The only downside of this remarkable CA betting site is that they currently offer only three withdrawal options – Bitcoin, wire transfer, and eCheck.
| Sportsbook | Welcome bonus | Playthrough | Valid for | Min. deposit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BetUS | 100% Up to $2500 | 10x | 14 days | $100 |
| Bovada | 75% up to $750 | 5x | doesn’t expire | $20 |
| MyBookie | 50% Up to $1000 | 10x | 30 days | $50 |
| XBet | 50% Up to $500 | 7x | 15 days | $45 |
Whether it’s safe depends on the betting site you choose. Many offshore operators are not safe and don’t last for more than a few months. For safe online sports wagering, we recommend you stick to the top California sportsbooks we have suggested. All these three CA online sports wagering sites provide competitive odds, enticing bonuses, and ensure faster payouts.
Legal sports betting failed in California after voters rejected two sports betting initiatives in November 2022:
The state tribes who own Native American casinos supported California retail sports betting measures while national sports betting operators pushed for legalized online sports betting in California. However, state voters rejected both ballot measures convincingly, leaving legalizing sports betting options to 2023.
Meanwhile, California residents can enjoy online wagering using top offshore sites like BetOnline and Bovada. These top CA sports betting sites are licensed to offer online sports betting legally in the United States, including California. Many also offer other forms of gambling, including online casino games and online poker in CA.
Internet sports betting in California remains unregulated after voters chose not to embrace legal sports betting in any form.
California sports betting has been in a period of transition since 2017 when Assemblymember Adam Gray introduced a constitutional amendment to allow sports wagering. However, that amendment was conditional on a change in federal law after the Supreme Court nullified PASPA, allowing states to regulate their own sports betting legislations.
In 2019, Gray and his colleague Sen. Bill Dodd introduced constitutional amendments – SCA6 and ACA16 – allowing state voters in 2020 to say whether or not they want to legalize sports betting in the country’s most populous state. However, state tribes introduced their own ballot initiative seeking exclusive legalized sports betting at California tribal casinos and horse racing tracks only.
Despite several hearings and a $54 billion budget deficit, SCA 6 failed to meet the June 25 deadline to make the 2020 ballot. Meanwhile, a tribal coalition planned to file a lawsuit to gain more time to submit signatures, citing pandemic-led reasons for the delay.
In May 2021, California tribes secured more than 1 million signatures, enough to ask voters to authorize retail sports betting and other games on tribal casinos. However, that measure (Prop 26) that was to appear on the ballot in November 2022 was subject to approval by the state legislature. The next few months saw a couple of other proposals involving legal online sports betting in California. Both sports betting initiatives had until mid-2022 to collect the required signatures to make the ballot.
In June 2022, a coalition of sports betting companies collected more than 1 million signatures on the petition to appear on the November 2022 ballot. It came after months of a face-off between the tribal casinos-backed campaign efforts against the online measure (Prop 27).
Both Prop 26 and 27 were rejected, despite half-billion dollars worth of campaigns for legal sports betting efforts in California. Around 7,129,092 (67%) said NO to Prop 26, and nearly 8,849,200 (82.3%) of Californians were against Prop 27.
Until the Native American tribes and national operators renew their battles for legalized sports betting, California residents have only one option: offshore sportsbooks.
All our recommended offshore CA sports betting sites offer these promotions, allowing their new and existing customers a one-of-a-kind mobile sports betting experience.
Risk-Free Bets: A risk-free bet is a promotional offer refunding your initial wager if you lose it. This is capped at a certain amount. Some risk-free bets are better than others, and while some reviewers confuse it with the deposit match bonus, there is a difference. For instance, BetOnline’s $25 Risk-Free Player Props Wager is the best risk-free bet in California.
Deposit Match: A deposit match, also called a welcome bonus, is the most celebrated promotional offer a sportsbook awards to its new customers. California bettors can have a 50% or even 100% bonus on their initial deposit. BetOnline has one of the biggest deposit matches in the California industry: a 50% deposit match up to $1,000.
Referral Bonus: A referral bonus is when you are rewarded for referring your friends to the California sportsbook you joined. It’s an ideal way to add some easy money to your bankroll and make some extra bets on your favorite sports. Bovada’s Refer-a-Friend allows you to grab up to $200 on your friend’s initial deposit. In addition, you can receive an extra $75 if your friend makes a Bitcoin deposit.
Odds Boosts: Some leading CA betting sites regularly feature better (boosted) odds on certain wagers. The purpose is to offer an increased payout for a moneyline, totals, or point spread bet on a certain game.
BetOnline’s Odds Boosters is an ideal option if you want to benefit from this bet type in California.
Parlay Insurance: Parlay insurance is how responsible online sports betting sites encourage more players to participate in parlay betting. For instance, if you win all legs of parlay except one, you will receive a refund. Parlays are an exciting feature that offer long odds with significant payouts.
Some CA online sports betting sites also offer new customers a certain amount of money if they sign up on their platform. You don’t have to deposit funds to receive a no-deposit sports betting bonus. Currently, none of our top-rated California sites offer no deposit sports betting.
All our top three sites have specifically designed their platforms for mobile users, considering the ever-increasing trend of mobile betting in California. BetOnline and Bovada don’t have dedicated mobile applicationss, allowing you to use these mobile-friendly sites directly on iOS and Android devices. As a result, playing is hassle-free on the mobile versions of our top California sportsbooks, from loading games/sports pages and accessing the cashier to placing bets and cashing out.
Check out our overview of the top California sports betting apps.
The significance of using offshore sportsbooks cannot be exaggerated in the case of California, which doesn’t have any licensed online sports betting sites. All our recommended top California sports betting sites were the most experienced brands available for decades before legal sports betting arrived in 2018 after Supreme Court annulled PASPA.
Our top California sites, like BetOnline and Bovada, provide extensive market coverage besides offering exciting bonuses for new and existing customers.
Of course, our top California sports betting sites offer the most competitive odds on NFL betting, attracting more interest among sports fans than any other sport. The Golden State is home to the three professional NFL teams: the Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angles Rams, and San Francisco 49ers.
XBet is one of the newer online sports betting sites in California on our list. This Curacao-licensed site entered the California sports betting market in 2014, three years after Bovada’s celebrated launch. Both these online sportsbooks have gained a significant fanbase across the Golden State over the years.
California allows betting on horse racing either in person at one of the four California racetracks, via one of the several off-track betting facilities in the state, or online via Advance Deposit Wagering.
The Golden State has four private horse racing tracks:
Luckily, both Bovada and BetOnline also have full-scale horse racing betting sites, allowing California fans to wager on famous events, including the Kentucky Derby.
The minimum gambling age for pari-mutuel wagering in California is 18.
Many CA bettors who want to bet on political outcomes can do so using our top offshore operators. For example, Bovada provides an excellent range of betting lines and odds on the 2024 US Presidential Election. However, if you’re interested in global politics, BetOnline offers competitive odds on the French Presidential Elections, EU elections, and more.
You will find all the following online bet types in California using our top CA sports betting sites:
Moneyline: A moneyline bet is the simplest bet type with two or three outcomes, depending on the sport. For instance, you are to choose one team or player to win in a game involving two teams or the players listed on a moneyline bet.
Parlays: A parlay is a bet type in which multiple bets are linked together. To win the whole parlay, you must win all the legs. Sportsbook operators give huge payouts for adding more games to a parlay. However, the more legs added, the less likely the bettors will win.
Totals: A total – or over/under – is a bet on the number of points both teams will score in a game combined. You will bet whether the total score/point will go over or under a point already determined by the sportsbook. You are not trying to predict the exact score.
Points Spread: In point spread betting, you wager on by how many points a team/player will win or lose. Point spread betting creates a level playing field between the two teams involving a favorite and an underdog.
Futures: Futures is a wager on an outcome – event, series, or election – that will be decided in the future. Unlike single-game wagers, future betting does not pay out on the day the wager is placed. For instance, you can bet on ‘who will be the next Super Bowl champion?’ or ‘who will win the 2024 US Presidential Election?’
Prop Bets: A prop bet – short for proposition bet – is a wager not linked to the game’s final outcome. For instance, ‘who will score the first touchdown?’
Everything except moneyline, total, and point spread bets can fall under a prop bet.
Live Bets: Live or in-game betting allows CA players to bet while the game is underway instead of before it starts. The bookmakers post updated lines throughout the game, depending on the situation. Live betting is one of the most exciting bet types on BetOnline and Bovada.
Prohibited Bets: Our top CA sports betting sites provide competitive odds on prohibited bets like election betting.
You must look for these aspects when choosing the best California betting site.
Reviews: When choosing a CA online sportsbook, always do research. It’s a great idea to read as many reviews from independent sites as possible. You can also complement your research by reading customers’ reviews.
Licensing Information: Always ensure that the site you have shortlisted is licensed by a recognized authority. For example, the Panama Gambling Commission and Curacao Gaming Commission are among the leading jurisdictions in online gaming.
Promotions: Promotions are the biggest attractions. So, make sure the CA sportsbook you join offers an attractive welcome bonus. Of course, the bigger a site, the better its bonus.
Accessibility: It is a good idea to join a CA sports betting site with mobile-friendly features. All leading CA operators like Bovada are 100% optimized for the website and mobile users.
Bets Allowed: Always prefer a CA online sportsbook that includes more bet types. Moneyline, totals, parlays, futures, and points spread are among the most famous bet types you should be looking for.
Odds Pricing: You should be able to compare sportsbooks to see which offers better odds. If a CA sportsbook site ensures a greater return on your initial bet, you should consider joining that operator.
Deposit and Withdrawal Methods: The available banking options are another make-or-break point when joining a CA online sports betting site. The more expansive the banking options, the better.
Customer Support: Many bettors tend to ignore this aspect. Don’t be one of those. Choose a CA sports betting site that addresses your issues with the site. Email, phone, and live chat are the major communication systems you should look for when deciding on a CA online sportsbook.
Leading California sports betting sites allow many deposit and withdrawal options for their customers, including:
Credit Cards: Credit cards are among the most common banking options across most CA sportsbook sites. For instance, Bovada allows you to deposit via Mastercard and Visa. BetOnline offers four credit card options for deposits and withdrawals: Mastercard, Visa, AMEX, and Discover.
Bank Transfers: Using top CA online sportsbooks, you can also use bank wire transfers to deposit and withdraw funds. For example, BetOnline allows a minimum deposit of $1000, and you can withdraw up to $25,000 using bank transfers. However, with a $50 minimum deposit and maximum deposit of $9,500, Bovada is our top recommendation for bank transfers in California.
E-Wallets: The bad news is that offshore sportsbooks don’t offer e-wallets to US-based customers. The good news is that California bettors can still use e-wallet options like PayPal. You can do so using Bovada’s MatchPay, an umbrella platform with multiple e-wallets, including PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, and more. All you need to do is to create a MatchPay account and enjoy betting on Bovada, one of the best e-wallet sportsbooks in California.
Bitcoin: Most CA sports betting sites include Bitcoin as a major banking option. For example, BetOnline, Bovada, and XBet encourage their customers to make Bitcoin deposits and withdrawals, charging no fee and processing your payouts faster than most other withdrawal methods.
Other Cryptocurrencies: Many other cryptocurrencies – called altcoins – are available on our top CA sports betting sites. With 17 deposit and 13 withdrawal options, BetOnline is one of the best altcoin sportsbooks in California.
The following sports teams are the most popular options among California bettors:
California lawmakers have yet to legalize online sports betting. The most recent efforts aimed at legalizing sports betting failed in November 2022.
While the legal gambling age remains an unsettled issue in California, our top offshore sportsbooks, like BetOnline and Bovada, accept California players who’re 18 or older.
Legal CA online sports wagering could happen by 2024 if lawmakers and stakeholders agree in 2023.
Yes, the top offshore sites allow their California-based players to grab enticing bonuses. For instance, BetOnline’s 50% up to $1,000 is one of the best welcome bonuses in the California sports betting industry.
The California Gaming Control Commission oversees all other gambling laws in California. It is likely to regulate online sports betting in California once lawmakers legalize sports betting.
No, you can either be a resident or visit California to place online wagers using offshore sportsbooks like Bovada and BetOnline.
Because not every site is safe, we recommend you use BetOnline, Bovada, and XBet for secure online sports betting and online casino gaming in California. All these sites are licensed and use advanced SSL encryption to ensure customers’ safety online.
Like sports gambling, daily fantasy sports (DFS) remains an unsettled issue in California.
Like offshore sportsbooks, DraftKings is not legal in California. However, it operates daily fantasy sports in an unregulated California market that has not declared DFS illegal.
FanDuel also operates DFS operations in an unregulated California market that has yet to license DFS operators.
Bovada is licensed by Curacao Gaming Commission to operate in the USA, including California. However, like DFS, lawmakers have yet to regulate online sports betting in California.
The Panama-licensed BetOnline sportsbook has been conducting legal operations in California since it was launched in 2001.
MyBookie is one of the newer legal sports betting options available to California bettors, thanks to a Curacao license.
BetUS was the oldest legal sportsbook site when it went live in California back in 1994. This trusted brand is also licensed by Curacao.
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