Why Switch from Offshore to U.S. Sportsbooks?

Sports bettors are choosing to wager at U.S. sportsbooks every single day, as more states are legalizing sports betting. The question that many sports bettors are asking is why should they switch from offshore sportsbooks to U.S. sportsbooks. It is an important question to answer and there are many things to consider. We’ll look at the differences between offshore and U.S. sportsbooks and consider some of the advantages to wagering at U.S. sportsbooks instead of offshore sportsbooks.

Legal Sports Betting

There are still many U.S. states that consider offshore sportsbooks illegal, and they consider residents that wager with those sportsbooks, law breakers. Granted, none of the states actively go after anyone who wagers at offshore sportsbooks, as people do it every day, but people still prefer to obey the law. Legal sports betting has exploded in the United States since the Supreme Court struck down The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 2018. More than half of the states in the U.S. now have legal sports betting and legislation is on the way in many of the other states. If you want to wager legally on sports in the United States there is a good chance you can now do so.

Safety

One of the biggest things that always concerned sports bettors about offshore sportsbooks was safety. Since offshore sportsbooks have no government oversight, people worried that the shop could simply disappear overnight and money deposited into those books would be gone. That fear has largely been unfounded, as most online sportsbooks are very reliable, but there have been some exceptions and if just one person lost their money to an unsavory sportsbook, it is one too many. When you wager at a U.S. sportsbook there is no worry about your money being safe. It is basically like putting your money into a bank and there is no concern about safety.

Bonuses

Have you taken a look at the bonuses available at U.S. sportsbooks? There are some great welcome bonuses available that rival anything the offshore sportsbooks have offered. One of the most popular current bonuses is the $1,000 no risk bonus available at BetMGM Sportsbook. This bonus is great because you can wager up to $1,000 on your first bet and if that wager loses, you will get site credits to wager with. There is no real rollover requirement so you just need to wager those credits before cashing out. For example, if you bet $1,000 on the Buccaneers and the Bucs lost, you would get $1,000 in credit put into your account to cover your loss. You would then need to just wager that $1,000 before cashing out. The best part is that if your $1,000 first bet is a winner, you win. It is really a free shot at winning $1,000. With offshore sportsbook bonuses there are almost always rollover requirements attached to them. You might see a $1,000 bonus but it will probably have a 10x or 25x rollover requirement attached to it. The $1,000 free money sounds great, but you have to roll it over so often that it basically becomes worthless. The advantage with a U.S. sportsbook is that you will likely find a 1x rollover instead of a 10x or 25x rollover requirement.

Banking Options

We mentioned earlier that when you deposit money into a U.S. sportsbook it is just like putting money into a bank. It is that safe. It is also very easy to do with a number of different deposit and withdrawal options. There are a number of choices available for banking options including PayPal, Skrill, Visa, MasterCard, PayNearMe, etc. Offshore sportsbooks also have a wide variety of banking options but those options have dwindled in recent years, as U.S. banks have started to limit their transactions with offshore sites.

Withdrawals

There is no question that getting your money out is one of the most important concerns when wagering at online sportsbooks. No matter how reliable an offshore sportsbook may be, there can be times when getting timely payouts is difficult. That is not a concern at a U.S. sportsbook, especially if that sportsbook is associated with a land-based casino, and most are. If you want to get your money out you can oftentimes simply go to a land-based casino cage and get your cash. It doesn’t get any easier than that.

Mobile Betting

U.S. sportsbooks realized from the beginning that mobile betting was very important to their customers and most had a good mobile betting interface when they opened up shop. That has not always been the case with offshore sportsbooks. Since the offshores started before mobile betting became popular, they have had to change things on the fly. It is never easy to change something once it is already in place and some offshore sportsbooks still don’t have efficient mobile betting. Most U.S. sportsbooks have mobile betting that is already on par with desktop betting. In today’s fast-paced world, it is very important to have excellent mobile betting options, and most U.S. sportsbooks are doing quite well with their mobile betting.

Customer Service

When it comes to customer service there are always going to be sites that do it better than others, regardless of whether it is offshore or U.S. sportsbooks. One thing that is without debate is that some of the online sportsbooks can struggle with communication. Because offshore sportsbooks are located in countries like Costa Rica, they employ a lot of people who are not fluent in English and that can sometimes make communication difficult. That is not an issue at U.S. sportsbooks, as their employees are almost always very fluent in English.