Best Arizona Sportsbooks | Guide to Arizona Sports Betting 2024

Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed a bill that allowed for the issuing of sports gaming licenses to Native American tribes and Arizona professional sports franchises and entities.

In addition to the sportsbooks, under the terms of this measure, the Native American casinos can now offer table games like baccarat, craps, and roulette. Another provision gives horse racing tracks the ability to offer video keno, and daily fantasy sports contests have been legalized. Despite this step forward, playing at an online Casino Arizona is still not possible.

AZ Sports Betting Latest Updates:

Legal Sportsbooks Currently Live in Arizona

BetMGM Arizona

What we like about this operator:

This is a state-of-the-art online sportsbook that is owned by MGM Resorts International in partnership with Entain. You have a wide variety of wagering options, and their player rewards program is second to none.

To learn more about this sportsbook, check out our BetMGM Sportsbook review, and you will also find a BetMGM AZ promo code on the page.

Where we think this operator can improve:

All of the operators that have participated in the AZ online sports betting launch are well-funded, established companies. There is nothing about the BetMGM sportsbook that is broken, so there is nothing to fix.

DraftKings Arizona

What we like about this operator:

The welcome promotions are generous, and this sportsbook continually runs promos for established players. You will find a robust wagering menu, and the Arizona sports betting app is very well developed.

We have published a detailed review of this popular sports betting site, and you will find a DraftKings AZ promo code waiting for you when you visit the page.

Where we think this operator can improve:

Since it has been perfecting its daily fantasy sports platform for years, DraftKings had a head start, and it shows when you visit their site. The product itself is hard to impeach, but the customer service does leave something to be desired.

Caesars Sportsbook Arizona

What we like about this operator:

Caesars Sportsbook has many great promotional offers for both new and existing players. There are also many wagering markets offered, and it is easy to withdraw your winnings.

Where we think this operator can improve:

There is no live streaming video right now, but this is the only negative worth mentioning.

FanDuel Arizona

The FanDuel Sportsbook is in the same position as DraftKings with regard to the fantasy sports head start. Its launch has gone relatively smoothly, but there will invariably be some fine-tuning along the way as sports betting in Arizona evolves.

What we like about this operator:

FanDuel Sportsbook has an intuitive, responsive mobile app for sports betting, and it covers a vast array of wagering markets.

Where we think this operator can improve:

The Arizona sports betting sites are designed to satisfy the needs of the players, and they endeavor to keep customer contact to a minimum. As a result, FanDuel customer service could be better, and it may improve as time goes on because the competition is fierce.

How to Sign up and Start Betting on Sports in Arizona in 3 Simple Steps

It is very easy to establish an account at these sites. For the most part, you will find the same process at each Arizona sports betting site. You simply follow the prompts and you will be placing your first bet in a matter of minutes.

The only aspect that can be intimidating is the trust factor. Before we had sports betting sites in the United States, there were offshore sportsbooks that were not beholden to government regulations. Many would honor their commitments, but this was not a given.

That was then, and this is now. The companies that hold Arizona sports betting licenses are completely reputable, and they are in it for the long haul. You can open up your account at any approved Arizona online sportsbook with complete confidence.

1. Create an account at the Sportsbook of your choice

Establishing and funding your account is a three-step process, and the creation step comes first. When you click the link to set up your account, you will be required to provide this information:

• Email address and/or username and password for login purposes
• Full name, gender and birthday
• Home address and mobile number
• Answers to security questions
• Bonus code
• Acknowledge legal disclaimers
• Provide last four digits of SSN
• Answer additional identity check questions

After you have completed these steps successfully, your account will be established, and you will be prompted to the next step.

2. Deposit money into your account

Funding the account comes next. You will see a list of deposit methods that you can utilize, and it is a point and click set-up. There are some differences depending on the site, but these are some of the most commonly offered methods:

• Visa and MasterCard
• PayPal
• Pay Near Me
• Online Bank Transfers
• In-Person Counter Deposit
• VIP Preferred
• Skrill
• E-check

When you are deciding on the amount that you want to deposit, you should consider the sign-up bonus implications. A bonus bet is just that; it is not a free bet. In order to take advantage of the promotion, you have to make a wager, and you will receive a refund if you lose.

If you are excited about a $1,000 bonus bet sign-up bonus, you have to fund your account with at least $1,000 to take full advantage of it. In the event that you lose, the amount that you bet would be refunded to your account, but you would not be able to withdraw it immediately.

You would be required to wager the amount of the refund before you can remove the money from your account.

3. Place your first bet

Before you will be allowed to place your first bet, you will be required to download a geolocation plug-in. The sites are required by law to make sure that you are physically located in the state of Arizona when you are making the wager. This is simply a matter of clicking a “download now” button.

If that process goes smoothly, you will go through these steps to place a wager:

• Click on the market (NBA, NFL, college football, etc.) that you want to access
• Click the button representing the wager that you want to make
• Fill in the amount of your bet on the bet slip that will appear
• Click the prominent button at the bottom of the slip to place the bet

The proper way to proceed is self-evident when you are looking at the wagering board on any of the Arizona sports betting sites.

Bonuses and Promotions you can find at Legal AZ Bookies

All of the AZ sports betting sites are offering the same product at the end of the day. From a marketing perspective, they have to offer promotions and bonuses to attract players and keep them coming back.

Sign-Up Bonuses

In addition to the bonus bet sign-up bonuses that are widely offered, there are different approaches that are taken at times.

There are bonus bet promotions, and there is no trickery involved in the terminology. You are given imaginary money with which you can make a bonus bet, and if you are right, real winnings are deposited into your account. Usually the bonus bet wager is not returned.

Another type of sign-up bonus is the match bonus. The sportsbook will match your deposit or a percentage of your initial deposit. For example, it may offer a 100% sign-up bonus of up to $1,000.

If you deposit $1,000 of your money, they will match it, and your balance will be $2,000. However, there will be a playthrough requirement, so you have to wager the amount of the playthrough multiplier before you can withdraw funds.

Let’s say that there is a 5X playthrough requirement for this $2,000. You would be required to bet $10,000 before you can take the money out of your account.

Another approach that has been taken is a bonus wager on a particular team or a proposition that would appear to be a can’t lose the bet.

An online sportsbook may choose to offer multiple different types of sign-up bonuses in conjunction with one another to set it apart from the competition.

Events Promotions

Arizona sports bettors can take advantage of additional promotions that are offered on specific events. These would include March Madness, the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA playoffs, the NHL playoffs, and other individual events that draw a lot of attention.

They will often offer reload bonuses for existing customers as special event promos, which will usually be a deposit match up to a certain percentage. There are also odds boost promotions for special events, same-game parlay insurance, and you may see a proposition bonus bet offer.

Special Promotions

The sites that offer sports gambling are constantly coming up with new ideas to keep players interested and engaged. They run different types of special promotions throughout the year, and some of them are recurring.

For example, an AZ sports betting site may offer an odds boost promotion on a particular day every week. There can also be season-long promotions, and there are cumulative rewards.

Reduced Vigorish Promotions

The vigorish or “juice” is essentially a premium that is charged by the legalized sports wagering sites. In baseball, it is the difference between the payout for a bet on the underdog and the favorite.

Sports betting sites typically use a 15 or 20 cent baseball line. If it’s a 20 cent line and the Braves are -150 over the Phillies, the underdog’s odds would be +130. That is a 20 cent difference, and the bookie would pocket that vig if equal action is taken on both sides.

One of the special promotions is a reduced juice promo, so an online sportsbook that usually has a 15 cent line may bring it down to 10 cents for a certain period as a special promotion.

Bonus Bet Special Promos

We have already touched upon the bonus bet promotion as a sign-up bonus, and there are also bonus bet special betting offers. It may be a bonus bet on a particular game on a certain day, or the promotion could apply to a complimentary bet on a game of your choice.

Loyalty Programs and VIP Rewards

Some of the Arizona sports betting sites have loyalty programs that provide premiums if you are a frequent player. For example, you are awarded Caesars Online Reward Credit if you play at Caesars Sportsbook, and it can be added to the credit you earn at their land-based properties.

In addition to the Reward Credit, you accumulate Tier Credit, and there are VIP rewards for people that reach the highest tiers.

Types of Bets Available at AZ Sportsbooks

There are a number of different types of bets that can be made at the Arizona sportsbooks. They are sometimes called “betting markets”.

Point Spread Bets

The point spread bet is the most common type of wager on football and basketball games. A favorite will give away points, and the underdog will get extra points.

This is a simple representation:

Denver +8

Kansas City -8

The Kansas City Chiefs are eight-point favorites. If you wager on the Chiefs, you will collect on your bet if they win by more than eight points. The Broncos would cover the spread if they win outright, or if they lose by less than eight points

What happens if the Chiefs win by exactly 8 points? That’s called a “push,” and backers of both teams would get their money back. It should be noted that the home team will be on the bottom of the match-up on the wagering menu, even if they are the underdog.

Moneyline Wagering

When you bet on the moneyline, you have to pick the winner of the game without any point spread. Even though most people bet football on the point spread line, you can choose to wager on the moneyline, and there is moneyline betting on the other major American sports.

In fact, this type of wager is the standard bet for hockey and baseball games because there is no point spread.

If you are a novice, you may light up when you hear that you can collect on a bet by simply picking the winner. Unfortunately, there is another element that you have to take into account.

This is what a moneyline looks like:

Las Vegas Raiders +200

Pittsburgh Steelers -245

This would typically be the moneyline if the Steelers are 5.5 point favorites in the point spread market. Since the Steelers are the most likely winner, you have to accept a diminished return.

To win $100, you would have to wager $245 on the favored Steelers. If you think the Raiders will emerge victorious, you would win $200 for a $100 bet.

Totals Betting (Over/Under)

All of the sportsbooks offer totals wagering. They will estimate the number of points, goals, or runs that will be scored in a given contest, and you can bet the over or under.

Parlay Wagers

You can make parlay bets at the legal sportsbooks in Arizona. This is a single bet that includes multiple different sides and/or totals. If any wagering interest that you have on a parlay does not win or cover, you lose the entire bet.

Depending on the policy of a given sportsbook, you can have as many as 10 different teams on a parlay. The payout is based on the number of teams that you have on the parlay, and it will be variable if you play a parlay on the moneyline.

Teasers and Pleasers

Teasers are similar to parlays in the sense that you include at least two teams or totals on the same wager. This is a bet that is only possible when there is a point spread because you get a certain number of extra points to apply to the spread when you play a teaser.

For example, let’s say that you are going to play a three-team, seven-point teaser, and these are the standard point spreads:

Packers -7

Lions + 4

Bengals +7

You are playing a seven-point teaser, so you would be getting an extra seven points in your favor in each of these matchups. For your purposes, you would need the Packers to win the game outright, you would be getting 11 points on the Lions, and the Bengals would be +14 on your teaser.

Since you are getting the extra points, the payouts for teasers are much lower than parlay bets. The return policies can differ at the respective gambling sites, but a three-team, seven-point teaser will usually pay at odds of 7-5.

A pleaser is essentially a reverse teaser. Instead of getting extra points to apply in your favor, you give away points against the standard spread, and the juicy payouts reflect the increased difficulty level.

Halftime and Quarter Bets

Another Arizona sports betting market is the halftime bet. The bookies will post a fresh set of odds that apply to the second half only. This is a bet that is offered for football and basketball because there is a halftime intermission.

Online sportsbooks post odds for individual quarters as well, and there are hockey period bets.

Live or In-Game Betting

There was a time when a halftime or quarter bet was the only option if you did not get your bet in before a game started, but in-game or live wagering has changed the playing field. The online sportsbooks take bets on games while they are underway, and they update the lines on an ongoing basis to reflect the current circumstances.

Futures Bets

All of the Arizona online sports wagering sites post futures odds. A futures wager is a season-long bet on a team to win a conference, league, or division title, and there are futures odds that apply to the overall championships.

Proposition Wagers

A proposition or “prop” bet is literally a wager on a certain specific proposition. There are propositions on individual player performances, like the over/under on the number of yards that will be gained by a running back.

You will see odds posted for touchdown scorers, first player to score a touchdown, first drive result, winning margins, the coin flip winner, and many other propositions depending on the sportsbook.

There are countless Super Bowl propositions, and some of them have nothing to do with the game. You can bet the over or under on the length of the national anthem performance and the first commercial that will be shown, and they have props that apply to the halftime show.

Deposit and Withdrawal Options

Holders of an Arizona Department of Gaming sports wagering license have the legal right to offer many conventional deposit options. Before AZ sports betting was legal, there were offshore gambling sites, but deposits were problematic because gambling-related transactions were illegal.

Current Sports Betting Situation in Arizona

The sports gambling legislation that was signed into law by the governor allows for the issuing of 20 gaming licenses. Ten of them were earmarked for Native American tribes, and up to 10 licenses can be issued to Arizona sports franchises.

At the time of this writing, 18 of the 20 licenses have been issued. The operators can offer wagering on any type of sporting event that is approved by the Arizona Department of Gaming.

Sports betting license holders can also operate land-based sportsbooks. The FanDuel retail sportsbook at the Footprint Center, which is the home of the Mercury and the Suns, was the first brick and mortar sportsbook to open its doors in Arizona.

Legal Sports Betting Options in Arizona as of September 9th

At the time of the sports betting launch, you can bet online, and you can use a sports gambling app to place wagers. Widespread retail sports betting is in the works, but the FanDuel land-based sportsbook at Footprint Center is actively taking bets.

This is a recap of the sites that offer sports wagering as of September 9th:

• BetMGM AZ
• WynnBET AZ
• DraftKings AZ
• Barstool Sports
• Caesars Sportsbook AZ
• Fanduel AZ
• Unibet AZ

All of these sites are considered to be some of the best sportsbooks in the US and have received very favorable from our staff experts.

Legal and Illegal Sports to bet on

Under the terms of the sports gambling legislation, people that are 21 years of age and older can bet on pro and college sports, but high school sports are off-limits. Proposition betting on college sports is also prohibited.

If a sportsbook is unsure about the legality of wagering on a particular sporting event, they can seek approval from the Arizona Department of Gaming.

Daily Fantasy Sports Betting

There are currently six operators that have obtained licenses to offer daily fantasy sports contests, and they are led by industry powerhouses FanDuel, DraftKings, and Yahoo.

Mobile Sports Betting in Arizona

Under the Arizona sports betting rules, mobile betting is legal in all parts of the state. You have to be at least 21 years of age to make a wager, and you must be physically located in Arizona when you place the bet.

Comparing the Draftkings Mobile App to the BetMGM Mobile App

DraftKings Sportsbook and BetMGM are two Arizona sports betting apps that are in direct competition with one another. We give DraftKings a slight edge for the variety of wagering options and sports that are offered, but most people would be satisfied with BetMGM’s offerings.

The sign-up bonuses are comparable, but BetMGM has, on average, more seasonal promos. They have equal deposit options, and BetMGM has two more withdrawal options.

Both mobile apps are user-friendly, and the navigation is equally intuitive on each app. At the end of the day, it is a matter of personal preference because both of them get the job done effectively.

Sports Events to bet on:

MLB Playoffs and World Series

Baseball is winding down when football begins, and when the playoffs start, and the Arizona sportsbooks will be busy. Laying wagers on the individual games will make them more interesting, and you can sometimes get great value on postseason baseball futures bets.

College Football Bowl Season

The Arizona sports betting launch coincided with the beginning of the 2021 college and NCAA football season, and this was not an accident. 

With the regular season and college football bowl game matchups. These games are a lot of fun to bet on, and the College Football Playoff games are on another level.

NFL Playoffs and Super Bowl

NFL football is the most popular sport to bet on by far, and the college variety is a distant second. When the playoffs begin, the interest intensifies as the focus narrows.

Arizona residents can wager on the postseason legally, and the Super Bowl is the culmination of a uniquely exciting season for football fans.

Arizona Professional and College Sports Teams

Professional Sports Teams

• Arizona Cardinals (NFL)
• Arizona Diamondbacks (MLB)
• Phoenix Suns (NBA)
• Arizona Coyotes (NHL)
• Phoenix Mercury (WNBA)
• Arizona Rattlers (Indoor Football League)

All of these professional sports teams have received sports gambling licenses from the Arizona Department of Gaming under the terms of the sports betting legalization bill.

They have also granted licenses to the PGA via the TPC Scottsdale Golf Club. Phoenix Raceway rounds out the initial group of eight, but the Arizona sports betting law allows for ten pro sports licensees.

There is room for a couple more, and we will provide updates when additional licenses are issued.

College Sports Teams

• Arizona Wildcats
• Arizona State Sun Devils
• Grand Canyon Antelopes
• Northern Arizona Lumberjacks

These are the Division I programs in the Grand Canyon State. The sportsbooks typically do not take bets on the smaller schools, so we will not list them here.

Stay up to date with the latest AZ Sports Betting News

If you want to stay up-to-date as the Arizona sports betting rollout evolves, come back and visit us. We will keep a finger on the pulse of Arizona betting market as it grows, and there is a treasure trove of general gambling information on this site. Feel free to bookmark the site and explore all of our free resources, and we add additional content on an ongoing basis.

Online Sports Betting Resources

You can check out these valuable resources if you would like to build on your sports wagering knowledge:

Sports Betting Guide
NCAA Football Handicapping Data
Sports Betting News
NFL Handicapping Data