Learn How OddsIndex Rates Sportsbooks and Bonuses

Unfortunately, in the classroom, all of those history papers and algebra problems were yours to deal with. On the other hand, if you’re looking for an online sportsbook, OddsIndex has you covered!

How We Rate and Review Sportsbooks

As longtime, avid sports bettors ourselves, we’ve seen just about everything the sports betting world has to offer. Through the years, we’ve developed a good idea of what the best-quality online sportsbooks offer to players. Along the way, we sorted what we learned into four categories, and developed the OddsIndex Sportsbook Review methodology for sportsbook ratings. It covers the following sections:

1. Depositing & withdrawing
2. Bonuses & promos, including our bespoke scoring system
3. The mobile app
4. Betting options & odds

Depositing & Withdrawing Funds

Whoever said “money isn’t everything” wasn’t a sports bettor. This game is about money - quickly, easily and securely getting money into and out of your online sportsbook account, and ensuring that emotions don’t spiral into financial disasters. On this point, when assessing “Depositing & Withdrawing Funds”, we look at:

• Ease of sign-up and security of personal information
• A range of fast, easy and secure deposit options (credit/debit card, bank transfer, Paypal, personal check, etc.)
• A range of fast, easy and secure withdrawal options (crediting funds back a card, bank transfer, personal check, cash in-person at a physical location, etc.)
• Spending controls

Let’s take a second and talk about spending controls…

The best thing about online betting is the ease and speed with which you can find action. The worst thing about online betting is… the ease and speed with which you can find action. Every sports bettor has days and weeks where NOTHING seems to go as planned. Giving in to frustration, “chasing those losses” and “revenge betting” is a recipe for financial disaster. You know the drill: one angry and uninformed bet gives way to another and, before you know it, you're reaching for your wallet. It takes all of the fun out of sports betting

Fortunately, in this modern age of legalized online sports betting, books institute daily and monthly deposit limits and, in some cases, provide players with tools to implement their own financial controls. Any book that does this, while also offering a comprehensive selection of fast and secure deposit and withdrawal options, is looking at a 5/5 score in our first category.

Bonuses and Promotions

Who doesn’t love a welcome gift?

The good news is that online sportsbooks love giving welcome gifts as much as we love receiving them! Sort of.

These days, simply opening and funding an account earns you a pretty hefty bonus. This is super cool… assuming there are as few strings as possible (like “play through” requirements) attached. 

As great as it is to get a $1,000 bonus for an initial deposit of $1,000, if you’ve got to place $6,000 (or even $12,000) worth of bets to claim your “free money”, how much of a “bonus” is it, really? 

The OddsIndex Bonus Score

Our OddsIndex Bonus Score takes into account just how easy it is to make this “free money” yours. The OddsIndex bonus reviews also consider how much a book rewards not just newcomers, but also existing players, through ongoing promotions and loyalty bonuses.

• Sign-up and “welcome bonuses” for new players. Here we look at both the generosity of the offer and just how easy it is to fully “earn” the bonus.
• Regular, ongoing promotions for existing players, through loyalty and reload bonuses, and special promotional bets or lines - for examples, FanDuel occasionally offers awesome promotional NBA lines (like Suns +54.5!) at regular prices.

Naturally, any book offering bonuses that are truly “no strings attached” is awarded a perfect 100 Bonus Score. After all, free money should actually be, well, free.

Mobile App & Website

Selecting the right book isn’t just about safe, speedy and secure transactions and bonuses. From there, you want a quality user experience. The OddsIndex Mobile App Reviews consider stuff like: 

• A clean, easy to navigate and fast mobile app (based on Apple App Store and Google Play Store scores)
• A clean, easy to navigate and fast desktop site 
• User-friendly betting menus
• Betting information and resources for players
• A solid lineup of events available for live-streaming from the site/app

Betting Options & Odds

When we get to the point of actually placing bets, there’s another bunch of factors we consider:

• That a full menu of sports, competitions and events are available for wagering
• The number of different betting markets (competitions and leagues from different countries) and bet types (traditional points spreads, money lines and totals, parlays, teasers, props, etc.) that are offered
• Availability of special betting features, like Same Game Parlays, Round Robins or Cash-Outs, to name a few
• The vig/juice levels across the top leagues

Put all of this together, keep it up to date - we check for updates every month -  and you’ve got an excellent tool for finding the best online sportsbooks in the U.S. That was what we set out to build with the OddsIndex Sportsbook Reviews and Bonus Scores. That vision is now a reality, here to help the U.S. sports betting community get the most out of their betting experience.

See all of our latest OddIndex Sportsbook Reviews!