Expert guide to sports betting in New York

1. Sign up

Create an account with your sportsbook of choice, selecting the one that suits you most from our list of top sportsbooks.

2. Deposit funds

Add some money to your account using a payment method that suits you.

3. Choose your bet

After doing your research, browse the sportsbook and pick the bet you want to place. Make sure you’re happy with the odds being offered and decide how much you want to bet on it. Never bet more than you can afford to lose.

4. Place the bet

Once you’re happy with your bet, make the wager, sit back and enjoy the sporting event and hope it comes in. If it does, enjoy! If not, don’t take it to heart and don’t try chasing your losses. Stay calm and consider if and when you will want to place another bet.

Other professional sports teams in New York

• New York Red Bulls (MLS)
• New York City (MLS)
• New York Liberty (WNBA)
• Brooklyn Cyclones (South Atlantic League baseball)

• The St. John’s Red Storm, who Chris Mullin and Mark Jackson led to the NCAA Final Four in 1985
• The Fordham Rams, whose football team had its glory years in the 1940s
• The Syracuse Orange, whose football team has not won a bowl game of significance since 1996 and whose men’s basketball team won the 2003 national championship and made the NCAA Final Four in 2013 and 2016
• The Iona Gaels, who made the NCAA tournament 15 times but has lost 14 of those games, the last victory coming in 1980
• Columbia Lions, an Ivy League school that produces more doctors and lawyers than athletes
• Army Black Knights, the U.S. Military Academy teams who draw a nice football crowd on autumn afternoons
• Manhattan Jaspers, who actually play in The Bronx and last won an NCAA Tournament game in 2004, defeating Florida
• St. Bonaventure Bonnies, who play in upstate Olean and whose most famous graduate is ESPN NBA maven Adrian Wojnarowski
• Niagara Purple Eagles, a school whose men’s hockey team won three national titles in the early 2000s.

The U.S. Open tennis tournament is held every year at the National Tennis Center in Queens, and is the one annual event that can convince plenty of Manhattan residents to make the trip to the borough of Queens.

Numerous big events are held at Madison Square Garden on an irregular basis, including the World Darts Championship.

The U.S. Open golf tournament has been held several times at many of the excellent private golf courses in Westchester County north of New York, most recently at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck in 2020.

Several college basketball conferences hold their championship tournaments at Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden, and Major League Baseball plays one game per season at the small field in Cooperstown next to the Hall of Fame.

The Belmont Stakes, the third leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown, is held every June at the old thoroughbred track just over the border from Queens in Long Island.

Compare deals across different brands

From welcome bonuses to parlay promotions, all the top sportsbooks available in New York (and beyond) offer a range of deals to attract and hold on to players. And, although sticking around may be rewarded through loyalty programs, it’s worth shopping around.

Most sports bettors create and use accounts with several different sportsbooks, as this enables you to cherry pick the offers that are most appealing to you. Remember that new promotions are added regularly, so making time to check out what’s available before you place your bets is always a good idea.

Use several apps to compare the lines available

No matter how good a deal you’re getting at a sportsbook, it’s always smart to look elsewhere to compare betting lines. It may be, for example, that a site is able to offer a particular deal on an event because their odds on it aren’t favorable to players. And, in that case, you might be better off going with a site that has more attractive odds.

Just make sure you check these apps in quick succession, as many sites update their odds in close to real time – there’s no guarantee that an opportunity you’ve spotted on a certain app will still be there when you return, even if only a few minutes have passed.

Have a betting system in place

Betting systems, including everything from matched betting to regression analysis, can be rewarding for many bettors. Unfortunately, they’re often very time-consuming and some of them require meticulous planning. Using a system is always a more involved process than simply going with your gut or betting on your favorite team.

Still, betting systems are worth researching if you have the patience to implement them.

Of course, as the old saying goes, “on any given Sunday, any team can beat any other team.” Betting systems aren’t a surefire recipe for success, since we’re dealing with humans and it’s impossible to predict with absolute certainty what’s going to happen. Be wary of any so-called expert who claims to have a technique that can win every time.

Embrace the parlay

A parlay, sometimes known as an accumulator or combo bet, involves linking together multiple wagers in a single bet. For it to pay out, the bettor must win all those wagers. Parlays are extremely popular because they can turn a very small bet into a big win.

For example, a bettor based in New York recently turned a bet of just under seven dollars on 16 outcomes into a win of more than $200,000. Although we can’t all get that lucky, a solid parlay win can easily wipe out a few losses from single bets that haven’t paid off.

Stick to smaller wagers and look for higher odds

When you encounter what seems like “a sure thing”, it can be tempting to bet the house on it. In reality, this is rarely a good idea; we all know that there’s no such thing as a sure thing. Plus, the shorter the odds, the more you’ll have to bet just to make a small profit.

When you find odds that are a little longer, even smaller wagers can yield some big wins. Hitting just once can often be enough to cancel out a few other small wagers that haven’t turned out quite so well.

Making a number of smaller wagers is a better way to manage your bankroll (not to mention a lot more fun) than betting everything you’ve got on a single outcome.

Bet on smaller, more obscure markets with a higher edge

Bookmakers rely on in-house experts to set their betting lines, updating them virtually in real time as relevant news breaks. There are circumstances, however, in which it might be more difficult for them to do that. Consider, for example, niche markets like certain e-sports or activities in far flung countries and different time zones.

In cases like these, it’s conceivable that (with a lot of dedicated research) you might be able to get an edge over bookmakers by taking advantage of information that isn’t yet common knowledge. This approach is likely to work best if you already have a passion for one of these niche activities, as it’s difficult to gain expert knowledge overnight.

Here, we issue our report card for sports betting NY, based on a number of key factors.

Range of sportsbooks

If nine choices are not enough for the average gambler, how many would be? In a totally free market in which any of the 25 U.S.-based operators were allowed to compete, the number of promotional choices and offers would be larger. But how many New Yorkers have the time and resources to open 25 different sports gambling accounts?

Grade: B

Mobile apps

All of the NY mobile sports betting options have apps with varying degrees of difficulty, getting accustomed to the peculiarities of any particular app involves a learning curve, and it is up to the sportsbooks to design, redesign and update their apps in such a way as to promote brand loyalty.

Grade: C

Deposit options

This is an area where New York gambling has been made easy. You can use debit cards, bank transfers, Pay Pal, eChecks, prepaid gift cards, Venmo, wire transfers and even cash (through a one-time bar code usable via scanner at participating retail locations) to fund your accounts.

Grade: A

Tax rate

New Yorkers are no strangers to high taxes, with property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes and gasoline taxes among the highest in the nation. So the 51% tax on gaming companies is more of a burden for those companies than for gamblers, but that rate does reduce the promotional options available in New York online sports betting.

Grade: B-

Market coverage

The NY gambling laws do not allow for wagers to be made on any individual player awards that are decided by voters, which is disappointing for fans of New York sports betting. It takes away one of the best markets out there: Player Futures on awards such as Most Valuable Player, Cy Young and Heisman Trophy, which often have very long odds early in the season on eventual winners.

Grade: F-

Retail presence

The law rammed through by former Gov. Cuomo did not call for all companies operating in New York to have offices based in the state, and also lacked a retail component that would have turned former OTB (Off-Track Betting) parlors into the types of neighborhood wagering shops that are common throughout Europe. Instead, New Yorkers must gamble on their phones or laptops, which means sports betting in New York is not quite the social activity it is in other places. Upstate sport betting parlors are OK for Syracuse and Buffalo-area gamblers.

Grade: D-

Gambling should be fun, but if it becomes a problem it can health and financial implications. Gamblers Anonymous meetings are held every day all over the state (although many have become virtual following the COVID-19 pandemic), and a list can be found here.

Also, the New York state Gamblers Anonymous hotline is 855-222-2422. Information on a problem gambling resource center is available online or over the phone at 1-877-8HOPENY or by texting to HELPNY (467369).

Sports gambling sites have features that include self-exclusion, which is basically banning yourself, along with timeout, in which you determine how many days you want to be barred from gambling before being allowed to resume. There's also a reality check button that shows you how much money you have gambled, and deposit limits that will prevent you from putting more money into an account than you can afford.

Another resource is the state office of addiction services and supports. Also, the National Council on Problem Gambling can be reached online or over the phone at 1-800-522-4700.

Casino.org have further responsible gambling resources available here.