PA Sports Betting Sites | Best Sportsbooks for Pennsylvania

Legal online sports betting started in PA in May 2019. There has been a lot of interest in Pennsylvania sports betting licensing since. Even with considerable costs to set up and hefty taxes, legal online sportsbooks are steadily growing. 

Pennsylvania currently allows for just one skin per licensed operator going online, and 9 casinos have applied for licensing. Also, in PA, each license needs to be applied separately, with slots games, table games, and poker being different licenses. For $4m per license, this also limits the number of operators. Online sports betting site licensing is managed by the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.

Licensing fees and taxes are much higher in PA than NJ, so we aren't expecting so many sports betting sites. 

There are 11 online sportsbooks live in PA. This is the current list. 

• BetRivers
• BetMGM
• Unibet Sportsbook
• Bet America Sportsbook
• Foxbet
• Parx Sportsbook
• Draftkings
• Fanduel
• Caesars
• Barstool
• Windcreek

Sugarhouse was first online, and now Fanduel Sportsbook, BetRivers, Parx, Caesars, and Fox Bet are taking online sports betting wagers in PA long with Unibet and Draftkings. Others expected to arrive soon are BetMGM and Golden Nugget.

Betting online in PA is similar to betting in NJ. You don't have to install an app. You don't need to visit any land-based operations in Pennsylvania. So as long as you are within the state boundaries of PA and over the legal age, you can see one of the legal online sportsbooks there, sign up, deposit and start wagering. Fantastic! In fact, you can sign up and deposit from anywhere in the US; you need to be within the Pennsylvania state boundaries to place your wagers. 

We don't expect there to be as many legal online sportsbooks in PA as NJ. We are waiting to see if any more casinos apply for licensing. There could probably be no more than ten within the next year but that will still offer a good choice for the sports bettor and good competition for your business. 

As of 2023, PA is one of the more mature online sports betting states, and the handle has continued to grow year on year, with the highest handle figures ever being achieved in the final quarter of the year, in excess of $700m wagered.

It remains to be seen if Pennsylvania can push through the Billion dollar mark and join the likes of New Jersey and New York. Still, the industry will be pleased with the growth, especially as some other states have seen a slight regression for the final quarter year on year.

Pennsylvania Sports Betting Handle Growth Chart

Legal PA sports betting is just that in Pennsylvania, restricted to sports betting! As yet, though, betting on non-sporting events isn't permitted. This differs in other states where you can bet on things like the coin toss in the Super Bowl or Academy Award winners. Live sports betting in PA is allowed, though, so you can bet in play during games. 

The best is personal and depends upon what you want from your PA sportsbook. We have written over 50 sports betting guides to help you to find the best sportsbook for you. The best sportsbook may differ depending on the sports you bet on regularly or the type of bets you like to place. 

The biggest sportsbook in PA by volume wagered is FanDuel which took 45% of Pennsylvania's total sports betting handle in December. BetRivers was the next largest by the handle, followed by Draftkings, which is growing rapidly. Unibet Sportsbook is rising rapidly and tripled its handle month on month during December. 

The high licensing cost and restrictive taxation have limited the number of new PA sportsbooks coming online. As well as those already established, you would expect larger companies, with a strategy to establish themselves statewide as leading legal US Sports Betting providers, to be champing at the bit to launch in PA. But that isn't the case with all. You would expect the following to be the next PA sports betting sites.

• Pointsbet
• bet365
• 888sport

Most forms of sports betting are legal in Pennsylvania. This includes in-play wagering. 

This is great news for PA sports fans as a sport is such a huge thing in the state, with major local teams including 

MLB teams Philadelphia Phillies & Pittsburgh Pirates

NBA team Philadelphia 76ers

NFL teams Philadelphia Eagles & Pittsburgh Steelers

NHL teams Philadelphia Flyers & Pittsburgh Penguins

MLS team Philadelphia Union

College sports betting is also legal in PA so some New Jersey and New York residents may be interested in opening sports betting accounts with PA sports books as New Jersey college football wagering isn't included within NJ legal sports betting options. We expect this to be the case during March Madness of course especially. 

You can even bet on Pennsylvania college sports within PA as well. This will be popular. The Pennsylvania State University is well known for producing professional NFL players. Our research showed 36 NFL stars had studied at Penn State.

However, wagers are not permitted on nonsporting events such as the Oscars. Wheres in NJ that is ok! So likewise, PA bettors may still want to cross the border to NJ for some forms of betting. 

Operator Licensing Costs: $10,000,000

Tax Rates: 36% of daily gross revenue 

Why does this matter to PA Sports bettors? The high licensing costs have resulted in just 11 of the 13 land-based operators applying for licensing so far. The 36% of revenue taxation is exceptionally high, meaning that operators aren't flocking to offer services in PA but also that odds and offers are likely to be less generous than in other regulated states. These costs also impact the offerings available to the sports bettor. Over the border, there are very generous NJ sportsbook promos on offer, likewise in other states with lower taxation, for example, check out our list of Michigan sportsbook promos. In PA though, the free bets aren't so generous. 

Without federal laws for sports wagering, states are left to experiment and set their tax revenue structures. Some states tax sportsbooks as high as 50% and others as low as 6.75%, according to the American Action Forum.

States with authorized sports wagering tend to tax in the 10-15% range, with nuances added from there. Some states deduct promotional bets, while others require disclosure, per Bloomberg Tax.

OLBG looked at how much tax revenue states generated from commercial gambling during 2021 and how that revenue compares to 2020. Data comes from the American Gaming Association and various news media outlets, with the tax total reflecting specific state and local taxes applied directly to gaming revenue. Data does not include billions of dollars paid annually by the industry via income, sales, other corporate taxes, or payroll taxes paid by gaming operators and suppliers. The national list is made up of the top 10 highest-earning states.

Pennsylvania by the numbers

• 2021 tax revenue: $2.0 billion
• 2020 tax revenue: $1.2 billion

The home of the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia sports markets holds the #1 spot for tax revenue from sports betting. The die-hard nature of Steelers, Eagles, 76ers, Penguins, Flyers, Phillies, and Penn State fans helps the state secure such high revenue in gambling taxes. Pennsylvania also has one of the highest tax rates, at 36%.

Online sports gaming came to the state in 2019, a year after retail sportsbooks opened. Many of the top online sportsbooks have a presence in the state. There are few restrictions on sports gambling, but placing specific prop bets on individual players' statistics is not legal. Users must be 21.

In seven of the top 10 states nationally, sports gambling is legal in some capacity. Every jurisdiction in the U.S. with commercial casino or sports betting operations reported an increase in gaming revenue between 2020 and 2021; 23 of 43 jurisdictions saw record annual commercial gaming revenue in 2021, according to the AGA.

The biggest gains in gaming revenue alone were documented in Tennessee and Michigan, each of which reported the first full year of sports betting revenue. Eight of the 10 states that gained the most tax revenue from commercial gambling overall in 2021 are located in the East or Midwest.

The Supreme Court in 2018 found the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act unconstitutional, effectively eliminating the federal law that had halted authorized sports wagering across the country and leaving it up to individual states to determine rules for sports betting.

Fast-forward to 2021, when commercial gaming revenue in the United States topped $53 billion. Gambling generated nearly $11.7 billion in tax revenue for the 33 states (and Washington D.C.) with some form of legalized sports betting, according to data from the American Gaming Association.

Twenty-four states and Washington, D.C., allow mobile sports betting activity, as of March 2023. Florida took legal online sports bets from November to December 2021, until a federal judge struck down the agreement. The state has halted legal sports gaming for now. Maine, Massachusetts, and Nebraska are some of the states that recently legalized sports betting in some way. Those states are expected to roll out plans, projects, or further regulatory actions in 2023.

Read on to find out the five highest-ranked states that earn the most tax revenue from commercial gaming.

States that earn the most tax revenue from commercial gaming

#1. Pennsylvania: $2.0 billion in tax revenue from commercial gaming in 2021
#2. New York: $1.1 billion in tax revenue from commercial gaming in 2021
#3. Nevada: $1.0 billion in tax revenue from commercial gaming in 2021
#4. Maryland: $814.4 million in tax revenue from commercial gaming in 2021
#5. Ohio: $759.3 million in tax revenue from commercial gaming in 2021