For sports betting sites, we wanted to go into more detail on what we believe are the important features to determine the best options for West Virginia bettors:

Betting Odds

These sportsbooks are very competitive, but some offer better odds than others thanks to things like reduced juice, opinionated lines and odds boosts.

If you frequently bet on sports, you should have an account with various sportsbooks to make sure you are getting the best price for the bets you want to make. A pick with -110 odds could be -105 at another site, so be sure to shop around.

Betting Markets

In the sports betting market, we expect a wide range of both leagues offered and the types of wagers (singles, parlays, round robins, teasers, pleasers, props, live bets, futures, same-game parlays, etc.).

Online Banking Options

In 2024, we should have plenty of deposit and withdrawal methods available to us at online sportsbooks. That means everything from traditional methods (debit cards, credit cards, online banking) to modern methods (e-wallets and crypto). We also take note of the processing times, limits and fees associated with these different methods at the sites.

Promotional Offers & Bonuses

The welcome bonus can get a player to register for an online sportsbook, but the ongoing promotions can keep them coming back. New users will usually get a deposit match in bonus bets based on their initial deposit. There may be a bonus code that needs to be entered when making that deposit and it is a one-time-only deal.

This is why the ongoing promos matter just as much. We should get a reload bonus option, which works just like a deposit bonus but may only be 20-to-30% of your deposit instead of 100% or higher as a sign-up bonus. There are also odds boosts and risk-free bets offered from time to time at quality online sportsbooks.

The other offers we expect to see are a refer-a-friend program and a loyalty program where you climb to a higher loyalty level the more you bet. The more points you receive, the more perks you can purchase like bonus bets or poker tournament entries.

Live Betting

Live betting is becoming a huge deal as more people use their mobile devices to place bets. This inevitably leads to people following along with the game on their mobile devices. They may want to hedge a pre-game bet or bet on something live after picking up some new insight from watching the game. Live betting can also turn a boring game into an exciting one.

We expect any quality online sportsbook today to have a good live betting platform that is fast at processing bets because speed is everything when you are trying to bet on the outcome of the next play. Even just live betting the winner, spread or total can see the odds drastically change live with one play.

User Experience

A quality user experience at an online sportsbook is when you can easily navigate the site to find the markets you want to bet on with competitive odds and quickly build parlays and place online wagers on a variety of games and sports. Everything should be neatly labeled and organized. The cashier section should make it easy to get our deposits in quickly and request withdrawals just as easily.

Mobile Site Quality

With offshore sites, we do not typically get a downloadable sportsbook app like we would using DraftKings or FanDuel in West Virginia.

Instead, we must do our mobile betting using mobile sites, which can be used like mobile betting apps if we add them to our home screen for one-touch access. They will open instantly and we can quickly do our mobile wagering before the next game starts. This is also crucial for live betting where speed is extremely important before the odds change drastically.

Customer Support

Frequent users of the sportsbook may have a day where they have a dispute over a sports bet, whether it be a stat correction or a disputed playing status of an injured player. This is when you really need the customer support team to come through to resolve your dispute or any other question or issue you may encounter.

We consider the best customer support teams to offer 24/7 service and the most varied options for contacting them, including a message on the site, an email address, a phone number and a live chatbot.

Security Features

If you want to win real money online at a sportsbook, you can expect to share your name, address, phone number and email. You may be required to link your credit card or bank account to the site to make payments and receive withdrawals. This is a lot of personal information, so it is more important than ever these sites keep our data secure and safe.

Our rationale is to only choose a long-serving sportsbook with plenty of experience in the sports betting industry of dealing with customers and paying them on time. Only use reputable sportsbooks like the ones reviewed in this guide.