For those of you that have spent any time in a Las Vegas recently, you’ll have noticed the surge in marketing for sports betting apps. While mobile betting has long been a stature at the offshore sportsbooks, it has become a new and booming trend in the Sin City. This is a move that is much welcomed by the sports community as a whole and it opens up a slew of benefits for the traditional sports bettor.
Let’s touch on the multitude of benefits that this brings about for the bettor.
Advantages to Sports Betting Apps
1. No waiting in line at sports counter: There may be nothing more frustrating then trying to run up to the counter to place a bet before a game starts only to find the line ten people deep! This all but assures that you won’t get your bet in on time. This is commonplace during football season and while other big sporting events are taking place, like March Madness. With the sports betting apps, one is literally a couple clicks away from having their bet placed.
2. No more lost tickets: One only has to do a quick Google search on “lost sportsbook tickets” to see the variety of issues that sports bettors have experienced with lost tickets. Whether the room maid threw out your ticket or you lost it after a night of heavy drinking, this is an all-too-common occurrence. In the online world, the money from your winning ticket is automatically deposited into your account, thus eliminating all lost tickets.
3. Bet from anywhere (in Nevada): While checking out the latest lines, you noticed that the odds dropped on your Washington Nationals from -170 to -130. This bet now makes sense to you. The problem is that your wife (husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, or whomever) convinced you to go tour the Hoover Dam this afternoon and you are miles away from the nearest sportsbook. Well, now with the sports app revolution, you can place this bet during the tour. All the applications use geolocation on your phone and this determines if you are in the state of Nevada. If you are not, then the applications will not work on your phone to their fullest capacity (i.e. you will not be able to make bets).
4. Get best odds from variety of books: Although we buried this point at #4, it is by far the most important of all the things we mention here. Every sportsbook carries slightly different odds. To see the different lines that one can find on baseball, for example, see MLB odds at various Las Vegas sportsbooks. We recommend that one puts money in at least three accounts to take advantage of the best pricing that the different books offer. This way, no matter where you are at in Nevada, one can shop around for the best odds available.
5. Live betting: Lastly, we absolutely love the ability to live bet games! In all sports, action moves way too quickly for live betting to ever be realistic in the traditional sense of sports betting (go back up and read our first reason for loving the sports betting app revolution). However, with the ability to bet at your fingertips, live betting becomes possible.
Before we continue, there are two quick notes. One, we have reviewed the CG Technology app and it doesn’t even come close to making the list. It is marred with crashes and a very poor design. Two, there have been rumors that Caesar’s will have an app ready by football season in 2017. If and when this occurs, then we will update this review.
Now, we move on to our list of top sports betting apps.
Top Nevada Sports Betting Apps
This list currently only contains the sports betting apps that we have reviewed.
Yet To Be Reviewed
There are a few apps available that we just haven’t gotten around to reviewing yet. The Circa app is likely the one with the most promise as it is a new sportsbook that is being run by some very knowledgeable people.
Links to Download: Atlantis Race & Sports for Android / Atlantis Race & Sports for iOS
Links to Download: Circa Sports for Android / Circa Sports for iOS
Links to Download: Golden Nugget Race & Sports for Android / Golden Nugget Race & Sports for iOS
#10 – Treasure Island Mobile Sports
The app (built by Miomni) is solid. The drawback is that Treasure Island doesn’t have a huge offering of sports at their book. To get this app, one must have a Treasure Island Player’s Club card (this is pretty standard). Yet another drawback is that betting through the app doesn’t get you any specials points or rewards with the Player’s Club. In other words, there is really no good reason to with this app over any of the better ones further down this list. On a positive side note, there is no better place than Treasure Island to play Blackjack on the strip!
Links to Download: TI Mobile Sports for Android / TI Mobile Sports for iOS
#9 – CG Technology
One can make the argument that this is a good app to have so that you have a variety in odds, but that is the only reason we would currently recommend it. We found this app to be frustrating buggy and not particularly user friendly. However, since our last review on this app there have been a lot of bug fixes that have made this app a lot more stable than before. If CG Technology can keep this trajectory in tact then they can move up this list come football season.
Links to Download: CG Sports for Android / CG Sports for iOS
#8 – PlayMGM
For the time being, the PlayMGM application has many more negatives then positives. We will start with the drawbacks. First, we absolutely can’t stand the initial home screen of the app. In every other sports betting app that we used, one simply has to type in their pin or password to log in to the device.
PlayMGM Home Screen
With the PlayMGM app, you must type your pin and then your date of birth every single time. Second, once inside the app, the home page interface is messy and convoluted (see picture to the right). We can’t really be sure what the app makers were thinking here. It seems like their attempt was to make the biggest games easy to find, but what you are left with is a hodgepodge of games all over the screen. This makes finding a game more difficult then if a simple interface was used. Third, and this isn’t really the fault of the app, the odds at MGM are the worst that you will find in Vegas. If anyone can find a sportsbook that takes a higher vig, then please send us a message and let us know. Last, the bets that are made do not tie in anyway to the MLife program.
On the positive side, the PlayMGM app does work very well. We have yet to experience any crashes, major hiccups, or any other type of drawback regarding the use of the app. PlayMGM also one of a few sports betting apps that features live betting! And with live betting, MGM pretty much knocks it out of the park with options on a lot of games and a seamless process to get those bets in quickly.
While this app certainly needs some work, we think that it is a pretty decent start for PlayMGM.
Links to Download: PlayMGM for Android / PlayMGM for iOS
#7 – Wynn
The app was built and is powered by Miomni Gaming which is a company that has built a few of the sportsbook apps for Nevada casinos. Their apps are typically very well done and the work they did with the Wynn did not disappoint.
As is a common theme that you will see in this blog, there isn’t too much disparity between the apps that were created by Miomni Gaming. Their structure and look is very consistent across the board and there are limited differences. With that said, the things that set the apps apart are generally in how the sportsbooks operate themselves. The Wynn doesn’t need much promoting as they are renowned as a wonderful property!
The signup at the property was pretty standard. One needs to fill out a bunch of forms and a W-9 and then wait about ten minutes while a customer service agents inputs all of the information into a computer. The first deposit is immediately deposited and the bettor is ready to go.
The app interface is solid and consistent. Like MGM though, the Wynn is a little bit slow to get their lines out for contests. Unlike MGM, however, the Wynn has competitive lines with a very low vig and a selection of sports that matches the best sportsbooks in Las Vegas.
Links to Download: Wynn Sports for Android / Wynn Sports for iOS
#6 – B Connected Sports
The B Connected Sports app is a very good app and is backed by Boyd Gaming, which has a bunch of casinos that are off the strip. The main draw to using this app is that Boyd Gaming often offers very competitive odds across a variety of sports. For baseball, they are generally one of the first books to get their lines out and they happen to be dime lines as well.
The app does tie to the B Connected rewards program although the way that bets translate to points is pretty confusing. More can be found about this conversion at the B Connected FAQ page.
Links to Download: B Connected Sports for Android / B Connected Sports for iOS
#5 – SouthPoint Sports (Formerly NV Sports)
SouthPoint Sports (formerly NV Sports) is the app that is backed by the legendary South Point Casino and the Rampart Casino in Summerlin. The first thing that we really like about the app is that it doesn’t look like all the others. The interface is simple and efficient.
Though the South Point Sports Book is open 24 hours a day, the sports app has more limited hours in the range of 9am to 11pm (though this varies by day and is subject to change). A good benefit to adding the NV Sports app to your arsenal is that they are in the upper-tier of sportsbooks in terms of line offerings. In other words, they have better odds than most sportsbooks and is thus a place you can get the most value.
Note that this app upgraded to a new platform from NV Sports. Users with the old app will have to switch over to the new one before placing any wagers.
Links to Download: NV Sports for Android / NV Sports for iOS
#4 – William Hill
A sportsbook based out of the United Kingdom, William Hill started putting their footprints in the U.S. over the last five years or so. They are a very reputable book and their brick-and-mortar business is well respected.
William Hill Betting Screen
The only real negative to William Hill is that it is a third-party sportsbook that does not tie to any casino’s rewards program. This isn’t a terribly huge drawback since a lot of the other apps reward the bettor through their player’s club.
We place the William Hill App at #4 for a few important reasons. To start, they will pay a free 10% promotion on any initial deposit up to $500. This comes with a 1x rollover, so if $500 is deposited then one will see their $50 bonus after they make their first $500 in bets. Second, the betting interface is very well designed and easy to use. One can see in the example to the right what the betting screen looks like for Major League Baseball. Third, William Hill places a close second to the Superbook in the amount of sports betting options that they have available. Lastly, and it’s the thing that really sets William Hill apart, is their wide range of event selection for live betting. This is, by far, the most impressive live betting platform that we reviewed in their depth, options and usability.
Links to Download: William Hill for Android / William Hill for iOS
#3 – Caesar’s Sports
Though Caesar’s was very late in the game in getting their app to market, they finally released the product in December of 2017. The app was done by Miomni Gaming and as mentioned before, there really isn’t much to distinguish this app from the others that were made by them. The one benefit that does set Caesar’s apart from the Wynn is that you do earn Reward Credits and Tier Credits as you would if you placed a bet in one of the Caesar’s property sportsbooks. The credits currently take about 48 hours to appear in your Total Rewards account, but Caesar’s is working on an update to make this happen in real-time. This app is still a work-in-progress, and for the time being, we will slot Caesar’s here in the 3rd spot.
Links to Download: Caesar’s Sports for Android / Caesar’s Sports for iOS
#2 – Westgate
Westgate Sports App
Westgate Baseball Menu
Frankly, narrowing down the top three was not an easy task as each of the next three apps can all make a case to be #1. The Superbook at the Westgate currently sits on top of the list for ourTop 5 Las Vegas Sportsbooksand their app provides all of the same odds that their brick-and-mortar business uses.
One of the biggest benefit of using the Westgate Superbook app is their breadth of options for betting. Just looking at baseball, one can see from the image on the right the options for alternate run lines, home runs, the Cy Young award, etc. As we write this review, we couldn’t find any other sportsbook apps that had these options to bet and this is only baseball! The Superbook also covers a wide variety of “Autos”, Australian Rules Football, and college baseball playoffs to name a few. Further, the Superbook typically has the lowest vig of all the sportsbooks, so there is nowhere you can go to get more value for your money. If all of this weren’t enough, the Superbook currently has the best rewards program going with every $3.30 bet earning a point in the Westgate Player’s Club. With every 100 points equaling a $1 in free stuff, some big bets can earn you a generous amount of freebies!
There are two drawbacks to using the Superbook app. One is that they seem to be somewhat limited in the number of events that one can live bet. Two, and this is a small one, is that we didn’t receive any bonus for signing up.
All said and done, we certainly think that this app needs to be added to your arsenal of sports betting apps!
Links to Download: Superbook for Android / Superbook for iOS
#1 – STN Sports
STN Sports is a part of the Stations Casino brand which owns and runs are variety of casinos that are located off the main strip in Las Vegas. As a side note, if you haven’t been to one of these casinos then we highly recommend checking them out. Across the board, these are most well-run casinos in Las Vegas and their machines have the most competitive odds in town. This app is also made by Miomni Gaming and, as we mentioned above, they do a very good job with their apps.
There are a variety of things that we love about this app. First, once your first bet is made, you are automatically given thirty dollars in free play to use in a Stations Casino. Second, this is one of only two sportsbook apps that currently ties into the rewards program (which can be found at SCLV). For every dollar bet on sports, the bettor gets one point and one credit on their player’s club card. Right now, 100 points equal a dollar, and all of this can be used for free play, dining or other amenities at the casinos. This benefit was the deciding factor in placing STN Sports just ahead of the Superbook app.
The one drawback for STN Sports is their lack of live betting on most events, but this is really the only downside to the STN Sports app. Overall, it should be obvious that we give this one very high marks as it comes in at #1 on our list.
Links to Download: StationsSports for Android / StationsSports for iOS
Updates
10/2/2019- A variety of movers on our top apps list.
12/6/2018- Added a few notes on the TI Mobile Sports app and Westgate app.
4/23/2018- Added a review of the NV Sports app and B Connected Sports app. Made a few notes on some improvements on the other apps.
1/30/2018- Reviewed the Caesar’s Sports app and the Treasure Island Sports app. Caesar’s jumps to #4.
7/18/2017- Reviewed the Wynn Sports app and CG Technology. Inserted Wynn Sports at #4 and dropped PlayMGM to #5.
6/16/2017- Original article posting.
