Being one of the most popular digital wallets in the country, PayPal has been widely embraced by online sportsbooks. Most legitimate online sportsbooks include the service as an option for payouts and deposits. In fact, almost every sportsbook we have listed on our site features PayPal support.

PayPal Sportsbooks

• PointsBet - Live in Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, and West Virginia
• Bet365 - Bet now in New Jersey
• Unibet - Available in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Virginia, Iowa, and Arizona
• 888 Sport - Live in New Jersey
• FanDuel Sportsbook - Available in AZ, CO, IL, IN, IA, MI, NH, NJ, PA, TN, VA, and WV
• DraftKings Sportsbook - Betting available in AZ, CO, IL, IN, IA, MI, NH, NJ, PA, TN, VA, WV
• Caesars Sportsbook - Live in AZ, CO, IL, IN, IA, MI, NJ, TN, VA, and WV
• BetMGM - Available in AZ, CO, IN, IA, MI, NJ, PA, TN, VA, WV, and WY
• FOX Bet - Play now in Colorado, Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania
• Barstool Sportsbook - Online in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania
• BetRivers - Now live in CO, IL, IN, IA, MI, PA, VA, WV

You may be asking yourself - why should I use PayPal instead of my credit card or directly through my bank account? Here's why:

1. Speed - Once you’ve linked your bank account, making online transactions is seamless. You can make your money move at the drop of a hat. In sports betting, speed is paramount, so choosing an efficient way to deposit and withdraw your money is so important.
2. Security - PayPal holds itself to incredibly high security standards. Millions of people have entrusted the e-wallet with their information and PayPal doesn’t take this responsibility lightly. For American sports bettors, the messy history of legal online sports betting can lead to some distrust. If you’ve been burned before by a less-than-reputable site or are a newbie practicing some healthy skepticism, PayPal can be a trusted middleman between an online sportsbook and your bank account.
3. Convenience - Completing online transactions using PayPal is quick and painless. Provided you have already linked your bank account, all you have to do to complete a transaction is enter your password. No more getting up from your desk and looking for your wallet to enter a ridiculously long card number.

Unfortunately, online sports betting has a very messy legal history here in the States.

Before the days of legal online sports betting, you had to turn to sketchy offshore sites. These sites took forever to process your money and weren’t always responsible with your information.

Even with the overturn of PASPA in 2018, many are still wary of providing online sportsbooks with their bank account or credit card information. With legal online sports betting still in its infancy, you have the right to be skeptical.

Although all of the sites listed here at Sportsbooks Online are perfectly safe and legal, no one would blame you for taking an extra step to protect yourself.

One way to help protect your information is to add an intermediary to process your sportsbook transactions. A middleman of sorts to help add an extra layer of protection.

If you’re looking for a middleman to add an extra layer of security to your sports betting experience, PayPal is the payment option for you.

PayPal strives to make your sportsbook payment experiences as quick and efficient as possible.

The first thing you have to do is sign up for a PayPal account. Odds are, you already have one, so we’ll skip the step-by-step breakdown of this process.

The big thing here is to make sure you link your bank account directly to your PayPal instead of using your credit or debit card for PayPal transactions. This will prevent you from incurring fees when depositing into your sportsbook.

Once you have your PayPal account established, you can go ahead and link it to your sportsbook. From there, you can easily deposit into your sportsbook account using your PayPal account that has been linked to your bank account or debit/credit card.

Each sportsbook has its own processing time for withdrawals. Most sportsbooks strive to get users their cash as quickly as possible - usually, sportsbook payouts are complete with 3 business days.

However, PayPal can actually speed this process up a bit. Some sportsbooks can process PayPal payouts within 1 business day. Since everything is done digitally, things can move a little faster. PointsBet can even process PayPal withdrawals within 30 minutes.

There can be a small price to pay for this convenience, however. Since PayPal is acting as a middleman, the added step of having to withdraw from your PayPal wallet to your bank account can be a hurdle.

Of course, this money is still in your account, so if you want to use your PayPal balance on another site or to send money to a friend, there’s no problem.

If you withdraw from your PayPal account using a credit or debit card your money will take 2-3 days to appear in your account.

But remember earlier when we mentioned that linking your bank account directly to PayPal was the smart way to avoid fees? Another good reason to link your bank account directly to PayPal is to avoid processing times.

If you withdraw from PayPal directly to your bank account you can have your money in as fast as 30 minutes. It doesn’t get much faster than that!

While we're a big fan of betting with PayPal, there are a few scenarios where PayPal may not be your cup of tea.

• Speed - While PayPal is fast for deposits and withdrawals, it does add in an extra step when taking money out of your betting account. If you're in a situation where you need your cash fast, adding so much as an extra day can be a bit of a detriment. In that case, you may be better off using a bank transfer directly instead of betting with PayPal. Sites like PointsBet mitigate this by offering especially quick PayPal payouts but if your sportsbook doesn't do this.
• Don't Have an Account - One of the reasons we love betting sites with PayPal is because of the convenience of depositing and withdrawing. Linking your PayPal to your sportsbook is a relatively straightforward process, and then you don't have to worry about credit cards or routing numbers. Of course, it's not so convenient if you have to go out of your way to create a PayPal account! It's nice to have, but it's certainly not a necessity to bet on sports.

If you're not interested in PayPal sports betting, there are plenty of other sportsbook payment options for you to explore.

Maybe you don’t want to use PayPal but you still want to utilize an e-wallet to facilitate your online sportsbook transactions. Another digital wallet that’s gaining traction in the world of online sports betting is Skrill.

Founded in the UK, Skrill has been operational in the United States since 2020. Functionally similar to PayPal, Skrill can also be used as a middleman between your baking information and your sportsbook. While still relatively new to American audiences, Skrill is trusted abroad and will only continue to grow as a PayPal alternative.

Offered by a growing list of online sportsbooks, Skrill is here to stay in the world of online sports betting.

Skrill Betting Sites

• Bet365 - $10 minimum deposit and withdrawal
• Caesars Sportsbook - no minimum on payouts and deposits using Skrill
• BetMGM - deposits with Skrill can take up to 24 hours to process
  
• FOX Bet - $10 minimums on deposits & withdrawals

Unfortunately, this digital wallet isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. There is a mandatory $5.50 withdrawal fee when taking out of your Skrill account. So if you’re taking $50 out of your account, Skrill is taking over 10% off the top. In our opinion, this is a bit too hefty of a fee to pay. Sure, PayPal’s credit card fee can really add up on big withdrawals, but at least that fee is avoidable. Skrill’s fee is mandatory and really penalizes you for making smaller withdrawals.

The fee structure gives PayPal a clear advantage in our minds, but if you’re only planning on withdrawing large sums and are dead set against PayPal, Skrill is still a great alternative.

PayPal has a dominant grip on electronic payments for sports betting. If you're looking for other ways to pay electronically, your hands are a bit tied.

Bitcoin Betting Sites

Currently, the sportsbooks listed on our site do not accept cryptocurrencies of any form. That means no Ethereum, Dogecoin, and not even Bitcoin.

Crypto is still new, volatile, and misunderstood, so it may take a while before they gain mainstream acceptance on our sportsbooks.

While PayPal can provide a bit of a workaround to this issue since you can invest in cryptos on your PayPal app, that still adds an extra step between your Bitcoin wallet and your sportsbook.

In the future, we hope to see this policy changed to give users a little more freedom with their payments.

Venmo, Google Pay, and Apple Pay

These popular e-wallets are also not accepted on sportsbooks.

Venmo is actually owned by PayPal and specializes mainly in person-to-person transactions, so it makes some sense that they would stay out of PayPal's lane.

On the other hand, Apple and Google Pay are simply missing out. With how quickly online sports betting has grown in acceptance and exposure in recent years, we hope Apple and Google will step up and be available for use on these platforms sooner rather than later.