Online sports betting in Maine

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Betting on sports is one of the world’s most exciting leisure activities. In fact, thanks to its popularity in the United States, thousands of people sign-up with various bookies to wager on their favorite sports and teams.

The Maine state sports lovers for instance can wager on the Mariners, Celtics, Nordiques, the Portland Sea Dogs, or the NCAA’s Black Bears, among others. However, there are thousands of betting operators, and it’s important to narrow down your list to a few reputable ones. Read through the article to get more insights into online sports betting in Maine.

Best online sports betting sites in Maine

DraftKings Maine Best betting site for new punters
FanDuel Maine Best betting site for mobile wagering
PointsBet Maine Best betting site for live wagering
BetRivers Maine Best betting site for welcome bonuses

In the endless list of Maine sportsbooks, there are a few that strive to offer the best betting experience. They give the most attractive bonuses and offers, convenient payment methods, wide market coverage, clean interfaces, sleek ME betting apps, and the best customer service. Besides, they all have an undisputable reputation. Read on to find out more about the best betting site in Maine.

FanDuel Maine

FanDuel Maine is one of the online sports betting pioneers in the country that offers the leading mobile betting app and clean user interface. Also, you’ll find the famous No Sweat First Bet welcome offer that beats the industry’s standard, a great live betting selection, and an array of betting markets. In fact, the name FanDuel is synonymous with everyone who’s ever had hands-on Daily Fantasy Sports.

The welcome offer is a risk-free bet or bet insurance that guarantees a stake return to a certain amount if your first qualifying bet loses. So, you can maximize your first bet by choosing the most competitive odds. Other bonuses include parlay and loyalty bonuses. The interface has all the features well-arranged for easy navigation. Popular options include major leagues, odds boosts, promotions, live sports betting, popular, and all sports tabs. The market selection includes the major sports (basketball, hockey, football, soccer, and baseball) and other sports including Aussie Rules, Boxing, tennis, snooker, rugby, motorsports, darts, cycling, and cricket.

📋 Betting site: FanDuel Maine
🏅 Expected bonus: 100$ No Sweat Bet
📱 Mobile app: Yes
📅 Live in Maine: No

BetRivers Maine

With a reputation for quick payouts, a great desktop site, and attractive bonuses, BetRivers Maine is equally a betting site of choice in Maine. Here, bettors can also enjoy the massive match deposit bonus, top-notch security, versatile mobile app, responsive customer support, and an array of betting markets and options.

The mobile app is available on both Google Play Store and Apple Store thus, a few clicks will help you get the app running. Besides, the process of signing up is straightforward and requires you to give your personal and account details only. After signing-up, you get access to all features which are optimized to fit all the mobile screen sizes. Some bonuses to claim to include the newcomers’ risk-free bets, loyalty bonuses, rewards programs, and seasonal promos and bonuses.

📋 Betting site: BetRivers Maine
🏅 Expected bonus: Up to 150$ deposit bonus
📱 Mobile app: Yes
📅 Live in Maine: No

DraftKings Maine

This is another futuristic betting site that has proven to be the industry’s leader by doing everything well. For heavy app users, DraftKings’ modern app offers more than betting. Its live-streaming feature covers a great number of sports, and the betting carousel personalizes the betting experience. And the Player Limits help players to bet responsibly by limiting their betting behaviors.

Upon visiting the site or opening the mobile app of DraftKings Maine, you’ll access every feature of the bookie on its well-organized home page. All sports sections consist of every sport you can think of and the markets for such sports are very many. For example, basketball, bandy, Aussie Rules, soccer, tennis, motorsports, snooker, surfing, volleyball, rugby, golf, boxing, cricket, cycling, darts, football, and hockey, among others. The same-game parlays live betting, and early cash-outs are also available to sweeten your betting experience on DraftKings.

📋 Betting site: DraftKings Maine
🏅 Expected bonus: 20$ no deposit bonus
📱 Mobile app: Yes
📅 Live in Maine: No

PointsBet Maine

For sports betting enthusiasts searching for an innovative bookie, PointsBet Maine is a great choice. Its flagship, PointsBetting ensures that the more your bet wins, the more you profit. Apart from this, PointsBet offers up to double the industry’s standard bonuses to newcomers, stellar market coverage, and a superior quality mobile betting app.

Getting your account ready with PointsBet is straightforward as you only need to give your personal and account details. After that, you can grab the risk-free bets offer and start betting. Other bonuses include recurring promotions, referral bonuses, rewards programs, and parlay bonuses. In the sports section, you’ll find a number of markets to choose from. For example, soccer, hockey, basketball, football, baseball, cricket, tennis, and darts, among others. Besides, there are numerous payment methods, and bet types to choose from. Remember that there’s always someone at the back of the screen ready to help you anywhere you need help.

📋 Betting site: PointsBet Maine
🏅 Expected bonus: 99$ risk-free bet
📱 Mobile app: Yes
📅 Live in Maine: No

No, online sports betting is not legal in Maine. However, land-based sports betting at a tribal casino is. The state’s legislators signed into law this regulated-wagering measure that allows for in-person betting at casinos and off-track betting facilities on May 2, 2022.

Besides, it offers internet-based betting at the federally recognized Native American tribes who can each partner with mobile betting operators. With such a huge stride, there’s hope that Maine could soon join the growing list of states with legal online sports betting in the country.

How to create an account for online sports betting in ME

Signing up for an account with an online betting site in Maine is a straightforward process, and you can make your first deposit within no time. The major requirements are your personal info and account details. Remember to provide your correct personal details because failure to verify any of them means you’ll be denied an account.

Follow the steps below to get started with any betting site:

  1. Choose a Maine betting site from our list: Our best picks offer flawless and the most entertaining sports betting experience. So, choosing any of them guarantees you the best welcome offers and other bonuses, a personalized betting experience, the leading sports betting app, and simple payment options, among others.
  2. Find a preferred payment method: These include payment cards (credit and debit cards), online banking, electronic checks, e-wallets, PayNearMe, Play+, and cash payments. With your favorite payment method, you can begin the registration process by clicking the Sign-Up, Join Us, Get Started, or a related button.
  3. Enter your personal details that are requested: Enter your username, email address, password, SSN, date of birth, full name, home address, and mobile number. After filling in the account and personal details, you can submit the application for verification. Note that some apps like the DraftKings sportsbook app require that you download a Geocomply app to verify your location.
  4. Make a real money deposit. Upon getting the account confirmation email, you can log in to the betting site, go to the deposit section and choose your method of money transfer. Then follow the procedure given and select the amount you wish to deposit and complete the process.
  5. Start betting online. The major sports are always on the home page alongside their top bet types. So, you can choose a sport, select a bet type, enter an amount, and confirm your first bet.

Different types of bets that you can place online in Maine

The best betting site allows bettors to wager on almost every occurrence that may be observed in a sporting event. Fortunately, Maine sports betting enthusiasts get an extensive selection of bets to choose from. Here, one can bet on a league or championship winner even before the league begins, a match winner before the match starts, or other outcomes even as things unfold in real-time. Below are the most competitive bet types you can choose from online gambling sites in Maine.

  • Totals: This is a bet on the total number of goals or points that both teams will combine to score; also known as over/under bets. The betting site sets limits of scores and bettors to predict whether the scores will go over or under the limits. For example, a betting site sets over/under 52 bets in an NBA match. If you choose over 52, the final total score should be at least 53 for your bet to win. But if you go for the under 52 bets, the final score must not go beyond 51 for the bet to win.
  • Point Spread: Popular with basketball and football, point spread is a wager on how many points a team will lose or win by. The points, in this case, are basketball and football scores. For baseball, they’re called the runs and goals for soccer and hockey. Here, the oddsmakers set a margin of victory for a particular favorite team and the bettor predicts whether it will or will not win by that margin. And for the bet to win, the team has to win by points, goals, or runs surpassing the set limit. Meanwhile, a bet on the underdog wins when they win or lose by a margin not more than that set for the favorite bet.
  • Parlay bets: This is a type of bet whereby a bettor chooses more than one bet and combines them into one huge wager also called an accumulator. You can even choose different bet types for each sport. So, players can include as many games as they wish because there’s no limit on the number of bets in a parlay wager. And the odds are multiplied by each other, thus the potential wins increase by a large margin. Besides, some bookies like FanDuel and DraftKings offer odds boosts and money-back bonuses for parlay bets. However, all the pics must win for the parlay bet to win.
  • Teasers: To improve the betting flexibility, Maine betting sites allow their bettors to change the point spread bets for a game in a parlay bet to make it easier for the bet to win. In exchange, the payout is lowered by the margin equal to the reduced odds. The two-team, six-point football teaser is the most common type of bet. Here, the player can adjust the two games’ point spread, but the payouts will be less if the bet wins. Nevertheless, both teams must cover the new point spread for the bet to win.
  • Moneyline bets: As the basic type of wager in sports betting, a Moneyline bet is a wager on which team will win a game. There’s no point spread or any other condition. The Moneyline bet always comes with two or three outcomes depending on the sport. Boxing/MMA and soccer (European football) may have the third ‘draw’ option in which there’s no winner or loser. In such sports, some sportsbooks like DraftKings may offer the third option as a draw on its Moneyline bet or give the ‘Draw no Bet’ whereby only the winning team or player can be chosen but not a draw.
  • Futures: These are bets on things that will take a longer time to determine the results. For example, which team will win the Super Bowl or March Madness, the MVP awards, the Stanley Cup or College Football Playoff, World Series, and the NBA Championship winner. One advantage of the bet type is that you can place it at any time of the season. Moreover, it offers the most competitive odds, unlike other bets. It’s advisable that you place the bet at the beginning of the season to get the best odds.
  • Live betting: As one of the most entertaining bet types, live betting is wagering on sports as the teams play in real time. Many of the leading betting sites in Maine have a dedicated section for live betting. For example, DraftKings, and BetRivers give a live betting section with almost all the live sports available. And you can place any type of bet depending on the match dynamics at that time.

What kind of sports can I bet on in Maine?

Players in Maine can wager on every sport they can think of thanks to the array of sportsbooks and extensive selection of sports available. These include the leading leagues globally and those within the state. Let’s have a look at some of the leading sports to choose from the top betting sites in the state.

  • Golf: With many golf tournaments throughout the year, players suffer no shortage of golf markets in the state. Some of its bet types include golf tournament winner betting, hole-in-one betting, and match play betting, among others. Besides, Maine has some of the best golf players to root for. Gregg Baker, Charlie Austin, Max Arsenault, Connor Albert, and Kellen Adickies are just a few of them.
  • Football: This is one of the biggest gaming activities in the country and pro football brings the biggest amount of overall handle. The Black Bears, Bates Bobcats, Husson Eagles, and Maritime Academy Mariners have the biggest following in the state. Besides, they offer the best-betting markets.
  • Soccer: While soccer is the world’s most popular sport with over 4 billion fans, it’s still picking up steam in the country. Many professional soccer teams are taking the center stage and soccer athletes are taking it very seriously. Soccer betting is also growing and the sportsbooks in Maine are offering the best soccer betting experience. For instance, you’ll find the most competitive odds for the Maine Tide and GPS Portland Phoenix matches.
  • Hockey: Ranking fourth in the top sports, hockey is full entertainment, especially because of its end-to-end action. Betting on it also adds to the thrill and can potentially increase your bankroll. The Mariners, Black Bears, Nordiques, and Pirates form some best hockey picks that you can root for.
  • Baseball: With a long season and many games to bet on, baseball betting is even more popular than NFL betting. MLB alone is a 162-game bumper season with a total of 2,340 regular season matches. Besides, there are postseason games also available for betting. The baseball bets include Moneyline, props, run lines, and totals. And the teams to look out for in Maine state are the Black Bears, Portland Blue Sox, Bangor Lumberjacks, and the Portland Sea Dogs.
  • Basketball (NBA and NCAA): This is also one of the most followed sports countrywide and has a nice selection of games throughout the year. The Maine Celtics, Huskies, and Bates Bobcats represent the state’s favorite basketball teams and their markets are always available in sportsbooks whenever they participate. Some basketball bet types include Moneyline, futures, spreads, and parlays, among others.
  • Tennis: The Maine state online betting sites offers markets for major tennis organizations including the Olympics, ITF, WTA, and ATP. Here, players can place prop bets, futures, totals, spread, and money-line bets on any tennis action. And Ezra LeMole, Kennebunk Sophomore, George Cutone, Greely Senior, and Leif Boddie are some Maine state players you can count on.
  • MMA: This is one of the most popular full-contact fighting sports worldwide with the UFC registering a very impressive viewership throughout the past decade. Maine has not been left behind and stars like Tim Sylvia, Marcus Davis, and Emily Kagan have taken the stage by storm. Currently, the sport has a massive following and bookies offer the best MMA odds every time an event occurs.
  • Auto racing: For as long as the automobile has existed, there has been auto racing. And adrenaline junkies know the excellent cocktail that betting and auto racing can be. Luckily, the Maine state players can wager on Formula 1, NASCAR, or IndyCar, among others. Here, they can place on any of their own; Lomer Pelletier, Dick Fowler, Ricky Craven, Billy Clark, Dale Chadbourne, or Bob Bailey.

Different types of bonuses you can get on Maine sports betting sites

Maine’s leading betting sites always aim at offering an unforgettable betting experience. And one of the ways to do that is to give the most attractive bonuses to both new and existing players.

The new players get a welcome package that comes with free bets, no deposit bonus, risk-free bets, deposit bonus, or other kinds of offers. The existing players also get some seasonal free bets and deposit bonuses with sites like PointsBet. Here are descriptions for each of the most popular sportsbook bonuses in Maine:

  • No deposit bonus: This is a bonus amount offered just after you register an account with a bookie. Upon getting a confirmation that your account is ready, you can log into your account and claim the no deposit bonus without making any initial deposits.
  • Deposit match bonus: As the name goes, this is the bonus players get after making certain deposits, especially the first deposits. The bookie sets the minimum deposits that you have to transfer to qualify for the bonus. Additionally, the bonus is given to a certain maximum amount.
  • Free bets: These are site coupons or free credits that you get upon meeting the qualifying requirements. For example, making a certain first deposit amount may make one eligible for free bets. But you can’t split the free bets.
  • Risk-free bets: Acting as betting insurance, these are bonuses given after your qualifying bet loses. Here, the betting sites allow you to bet with your money and offer to return your stake to a certain amount when you lose.

Land-based sports betting in ME

Sports betting lovers in Maine can visit one of the two land-based sports betting locations to enjoy in-person betting. Here, they can also bet online on sports but within the casino premises because betting has been restricted to the locations. These are;

  • Oxford casino: Located at 777 Casino Way, Oxford, the casino occupies a large area (2,500M square). It is a four-story building with 107 rooms, 970 slot machines, and 28 table games. So, you can visit the place and enjoy betting on sports.
  • Hollywood slots Hotel & Raceway: Owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties and operated by Penn Entertainment, the location is bliss for sports betting lovers and race betting enthusiasts. It features a hotel and rooms available for your stay to be a remarkable one. You can visit it at 500 Main St, Bangor, ME 04401.

The latest news on Maine sports betting

Although retail sports betting went live in Maine recently, a lot has been going on since the strike down of PASPA in 2018. Majorly, the state’s lawmakers have since been fighting to legalize sports betting. For instance, LD 553 which was vetoed by Gov. Janet Mills in 2020 aimed at legalizing sports betting as early as 2021. But the fight over the same stalled in July 2021 after the closure of the legislative session.

Common payment methods at Maine betting sites

Maine state players get the industry’s leading payment methods from the best sportsbooks operating in the state. These range from the common payment cards, to the new electronic wallets that guarantee quick transfers and security. Here are descriptions for each of the common deposit and withdrawal options you can choose.

  • Online banking: This is the most recommended payment method that lets you make deposits and withdrawals with a few clicks. You only need to link the online betting site account to your bank account and make the transactions anytime you wish. It is available in almost all the sportsbooks in Maine state.
  • PayPal: As one of the electronic wallets, PayPal is safe and allows for quick transactions with your sports betting site. You only have to create a PayPal account, link it to your bank, and load it before making transactions with your sportsbook.
  • Skrill: This is another e-wallet that promises security and low transaction charges. Just create a Skrill account, link it with your bank and start the transactions. Besides, it can serve as your betting bankroll.
  • PayNearMe: Combining both cash and electronic payments, PayNearMe allows you to make cash deposits to your betting site account without giving out your banking details. Players visit any participating store with cash and complete instant deposits without visiting their banks.
  • Visa: This is the leading credit and debit card provider that offer secure transactions to online merchants like sportsbooks. With Visa, you can make direct transactions from your bank account into your etting site account within no time.
  • Mastercard: Second, after Visa, Mastercard also allows fast and simple transactions with merchants. The charges are very friendly and the whole system is very secure. However, players can’t make withdrawals via Mastercard.

FAQ

When will online sports betting become legal in ME?

No date has been given yet to when sports betting will be legalized in Maine. Betting at retail locations was legalized recently in the state. Also, lawmakers are drafting laws that may soon lead to the full legalization of sports betting. So, there is a glimmer of hope that bettors will soon get the opportunity to wager on sports anywhere in the state.

What is the difference between a legal betting site in Maine and an offshore betting site?

A legal betting site is one that has an operational license and is regulated by the Maine Gambling Control Unit. Meanwhile, an offshore betting site is one that lacks the provisions to operate within the state but purposes to accept bets from Maine state players. These are risky betting sites to bet on because you do not get any security guarantee. Besides, you can't raise a complaint to any authority in the state in case of a conflict.

What is the minimum age for betting online in Maine?

To be able to bet online in Maine, you must be 21 years old. Make sure you give your correct personal details in the sign-up stage to avoid issues.