Believe it or not, Mississippi was one of the first states to jump into the world of online sports betting following PASPA changes. This might have taken place in 2018, but looking back at the important dates, Mississippi actually changed its own in-state sports betting laws prior to this. In 2017, Mississippi state officials already changed laws that prohibited any kind of sports betting in Mississippi. However, while they changed these in-state laws, federal law still prevented sports betting from being allowed in the state.
In 2018, this all changed, and once PASPA was overturned by the US Supreme Court Mississippi witnessed a flood of applications coming in for betting licenses. That’s why sports betting officially went live in Mississippi in August 2018, and retail sportsbooks started to pop up all over the state as the months progressed. With this said, it wasn’t until September 2021 before we witnessed the first Mississippi online sports betting platforms emerge. This kicked off with BetMGM, but other names like DraftKings, FanDuel, and Caesars soon joined the party.
Here’s where it gets interesting. While these brands (among others) do have online betting platforms, they aren’t actually accessible unless you are based at their physical casino sites. We know it seems a little crazy, but those are the current laws. And despite several applications for Mississippi state officials to relax this rule and allow mobile betting without such restrictions, nothing has yet changed on the issue.
Best Mississippi online sports betting sites for
Online sports betting Mississippi - latest news
Mississippi sports betting reaches $66.5 million in January
Players in Mississippi wagered a total of $66.5 million on sports in January, down slightly year-on-year, while monthly revenue also declined.
The state’s handle was down 0.9% from $67.1m in January of 2021, though the January total was up 17.1% month-on-month from $56.8m recorded in December of last year.
Revenue for the month was also down 28.6% year-on-year from $9.1m to $6.5m, but this was more than double the amount posted in the final month of 2021 when the state reported $3.2m in revenue for December.
Sportsbooks in Mississippi turned over $66,523,295 in sports betting handle in January 2022, good for $6,521,389 in revenue for a 9.8% win rate.
Date: March 9, 2022
Source: iGaming Business
August 2018 was the month that everything changed in Mississippi for sports betting. Until then, if you asked the question, ‘is sports betting legal in Mississippi’, the answer would have been a profound no. But for the last three years, sports betting has been a perfectly legal activity in Mississippi, mainly at retail locations around the state. While at these retail locations, you can make bets through their respective online sites, but these are ‘geofenced’ and cannot be accessed if not within that specific casino.
These restrictions have prevented the same surge in sports betting handles for Mississippi compared with other states. However, the state has still seen decent growth year on year since the activity was legalized in 2018. And in October 2021, Mississippi smashed through previous records to post the biggest handle taken for a single month since 2019. The figures showed that more than million was wagered on sporting events for this month - more than 35% higher than any other month to date!
Prior to this, the biggest news regarding Mississippi sports betting was the official launch of the BetMGM app in September 2021. These guys were the first to introduce a mobile app instead of just a mobile site, although it must still be used while at BetMGM’s physical casino partner.
Is online sports betting legal in Mississippi?
Is sports betting legal in Mississippi? Yes. Is online betting legal in Mississippi? Yes, but things are still incredibly restricted. This is the main difference between retail and online betting right now. Without question, retail sports betting is 100% legal and approved by law in this state. This has been the case since August 2018, but a full rollout of online sports betting hasn’t really materialized. The reason for this is that mobile betting or online betting, in general, isn’t permitted just anywhere in the state.
Punters must be located at the physical casinos before making any mobile sports bets, which completely removes the flexibility element of mobile sports betting. This is also a major reason why the selection of MS sports betting platforms is significantly less than the number of betting sites in other states. So in conclusion, the answer is yes, but you are still bound by the restrictions concerning where you are located.
Where to bet on sports in Mississippi?
Technically speaking, both MS online sports betting and retail betting are allowed in this state. However, retail sports betting is by far the most dominant way to place wagers. There are more than 20 physical casinos with an approved sportsbook in Mississippi (almost 30 in fact), compared with just one official sports betting app (BetMGM). Let us detail these areas in more depth right now:
- Retail sportsbooks
To be specific, Mississippi has 29 retail sportsbooks, at the time of writing. This could well increase in the future, but for now, this still shows a pretty considerable selection of physical casinos. And since these aren’t all based in one location, residents of Mississippi shouldn’t be impossibly far away from such locations to where this becomes an unfeasible avenue. As you now also know, it’s still a requirement for punters to place online bets while located at one of these casinos too.
- Online sites
Online sportsbooks do exist in Mississippi, but they can only be visited when you are physically at one of the 29 retail sportsbooks. This means that yes, you can indeed make bets through mobile, but it is by no means as convenient as it is in other states. That’s actually a significant reason as to why there are only a handful of online betting sites available in Mississippi right now.
Online sportsbooks available now in Mississippi
Thanks to the obscurity relating to MS online sports betting, there is understandably a bit of confusion surrounding placing online wagers. As the laws dictate, online sports bets can be made, but one must be located at a physical casino before the online wager can be placed. We did say it was obscure! But with that said, technically speaking, the following sportsbooks are live in Mississippi:
BetMGM Sportsbook
BetMGM has stolen many headlines recently concerning Mississippi online sports betting, and there is one specific reason for this. BetMGM launched the very first Mississippi sports betting app, which can be installed on both Android and iOS devices. With that said, BetMGM is still bound by the same restrictions as all other sites listed here. This restriction is that while you can download the app from anywhere, it can only be used when based at one of the approved partner locations - Beau Rivage Resort and Casino or Gold Strike Casino Resort.
BetAmerica / Twinspires Sportsbook
BetAmerica / Twinspires is live in Mississippi thanks to a partnership with Riverwalk Casino Hotel. Like all of the live sportsbooks we are about to mention here, you must be based at the Riverwalk Casino Hotel to make an online wager. Of course, since you must be at that location, you can also make an in-person bet - the choice is yours. But once you do check out the app, you will notice a bunch of markets for leagues including the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, and others.
A key stand out here is that the app supports a huge number of events for horse racing too, which isn’t seen elsewhere.
Caesars Sportsbook
Caesars is a mammoth betting brand, as you may already know. And a key advantage of Caesars over other sites is that Caesars has partnership deals with a bunch of casinos. So technically speaking, Caesars is more accessible than others. Although you do still need to be present in one of the approved partner locations before you can make an online wager. Some of the major names to note here include Harrah’s, Horseshoe Tunica, Palace Casino, and Island View Resort, among many others.
Caesars tends to have a nice selection of boosted odds and free bets for top events too, which adds to the value of choosing this site.
FanDuel Sportsbook
Huge sports betting selections, coverage for 10+ major leagues from around the world, and awesome reload bonuses for existing customers - that’s what you get when betting at FanDuel. These guys allow you to make online wagers while located at IP Casino Resort or Sam’s Town Hotel, as these are the physical casinos that have partnered with FanDuel. And after visiting the mobile site, you can make pre-match wagers, live wagers, futures, and so much more.
FanDuel even supports streaming for various sports, although since you must be at a physical casino anyway, you can just watch certain games on TV!
Golden Nugget Sportsbook
Golden Nugget is live in Mississippi thanks to a partnership with a casino that operates under the same umbrella - Golden Nugget Biloxi Hotel and Casino. The mobile site that these guys have is stylish, sophisticated, and customizable. You can choose your favorite sports, outline set wagers, and bet on exclusive markets for a range of sports. The Golden Nugget Sportsbook also lets you place cross-sport parlays, which can lead to huge potential returns. The odds are reasonably competitive compared with other Mississippi sports betting sites too.
DraftKings Sportsbook
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There is just one physical location where you can engage in mobile betting with the DraftKings Sportsbook. That location is the Scarlet Pearl Casino Resort. So if you are there, you can benefit from one of the top betting platforms in the state. The DraftKings site is just awesome, with thousands of events to bet on each week, enhanced odds, live betting, and weekly bonuses. Then again, would you expect anything less from one of the biggest names in US betting?
What about the legal online sports betting apps?
MS sports betting apps are a bit of a gray area, as you’ve already seen in the information above. They do exist, but officially, only BetMGM has one that players can download while on the premises of a BetMGM partner site. This is interesting as other online sites that are live in Mississippi also have mobile apps in other states, yet they do not have the app ready to install for Mississippi punters. A large contributor for this being the state of play is due to the geo-restriction terms outlined in the laws for MS online sports betting.
And just to clarify, the only sports betting app that can be downloaded right now is BetMGM. So if you are planning on using BetMGM, you are good to go. But for all others, you must place your online bets through the mobile site, and this is only possible while you are inside the walls of a physical casino. With this said, as the laws surrounding mobile betting continue to be addressed, we firmly expect that more mobile apps will become available to install in the future.
Mississippi online sports betting sites that could be launching soon
It’s difficult to identify which sites will launch in Mississippi in the near future as the state still has the rather annoying restriction surrounding mobile betting. This has prevented many larger brands from launching in Mississippi already. But since legislation on this could be changing in early 2022, Mississippi may start to look more appealing for some bigger brands. On that note, we believe that these are the sites that could emerge in 2022:
PointsBet
PointsBet has appeared all over North America in recent times. This site has a nice offering for spread betting, but it does have fixed odds betting too. And looking at the offerings that PointsBet has for other states, it has a welcome offer of up to ,000 for new customers. Without question, if this platform launched in Mississippi, punters would rush to sign up.
Unibet
Much like PointsBet, Unibet has made quite a push to expand across the USA. Unibet has been seen in a number of states to date, and these guys are rumored to be setting up partnerships with Mississippi casinos as we speak. Nothing has been publicly announced, but then again, Unibet has a history of striking when none of us expect them. Unibet is a fantastic site for promotions and great odds too, at least from what we can see on their live site within other states.
Bet365
Bet365 is another site that has come to the US from overseas. These guys are a beast over in Europe, entertaining millions of punters on a weekly basis. Bet365 has a stylish desktop site and a terrific mobile app, with the latter being a key reason that modern-day punters register with them in the first place. Should mobile betting restrictions be relaxed, we have a feeling that bet365 would not hesitate to jump in.
Other things you should know about online sports betting Mississippi sites
Opening a new sports betting account in Mississippi
In order to legally open a sports betting account at any Mississippi online sportsbook, you must be an MS resident and be over the age of 21. These are standard restrictions seen in other states too, although Mississippi is a little different. While other states let you download an app and register within minutes, this is not the case in Mississippi. Instead, you must head to a physical casino and then complete the sign-up process from your respective location. That’s because the MS sports betting platforms can only be accessed once you head to a casino.
Of course, these registration forms require you to provide a few bits of personal information to get yourself set up too. This includes details of your MS address and your date of birth, as well as your SSN. You must also create your sign-in details, but that’s pretty much all you have to do. However, as previously stressed, you cannot then sign in and place wagers from anywhere in the state. You must still comply with the geo-restriction tools in place, which can get a little tedious.
What kind of welcome bonus can you get with a Mississippi sports betting operator?
Since Mississippi sports betting sites are definitely less accessible than they are in other states, you won’t benefit from a pool of enticing welcome bonuses. In fact, there is just one platform that serves up a sign-up offer at the time of writing. This site is BetMGM, which is currently offering a welcome bonus of ,000 in the form of a risk-free bet. Therefore, this is the only site we can recommend that you join if you are craving a sign-up bonus. With this said, as and when mobile betting laws change, the floodgates will most certainly open, but we cannot say for sure when this will happen.
Adding to this, as more betting sites start to provide welcome bonuses, the range and variety of such bonuses will naturally increase. Here are some of the sign-up offers that you can expect to find when this happens:
Risk-free bet
Reducing risk really is the name of the game in sports betting. And what better way to reduce this risk than to use a risk-free bet? The reason such promotions are risk-free is that betting sites will refund your stake if it loses. Of course, there is usually a cap on how much you can be reimbursed, with BetMGM having an offer of ,000 right now.
Deposit match
As the name suggests, a deposit match is a form of sign-up offer that lets you boost your cash balance by simply making a deposit. In other states, new players can often snap up a 100% first deposit match, with some sites offering an even better match than this. By redeeming such offers, you are essentially receiving a bunch of bonus cash that can then be used to take a punt on a range of markets.
Free bet
There is a key difference between free bets and risk-free bets. Free bets don’t tend to come equipped with any kind of insurance promises, but they are also less restrictive, on the whole. You sometimes need to place a qualifying wager in order to receive these deals too, although some sites do let you use free bets without such a qualifying condition.
No deposit bonus
If you read carefully, we’ve just detailed this form of bonus above. Instead of making a deposit or free bet to receive some kind of reward, these bonuses issue a reward without the need to complete any of this. Instead, bonuses get dished out once you make the decision to register with a site through no deposit bonuses.
Bet match
From time to time, betting sites are willing to throw in some of their own cash to add to the value of your first bet. For example, if you make a wager, certain betting sites will then throw in an extra , known as a bet match. Of course, the more money that gets wagered, the higher the potential return will be for that bet.
Betting on the most popular Mississippi sports
NFL
At the time of writing, Mississippi does not have a professional NFL team. This means that if you have an interest in NFL betting, you will need to wager on other teams. With this said, NFL betting is still fully supported at retail sportsbooks and online sites. And since the NFL is so popular, you can expect a bunch of markets to choose from for regular-season games. This includes moneyline, quarter by quarter, and individual props for players. On a side note, Mississippi does have a hugely popular college football team - Ole Miss.
These guys have a following as large as some mainstream NFL teams, which is pretty impressive and it ensures that there are some home interests.
NBA
Just like the NFL detailed above, Mississippi does not have a professional NBA team. It does, however, have plenty of teams that compete at the NCAA level. And since this sport isn’t restricted according to the Mississippi sports betting laws right now, you can bet on all of the action. Aside from home interests, of course, the NBA is still a giant professional league in North America. Regular seasons are loaded with awesome games, and the NBA Championships are always an unmissable event. Once you decide that you want to wager on the NBA in Mississippi, you can partake in pre-match, live, and parlay bets as and when you please.
When major teams clash, the top sites have a habit of creating some pretty unique markets too!
MLB
Again, Mississippi is lacking a professional team for this league. However, the Mississippi Braves are still a fairly popular team, they just don’t play in the top-flight league. There is some interest at the NCAA level for baseball, but the teams that compete don’t do quite as well as they do for sports like football. Then again, this doesn’t mean that you can’t bet on all MLB action each season - you most certainly can. The World Series, regular-season games, and games involving top teams always pull in awesome markets and bonuses.
You can bet on as many games or markets as you please for MLB games, and live betting is definitely pretty exciting for this sport.
NHL
Hockey is more of a sport for colder climates, which Mississippi definitely isn’t. Perhaps that’s why this state doesn’t have any professional NHL teams? Who knows. But facts are facts, and you don’t have any in-state teams to bet on for this league. But much like all of the other leagues, you can indeed wager on any NHL game that is played each season. The best sportsbooks in Mississippi never miss a beat for this league, and huge bonuses get pumped out when the Stanley Cup comes around.
MMA
Mississippi might not play host to many MMA fights, but this still seems to be a very popular sport among active punters. Perhaps it’s the thrill of two guys/girls going toe to toe in a steel cage? Whatever the underlying reason, MMA betting is still up there with some of the mainstream sports in North America. Since big fights tend to happen several times a month, you are never short on betting opportunities for this sport. And you generally have a pretty wide range of markets to choose from for individual fights. This includes the method of victory, round of victory, and spreads for certain measures of each fight.
MLS
Currently, Mississippi doesn’t have an in-state MLS team. However, there is a team that is on the rise quite rapidly, and this team is Mississippi Brilla. These guys compete in the ULS rather than the MLS, but still, at least it means you can go watch some top-level soccer if desired. This team has actually been a platform to launch several individuals into the MLS too, which means that this is a team that nurtures talent. And from a betting point of view, if you want to take a punt at the MLS, you can do so each and every week. Each MLS game usually boasts over 100 different betting markets too, so you really are spoiled for choice.
NCAA
We’ve briefly mentioned NCAA competitions earlier, but let’s get a little more specific now. Mississippi is home to some great colleges, which is why top-level events are seen for sports like basketball and football. Ole Miss probably takes the title for the most popular NCAA team right now, and they even play a huge game in Mississippi each and every year. This event always pulls in sports fans and punters alike, and the state goes wild! A good thing about NCAA betting in Mississippi is that it hasn’t been prohibited, clearly, and it is equally as extensive as some of the main professional leagues in North America.
History of Mississippi Sports Betting
At this point, we’ve run through the main elements of Mississippi online sports betting, so we won’t be hammering home what each site or retail sportsbooks entails anymore. Instead, we’d like to shed some light on the current market and how it came to be. After all, sports betting wasn’t always allowed in Mississippi, which means that certain things had to happen. All of this is covered below:
2014 - sports betting first gets looked at
Mississippi is an interesting one since it has a long history of legal gambling. This dates back to the 18th Century when people were first betting on horse races in the state. However, physical casinos started to emerge all over the state in the early 20th Century, yet sports betting remained elusive. Of course, Mississippi state officials were perfectly aware of how much revenue gambling brought in within the state, which is why they then took a look into sports betting in 2014.
According to reports done that year, sports betting wouldn’t be a logical or feasible move for Mississippi to legalize it, but at least the topic had then been looked at. Subsequently, any kind of legislative changes for sports betting in this state was thrown out and nothing ultimately happened in 2014.
2017 - real movements on Mississippi sports betting
It would take a further 3 years of back and forth between senior officials before sports betting gained any real traction in this state. At certain points, it seemed that Mississippi would never legalize sports betting, but those low points were often followed by promising signals too. Needless to say, it was a bit of a rollercoaster ride, although ultimately, those in approval did get the win over those who opposed. That’s why 2017 became the year in which Mississippi changed its own sports betting laws from within the state. The law then permitted sports betting, but there was a problem.
Sports betting hadn\'t yet been permitted at the highest federal level, and the PASPA vs NJ battle was still taking place. Before the outcome of this battle became known, Mississippi couldn’t actually legalize sports betting itself as it would be overruled by the current PASPA regulations.
2018 - the legalization of sports betting
Since Mississippi had already changed the laws for sports betting in the state, they were ready to pounce when the PASPA verdict was announced. And quite literally weeks after the decision from PASPA was announced, license applications flooded into Mississippi for sportsbooks to launch within the state. The pressure coming in from multiple betting brands was extreme, to say the least, and sports betting officially received the nod of approval in August 2018. Technically speaking, this is also when Mississippi online sports betting became legal. But as you know, this legislature is still very thin, and it still requires players to head to physical casinos to make bets.
However, just to reiterate, it is still perfectly possible to make online sports wagers in this state. You just need to visit a casino to do so, although this might be changing in the very near future.
2021 - the first official app goes live
We did say that mobile and online betting was still a bit of a gray area! But in September 2021, a major breakthrough occurred when BetMGM officially launched its designated mobile app for punters to download and bet from. This is still the one and only official sports betting app available in Mississippi, yet there is still the same restriction concerning where you bet from. So even once you’ve installed the app, you must still place your wagers from the BetMGM partner casino location. Then again, punters have understandably been quite excited about the launch of this app.
Many believe that this app\'s launch signifies a change in legislation on the horizon, and there is a shared opinion that mobile betting will become more flexible very soon. It’s also important to note that the BetMGM app supports the same range of sports and markets as the main mobile site. This signifies that there won’t be any restrictions concerning what you can wager on via these mobile apps.
2022 - possible changes to mobile betting
Note that at the time of writing, nothing has been confirmed on this issue yet. However, it is strongly believed that Mississippi is planning to announce a major change in mobile betting legislation in the early part of 2022. Some have predicted that the laws on this activity might be changing as early as January 2022. Of course, this remains to be seen, but changes would bring about some much-welcomed adjustments to the way that online betting currently works in this state. As for the specifics of this announcement, there are two major changes rumored to be in circulation.
The first of these is a change to the current requirement for people to make bets at a physical casino location, even for mobile betting. The second is a change to allowing sports betting apps to be downloaded and used from all over the state. These two changes kind of go together really, but they are absolutely necessary for sports betting to continue to grow in the state.
But for now, we must all simply watch and wait for these changes to get announced, and we hope they occur sooner rather than later!
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