Fantasy Sports Betting Online for Real Money
Top Fantasy Sports Betting Sites
Online fantasy sports betting in the USA has exploded since its inception several decades ago. What started as just a hobby between small groups of friends has transformed into a multi-million dollar industry. Now is a fantastic time to get involved, but you want to ensure that you find the best online fantasy betting site possible to get started. If you are a relative newcomer to fantasy sports, it might pay for you to read our beginner's guide to fantasy sports before you jump into the action.
Fortunately, we have done the legwork for you and broken down this list of the best sports fantasy sites. These sites cover a range of the most popular leagues including NBA, MLB, NHL, NFL, European Soccer (Premier League) and plenty more.
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How Do We Compare Fantasy Sports Betting Sites?
Online fantasy sports betting is certainly nothing new, which has allowed for years of comparison and notable developments. This begs the question, just how do we compare online fantasy sports bookmakers and what makes them great sites? You will find the answers right here:
- Number of participants
- Competition variety
- Regularity of incentives and promotions
- Security of transactions and site as a whole
- Average reward payouts
- Customer service
All of these factors need to be above average for us to even consider recommending them. For this reason, you can rest assured that the list above has been given following extensive research. If any online fantasy sports bookmakers fall short on these categories, they will not be chosen.
Fantasy Sports Bets in Detail
Familiarity with the various online fantasy sports betting leagues is important, but a thorough understanding of the fantasy sports betting types is critical, and the major bets alongside the associated type of leagues are explained below.
- Head to head
This betting type is extremely popular since it emphasizes the community side of online fantasy sports betting. Being able to wager against another individual or team on a site also gives a competitive sense of enjoyment. Essentially, this type of bet requires you to pick a fantasy team that will be directly compared to the other team or individual to decide a winner. This can be season long or just for a specific week.
Since this type of bet is usually just a one-time entry fee to play, the payouts can vary. For example, if you enter with $100 against another team and you are successful with your fantasy selections, you will win the $100 that has been staked by your opponent (minus any site fees). This is why head to head betting is often associated with cash betting for fantasy sports.
- Season long prize pools
We already know that online fantasy sports bookmakers require that you need to choose a fantasy team each week. And this is especially true for season long prize pools. Regardless of your chosen league, whether it is NFL or Premier League soccer, you will need to select a team each week for season long prize pools.
While this is also a one-time entry fee, you are now competing against everybody else rather than a specified team or individual. Here it is even more important to do your research since you need to outperform thousands of people to rank highly at the end of the season. Of course by ranking highly, you will put yourself in a position to take home the larger cash prizes on offer. For example, the previous payout for the winner of fantasy football has been as high as $1 million!
- Daily contests
Online fantasy sports betting in USA has begun to incorporate this form of fantasy betting across many different leagues. And as the name suggests, daily contests require that you choose a team for one particular day rather than an entire season. This can be for both head to head competition and for site wide competition.
Choosing a fantasy team through daily contests is perfect for those that don’t want to commit to a season long tournament. There will still be an entry-fee requirement as well as prize money for those that perform the best, but the time commitment is significantly less.
League Recommendations
Choosing an online fantasy sports betting league is actually quite simple, since the league popularity usually reflects the real life popularity. More specifically, for fantasy sports betting in USA the most popular leagues are as follows:
- Fantasy MLB
Baseball has long been a much-loved sport in both Canada and the USA, which has held true for the fantasy leagues also. The combination of season long selections as well as post-season competitions make the Fantasy MLB league a fan favorite.
- Fantasy Premier League
Since the Premier League is unquestionably the most followed and most prestigious soccer league in the world, it isn’t surprising that the fantasy league is also extremely popular. This league quite literally has millions of participants, so building a team yourself or simply enjoying season long tournaments are major attractions for this league.
- Fantasy NFL
Football is of course hugely popular in the USA, and the league reflects this fact. The unique factor about this league is that you can actually choose a team ahead of the season, almost following an NFL draft type format. Competitions run all season long, and you can participate in as many or as little as you wish.
- Fantasy NHL
This is extremely popular with Canadian fans and hockey fans in general, and the league follows the same rules and regulations as the other North American fantasy leagues.
- Fantasy NBA
The NBA is an extremely busy league, since teams play several times per week for the entire season. This league certainly isn’t for novices, and you have to be "on the ball" to have a chance at winning.
Is Online Fantasy Sports Betting for Me?
If you love sports and you enjoy competing against other sports betting enthusiasts, then online fantasy sports betting is absolutely for you. You can get started for a very small fee, and you have a great deal of flexibility on what types of leagues or competitions you want to take part in. Just like traditional sports betting, the best way is to judge for yourself and just get started.