Betting apps
A betting app is a sportsbook in your pocket, and the book behind it matters more than the app. Speed, live betting and banking are what separate a good one from a bad one, and the best sports betting app for you depends on how you bet.
The book comes first
Every app is the front door of a sportsbook. A smooth app on a book that pays slowly or deals poor prices is a smooth way to lose money, so I'd judge the book first and the app second. Our review methodology says how we look at the book.
Where you can legally use a betting app depends on where you live. Many apps are licensed to take bets only from players inside a given jurisdiction and check your location before every bet. Whether that covers you is something to settle before you download anything, and I won't pretend to settle it for you.
Speed of a bet
On an app, speed is the whole product. Count the taps from opening it to a confirmed ticket on a main game, and watch how long the bet sits pending. Before a game, a slow app is an annoyance. On a Sunday afternoon in the NFL, when the line on your game is moving, it means getting a worse number or no bet at all.
Live betting
Live betting is what a phone is made for, and it is where apps differ most. Look at how many markets stay open during a game, how often they are suspended, and the price. A live spread at -110 needs you to win 52.38 percent of the time to break even; at -120 it needs 54.55 percent. Two apps showing the same game can be that far apart.
Cash-out and what it costs
Cash-out lets you settle a bet before it finishes, and it has a price. Say you bet $100 on an underdog at +150, so the ticket returns $250 if it wins. At halftime your team is ahead and, say, has a 60 percent chance of winning from there. The ticket is worth about $150 on those numbers. If the app offers you $135 to cash out, the button costs you $15, 10 percent of what the ticket is worth.
Sometimes that is worth paying. Mostly it isn't, and the book knows it. I'd only cash out when I would also be happy to place the opposite bet at the live price, which is what hedging is.
Money in and money out
Look at the cashier before you deposit. Which methods does it take, which ones can pay you back, how long a withdrawal takes and what it costs. A deposit on an app takes seconds, and a withdrawal at the same book can take days. The gap tells you something.
Limits
Apps often take smaller bets than you'd think, on props and live markets especially, and some cut the limits of players who win. If you bet for a living that decides everything. If you bet $20 a game for fun, it probably doesn't matter to you.
Before you download
I'd check four things: who runs the book behind the app, whether it can take your bets where you live, how it pays out, and whether it lets you set a deposit limit and a loss limit inside the app. Set both before the first bet. An app is always in your pocket, and so is the next bet, so decide the figure you can lose this week while you are calm, and let the app hold you to it.