Sports bettors looking for a versatile platform with excellent betting markets, detailed game stats, and a wealthy palette of sports promos can head straight to ESPN BET. The sports betting platform is relatively young, though it has already won over sports fans from across the country. Partnered with Penn Entertainment Casinos, the sportsbook has both retail betting locations and a mobile betting platform for bettors who want to make their predictions on the go.
ESPN BET Legal States History
ESPN BET is a US sportsbook that was originally launched under the name Barstool Sportsbook in 2020. The Barstool brand was live from 2020 until 2023, operating in 17 states on desktop and mobile platforms. In 2023, Penn Entertainment, a minority stakeholder, purchased the remaining stakes and decided to rebrand the sportsbook, in agreement with ESPN Inc.
The ESPN BET sportsbook hit the market in November of 2023, replacing Barstool Sportsbook in those 17 states where the sportsbook operated. The platform is among the top sportsbooks in the country, providing a great array of betting markets, and through its connection with ESPN, it provides bettors with all the statistics and gamecasts they need to make informed betting predictions.
ESPN BET Sportsbook – 19 States
In 2024, ESPN BET hit a big milestone when it opened its first retail location at Hollywood Casino at Greektown in Detroit, Michigan. The sportsbook originally operated in 17 states where sports betting was legalized, and ESPN BET has continued to expand its reach across the US. As of September 2026, ESPN BET is available in 19 states. These are:
Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, as well as the District Capital, Washington DC.
You can access the sportsbook through the ESPN BET website, which is optimized to run on all devices. Alternatively, you can download the ESPN BET mobile apps for iOS and Android devices, signing up in minutes and accessing the extensive assortment of bets and promos the platform has to offer.
Who Can Sign Up at ESPN BET
You must be 21+ years old to sign up at ESPN BET, and can only register if you are within one of the permitted jurisdictions. You do not necessarily need to reside in an ESPN BET legal sports betting state, but you must physically be within the state borders to register and place any bets.
As part of the registration process, you will need to accept the terms and conditions. You will not be allowed to proceed if you already have an existing account at ESPN BET (meaning you would be making a duplicated account), are suspended or banned from the platform, or if you are on a gambling self-exclusion register. Account duplication is strictly forbidden at ESPN BET and all the other major sportsbooks, and if you are on any kind of gambling exclusion register, your registration will not be accepted.
Terms and Conditions of ESPN BET
ESPN BET uses sensitive geolocation tracking software to track your whereabouts when signing up or logging into an existing account. They are allowed to do so, as stated in the terms and conditions that you accept when you sign up. Basically, this is done to ensure that all their members are playing in states where ESPN BET is allowed to operate, and no one is accessing the sportsbook illegally. If you breach these conditions, ESPN Bet may suspend your account, deactivate it, or even ban you from using their betting products.
There is no way you can accidentally open your ESPN BET sports betting app outside the legal states, as an error message will show up and say that you are not in a regulated territory. But if you try to access your account by using a VPN or cloaking device, then you will flag up in the system and ESPN BET will most likely penalize you.
If you are in a state where ESPN BET does not operate, you cannot access your betting account. You can only open it when you enter a state where ESPN BET is live. Or, you can head to a retail sportsbook or Penn Entertainment venue to inquire about your sports betting account.
States with Limitations on Sports Betting
The sports betting scope can vary from state to state, and in some legal sports betting state, you will find prohibitions on wagers of a certain type of nature. We are not specifically referencing any of the major US sports. If you are planning to bet on the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, various soccer competitions, MMA, and various other professional leagues, there are very few restrictions. The sports that are generally littered with restrictions and constraints are wagers on college football or March Madness.
In some states, you will find that college sports betting is completely prohibited, but more often, states will allow college sports betting on any events so long as they don’t include in-state teams. For instance, in New Jersey you cannot bet on in-state college teams, therefore you cannot place bets on Princetown to win March Madness.
Other limitations to observe are that some states do not allow proposition bets on college events, or bets on players. Also, some states have strict rules against betting on eSports. ESPN BET supports eSports wagers, but not in those states where eSports betting has not been made legal.
Professional Support Service
Should you ever need help with creating your account, understanding how a promotion works, or facing a technical issue, you can reach out to the ESPN BET customer support service. You can contact the support team via email, or open the live chat on the betting platform and get in touch with an agent. The live chat runs 24/7, and though it uses chatbots to filter the nature of your query, we found that it can connect you to an agent quite quickly. The customer support is handled well, and ESPN BET also has a FAQ center where you can find useful information regarding their betting products. The only thing they are lacking is good phone support.
Key Takeaways of ESPN BET
Our testors were impressed with the minimalistic and simple interface, and how user-friendly ESPN BET is. The platform covers all the most popular US Sports leagues, including the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, college sports, and soccer leagues. It also houses a wide array of betting markets on tennis competitions, PGA golf tournaments, lacrosse, motorsports, rugby, snooker and various niche sports. For MMA fans, ESPN BET is one of the best UFC betting apps, with key insights and fighter statistics.
The variety of betting markets is good, but not quite as comprehensive as what you can find at ESPN BET’s competitors such as DraftKings or FanDuel. Yet it provides you with plenty of standard betting markets and various betting props, encouraging bettors to combine their selections into parlays. ESPN BET has a fantastic lounge for parlay bettors, with popular SGP and parlay bets that you can add to your bet slip. The platform also has regular odds boosts and plenty of Specials, highlighting highly demanded wagers.
Live betting is also offered, but we would have liked ESPN BET to feature more live streams. There aren’t many live sports streams at ESPN BET, and considering that ESPN+ is an official partner of the UFC and streams live fights, we felt it was a bit of a missed opportunity. Who knows, perhaps in the future the betting app will include some live fight streams.
There are plenty of betting bonuses to keep you busy, including profit boosts, insurance bets, friend referral bonuses, and bonus parlay bets for anyone who joins the Parlay Club. ESPN BET is quite creative with its bonuses and extremely generous, especially with the ESPN BET refer-a-friend offer, where you can bag $50 for each friend you recommend over to the book. Plus, you can also top up your account using a variety of payment methods, including prepaid vouchers such as the ESPN BET gift card, which are extremely easy to use.
Sports Betting Apps Like ESPN BET
There are not many areas in which we can fault ESPN BET Sportsbook, the platform will satisfy the majority of sports bettors. Yet if we want to highlight some shortcomings, we would point out that they fall a little short on their variety of betting markets when compared with other major US sportsbooks. We would have liked more live streams, and also phone support, plus ESPN BET does not have any daily fantasy sports games or free sports betting games that bettors on tight budgets can take advantage of. Besides these critics, ESPN BET won’t fail to inspire you in your sports betting predictions.
However, it is by no means the only quality option out there. There are sportsbook brands such as FanDuel or DraftKings which have a far greater array of props bets and intricate SGP betting opportunities. Or, renowned casino brands like Caesars or BetMGM have their own dedicated sportsbooks, which operate in the majority of states where sports betting is legal in the US. Below, we have listed the best alternatives to ESPN BET, and you can check our reviews to get more details about what each has to offer.
