The Pros & Cons of All 7 Kentucky Sports Betting Sites & Apps Launching Thursday

Seven Kentucky sports betting sites will launch on Thursday, and none of them are perfect. So I've compiled a brief pros and cons list for all seven apps hitting the market today.

We're entering what I believe is the second wave of legal betting in the U.S. — DraftKings and FanDuel remain the clear leaders, but many second-tier sportsbooks have started to drop out, and Fanatics and bet365 are starting to bring their huge war chests to the U.S. market.

Let's dive in.

1. bet365

The Good: Almost Everything

bet365 is one of our favorite books for a number of reasons, including:

• Excellent user experience and app navigation. They've got the cleanest product behind maybe DraftKings, but that's it.
• The same game parlay product. bet365 tops our list of best SGP sites thanks to available markets to include in SGPs, and its feature that shows what the price of your parlay will become before you choose a specific market.
• Available markets. As a global sportsbook, bet365 has almost everything. But they also offer a much larger prop selection on the NFL and college football than almost any native U.S. books.

The Bad: Limiting

bet365 is a book notorious for limiting users who show "non-recreational" tendencies, like winning, betting opening lines, and betting niche markets. As soon as you start to show some slightly higher stakes and success on certain sports, you may find yourself cut off for those markets.

The Verdict

Your first instinct will be to bet at DraftKings and FanDuel, which are both fine options, but I promise you'll enjoy bet365.

2. DraftKings

The Good: The App & Existing-User Promos

DraftKings has done so much right since launching sports betting in 2018, and the user experience in the app is at the top of my list.

DK is one of the only books to use a horizontal scroll both by category and by bet type. That sounds small, but it makes for a very smooth experience. Sportsbooks offer so much now and it can be very overwhelming. I have a hard time finding markets at other books, and they just stack everything together and make you scroll forever.

At DraftKings, you can scroll horizontally to find different bet types, and then scroll down to see the bets in those categories. It seems like a small thing, but it cuts down time in finding bets.

DraftKings also has the best existing user promos of any sportsbooks. Every sports betting media website likes to make a big deal of new-user promotions, but let's face it — anyone who bets regularly has long forgotten about new-user promos.

DK gives most users a boost or bonus every day, sometimes multiple bonuses, like:

• 50% profit boost on any NFL bet
• 33% profit boost on same game parlays on a specific game
• The beloved "up 7" promo, which pays out your moneyline wager if the team you bet ever gets a 7-point lead.
• NRFI boosts, WNBA boosts, golf outright boosts, and anything else you can think of.

The Bad: The Same Game Parlay

DK's pricing has gotten much better since it merged with SB Tech several years ago and began utilizing its infrastructure.

But the odds in its same game parlay product are among the most unfair and opaque in the industry. FanDuel and bet365 are much better for SGPs.

The Verdict

If an easy-to-navigate app is the most important factor in your betting decision, DraftKings is your best option.

3. FanDuel

The Good: The Pricing & Options

FanDuel has good pricing on a lot of moneylines, futures and props. They offer a huge variety of alternate props

They also let you parlay more things than most sportsbooks, and their SGP product is almost the best on the market, behind bet365.

The Bad: The UX Getting Worse

I've always found FanDuel's app to be a little too crowded, and it feels like it's getting worse. It can be confusing to find even some major college football games, because they're giving a ton of real estate to marquee matchups. Last weekend they had an entire tab dedicated to Colorado vs. Oregon, and you had to go to two extra screens to find the rest of the college football slate.

The Verdict

FanDuel has an early lead in the sports betting space for a reason — the app is good, the pricing is competitive, and they've got a really strong brand. There's no reason to not have a FanDuel account in Kentucky.

4. Fanatics

The Good: Differentiated Promos & Rewards

Every sportsbook promises a different promotional mechanism, but few actually do it.

Fanatics is leaning on its "FanCash" to be a true differentiator. For every bet you place, you'll earn some rewards points that can be exchanged for merchandise at Fanatics or bonus bets. You'll get 5% cash back for same game parlays, 3% for parlays and 1% for straight bets.

The Bad: The App Is New & Limited

It's really hard to build a sports betting app from scratch. Like, really hard.

There's of course the UX and product side, then there's the oddsmaking and risk side. Both are complex and require hundreds of employees to get right.

So right now, Fanatics doesn't have all the props and features that DraftKings, FanDuel and bet365 do.

The Verdict

Fanatics will likely get there in time, but right now, the app is new and limited.

5. Caesars

The Good: Pricing for Certain Markets

Caesars used to have strong pricing on NBA and MLB moneylines, often better than many of its competitors, but that pricing seems to have gotten worse. They do have a pretty good selection of NASCAR lines, among other things.

The Bad: The Tech & William Hill Legacy

Caesars acquired European sports betting giant William Hill a few years ago, and has slowly imroved the legacy tech and product, but it still leaves a lot to be desired. There's just not a ton that differentiates Caesars from

The Verdict

I don't have a ton of reason to use Caesars as one of your first books, unless you love NASCAR.

6. BetMGM

The Good: New-User Promo and "Standalone" Pricing

There are two things I can point to that make BetMGM worth using:

• MGM doesn't appear to use the same odds providers as many other sportsbooks, so it will often have better (or at least different) odds on certain games, which can be advantageous. When DraftKings and FanDuel have moved a prop thanks to a flood of action, BetMGM is often staying put, so you can still get a better price. They generally seem to do less blind copying of odds at other sportsbooks, which is a big problem in the industry.
• The $1,500 first bet on the house is one of the highest-value offers in Kentucky, if you optimize it correctly.

The Bad: The App UX

There's nothing wrong with the BetMGM app. It just feels a little … old?

It feels more like a web product turned into an app than a sleek, native mobile app that's fast and easy to navigate. I hope for some improvements over the next few years.

The Verdict

BetMGM is often slightly off the rest of the market with its odds so it's a must-have in your arsenal.

7. Barstool Sportsbook

The Good: The Barstool Touch, If You Want That

The thesis behind Barstool Sportsbook wasn't wrong — there are plenty of people who love Barstool and want to "bet with" the Barstool personalities. There are lots of existing user promos and boosts, although they're starting to wane as Barstool winds down its time in the betting space.

The Bad: Lack of Differentiation, Still

The Barstool app used Kambi, an odds provider that also supplies odds and tech to BetRivers, Unibet, and more. So the Barstool app felt exactly like many of the other products out there.

Penn National then bought theScore, and this summer integrated their tech into the Barstool platform. But there's still nothing special about the product from a UX or available markets perspective. It lacks many of the things that make DraftKings, FanDuel and bet365 great.

The Verdict

I'd hold off on signing up for Barstool until ESPN Bet launches in November, but if you're a Barstool fan, it could be worth betting there for a few months to get the Barstool-specific promos.