North Carolina Sports Betting Apps: The Pros & Cons of All 8 Sportsbooks

As a New Jersey resident, I've been regularly using over the last few years most of the eight sportsbook apps that launched in North Carolina this week. The eighth, Underdog Sports, is making its debut in NC.

I use them most frequently in the following order — bet365, DraftKings, FanDuel, ESPN BET, BetMGM, then Caesars. Fanatics Sportsbook is not yet live in NJ, either.

Below I'll break down the pros and cons of each app and why I use some more often than others.

Pros & Cons of Every NC Sports Betting App

1. bet365

Pros: Overall product experience

bet365 is my favorite sportsbook app in the U.S. market for a few reasons. It's got the biggest betting menu, the best same game parlay product, and some delightful features, like live bet tracking in the bet slip, even for SGPs.

With this sample SGP I placed last week, I can get the live status of both legs right in the bet slip.

Cons: It's a bit buggier than DraftKings or FanDuel

It might be because I use it more often, but I find that bet365 freezes more often than some of the top U.S. books, and I need to kill the app and log back in to get it to work again.

It's a small price to pay for such a great experience otherwise, but it can be a bit frustrating.

2. DraftKings

Pros: Navigation, market availability for U.S. sports

To me, DraftKings has the easiest-to-navigate app of any sportsbook. It's both easy to jump into a sport you want to bet, and easy (by sportsbook standards anyway) to find more niche and obscure markets.

DK uses what I call a "two-tiered menu," meaning you can navigate a specific bet type for a single game, or for the entire slate. If you want to see every player's triple-double odds in the NBA that night, it's all in one screen. Then you can click into a specific game to see only the markets

There are other fringe design things I think DraftKings has done really well — in golf markets, you can see a player's outright odds, top 5 odds, and top 10 odds all right next to each other. At FanDuel, those are in different views and you have to find each player again if you want to look at a different market.

Cons: Same game parlay product & pricing

I did a deep, deep dive on same game parlay products a few years back, and DraftKings would still fall behind bet365 and FanDuel on my list. The pricing isn't strong comparatively, and for some sports, soccer especially, the options can be limited.

DraftKings did add "dynamic" pricing to its SGP mode, which shows you what the price will be before you add a new bet. But you still have to enter a separate mode to make an SGP, and the options for some sports are a bit limited.

3. FanDuel

Pros: Pricing, innovation

FanDuel is probably the strongest innovator in the U.S. sports betting space. To name a few "inventions" from the past five years:

• The same game parlay
• NBA first basket scorer
• One boost worth betting per day instead of 100 boosts not worth betting

The ideation and execution of the same game parlay changed the industry completely, bolstering profit margins for not only FanDuel, but for all other sportsbooks as well. Illinois is one of the few states to split out parlay performance in its public revenue data — IL sportsbooks held 18.4% of parlay wagers compared to 4.9% on straight bets.

Cons: Navigation

FanDuel is still one of the best sportsbook products on the market, but for a market leader, I do expect a little more. It feels like they're over-developed their app in the last few years, adding more and more features, buttons, gizmos and gadgets that I'm not sure most people actually want to use.

For example, their pre-made same game parlays take up half the homescreen, even if I select college basketball. When betting UFC, the fights are out of order because they're grouped by early prelim fights, main prelims and main card fights — I'd just prefer to see them in order. They've dedicated tons of real estate and development to a new "explore" tab, which is intended for new users who aren't familiar with sports betting odds.

4. ESPN BET

Pros: SGP offerings

PENN National made a good move switching away from Kambi, the odds provider the powers a handful of other U.S. sportsbooks, to its own tech powered by theScore Bet. Whether or not it gets them the double-digit market share they want, we'll see.

One thing they have added that many sportsbooks have not is more flexibility to bet unders and alternate unders in same game parlays. Take this Cade Cunningham example — instead of being forced to bet only alternate overs on his props, I can take him under 5.5 assists at +280. It's just nice to have the option and not be led into betting players to exceed their expectations, like most sportsbooks do.

Cons: There's little they offer that FanDuel and DraftKings don't

This is a problem for all U.S. sportsbooks hoping to make a dent in the market, but it's even more important for ESPN BET, which has dreams of eating into FanDuel and DraftKings' market share.

U.S. sports bettors have shown that they're not price sensitive and that they prefer using 1-2 sportsbooks instead of shopping around. If you hope to get to double-digit market share, you have to offer something substantially different (and hopefully better in some respects), and I don't think ESPN BET is close to that yet.

5. BetMGM

Pros: Pricing

BetMGM doesn't rely on the same pricing providers that many other U.S. sportsbooks do, so you may get opportunities to find favorable lines, since BetMGM may be slower to adjust, or deviate from the market a bit.

Cons: Product experience

I don't love navigating BetMGM's product, and find it to be a bit slower and less modern than many of its competitors. It can be difficult to find certain markets, the same game parlay builder lags way behind the market leaders, and the app just feels a little low-tech and clunky.

6. Caesars Sportsbook

Pros: Limits

One differentiator for Caesars is that they will take a bet (assuming you're not a truly sharp player; in which case you'll be limited by any U.S. book). Many sportsbooks will post niche markets and decline a $50 bet on them. But what's the point of posting it if you won't book any action on it? Caesars, for niche sports like NASCAR and golf, will accept bigger wagers.

If you're truly a high-roller, Caesars is one of the best places to get action down, as they took more million-dollar bets on the Super Bowl than any other U.S. book.

Cons: Navigation and bet slip

Caesars bought William Hill's tech a few years back and has overhauled it a bit, but the product still doesn't have a ton that stands out from DraftKings and FanDuel. The navigation is still a bit behind compared to many sportsbooks, and it can be hard to find niche markets in sports like racing and golf.

7. Fanatics Sportsbook

Pros: Rewards

I hate using this as the answer, but Fanatics does have a strong, practical rewards program with FanCash. BetMGM and Caesars tout their rewards programs, too, but it's mostly marketed around hotel stays. I don't feel like I'll ever bet enough there to get a free weekend in Vegas, or whatever.

With Fanatics, you get 1% cash back on straight bets, 3% on parlays and 5% on SGPs. If you're using the platform regularly, that can add up to a decent bonus bet, or some merch from the Fanatics store.

Cons: Like many others, it doesn't offer much that DK & FanDuel doesn't have

Fanatics bought PointsBet to accelerate its market access and product, but the product is still pretty bare bones. It doesn't offer a ton yet, since it's quite difficult to build a sportsbook product from scratch.

8. Underdog Sports

Underdog is brand new in North Carolina, so I'm not sure what the pros and cons are yet. But you can expect them to be product-focused and differentiated. You can see some of the early visuals of the sportsbook here. They're building their sportsbook tech in-house, and the NC product is a V1 that will improve over time.

Underdog has always been committed to making games and features that sports fans love, even if they look a little different from the traditional sports betting model.