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The vast majority of us spend a healthy percentage of our leisure time online. Whether it’s streaming movies or TV shows, watching the big match, listening to podcasts, playing video games or chatting with friends or family, online entertainment platforms keep us happy and busy.
Online casinos and sports betting are two other online forms of entertainment that have huge fanbases. Gambling has always been a popular way to spend time and the move to the digital world has made it even more popular. Both online casinos and sportsbooks are more accessible than ever, but for people who are new to the world of online gambling, it can be difficult to know where to start.
In this article, we’ll compare these two popular forms of gambling and explain the basics of both. If you’ve been undecided about which you might want to try, hopefully this discussion will help.
Variety
Online casinos have become such a huge aspect of the gaming industry that the leading online casinos now have thousands of different games in their libraries. Slot machine games make up the majority of titles, with most online casinos having at least a few hundred slot games. Table games make up the rest of the library, with blackjack, poker and roulette having the most options.
Alongside the regular varieties of table games, many online casinos now also offer live casino games. What sets these games apart is that they have a live dealer who the players can interact with as they play. These games are the closest you can get to the real casino experience without leaving home — until VR tech is further developed that is!
Sports betting might seem repetitive at first, but in reality, there is vast variety available. The first thing to consider is that you can place bets on any sporting event around the world as long your sportsbook offers odds on it. Everything from the big sports such as football, rugby, cricket, horse racing and tennis to things like darts, curling and esports.
The second area where there’s variety is in the types of bets that you can place. New bettors assume you can only bet on who will win a match, but there’s so much more to it than that. Among the most popular bets to place are accumulator bets, prop bets, spread bets, over/under bets and futures bets.
Learning curve
Getting started playing at an online casino is incredibly easy. Slot machine games are as simple as it gets. All you need to do to play is make a deposit, select a game and then push the button to spin. Table games require a bit more knowledge, though some are easier than others. To play poker you’ll need to know the values of the various hands and how to bet properly, but the rules for blackjack and roulette are very simple.
Starting out sports betting isn’t necessarily difficult as all you need to do is pick the match you want to bet on and place your bet. If you want to bet on a single outcome, such as Ireland winning their next qualifier, that’s easily done. The real learning curve comes when you need to understand how to read odds, how to judge which odds are the best and which types of bets to place. On top of that, it requires a lot of research and an in-depth knowledge of the sport you’re planning to bet on.
Bonuses
Finding the best casino bonuses can make your time at an online casino even better. Online casino welcome bonuses are used to attract new customers, so they’re designed to make it rewarding to start playing. They will usually include some combination of free spins, a matched deposit and even no deposit credit to play with.
Online sportsbooks also offer welcome bonuses that serve the same purpose. The welcome bonuses at a sportsbook will typically include a free bet, a risk-free bet, deposit matching or accumulator bet insurance.
When a company runs both an online casino and an online sportsbook, the welcome bonus will usually be a combination of bonus offers that can benefit the player no matter what they choose to do. It’s most common to see these brands offer free spins alongside a free bet and even — if you’re lucky! — deposit matching as well.
Security
As anyone who’s spent much time online knows, payment information and personal details are the targets of hacks and phishing scams and are constantly at risk. Protecting our data is essential and this means only entering it on sites that take digital security seriously.
Both online casinos and online sportsbooks rely on protecting their customers’ data. Placing your bets at a legitimate online casino or sportsbook is the best way to make sure that your data is safe, and that you can focus all your energy on your games or bets. Any sports betting site or online casino that you use should have SSL encryption to help keep your data is secure.
Payment methods
Both online casinos and online sportsbooks accept a variety of digital payment methods. The best casinos and sportsbooks will accept most or all the major payment methods and be able to process deposits and withdrawals efficiently.
The most commonly used payment methods for online gambling deposits and withdrawals are credit and debit cards, prepaid cards, Paysafecard, digital wallets, payment apps and bank/wire transfers. Each of these methods will have a set time that it takes to process, so that is an important factor to consider when you’re making your account.
Final thoughts
The best thing about online casinos and sports betting is that you don’t actually have to choose. If you’ve weighed both options and know that you’ll enjoy both equally, then it makes sense to do both. Many of the leading online casinos have recognised this and now offer sportsbooks as well to make gambling even more convenient.
