BetRivers Sportsbook Review

From the Chicagoland-based company Rush Street Interactive, BetRivers is something of an underdog in the sports betting arena. It’s a well-known name, and it often climbs near the top of sportsbook rankings in legal states. Even so, it doesn’t have the same name recognition as competing brands. 

In the end, we found that despite its relative lack of name recognition, BetRivers could hold its own in many categories when comparing it to the elite sportsbooks in the industry. Users enjoy an excellent experience from sign-up to placing your 50th or 100th bet. It offers a bevy of promos and invests in localized offers for bettors. This review will cover everything you should know about BetRivers Sportsbook. 

The BetRivers welcome bonus gives you a second chance bet up to $500 in bonus bets. The bonus will be explained in greater detail below. 

The BetRivers welcome bonus is one of our favorites. You get a second chance bet up to $500 in bonus bets if your first bet loses.

When you sign up and opt in for the bonus with the promo code ‘CBSBONUS’, you can place your first bet. If the bet loses, you’ll get refunded in bonus bets up to $500. For example, if you sign up and place a losing bet of $250, you’ll get $250 back in bonus bets. The bonus is only equal to your bet and applied to the first bet you place. A bet of more than $500 is allowed, but the maximum bonus bet return is still $500.

A winning first bet will return your bet and the associated winnings, and the bonus will expire. Essentially, the first bet bonus is offering you some insurance in case you lose right off the bat.

It is important to note that with any bonus bet you use, you’ll receive the winnings from the bet but you will not be returned the initial stake. Overall, BetRivers fares well compared to its rival sportsbooks when it comes to its welcome bonus.

Users should appreciate BetRivers due to its amazing promotions and offers. The sportsbook has deals on various sports, including football, basketball, golf and more. 

BetRivers promos run the gamut, ranging from profit boosts to parlay insurance and much more. 

BetRivers offers some of the best same game parlay insurance. In many cases, you’ll get your bet back if you lose, occasionally even by more than one leg. The terms can vary, however, so read them carefully to understand how you can qualify. These are available for many different sports. 

For some NFL games, BetRivers will offer insurance if you bet on a player to score the first touchdown. If your selected player isn’t the first to score but does get a touchdown later in the game, you’ll get your wager back in bonus bets. This promo was primarily offered for NFL playoff games in the past, but it might pop up during other football games from time to time. 

Finally, BetRivers has a Bonus Store where you can redeem loyalty points for special perks.

The BetRivers sportsbook user experience is great. It doesn’t quite reach the level of the best sportsbooks, like DraftKings, but still can compete favorably with even some of the best in the industry.

Navigation at BetRivers Sportsbook is easy. The main menu at the top showcases the most popular sports or those that are currently in season. There are also options for “Live Now,” “Props Central,” and “Specials.” Clicking these categories (or any individual sport’s category) will bring up available bets and markets, making it easy to then place your bet. BetRivers has partnerships with various leagues, so the official logos are an easy way to identify available bets in the sportsbook. 

Placing a bet is a simple process at BetRivers. We tested it out with a bet on an NBA game (Dallas Mavericks vs. Cleveland Cavaliers). We selected the Mavericks to win at odds of +155. This pulled up our bet slip, which allowed us to type in the amount of our wager and, in turn, showed us what we’d win if the bet were successful. Clicking “Place Bet” finished the process. 

As for the downsides, there are small hitches in the BetRivers experience. For example, the sportsbook app’s bottom menu has a lot of white space, making it unclear where to click for certain options. Additionally, some functions are slightly slower at BetRivers than at competitors. 

Despite these small issues, BetRivers has a solid user experience.

Want to know how to sign up for BetRivers Sportsbook? Follow these steps to get started with a BetRivers Sportsbook log-in. 

It’s really that simple. BetRivers sign-ups are smooth and painless, usually taking less than five minutes.

The BetRivers mobile app has drastically improved since its early days. When sports betting was first introduced to the initial states that allowed it, BetRivers didn’t have a dedicated app. It later launched one with a fair amount of bugs, and then it continued to iterate on the platform to make it better.

So where does it stand now? Well, BetRivers Sportsbook is a good mobile app, but not a great one. It certainly gets the job done. Most of the menu options are intuitive, particularly when you want to sort through sports or find a specific bet.

Where the app falters is in the other navigational elements. There’s a separate page for “cashier” and “my account,” when it would probably just be easiest to include those in one section. Additionally, the main hamburger menu reveals a deposit option but not a withdrawal option. Many sportsbooks do this type of thing to make deposits seem more prevalent than withdrawals, but it ends up frustrating users more than anything.

BetRivers’ mobile app is generally pretty fast, but it can take a tad longer to update than other sportsbooks, so it may not be the ideal choice for live betting.

In summary, the BetRivers app is just fine, with some pros and cons.

Now, let’s take a moment to explore some of the most impressive features of the BetRivers Sportsbook.

Click or tap the “Specials” icon at the top of the BetRivers Sportsbook homepage for a look at the site’s featured bets. These include all sorts of localized promos, boosted lines and more. For example, one of our reviewers is based in Chicago, and he received a hometown discount on certain Chicago Bulls wagers. 

Jai Alai is a unique sport, perhaps known for being the fastest ball sport in the world. BetRivers has access to Jai Alai betting while many other sportsbooks do not, thanks in large part to its partnership with Magic City Jai Alai. Fans of obscure sports will love the Jai Alai offering at BetRivers. For more information about betting on other obscure sports (and all the major ones) see our comprehensive list of betting guides.

BetRivers supports live streaming of certain events as they’re in progress. While writing this review, a few European basketball leagues were in action, and streams to those games were easily available. Look for the green and white play button to find games that have live streams in BetRivers Sportsbooks. 

BetRivers may not have its competitors beat when it comes to the number of payment methods (for example, Apple Pay isn’t accepted at the sportsbook). However, it is among the fastest to pay out, thanks to its RushPay system. RushPay can approve withdrawals in seconds, meaning you can get your money from BetRivers faster than many other sportsbook.

Cash payments and withdrawals at BetRivers partnered casinos are only available in select states. Contact customer service for more information.

BetRivers payments and withdrawals are pretty straightforward, but you should still keep a few things in mind. 

The deposit minimum at BetRivers is $10 for most methods. This is standard across many sportsbooks. Some offer lower minimums, however, so check the details of your preferred sportsbook if you want to make smaller deposits. 

BetRivers offers a few methods for depositing with cash. First is the PayNearMe option, which is available at participating 7-Eleven locations. The second option is cash at a partnered casino cage. You can visit the cashier counter to deposit this way. 

PayPal and Venmo users know that you can connect a bank account and credit/debit cards to the service. However, sportsbooks like BetRivers require that you use a connected bank account or your existing balance to deposit with these services. In other words, you can’t use a credit or debit card to pay via Venmo or PayPal. Of course, you can still use the credit or debit card itself to pay directly. 

BetRivers offers competitive odds and a wide variety of betting markets. Here is a general breakdown of their offerings to help you decide whether it’s the right sportsbook for you. 

The primary customer support method at BetRivers is live chat, which is available on the app or on a desktop device. 

Our reviewer tested the live chat with a simple question—What is the minimum deposit at BetRivers?—and were very pleased with the results. A customer service agent responded to us within three minutes, offering a direct and helpful answer plus links to more information. 

In some areas, BetRivers offers slightly more than FanDuel Sportsbook. In others, the bigger sportsbook has BetRivers beat by a large margin.

In terms of promotions, the sportsbooks are actually pretty comparable. Both offer a nice selection of promotions to existing users. BetRivers excels at localized promotions and having a more personal touch. Additionally, BetRivers has a great rewards program—iRush Rewards—that offers players points they can redeem for bonuses and prizes. FanDuel has no rewards program for sports bettors, which is a disappointment. 

It’s tough to beat FanDuel in this category, the UX/UI on FanDuel is outstanding. FanDuel’s layout and functionality tops every sportsbook in the industry due to its intuitive and simple nature. BetRivers has a great user experience as well, but it doesn’t work quite as quickly as FanDuel, and FanDuel does a better job of filling out the interface both on the desktop site and the app.

FanDuel has a more extensive odds library than BetRivers. For example, if you look at an NBA game on FanDuel, you’ll find many more player and game props available, and earlier than you’ll see them from BetRivers. BetRivers, however, does offer betting on a few niche sports that FanDuel doesn’t cover, like surfing and volleyball. Most bettors who are betting on popular sports would prefer FanDuel’s selection of odds.

FanDuel has BetRivers beat in the app department. We found the FanDuel app to be the single best mobile sportsbook, and it’s not close. We found its layout to be the most user friendly and intuitive, and its functionality to be the fastest and sleekest. Since BetRivers is on the tail-end of that ranking, for reasons discussed above, it’s easy to say FanDuel is the superior app. 

FanDuel and BetRivers are two valuable stops along your odds shopping journey, but FanDuel outpaces BetRivers with a better app and overall superior user experience. BetRivers has definitely been improving recently, however.