Borgata always makes me hungry because it sounds like Burrata and I like pizza. But does the Borgata sportsbook satisfy my hunger for great bonuses? On the whole it does good work.

The betting bunch will be welcomed to Borgata sportsbook with a risk-free first bet offer of up to $1000. This is above-average for what you can expect to find at US sports betting sites but it’s not unique. To give a comprehensive Borgata sportsbook review we feel compelled to say that while there aren’t many sports bonuses better than this there are a fair few that match it.

The Borgata sportsbook bonus is super simple to get; once your account is verified. The promotion is automatically applied and you won’t need any sort of Borgata sportsbook promo code to activate it. All you have to do is make your first bet and up to $1000 will be refunded in bonus cash if you lose.

If your bet is equal to $49 or under you’ll receive one free bet for the full value of your bonus cash. If your first bet at Borgata sportsbook is $50 or more you’ll receive five free bets each worth 20% of your bonus cash. A full $1000 bonus cash refund will manifest as 5x $200 bets.

Note you can’t cash out the bonus money itself — you’ll have to wager it and then cash out any winnings. Fortunately there don’t seem to be any other wagering restrictions both for wagering requirements and for odds.

We sometimes see sportsbooks asking for bonus cash to be wagered 2x-6x over before a cashout is available and it’s not super-rare to see operators cap their bonus cash betting odds at around -200. So good news on that front in this Borgata online sportsbook review.

The downside is that there aren’t too many other regular promotions. It’s mostly just odd boosts on parlays that we’re seeing and other sportsbooks run quite a few options sometimes up to 10. More on this in the expert section below. Also free bets must be used within 7 days of them being credited to your account.

You can participate in the M Life Rewards loyalty program when betting on sports but it’s limited. You can earn tier credits by wagering and enjoy some VIP benefits as you tick up the ranks. But you can’t earn rewards credits which are only available on casino play.

So as far as sportsbook offers go Borgata’s is certainly on the creamier side for the US betting market. But it’s far from flawless. Let’s start with the good — $1000 is a fair chunk of cash more than what a lot of competitors are offering. Pala for example only offers a $500 risk-free welcome. It’s also nice that you don’t need a Borgata sportsbook bonus code to claim the promotion; cases where bettors have missed out on bonuses only eligible on a first bet are rare but not unheard of.  There don’t seem to be any odds limitations either which adds to the perks side of things.So what about the downsides? I immediately find it a bit weird that bets are broken down into specific increments of 20% of the refund. But more importantly I’m just not too impressed at risk-free bets in general even if they are the most common type of sportsbook promotion out there and Borgata’s is a pretty good one.What’re the alternatives then? I like deposit matches because risk-free promos only kick in if your first bet loses. I’d rather just win my bet thank you very much. With a deposit match like SugarHouse’s you take advantage of the bonus whether you win or lose. True it only goes up to $250 but I’d rather have $250 of guaranteed extra betting cash than $1000 I have to wager and win on to ‘compensate’ for the $1000 my first bet lost.Speaking of having to wager refunded cash from a risk-free bet it’s not uncommon at all but don’t be fooled into thinking it’s the only option. Unibet’s risk-free promo only refunds up to $250 but it refunds it in cash rather than bonus cash so it’s ‘more-risk-free.’ No extra wagering required there.One more thing i’d mention is the lack of offers for existing players. Borgata offers regular boosts on parlays which are a big plus. But SugarHouse and Unibet sportsbook offer more. They throw in stuff little extra profit boosts or a few drops of bonus cash on certain sports at least once a week.My Borgata sportsbook review verdict: It’s good but the bonus offerings aren’t tip-top tier.

Borgata sportsbook NJ offers its patrons 13 main ways to deposit and withdraw money 14 if you count the option to withdraw by having a check mailed to you. This is at the top for US-based betting sites as you’ll rarely see more than that. SugarHouse and Golden Nugget offer 10 and 11 respectively and they’re great operators. 7-10 is pretty common.

We’ve got to toss the Borgata sportsbook some extra review points too since it covers all the main options players could want. From card with Visa Mastercard and AMEX e-wallets with PayPal ACH with VIP Preferred and even cash with PayNearMe and the casino cage. Their own Play+ card is always nice to see as Play+ often has strong deposit/withdrawal limits and relatively quick money movement.

Borgata scores well here not just because of the number of payment providers but the quality. The sportsbook is serviced by some of the most reputable names in the money industry which is a huge golden checkmark in our book.

Full list: Visa Discover Play + AMEX VIP Preferred PayPal Paynearme Mastercard Skrill Apple Pay online banking (multiple options).

No fees are charged for deposits and withdrawals (at least from Borgata’s side). Their payment policy pages are detailed and easy to find even for non-registered users. They’re not perfect missing some details like the minimum and maximum deposits and withdrawals per-payment-method but these can be found in the cashier section of the site once you’re signed up.

As an approved legal and licensed sports betting site Borgata sportsbook is 100% safe.

Bettors will find an NJDGE licensing seal on the website and a Responsible Gambling section which links to various help organizations such as 800GAMBLER.

It also explains the responsible gambling tools available at Borgata’s sportsbook. Whether you want to limit your deposits your play time or just take a break of predetermined length from betting Borgata’s got tools to help you cover your back.

The website is encrypted with SSL to keep your info safe and strong authentication and account verification are used to make sure no one else plays with your money.

So yes. As you’d imagine bettors can make sports bets at the Borgata sportsbook on app or on desktop. No prizes for knowing that. But is that all you can do? Let’s run through the fancy features at Borgata’s NJ sportsbook:

You can cash out early on most bets and live odds update very frequently especially in quick-fire sports like tennis. A bet builder hovers on the right side of the screen allowing you to set up parlays on various different outcomes across games.

Clicking through sports and finding the desired matches is quite intuitive. The navigation system isn’t perfect (more on that in the platform section) but you’re never more than a few clicks away from making your desired bet.

We sample a bunch of the games available at random times and convert the odds into percentages to see how much of a house edge the sportsbook keeps over its bettors. The Borgata sportsbook odds are pretty decent but they’re certainly not the best ever.

We clocked in the general payout across a few different sports at around 94.70% which is above the low tier where we often see around 93% but it’s a far cry from the 97%+ of our dream sportsbooks. However good news if you’re a football fan we clocked in the payouts at around 96.18% which is damn near the top. The Borgata sportsbook payouts are somewhere between medium and good on the B-ball side with our calculations coming in at around 95.51%.

It was the live odds at Borgata sportsbook that proved disappointing clocking in at around 91.58%. We always expect live odds to be lower to make up for the advantage players have by seeing the sports playing out but the fact they’re sub-92% is a letdown.*

* data gathered 22nd Nov 2021

When scrolling down the A-Z list of sports on the left side of the Borgata online sportsbook review writers (or more likely sports bettors) will clock 19 different sports available to bet on. These range from your popular picks like football basketball soccer and baseball all the way to darts and pool.

Between 15 to 24ish options is quite normal so Borgata places itself nicely within industry expectations and certainly on the stronger side of those.

The number of individual betting options you’ve got for top sports is promising too with football coming in at 130+ different wagers per game and around 48 for basketball. Seeing as the top is about 150 for the former and   for the latter our Borgata sportsbook review’s gotta give the brand a shoutout here it’s practically at the top.

That being said strong outliers already blow these numbers out of the water SugarHouse  offers 100+ for basketball.

Downsides: you can only really bet on sports. Esports politics and entertainment bets aren’t available as of yet. Another small thing worth noting; even though the individual bets available are strong for football basketball and even soccer (256 different bet options on a particular UCL match) tennis was a little less impressive with a quite average 60 options coming in. Hockey was even a bit below average there were only 75 options while we were writing our Borgata online sportsbook review.