One of the world’s most iconic casino resort brands, MGM, has launched its New Jersey online sportsbook to complement its poker and casino sites. Indeed, MGM seems to have high hopes for playMGM Sports, as it has partnered with global gaming specialist GVC in a bid to capture the American online betting market at a time when states continue to relax laws on sports gambling. Does playMGM Sports hit the mark? Well, there is a risk-free cash back offer for you if you want to see for yourself, but first read our extensive review to find out more before you join. 

The parent company of playMGM Sports, MGM Resorts International, is one of the leading casino resort and gaming operators in the world. The company has been operating casinos and sportsbooks for over 30 years and is now an S&P 500 component company on the NYSE. Last year, MGM announced a tie up deal with GVC Holdings, one of the world’s most important betting and gaming companies and one of the most influential outside the United States. Essentially, these two huge gaming companies intend to work together to develop the online sports betting market in the United States. 

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (NJDGE) has given a license to playMGM to operate legal online sports betting. As a license will only be given to online sportsbook operators if they have a physical gaming location in New Jersey, playMGM has partnered with the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa Atlantic City, a business owned by MGM Resorts International, to give it that much-needed land base. 

Account security at playMGM is given top priority. As MGM puts it, the entire site sits behind one of the most advanced firewalls in the world, and the latest 128-bit SSL encryption methods are used to protect any financial transactions made on the site.  

It’s almost pointless to analyze MGM’s reputation as the company has such a vast portfolio of gaming products and product identities. However, we can say that the initial reaction to the playMGM Sportsbook has been mainly positive, although some experts believe playMGM can improve in certain areas. We will highlight those issues later. 

A wide range of payment methods are offered at playMGM, including the option to deposit and pick up winnings at Borgata Casino. However, not offering PayPal might be disappointing for some bettors. Withdrawal processing times can take up to 24 hours, after which it depends on your payment method. 

You can download the playMGM Sports betting app for Apple smartphones and tablets from the Apple Store. It requires iOS 9.3 or later software installed on your Apple handheld device. 

It’s not possible to download the playMGM Sports Android app from the Google Play store, but you can download it directly to your mobile from the playMGM mobile website. Simply go to playMGM using your smartphone handset or tablet, select New Jersey when prompted and follow the simple instructions to download. 

The mobile betting app has all the same betting coverage as the desktop site. It also offers the same easy navigation and simple design. In fact, there are a few neat extras offered with the app, such as a trending feature that details all the changing-as-we-speak bets and markets. However, the app’s betting coverage gets lower marks for the same reasons as the desktop site (see below). 

The welcome offer for new playMGM Sports bettors is, in our view, one of the best offered by any New Jersey sportsbook. Effectively, playMGM Sports offers 100% cash back on your first bet up to a value of $100. A $25 minimum bet is required to activate this bonus. The cash is awarded if your first bet loses, and it is not subject to any further terms and conditions. The promotion, therefore, is truly risk free and is somewhat refreshing when compared to the promotions from other NJ sportsbooks that can become a minefield of terms and conditions. In addition to this cash back offer, playMGM also credits you with $25 FREEPLAY to use on the playMGM Casino app. Other NJ online sportsbooks, such as BetAmerica and DraftKings, have bigger, flashier welcome promotions, but we see playMGM’s as a cut above due to its lack of restrictions. 

However, while playMGM Sports has a fantastic no-strings attached welcome bonus, we feel its range of regular sports betting promotions could be improved. Indeed, the promotions section of the sportsbook is overlapped with that of playMGM Casino and Poker. There is plenty in the way of promos for those products, but only a couple of offers for sports betting. In saying that, the betting offers are strong. For example, over the summer of 2019 playMGM Sports is running three daily promotions where you will receive either 100% or 50% cash back if you place a losing bet on selected spots. What sets playMGM Sports apart from many rival sportsbooks is that all these promotions have no hidden catches or restrictions. 

Two other important points should be made about playMGM’s range of promotions: First, as of yet, it does not seem that playMGM has integrated its online sportsbook into its renowned loyalty program – playMGM iRewards. Second, its Boosted Bets offering, which gives enhanced odds on selected markets, is limited in the amount of offers, but generous in its value. For example, playMGM Sports offers an enhanced price of 11.0 (+1100) on either the LA Clippers or LA Lakers to win the 2020 NBA Championship. Those teams are the two preseason favorites for the NBA Championship (Clippers are odds of 4.00 and the Lakers 5.00), so you can see that is a generous promo that will pay out if either team wins the championship in 2020. 

We always feel that the best online sportsbooks should prioritize substance over style. So, as long as the functionality is up to scratch, we usually give sites a pass if they don’t look visually stunning. After all, bettors aren’t on a betting site to admire the design. However, we can’t help but think that playMGM’s online sportsbook would be helped by adding a dash of color to the site. Even if we overlook the aesthetics, it can be difficult to read the betting lines with the white on dark gray template. Site navigation is fine, although you can, at times, be pulled away from the sportsbook into the parts of the site integrated for casino and poker. Indeed, the sportsbook feels like an extension of playMGM Casino, rather than its own separate entity. We aren’t sure of MGM’s plans here, but the sportsbook could do with a lot of fleshing out. 

playMGM Sports covers all of the major sports and leagues: football, soccer, tennis, hockey, basketball, boxing, mma, rugby, auto sports, cricket and baseball betting are all covered, and we could not find any major leagues or events excluded. Horse betting is not available due to a legal restriction that affects all legal NJ online sportsbooks. There isn’t much in the way of niche sports, and it would be nice to see some options for betting on athletics, lacrosse, bowling, cycling and darts added to the sportsbook.  

In terms of depth of betting coverage for each sport, playMGM Sports lags behind other NJ sportsbooks like FanDuel and BetAmerica. For example, most sportsbooks have at least two dozen unique betting lines for a typical MLB game, with some having more than 50. Yet, playMGM has just eight separate betting markets for a standard MLB game (we randomly selected Chicago Cubs vs Pittsburgh Pirates on July 13th, 2019). Similar limitations were found in betting markets for tennis, soccer and football. To put it into perspective, we found that playMGM had a single moneyline betting market for the 2019 Men’s Wimbledon Final, whereas BetAmerica had 45 unique betting markets. 

In terms of betting quality, i.e. testing playMGM Sport’s betting odds against its competitors, we randomly selected the futures market of the English Premier League 2019/20 season. We put playMGM up against William Hill, Caesars and BetAmerica, finding that playMGM had the joint-best odds at 1.63 (+160) for the favorite, Manchester City, and the second-best odds for the next favorite, Liverpool. We found playMGM to be similarly competitive in other sports betting markets, so we assume bettors will be fairly happy they are getting value for money in their bets with playMGM. 

As you might expect, the in-play betting coverage suffers due to the lack of depth in the overall betting markets. For instance, we looked at playMGM’s live betting platform during the 2019 Women’s Wimbledon Final and found but a handful (4-5) of betting options and a lack of statistics and other information. That’s a disappointing for one of the year’s most important sporting events and puts playMGM well behind several of its competitors. Compare that Wimbledon final coverage with, say, PlayAmerica’s live betting console, which offered dozens of betting markets, live updated statistics, fast bet options and infographics, and you can see that playMGM needs major surgery on its live betting platform to bring it up to industry standard. On the plus side, odds did update quickly on the live betting platform and there are no reports of software issues impacting things like cashing out bets.