Borgata Review

With 40 U.S. states allowing sports betting, it’s no surprise that Borgata, the hotel and casino in Atlantic City, has created a sportsbook. In fact, the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa was the location of the first bet placed in New Jersey once the U.S. Supreme Court began allowing online betting in 2018. With all this history, I was keen to see what the Borgata sportsbook had to offer. Want to know more? Check out our Borgata review to see what this American sports bookmaker has to offer then click our link to sign up.

Sports and Markets

If you’re only into the main sports, you can’t go wrong with Borgata. However, as an experienced sports bettor, the sports offering did seem a little lacking. In some ways, it felt as though the Borgata sportsbook is a side hustle compared to the casino side of the site. 

The sports on offer include soccer, NFL, NCAAF, tennis, MMA, golf, NBA, NHL, football, WNBA, hockey, baseball, lacrosse, and a few others. There are around 20 in total, which is much less than the big names. The offering lacks any winter sports and athletics, for example, and there are no options to bet on esports, TV, entertainment, or politics either. 

In terms of bet options within the sports, these are better. You’ll find more than 100 bet options on football, for instance. However, less popular sports do seem to have fewer options available. 

One of the things I gathered from this sportsbook in particular is that it’s more suited to NBA and NFL fans, and their college-level events too. So, if this is what you’re interested in betting on, you’ll find everything you need here. 

To summarize, most players will find what they need here but if you’re into more niche sports or fringe events, you could wind up disappointed and might be better suited elsewhere. 

Design and Usability

I really wanted to love the Borgata platform but there were a few areas I wasn’t so keen on. Generally speaking, the site is easy to navigate. The sports are laid out nicely in the sidebar and header, and clicking through to competitions and leagues within each sport is easy too. 

There is a search function but I didn’t rate it at all, especially since there’s no way to filter results, and all too often, there are no results at all. Even the search icon itself is hidden among the other icons with the sports, easy parlay, and promotions icons rather than being separate. 

Since I found the search function a challenge, I would have preferred the live chat support to be visible on every page. However, you need to launch it separately. There is a button at the top for Help & Customer Care but rather than popping up, it takes you to a separate webpage. From there, it’s a couple of extra clicks too, rendering it a chore to find.

The mobile version of the website looks almost the same, as does the app. This makes it easier for players to switch as it all feels very familiar. I preferred the app to the desktop site as I found it quicker to navigate to where I wanted to be.

I have no complaints about the theme and design elements of the Borgata sportsbook. The icons are modern and the color scheme is black and white, which makes the colorful specials and team logos stand out. It does irritate me slightly that the icons for MLB, NFL, and NBA are different and in color, but in terms of functionality, it isn’t a huge problem.

Payment Methods and Withdrawal Times

Borgata ticks most of the boxes for available banking methods. Customers can choose from a range of options, including bank transfers, card payments, e-wallets, and more. There’s even the option of topping up your account with cash directly at the Atlantic City Borgata Hotel and Casino. There are fewer withdrawal options compared to deposit methods but the range is still outstanding. You can even choose to receive a check by mail, though be prepared to wait longer to get your cash. 

In general, deposits are credited to your account immediately, though bank transfers may not register straight away. Like any betting site, all withdrawals need to be processed by the sportsbook first, which at Borgata, can take between 3 and 5 days. This is slightly longer than many online sportsbooks advertise and doesn’t include the time it then takes to come into your account.

After the internal processing has been done, most payments are received quickly. The quickest options are PayPal, Venmo, Visa, and Play+, which are credited within 24 hours after processing. As you might expect, a check by mail will take the longest to be received and you could be waiting up to 21 business days after processing. I’d always recommend using an e-wallet for sportsbook transactions so that you can access your funds more quickly.

Live Betting Options

Compared to some sections of this review that might seem a little negative, live betting is where Borgata really stood out to me as it provides a wide range of choices. The “live” icon is first on the list and will take you straight through to the current matches and events. Compared to other sportsbooks, the location of this icon made it easy to access the live section and get betting straight away. 

Within the live section, you’ll see highlights listed first but there's a choice to click through to live-streaming and individual sports. Events that have live streaming available show an amber icon with the play symbol in white. With the black and white backdrop of Borgata, I liked how much this stood out. 

Almost all sports bets have an early cash-out option and the live odds are frequently updated. This is especially true in fast-paced events like tennis. There’s also a hand bet builder function, which means players can organize parlays as they go. 

Bet Builder

The bet builder option at Borgata is good. There’s an ‘easy parlay’ icon at the top of the home page, which makes it much easier to build your parlay bets. That said, the icon appears in between the NHL and Football icons among all the sports, which seemed a bit strange to me. 

If you don’t want to build your bets this way, you can also do it from individual sports sections by clicking on the blue ‘build parlay’ button. Once you’ve made your selections, the price appears and you can pay instantly.

Borgata Betting App

I was pleased to see that Borgata has its own sportsbook app. This looks very much like the mobile website and is available on both Android and iOS devices. The app is rated 3.9 out of 5 on the Google Play Store, although it has received less than 100 reviews, which makes it less reliable. For iOS, the ratings were better at 4.7 out of 5. 

From my experience with the app, I’d be inclined to agree with iOS users. I came across no issues and could access everything I needed to, including support, from within the app. 

Customer Support

Despite the lack of a visible live chat tab, the help section of the Borgata website has a lot of detail. There are FAQs on a range of topics and you can explore categories freely. 

To access the live chat support, you need to click through two further steps. There were also banners stating high waiting times, which didn’t fill me with much hope. Unlike some live chats, there was no AI bot conversation first. I posted my question and waited for an acknowledgment. However, no response came for 6 minutes. When my query was answered, it was a thorough response and a pleasant exchange. It would have been nice to have at least a message that acknowledged I was in a queue and would be seen. 

Customers can also contact support by sending an email to support.nj@borgataonline.com. If you choose the email option from the website, you’ll need to enter all of your personal details too, which might put some people off, especially if they have a query before signing up. 

Summary

Overall, Borgata has its pros and cons. I did find fault with a few things when reviewing this sportsbook. However, for most people, it will be suitable for their everyday sportsbook needs. Perhaps the issue is that Borgata is trying to be so many things: a casino, a sportsbook, a hotel, and a spa, that it’s just a little off the mark compared to the big-brand sportsbooks like DraftKings Sportsbook. 

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