Delaware Sports Betting: Legal Apps, Sportsbooks & Betting Laws

• ✓ Legal, both ways Wagering is legal and regulated online through BetRivers and in person at three casinos.
• ⚑ Lottery-run The Delaware Lottery runs the market through one contracted operator rather than competing licensees.
• 📱 One app BetRivers is the only legal app, reachable through three casino-branded skins on one platform.
• ⛪ Where You must be 21 and physically inside Delaware, confirmed by geolocation; residency is not required.
• ⚖ First after Nevada Delaware took the country’s first post-ban single-game bet outside Nevada on June 5, 2018.

It is. Wagering on sports is legal and regulated in Delaware whether you do it on your phone or at a casino counter. Only Nevada beat the state to a legal single-game bet, which Delaware started taking at retail on June 5, 2018. For more than five years that was the whole market. Phones came into play once BetRivers went live with a quiet launch on Dec. 27, 2023, followed by a statewide rollout on Jan. 3, 2024. For a full state-by-state breakdown, see our guide to states with legal sports betting.

The reason the state has just one app is structural: betting here is run through the Delaware Lottery rather than through a field of competing licensees. To wager legally you need to be 21 or older and physically within the state’s borders, which the app verifies by geolocation. Living in Delaware is not a requirement, so travelers can bet while they are inside the state. Beyond sports, the state also permits daily fantasy for players 18 and up, internet casino gaming and horse race wagering.

Only one legal, state-approved app exists in Delaware, and it holds its authorization through the Delaware Lottery. Sticking with a regulated book buys real protections: your identity and age are checked, your money sits with a licensed company, your location is verified before any bet clears and a state regulator can intervene if a payout goes sideways. Those safeguards are exactly what the offshore sites in the next section lack.

How to Reach BetRivers in Delaware

Because Delaware law lets each casino attach its own name to the product, you can reach BetRivers through three casino-branded sites and a pair of apps, yet every route lands on one platform with identical odds and markets. The sites are delawarepark.betrivers.com, ballycasino.betrivers.com and harrington.betrivers.com. On the App Store and Google Play, look for the BetRivers Sportsbook app and the Bally Casino by BetRivers app. Pick whichever you like; the odds, the markets and your account work the same on all of them.

A bill called House Bill 365, from Reps. Frank Cooke and William Bush, would have allowed each casino to sign with two online books and grow the market to as many as six. It cleared a House committee but stalled before reaching the finish line, so it never became law. Barring a future bill, BetRivers stays the only legal app in the state.

With a single legal app on offer, some Delaware bettors look to offshore sites instead. None of these platforms answer to a U.S. state regulator. They run out of places such as Panama, Curacao, Costa Rica and Antigua, well beyond the reach of Delaware oversight. This section is here to inform, not to recommend. These books hold no U.S. license, so they are not regulated or legal the way BetRivers is. The federal statutes people cite most, the 1961 Wire Act and the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, put the legal weight on the operators and on the banks and processors that move the money, not on a person placing a bet. In practice, no American has been charged simply for wagering at an offshore book. That still does not make these sites regulated, protected or officially allowed.

Several more offshore books market to Delaware bettors, all unlicensed and unregulated in the U.S.:

• SportsBetting.ag — based in Panama City and licensed by that country’s gaming board, opened in the early 2000s and part of the BetOnline group since 2012. It largely mirrors BetOnline’s reach, sitting out only New Jersey, which is why trackers list Delaware as accepted; bettors point to high limits, broad crypto support and a poker room on the Chico network.
• Everygame — spent decades as Intertops, founded 1983 and claiming the first internet sports bet in 1996, before taking the Everygame name in December 2021. It runs under an Antigua and Barbuda license with a durable payout record and deep soccer coverage; Delaware does not appear among the states it usually blocks (Maryland, Washington, New York, Louisiana, Missouri, New Jersey and Kentucky).
• XBet — launched around 2013, works out of San Jose, Costa Rica on a Curacao license and is a sister site of MyBookie. Its Delaware standing is shaky: several current trackers put Delaware on XBet’s restricted list, matching MyBookie’s own Delaware block, even though an older source once listed it as open. Check its live Delaware availability yourself before counting on it.
• MyBookie — arrived in August 2014 and runs from San Jose, Costa Rica on a Curacao license. Its Delaware status is genuinely muddy: some trackers say it serves 46 states and blocks only Nevada, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, while others updated in late 2025 put Delaware among the blocked states. Confirm Delaware access directly first.

Bovada, another heavily advertised offshore brand, currently shuts out Delaware, which is why it is left off the profiles here. Offshore availability and terms move around without warning, so treat any list as a snapshot and check the current status before you deposit.

Three retail books operate in the state, one inside each racetrack casino. They share a single betting menu under Delaware Lottery rules, with Scientific Games running the retail side, but ownership, amenities and racing differ from one to the next. In-person wagering predates the app by more than five years. You have to be 21 to get in on it.

Bally’s Dover Race and Sports Book (Dover)

The counter at Bally’s Dover Casino Resort, the property once known as Dover Downs Hotel and Casino, is where Gov. John Carney put down the first legal single-game bet outside Nevada on June 5, 2018. Bally’s Corp. owns it, and the resort wraps a casino and sportsbook together with a hotel and harness racing, alongside the Dover Motor Speedway and its NASCAR weekends. Find it at 1131 N. DuPont Highway, Dover, DE 19901, or call 302-674-4600.

Moneyline Sports Bar and Lounge at Delaware Park (Wilmington)

Delaware Park’s book, the Moneyline Sports Bar and Lounge, is the biggest and busiest of the three and usually tops the state in retail handle. It occupies the casino’s second floor behind a large video wall and dozens of screens. The wider property packs in more than 2,000 machines, table games, a poker room, restaurants and thoroughbred racing that runs roughly May through October, plus simulcast all year. Its spot near Wilmington, about 45 minutes from Philadelphia and an hour from Baltimore, makes it the easiest of the three to reach. The address is 777 Delaware Park Blvd., Wilmington, DE 19804; the phone is 302-994-2521.

Murphy’s Race and Sports Book at Harrington (Harrington)

Murphy’s Race and Sports Book operates inside Harrington Raceway and Casino, on the Delaware State Fairgrounds and owned by the Delaware State Fair. It is the smallest of the trio by handle but delivers the complete retail experience, from pro and college football, basketball, baseball and hockey to golf and racing, along with harness racing and simulcast betting on site. Reach it at 18500 S. DuPont Highway, Harrington, DE 19952, or 302-398-4920.

Away from the casinos, parlay cards on pro and college football still turn up at more than 100 ordinary lottery retailers through the state’s Sports Pick game, a leftover from the years when parlays were all Delaware could legally offer.

1. Decide where to play. Online means BetRivers. In person, head to Bally’s Dover, Murphy’s at Harrington or the Moneyline at Delaware Park.
2. Open an account. Sign up for BetRivers with your name, birth date and address, then confirm your identity with a government ID. You can do this from anywhere, but the bet itself has to happen inside Delaware. Retail play needs no account at all.
3. Add money. Online, use the Play+ prepaid card, PayPal, a bank transfer, a debit or credit card, an e-check or cash through PayNearMe. At a casino, ask the cage which methods it takes.
4. Grab a bonus if one is running. New online users are the usual targets; retail promos rarely show up.
5. Make the bet. Build a slip, set your stake and confirm on the app, or hand your pick to a teller or self-serve kiosk.
6. Cash out. Online, pick a withdrawal method; in person, collect at the cage. Minimums and maximums may apply either way.

Mobile Sports Betting

Every mobile bet in the state goes through BetRivers. You can register from anywhere in a few minutes, but once you go to wager the app checks that you are physically inside Delaware before it lets the bet through. A single account carries across the standalone apps and the casino-branded sites, since they all sit on one platform. Phones now bring in most of Delaware’s total handle even though the counters came first, though the one-operator setup keeps the state’s totals modest next to its open, multi-book neighbors.

Delaware bettors get the full slate of wager types, within the state’s college and in-state limits: futures (a long-range result such as a league title), point spread (back a team to cover a margin), live and in-game (wager after the whistle, at counters and kiosks too), parlays (stack several picks, every leg needing to hit), moneyline (pick the outright winner), teasers (shift the spread across games for a smaller payout), totals (the combined score over or under a number) and props (specific events, just not on individual college athletes). Prices show as American odds, with a minus in front of favorites and a plus in front of underdogs: a team at -270 means you put up $270 to win $100, while an opponent at +220 means a $100 bet returns $220 in profit.

What You Cannot Bet On

The state fences off a handful of things, some of which set it apart from other markets: college player performance (no individual props on college athletes), anything involving a Delaware team (amateur or pro), Delaware college programs, elections and politics, and youth and high school sports. Esports are not offered because the Lottery has not signed off on them. One market Delaware does welcome, unlike most states, is the NFL Draft.

Teams to Bet On

No major pro team calls Delaware home, so betting energy flows to the clubs next door. Most of the state’s roughly 1 million residents live in New Castle County, where Wilmington sits about 30 miles below Philadelphia, putting Philadelphia teams at the front of the line: the Eagles, Phillies, Flyers and 76ers, with the Ravens and Orioles out of Baltimore, the Commanders in Washington and Pittsburgh’s Steelers, Pirates and Penguins also in the mix. The University of Delaware Blue Hens and the Delaware State Hornets both have followings and a shared history of NCAA Tournament trips, but neither can be wagered on from inside the state.

Delaware’s story stretches back further than most states, and that head start is exactly why it launched first in 2018. The thread begins in 1976, when the Delaware Lottery ran NFL parlay cards for a lone season. Interest fizzled and the product was shelved, but the statute that authorized it never left the books. That dormant statute proved decisive in 1992: when Congress passed the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which took hold in early 1993 and blocked states from sanctioning sports betting, Delaware slipped through a grandfather clause alongside Nevada, Oregon and Montana because it already had a sports lottery law on record. The narrow lane it kept was NFL parlay wagering.

In 2009, with the budget under strain, Gov. Jack Markell signed a bill on May 14 to widen the sports lottery into full single-game betting. The NBA, NCAA, NFL, NHL and MLB filed suit on July 24, 2009, and on Aug. 31, 2009, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals held that Delaware could offer nothing beyond the pre-1992 NFL parlay format. The Supreme Court passed on the appeal in 2010. Parlay betting resumed that September, but single-game action stayed off the table.

The opening came from New Jersey’s long court fight. On May 14, 2018, the Supreme Court threw out PASPA as unconstitutional in Murphy v. NCAA, handing the decision back to the states. Delaware’s officials concluded their existing laws already covered expanded betting, and barely three weeks later, on June 5, 2018, Gov. Carney placed the country’s first post-ban single-game bet outside Nevada at Dover Downs. Retail carried the market alone for over five years. The original contractor, 888 Holdings with William Hill, never shipped a mobile product, and that deal ran out in 2023. Delaware then handed the business to Rush Street Interactive, whose BetRivers platform eased online on Dec. 27, 2023 before opening statewide on Jan. 3, 2024.

Delaware Sports Betting Timeline

• 1976: The Delaware Lottery offers NFL parlay cards for a single season, then drops them. The enabling law stays on the books.
• 1992: Congress passes PASPA. Delaware is grandfathered in thanks to its existing parlay offering.
• May 14, 2009: Gov. Jack Markell signs a bill to bring single-game betting to the state.
• July 24, 2009: The NBA, NCAA, NFL, NHL and MLB sue Delaware under PASPA.
• Aug. 31, 2009: The Third Circuit limits Delaware to NFL parlay wagering. Parlays resume that September.
• 2010: The Supreme Court declines to hear Delaware’s appeal.
• 2012: Delaware legalizes internet casino and poker under the Gaming Competitiveness Act.
• July 26, 2017: Gov. John Carney signs the Delaware Interactive Fantasy Contest Act, legalizing daily fantasy.
• May 14, 2018: The Supreme Court strikes down PASPA in Murphy v. NCAA.
• June 5, 2018: Delaware opens single-game retail betting, the first outside Nevada.
• 2023: The 888 and William Hill deal expires. Rush Street Interactive is picked to take over.
• Dec. 27, 2023: BetRivers soft-launches online betting.
• Jan. 3, 2024: BetRivers goes fully live statewide.
• 2024 to 2026: House Bill 365, aimed at opening the market to more operators, advances in committee but dies without passing.

Legally, sports betting in Delaware is a sports lottery governed by Title 29, Chapter 48 of the Delaware Code and administered by the Delaware Lottery, a division of the Department of Finance. Background vetting and criminal enforcement fall to the Division of Gaming Enforcement, which sits inside the Department of Safety and Homeland Security under 29 Del. C. Section 8236. Today’s framework grew out of a 2009 measure, House Bill 100, adopted as House Substitute 1, which told the Lottery director to bring back a sports lottery and kept out anyone under 21 and any contest involving a Delaware college or university. In statute, a sports lottery reaches pro, college and esports events inside or outside the state but leaves out any college game tied to a Delaware school and any amateur or pro event involving a Delaware team. Key points:

• Betting is legal at the three casinos and online through BetRivers.
• The state keeps half of sports betting revenue.
• Only the Lottery’s contracted operator may run online betting; the three casino licensees do not hold separate sports betting licenses.
• The casinos split a yearly fee of roughly $4.5 million, paid according to each one’s share of the video lottery market and not tied only to sports betting.

Official sources: Delaware Lottery sports lottery rules, the Delaware Administrative Code Title 10, Section 204, the Division of Gaming Enforcement, the Delaware Code Title 29, Chapter 48 and its Subchapter I including Section 4825, the Delaware General Assembly (text of House Bills 365, 333 and 100), the Lottery FAQs on prizes and tax withholding, the Delaware Interactive Fantasy Contests page and the Third Circuit’s 2009 ruling.

What sets Delaware apart is that the state itself runs the show. Sports betting here is a Lottery product, not a set of private licenses competing for customers. The Delaware Lottery owns the framework top to bottom, hires one company to operate the betting and keeps the largest slice of the take — closer to how the state runs its terminals and draw games than to the licensing model in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, which is precisely why there is one app instead of a crowd.

Instead of opening the door to any qualified book, the Lottery runs a competitive bid, picks a single technology partner and signs an exclusive multiyear contract. Rush Street Interactive holds that contract now and runs everything as BetRivers, having taken over from 888 Holdings and William Hill. Kambi handles the odds and risk management, while Scientific Games supplies the retail counters. Delaware’s three racetrack casinos serve as sports lottery agents rather than independently licensed sportsbooks — state law automatically clears any licensed video lottery agent to host a sports lottery on its floor, so Delaware Park, Bally’s Dover and Harrington needed no separate sportsbook licenses. They staff the counters and lend their names to the three online skins, and split a yearly fee of about $4.5 million set by each property’s share of the video lottery market.

The Lottery director decides which games and bet types are offered, sets the minimums and maximums, can turn down a wager and has to approve every operator ad — which is why some markets are on, such as the NFL Draft, while others are off, such as esports. By law, the Lottery has to run the sports lottery to bring in the most money for the state while holding the state’s risk of loss to a minimum. The state keeps half of sports betting revenue, with about 40 percent going to the racinos and 10 percent to the horsemen once vendor costs come out. That heavy public cut, rare among betting states, is the model’s central bargain: less competition and slimmer promotions for bettors, but a large, steady return for Delaware even when the handle is small.

The market is small, but the state’s 50 percent cut turns even modest volume into real public money. Handle jumped once the app added a mobile channel. Across 2024, the sportsbook pulled in roughly $216.2 million in wagers, up about 231 percent from the year before, producing around $24.9 million in gross gaming revenue and about $8.6 million in state tax. Delaware then wrapped 2025 with close to $253.3 million wagered, and its best single month on record came in November 2025 at about $31.2 million.

Delaware holds back a bigger share of betting proceeds than most states: the usual shorthand is half to the state, about 40 percent to the racinos and roughly 10 percent to the horsemen after vendor costs. Video lottery money, a separate and larger pot, splits differently: something like 42 percent to the tracks, 40 percent to the General Fund, 10 percent to racing purses and about 7 percent for technology. Some Lottery proceeds also feed problem-gambling programs run through the Department of Health and Social Services.

Taxes on Sports Betting Winnings

Winnings count as income and are taxable at both the federal and Delaware levels, a spot where a lot of guides get it wrong. Delaware does not withhold state tax at the moment a prize pays out, but that is not the same as tax-free: the Lottery is clear that every winning Delaware Lottery ticket, sports wagers included, is subject to Delaware income tax, and residents owe it at filing time at a top rate near 6.6 percent. Federally, the Lottery withholds 24 percent on any prize above $5,000, and on the sports side, on any prize over $600 that is also more than 300 times the wager. Big winners get a Form W-2G, and that 24 percent is only a down payment, since the final federal rate can climb to 37 percent. Nonresidents who win generally have to file a Delaware nonresident return. This is general information, not tax advice.

On BetRivers, the everyday deposit and payout options run to the Play+ prepaid card, PayPal, bank transfers, debit and credit cards, e-checks and cash through PayNearMe at partner locations. How fast money moves depends on the method, with cards and e-wallets generally quicker than bank transfers, and minimum and maximum limits can apply. At the three counters, betting and payouts happen with cash, cards or casino chips at the cage and kiosks, and since accepted methods can differ by property, phone ahead if you need a particular one. A single legal app also means thinner promotions than competitive states: BetRivers usually runs a new-customer offer, often a second-chance bet that hands back bonus credit if your opening wager loses, with the usual terms. Offshore sites tout bigger bonuses, but they come loaded with rollover requirements and none of the protections of a regulated promotion. For more, see our guide to sportsbook bonuses.

Sports betting is one piece of a wide legal gambling scene, much of it adopted early. Internet casino play has been legal since the 2012 Gaming Competitiveness Act, House Bill 333, which let each casino offer online casino games and poker in partnership with the Lottery, now under the BetRivers brand; the machines that look like slots on casino floors are technically video lottery terminals. Online poker is legal and offered by BetRivers, with Delaware pooling its tables with other states so traffic runs far larger than a state of a million could support alone. Daily fantasy has stood on firm legal ground since 2017’s Delaware Interactive Fantasy Contest Act, with operators including DraftKings, FanDuel and Yahoo, plus PrizePicks (cleared October 2024) and Underdog, for players 18 and up. Horse racing predates the casinos and is fully legal, in person at Delaware Park, Bally’s Dover and Harrington or online through advance-deposit sites such as TVG, FanDuel Racing, TwinSpires and AmWager. Prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket run nationwide as federally regulated derivatives markets under the CFTC. The Delaware Lottery also runs Powerball, Mega Millions and Lotto America, keno, scratchers and the Sports Pick parlay game, and free-to-play social sportsbooks such as Fliff, Rebet and Thrillzz operate on virtual or promotional currency.

Going early in 2012 meant Delaware had to crack problems later states inherited already solved. Nailing down a bettor’s location was tough at the start, since so many residents live within a few miles of a border, and the first checks leaned toward locking too many people out. Funding accounts was its own mess: after the 2006 UIGEA, many banks refused anything gambling-related, and at one point something like seven in ten card deposits to Delaware gaming sites were bouncing. The state pushed through both and became proof that internet gambling could be run cleanly, one state at a time.

Bettors who want more choice tend to look toward neighbors with open, multi-book markets. New Jersey and Pennsylvania are the nearest heavyweights, stocked with DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars and plenty of others. You have to be inside those states to use their apps, the same way visitors to Delaware have to be inside Delaware to use BetRivers.

On the plus side, legal online betting is available statewide through a regulated operator, the retail counters are easy to reach in Wilmington, Dover and Harrington, and the whole market is regulated with genuine consumer protections. On the downside, only one app operates in the state, there are just three retail locations, promotions are limited, and in-state college teams, esports and elections are all off limits. Legislation is the clearest way that changes: House Bill 365 would have let each casino add online partners and pushed Delaware toward the multi-book model that Pennsylvania and New Jersey use, but it advanced in committee and then stalled without becoming law. A state-run app has also been floated. Until a bill gets across the line, BetRivers remains the only legal app, with retail betting at Delaware Park, Bally’s Dover and Harrington.

Betting is supposed to be entertainment, and it is worth pulling back the moment it starts to feel like a way to chase losses or paper over money trouble. Delaware pays for free, confidential help and offers a clean route to a hard stop through a state-run self-exclusion program that covers the casinos, online gaming and sports betting alike. You enroll at the Delaware Lottery office, ideally by appointment, and choose how long it runs: one year, five years or life. The sign-up has to be your own, and breaking an exclusion carries real consequences, including forfeited winnings and possible criminal charges.

This page was last reviewed in July 2026. Primary sources include the Delaware Lottery, the Division of Gaming Enforcement, the Delaware Code Title 29 Chapter 48, the Delaware General Assembly and the Third Circuit’s 2009 ruling, all linked in the laws section above. Laws and operator availability can change, so verify the current status before acting on anything here. You must be 21 or older and physically inside Delaware to bet. Gambling problem? Call the Delaware Council on Gambling Problems at 1-888-850-8888 or 1-800-GAMBLER.