Super Bowl 55 is Showtime vs. The GOAT.
But, if you’re one of the hundreds of millions of Super Bowl betting enthusiasts in the US and around the world, it’s also You vs. the Sportsbooks.
That’s because, like each year, the best legal online betting sites have hundreds of Super Bowl props, specials, spreads, straights, totals, and parlays to choose from.
And if you want to put money on any of these, you’ve got to place all the wagers you’re interested in by the game’s 6:30 PM kickoff on Super Bowl Sunday (February 7).
For many bettors, that won’t be a problem, as their accounts are primed for the big game with plenty of cash to gamble on every interesting line.
Of course, for many other bettors, deposits – especially fast deposits – can be a problem.
This is particularly true for first-time bettors who’ve never wagered on sports before.
Remember, this isn’t just the Super Bowl, it’s also the Super Bowl of betting.
This is where most budding sports gamblers cut their eyeteeth and place their very first real-money online wagers.
And with just four days to go until the biggest game of the sporting year, there’s not much time left for new members to get their accounts funded, take advantage of their sportsbooks’ various welcome bonuses, and wager on Super Bowl LV.
Of course, depending on the deposit method you choose, there’s also plenty of time to make sure your account’s topped off and you can wager on all the action you want as soon as you see a line you like.
You just have to pick the right banking method.
Luckily, doing that is easy enough, and we’re here to help.
At any major site we recommend, there are basically five quick ways to fund your legal online betting account.
(There are more options than that, but we’re not including slower ones like bank wires, money orders, and cashier’s checks here, because none of those transfers will be credited to your sportsbook account in time to let you actually bet on the Super Bowl.)
These rapid banking methods are the following:
- Credit/Debit Cards
- Cryptocurrencies
- Zelle-To-Bitcoin
- QuickBit/QB Direct
- Sportsbook Voucher (PayPal, Venmo, etc.)
Each of the above can offer you nearly instant deposits, and they all have their pros and cons. Further, we recommend going through the above options in the order presented.
The first way that most users make their online sports betting deposits is to use a credit or debit card.
Most of the top online sportsbooks accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover. Additionally, they also tend to take prepaid cards (or secured credit cards), as well as gift cards, provided the latter are rated for international purchases.
These are legal offshore sportsbooks, remember.
However, credit and debit cards have a few drawbacks to be aware of.
First, they are sometimes rejected due to the United State’s UIGEA banking law.
This happens 5-10% of the time, and when you need to bet on the Super Bowl right now, that sort of rejection rate can end up costing you a lot of money if you miss out on a valuable line.
Secondly, if the transfer does go through, it’ll usually comes with a surcharge of 3-9%.
This is not levied by your sportsbook, however. Instead, the card’s issuing bank assesses these fees based on various criteria.
If you want to maximize the success rate of your deposit – and the quantity of your deposit – you may prefer a different method.
Cryptocurrencies are the next option.
In addition, for our money, they also happen to be the best option.
Bitcoin betting deposits, Bitcoin Cash betting, and other altcoin betting options have zero added fees, are never interrupted by the UIGEA (i.e. have a 100% success rate), come with enhanced Super Bowl betting bonus perks, and allow bettors to claim same-day payouts.
This combination of features makes crypto the most compelling option for all sports gamblers, and it’s how we prefer to wager.
But BTC and other cryptos aren’t without their issues.
The biggest of these is simply this: If you don’t already hold any crypto, there probably isn’t time between now and Super Bowl Sunday to actually get your hands on any with which to deposit into your betting account.
While crypto deposits instantly at these sites once you actually have the stuff, it can take up to 10 days to acquire it through the typical commercial cryptocurrency exchanges.
Therefore, if you’re new to betting and new to crypto, but you want to bet on Super Bowl 55 with Bitcoin or a supported altcoin, you might not be able to.
Except you totally still can!
That’s because the best online sportsbooks have anticipated this lead time re crypto acquisition and have implemented a few options to let you cut out the wait.
Bovada, for example, advertises the Zelle-Bitcoin process. This shows site members how to use Zelle Pay – a US-based instant-pay service that most users already have access to through their banks – to privately buy BTC on the LocalBitcoins exchange.
Instead of 10 days, this takes about 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, legal betting sites like MyBookie, BetOnline, and SportsBetting AG use a service called QB Direct (aka QuickBit), which works in a similar manner.
But instead of buying BTC with Zelle Pay, QB Direct deposits let you buy Litecoin (LTC) with your credit or debit card and then have that LTC transferred directly into your Super Bowl sportsbook.
This doesn’t take 10 days or even 30 minutes. It takes about 10 seconds!
The final option – if none of the above are satisfactory – is to use a sportsbook voucher (aka a player transfer) at any site that supports them.
Right now, the best site offering this kind of deposit is Bovada.
Bovada Vouchers allow site members to buy portions of other site members’ account balances, which are then credited to their own accounts immediately.
The big advantage offered by vouchers is that bettors can use payment options otherwise unsupported by their sportsbooks.
For example, you can’t make a legal sports betting deposit at any offshore betting site using PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, etc.
However, if you buy a sports betting voucher from a fellow site member, you can send them your payment using any of these P2P services, which many users find extremely convenient.
And, of course, once you have your Bovada Voucher code, you can deposit the funds instantly and bet on the Super Bowl immediately.
Well, there you have it: the five best ways to quickly fund your sportsbook account in time to bet on Super Bowl LV.
And as avid bettors, there’s nothing we Super Bowl LOVE more than that!