Overview
With sports betting becoming legal in New Jersey, the casino Sugarhouse launched their own sports betting platform. When it was first introduced, only bets were able to be placed inside the casino. Now Sugarhouse has introduced sports betting online from anywhere within the boundaries of NJ.
Sugarhouse got it’s start in the United States market with sports betting in New Jersey. Many other casinos and apps have also recently opened up sports betting in New Jersey, but Sugarhouse was one of the first ones to do so. They set expectations very high as it most very smooth for the most part.
Previous to online betting with Sugarhouse, they allowed you to make picks from a kiosk inside the casino and watch any game you’d like in a room with many flat screen TV’s. Now you’re able to do the same thing, but within your own home on the couch.
Sign Up Process
When signing up, you must go through a number of simple steps.
- Fill out your name, address, social security number, and birthday.
- Create a Username, password, and three different security questions.
- You must then provide an email and confirm this email with a link that is sent to your inbox.
- The 4th and final step has you take a picture of a form of identification, like a driver’s license. Once you send the picture of your ID, you simply wait for them to approve it and then you will be sent an email that informs you that your registration is complete.
Once you have been approved, you may now sign in to your account with the username and password you created. When you have logged in, you are required to download an app on either your phone or computer that checks your location.
With Sugarhouse, you must be in NJ to place bets. This location validation app uses GPS to check your current location and make sure that you are within the boundaries. While this app works correctly about 90% of the time, there are certain instances where you have to close the app and web browser and then reopen both. I haven’t witnessed any problems after a quick reopen.
Deposit Options
There are five different options for making deposits through the site.
- Through online banking. Simply link your bank account, and the money will be taken out of your checking account.
- Through a debit/credit card.
- Through the Sugarhouse play + card. The play card is basically Sugarhouses own credit card that you may load money onto with any form of payment.
- Pay with cash at the actual casino. You go to the casino cage, give the attendant money, and they will load it onto your account. The only thing you need is your ID and login information.
- Wire transfer. You may send money from any account you’d like, directly to Sugarhouse. This is similar to the first online banking option; the only difference is that you’re not giving Sugarhouse your banking information.
I’ve personally used the play card option and the credit card option. Both methods seem to work flawlessly and don’t present any problems.
Withdrawal Options
When it comes to withdrawing your money, you have four different options.
- Online banking. This works the same way that the online deposit method works.
- Through the playcard. You load your money onto the playcard, and you can insert the playcard into an ATM like any regular banking card. It also works at select retailers.
- Cash at the cage. You would simply print a slip with your withdrawal amount and then take it to Sugarhouse casino. The attendant at the cage will then give you cash for the amount you’ve requested.
- Check by mail. Once you receive the check, you may cash it or deposit it at your local banking branch.
Bonuses & Promotions*
Sugarhouse currently only offers one deposit bonus. You enter the code “250match” and Sugarhouse will double your deposit up the amount of 250. Therefore when you deposit $250, you will have $500.
The only requirement for the bonus is that you must collectively bet the entire amount before withdrawing. Say the bonus is $250, once you make $250 worth of bets, the bonus funds become “unlocked.”
Sugarhouse also offers a bonus store. With every wager that you place, you gain points. With these points, you purchase a handful of different mini-games that will reward you money. The most used one on the site is the “wheel.” It is a wheel that has a spinner with a bunch of different amounts of money on it.
There are different levels of wheels that present greater amounts of money. The cheapest wheel that is 100 points has different landing spots that vary from $1-$10. The wheel is surely luck, and ironically enough seems to land on one of the lower numbers every time.
Sports, Lines & Limits
Sugarhouse offers pretty much every sport that you could imagine. From Baseball to Tennis, to Australian rules football, Nascar, soccer, and basketball played in various different countries. The lines vary from moneylines, spreads, and many different prop bets. There is also a lot of future bets that can be made.
For example, the winner of a championship, division winners, conference winners, tournament winners, and so on. As far as betting limits, I haven’t seen any as of now. I don’t believe there is any limit on the amount you may bet, although there is a limit on deposit amounts. The deposit limit is $10,000 and is reset every 24 hours.
Mobile Betting
As far as mobile betting goes, there is only an app for android phones. The app for IOS is still in the works. With this said though, you can log in to your account from a web browser on your apple phone. Safari works great and sends an alert to the location services app every time you go to the site to make sure you are still located in NJ. If you are not, the site will not load properly.
Live Betting
When it comes to live betting, there are many different options for all sports. One option that is always there is the over/under of goals or points that will be scored.
You can go into the live betting during any baseball game and make a wager on “will the next batter get a hit?” or “will the home team score 2 or more runs before the game ends?”
All of the live betting options are similar and change depending on the sport. Sugarhouse responds very fast, and the odds change by the second. With live betting, you don’t have any time to spare and have to submit your picks almost instantly.
Additional Offerings
Currently, Sugarhouse doesn’t offer poker, but they offer many different casino games. The games they have now are roulette, blackjack, and slots. There are many different variations of slots with all different types of themes.
They also offer a racebook if you’re looking to place a wager on your favorite horse. This isn’t an everyday thing for them, but whenever there’s a big race going on like the Kentucky Derby, there is sure to be options for you to bet on.
I’m sure that they will offer live poker soon enough. The actual casino has a humongous poker room, and they promote it often. An online poker option is sure to be in the works.
Customer Service
So far I’ve only had one experience with customer service. A couple of weeks after creating my account, I wanted to change my password. To do so, you must answer all three of your security questions correctly.
At the time I couldn’t remember the answer to all three so after five or six attempts my account was locked. I then had to get on the live chat with customer service. They were great and required me to send them a picture of my ID to prove who I was. After this was done, the representative sent me the answer to my security questions and suggested I write them down for next time.
Pros
- Design. The bet slip is extremely easy to read, and all the options for different games are very legible. When creating a bet slip, it’s also very clean when making a parlay. You can switch back from single individual bets, round robins, or parlays. The “bet history” is also very clean. It’s easy to see which wagers you’ve won or lost and the status of pending wagers.
- Buy out feature. If you accidentally make a bet, you have the option to buy it out. This will give your money back at the same or close rate unless the odds have changed since placing it. It also gives you the opportunity to make money. Let’s say you placed a 5 team parlay and the first 4 have won, and the final game is tomorrow. Sugarhouse gives you the chance to buy it out at the adjusted amount based off current results.
- Extremely secure. When using Sugarhouse sportsbook, I never feel like my information is in jeopardy. Every time I log in, a notification is sent to my email address. This means that if anyone ever logged into my account, I would be notified via email right away. They seem to have a very trustworthy operation going on, and this gives you relief when placing wagers with your hard-earned money.
Cons
So far, there is only one problem that I have with the sportsbook. The problem is the location verification every time you sign in.
While it normally works very well, they have been numerous times where I have to open and close my browser and sign back in. This isn’t a huge problem, but one that may cost you an extra minute or so every once in a while.
Summary
Overall Sugarhouse is a really great start for someone who wants to place wagers in NJ. Their website is extremely clean and functions very well. The wagers place really smoothly, and the buy out feature is a nice option to have. They always have every game that I’m interested in, and a great selection of future bets.
Live betting isn’t a consistent way to make money, but it can be exciting to place one when watching a game from the comfort of your house. The site seems to be continuing to grow, and I believe they will only get better with time. The website has received multiple improvements since it has opened up. When the community has a problem with a feature, Sugarhouse seems to work on it very fast.
I’m looking forward to seeing the sportsbook get bigger and better as time goes on. This is only the beginning for us sports fans that love to place the occasional or everyday wager.
*First Deposit Bonus may only be claimed once per person across all Rivers and SugarHouse websites.