BetRivers California Bonus Code October 2024

DISCLAIMER: Online sports betting is not live in California as of May 2023. This review is speculative based on the BetRivers Sportsbook app in states where it is available. This page will be updated when we get closer to launch day in California. 

BetRivers California will rank among the smaller sportsbooks if California sports betting ever launches, but it will also rank among the most popular.

Why? Because it offers a wide variety of betting options, as well as niche markets that no other app in the industry has. Its bonus offer, while not eye-popping in total value, comes with a salivating 1x playthrough requirement — the best among US sportsbooks.

While BetRivers doesn’t have the strongest app, it’s good enough to give users a rewarding desktop and mobile experience. In the future, you can use our BetRivers California bonus code to sign up and claim your bonus offer.

Below is a BetRivers California review, detailing all the ins and outs of this small-but-mighty online sportsbook.

Is BetRivers Legal in California?

No. Sports betting is not legal in California, so this review is purely speculative and based on the BetRivers Sportsbook platform in states where it’s legal.

BetRivers California Bonus Code October 2024

Using our BetRivers California bonus code: SHARPRIV, bettors will get a 2nd Chance Bet of up to $500 if the app ever launches in California. Terms and conditions apply.

This will be one of the more tame California sports betting bonuses in terms of overall value. However, it’s 1x playthrough requirement is the best in the industry and spices up the welcome offer a great deal.

Many US sportsbooks have veered away from calling their first-bet insurance bonuses “bonus” bets. So, although it’s called something different, BetRivers’ welcome bonus is the same thing as a bonus bet.

BetRivers California Bonus Code 📱SHARPRIV (only valid when the app launches — estimated at 2025)
Welcome Offer 💰2nd Chance Bet Up to $500
What States Allow BetRivers 🗺️AZ, CO, CT, IL, IN, IA, LA, MD, MI, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WV
BetRivers' Land-Based Partner 🏢TBA
Bonus Code Verified for ✔️October 2024

BetRivers Sportsbook Pros and Cons

Pros

✅ Highly competitive offering of sports and leagues to bet on, as well as a deep menu of available bet types.

✅ Provides an excellent library of stats that easy to access and understand.

✅ Deposit and cashout processes are usually quite fast.

Cons

😡 Possibly the worst mobile app among the major US sports betting platforms.

😡 Not as many payment options compared to competitors.

BetRivers California: Bonus and Promos (4/5)

How to Use BetRivers in California

If the sportsbook app ever launches in California, here’s how you can get your BetRivers bonus.

  1. Visit the BetRivers website.
  2. Click on Join Now at the top of the screen.
  3. On the next screen, select your state.
  4. Create an account by entering your email, and create a username and password.
  5. Enter our exclusive bonus code SHARPRIV.
  6. Download the BetRivers app to your mobile device: iOS app (App Store) or Android app (Google Play Store).
  7. Open the BetRivers app when it launches in California.
  8. Deposit at least $10 to receive your $500 2nd Chance Bet.

How the BetRivers Welcome Bonus Works

Once you enter the BetRivers California promo code, you’ll get the bonus offer of a 2nd Chance Bet of up to $500. In essence, this is the same as a $500 bonus bet, and it has just a 1x playthrough requirement — which is better than most bonus bet promo offers you’ll see. You need to place the wager within 14 days of registering.

Again: You must deposit at least $10 into your account to be eligible for the 2nd Chance Bet.

Your bet credit will load into your account within 24 hours of your first wager settling. It will expire after 30 days. The bonus bets can only be used on wagers with odds of -200 or longer.

BetRivers Current Promotions

BetRivers online sportsbook will offer much more than just a welcome bonus in California, too. Its ongoing promos are among the industry’s best. Some of the current ongoing promo offers include:

  • NBA First Field Goal Insurance — You’ll get your losing first field goal wager back if the player’s team scores 120 or more points.
  • NHL First Goal Insurance — You’ll get your losing first goal wager back if the player scores at any time.
  • NFL Playoffs First Touchdown Insurance — Get a bet credit up to $25 if the player you wager on to score first in an NFL playoff game scores at any point in the game.
  • NBA SGP Bet & Get — Get a bet credit if you place three or more NBA Same Game Parlays.
  • NHL SGP Bet & Get — Get a 20% profit boost if you place an NHL Same Game Parlay.
  • Australian Open Profit Boost — Each day you log into the BetRivers Sportsbook app each day of the Australian Open, you get a 20% profit boost credit for any Aussie Open live betting wager.

The sports betting platform also boasts a strong rewards program: the iRush Rewards program. This credits every $10 bet you make regardless of the sport with a point added to your account. Once you get up to 40 points, you’ll get access to exclusive bonus offers and promos. To find parlays and prop bets with boosted odds, head to the “House Specials” tab. It’s worth checking this out on a regular basis.

Overall, we enjoyed the consistency and quality of offerings for both the sign-up bonus and ongoing promos.

BetRivers Sportsbook California: Betting Odds (4.5/5)

BetRivers in California will stack up favorably among competitors such as DraftKings California and FanDuel California. We examined an NBA game from last season involving two California teams and compared Warriors betting lines and Lakers betting lines being offered at multiple sportsbooks.   

FanDuel was offering a more attractive line (-5.5) on the favored Golden State Warriors over the Los Angeles Lakers, but you had to pay more vig (-112 compared to -110) if you wanted to bet on Golden State there compared to BetRivers. The vig, or vigorish, is the amount a sportsbook charges to handle your bet. The average vig on standard -110 odds is 4.76%, which is what BetRivers was offering on this game. DraftKings California offered the same -6 line on the Warriors and checked in with an overall vig of 4.71%, which was a bit lower than BetRivers in this comparison.

We recommend opening multiple accounts at different sportsbooks. Sports betting odds can vary across the industry and even a half-point can mean the difference between cashing or losing a bet.

BetRivers CA: Sports Betting Options (5/5)

BetRivers will be a great option for mainstream sports bettors and niche sports bettors alike. The sportsbook app boasts a deep roster of sports betting options, including table tennis, cricket, handball, and jai lai. 

And, obviously, this app will deliver on the major sports and leagues, too — NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL, as well as college football and basketball, international soccer, golf, tennis, motorsports, boxing, MMA, and WNBA.

What Types of Bets Can I Make at BetRivers Sportsbook?

Not only will BetRivers offer a wide variety of sports to bet on in California, it will also give bettors a wide variety of wagers to make.

💰 Moneyline: Pick a team or individual to win. If they win, you win.

💰 Spread: This bet depends on the margin of victory. You want the winner or loser to cover, meaning they won by at least a certain number of points or lost by under a certain amount of points.

💰 Totals: Also called Over/Under bets, these deal with the total points, runs, or goals scored.

💰 Parlays: A bet with multiple legs — higher odds, higher potential payout.

💰 Props: Bets based on specific outcomes — first team to score, first player to make a 3-pointer, etc.

💰 Alternate lines: Multiple betting lines on one game with different odds for each.

💰 Same game parlays: A parlay bet with all legs revolving around one game.

💰 Teasers: Bets in which you can buy points on spreads or totals, but must be part of a parlay.

💰 Futures: A bet made on a season outcome — World Series winner, AFC champion, etc.

💰 Live betting: Bets made during the course of a contest, with betting odds fluctuating throughout. Also called in-game betting.

With a robust offering on both sports and bets, BetRivers grades out well in this category. Live betting has increased in popularity in recent years, and it’s important for any reputable sportsbook to offer it. Live betting is also known as in-game wagering. As the name suggests, these types of bets are made after the game is underway.

The betting markets are updated on a real-time basis. The success of any live-betting platform relies on the strength of its sports betting app. We’ll discuss this in more detail below. 

Check out the “Live Stream” feature that allows customers to view select games across a wide variety of sports that otherwise might not be televised. Local college sports and English Premier League soccer games are good examples of this. Overall, most of the sportsbook’s offerings are available to live stream.

BetRivers Sportsbook: Deposit and Cashout (5/5)

We’ve already discussed the deposit options BetRivers will likely provide its California users. The app will also offer California bettors an excellent array of withdrawal options, as well. 

Simply click the cashier tab at the top right-hand corner of the app and then select withdraw. Then you’ll need to choose your preferred method to get your payout. The options here include:

💳 BetRivers Play+ Card

🏦 Online Banking (ACH)

✔️ VIP Preferred (ACH)

💲 PayPal

💵 Cash at the Casino Cage

📬 Check By Mail

BetRivers California: Mobile App (3.5/5)

BetRivers has different sportsbook apps for different states, such as BetRivers Sportsbook New York, BetRivers Illinois, BetRivers Colorado, and so on.

As of February 2023, those three BetRivers Sportsbook apps had 4.6 stars, 4.6 stars, and 4.7 stars, respectively, on the App Store. Meanwhile, they had 4.3 stars, 3.8 stars, and 3.8 stars, respectively, on the Google Play Store. It takes up 64.4 MB of space, making it one of the smaller sports betting apps in the US.

To Rush Street Interactive’s credit, BetRivers has significantly improved its app quality over the past year. Before, it lagged far too much. Now, even though it isn’t an industry leader, the BetRivers Sportsbook app is serviceable on both iOS and Android devices — and its rating is steadily rising in the Google Play Store.

However, there are still reviews mentioning slow navigation and glitches — both of which are big red flags for live betting, which is becoming more and more popular in sports betting.   

Overall, when it comes to the BetRivers app in California, we expect it to be the platform’s best version whenever it’s allowed to launch. BetRivers is clearly on the right trajectory when it comes to its mobile experience.

BetRivers California: Customer Service (5/5)

The BetRivers Sportsbook customer service center provides a total of 127 articles answering questions on various topics, including withdrawals, geolocation, mobile, registration, bonuses, and more.

If a bettor can’t find any answers there, they can also use the 24/7 live chat feature that connects you with a real person. We were talking to a human customer service representative within 30 seconds.

If neither of those options work, you can also email BetRivers support via a contact form on the site. And if all else fails, bettors can try to call the BetRivers Sportsbook phone number: (773) 893-5855. That’s the phone number for Rush Street Interactive, BetRivers’ parent company.

Setting Limits at BetRivers California

Like most major sportsbooks, BetRivers gives its customers the option of self-imposing gambling limits on its responsible gambling page. Users can set limits on the time they spend on the app, how much they deposit into the app, and how much they spend per wager.

BetRivers also offers a cool-off period, where bettors can temporarily prevent themselves from accessing the app. Or there’s also the option of self-exclusion, which would lock the customer out of the app for a longer period of time.

Once these limits are set, they cannot be modified.

BetRivers Sportsbook California: Overall Grade (4.5/5)

For those seeking options behind the “big three” of DraftKings, FanDuel, and BetMGM California, BetRivers is arguably the next-best option other than Caesars Sportsbook. Yes, other sportsbooks provide a better mobile app experience. But this Rush Street Interactive product is just about flawless on desktop, and its deep menu of sports to bet on — and different types of bets to make — lead us to give BetRivers California a quality grade.

All in all, we think it’s worth it to add BetRivers to your sports betting arsenal, especially if you want to take advantage of multiple welcome bonuses.

Can I Use BetRivers in California?

No. BetRivers is not legal in any capacity in California.

Voters emphatically rejected legal sports betting in the California 2022 election, so sportsbook apps won’t be able to launch in California until 2025 at the earliest. And that will only happen if voters pass a sports betting initiative in the 2024 election — which is not guaranteed by any stretch of the imagination.

Is BetRivers Legit?

In a word, yes. Here’s why:

  • It is already licensed and operating in 14 states: US states diligently review every facet of a sportsbook before granting it a license. So, if 14 states — the latest being Maryland — have already gone through this meticulous process with BetRivers Sportsbook, that probably means it’s a pretty airtight product, in terms of customer experience and safety.
  • It will answer to a California regulatory oversight body: All legal US sportsbooks have to answer to a regulatory body in each given state. In California, that body will probably be the California Gambling Control Commission. Without oversight, companies can essentially do whatever they want without any recourse. But with oversight, customers can rest assured knowing their payouts will be enforced at BetRivers.
  • Major organizations, such as the NFL’s Chicago Bears and NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans, are official partners of BetRivers: If huge-money organizations like the Bears and Pelicans have thoroughly vetted BetRivers and deem it a safe online betting site to officially partner with, then you can rest assured.

Why Choose BetRivers Sportsbook California Over Offshore Sports Betting Sites?

There are just about an endless supply of reasons to pick a legal sportsbook over an unregulated offshore betting site. Here are a few:

  • Offshore betting sites have no oversight: Remember why we said it’s so important that BetRivers faces regulatory oversight? That safety blanket for customer experience and treatment goes out the window if the sportsbook is not regulated. And illegal offshore sites are not regulated. Essentially, this means they can do whatever they want with your winnings.
  • Of course, these sportsbooks want to build some sort of customer loyalty so they won’t try to make a habit of refusing to pay out winnings. But it has happened in the past, and those unlucky customers had nowhere to turn legally.
  • Offshore betting sites often lack digital security: The best sportsbooks in the US utilize some of the same levels of digital security as the world’s leading banking institutions. Offshore sportsbooks do not. It’s as simple as that. Do you want your money just about as safe as it is at a bank? Or do you want it vulnerable to hackers? For us, the answer is pretty simple.

As hard as it may be to wait for legal and regulated options in California, you’ll be glad you did. There are simply too many red flags when it comes to offshore sports betting. Hackers and cybercriminals have been known to exploit these sites’ lack of digital security and steal users’ information. No sports wager is worth that type of loss.

Why Can You Trust BetRivers California With Your Money?

Both the BetRivers website and app in California will be secured with SSL certification. This is the same type of digital security used by some of the world’s foremost financial institutions. It’s the type of security that routinely protects against attacks by hackers and cybercriminals.

And, again, it really matters that California sportsbooks will be regulated by a state agency, most likely the California Gambling Control Commission, which already regulates the state’s casinos and California card rooms.

This also means that, if you do have a complaint regarding a sportsbook, you will be able to file it to the CGCC. If your complaint has merit, something will be done about it.

Will BetRivers Offer a Retail Sportsbook in California?

It’s entirely possible we see a BetRivers retail sportsbook in California if in-person sports betting is legalized in the 2024 election.

BetRivers would need to partner with one of the 66 Indian casinos in California to offer a casino retail sportsbook. Unibet, for instance, already has a deal in place with the Quechan Tribe of the Fort Yuma Reservation to run its retail sportsbook in the future.

BetRivers is no stranger to working with a tribe to run a retail sportsbook. In Michigan, BetRivers partnered with the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians to launch the River Rock Sportsbook at Little River Casino & Resort in Manistee, Michigan.

Future California sports betting initiatives may also allow for retail sportsbooks at sports venues. BetRivers is partnered with the Detroit Pistons and New Orleans Pelicans in the NBA, Pittsburgh Penguins in the NHL, and Chicago Bears in the NFL. Perhaps it could partner with a team in California if sports betting launches there, and then launch a sportsbook at the team’s home stadium or arena.

Does BetRivers Offer Live Streaming?

Yes.

Not only does BetRivers offer customers live streaming, its live streaming via web browser is one of the best in the sports betting industry. The app boasts a global selection of sporting events to live stream, with a heavy dose of soccer and tennis, as well as football, basketball, baseball, hockey, and more.

Now, of course live streaming can only be as good as the stream. And this is where the BetRivers app has traditionally struggled, although it is improving.

Still, if you’re on your computer and want an immersive live-streaming experience with spots from around the world, you surely won’t be disappointed by BetRivers.

BetRivers California Fact Sheet

How old do you have to be?21 years old
What states is it legal in?AZ, CO, CT, IL, IN, IA, LA, MD, MI, NJ, NY, PA, VA, WV
Who is the sportsbook partner in California?TBA
Launch date in California2025 (estimated)

What First-Time Bettors Should Know

If you’re just beginning to bet on sports with BetRivers California, here are five things you need to know.

  1. Bonuses aren’t the same for everyone. Sometimes, sportsbooks will offer different bonuses in different states. They’ll also sometimes vary their promos based on how much each customer uses the app.
  2. With bonus bets, you lose your original stake. If a regular $100 bet wins with -200 odds, you’ll get $150 back — the original $100 stake and the $50 winnings. However, with a $100 bonus bet awarded from the sportsbook, you’d only get the $50 winnings.
  3. Pay attention to playthrough requirements. These dictate how much money you need to wager before you get the full value of your bonus. Luckily, the BetRivers $500 2nd Chance Bet comes with just a 1x playthrough requirement.
  4. Always be sure to double-check parlay odds boost promos. Believe it or not, sometimes parlay odds boost promos actually offer less favorable odds than if you manually assemble the parlay yourself. It’s true.
  5. Bonus bets can’t be used on other promotional bets.

BetRivers California FAQs

Is BetRivers legal in California?

No, it’s not currently legal in California because sports betting is not yet legalized in the state. Voters emphatically rejected both sports betting measures in the November 2022 election.

How do I use BetRivers in California?

With real-money sports betting illegal in California, there is no legal way to use BetRivers Sportsbook anywhere in California. The state does allow daily fantasy sports and horse race betting, but BetRivers does not offer DFS or horse betting.

When will BetRivers be legal in California?

Perhaps in 2025. The California Constitution would need to change to legalize sports betting in the state, and that can only happen with voter approval at an election. The next election is in November 2024.

Does BetRivers have a retail sportsbook in California?

No. Sports betting has yet to be legalized in California. However, there’s certainly a chance BetRivers partners with an Indian casino or one of four licensed California horse racetracks to offer a retail sportsbook in the future.

In Michigan, for instance, BetRivers partnered with the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians to launch the River Rock Sportsbook at Little River Casino & Resort.

Is there a BetRivers app in California?

If BetRivers Sportsbook ever launches in California, the app will be available to both iOS and Android users. iPhone users can search for it at the App Store. Android users will find it at the Google Play Store. The app has seen recent improvements in terms of functionality, but it still suffers from negative reviews at the Google Play Store. iOS users have had a better experience overall.

What is BetRivers's sign-up bonus offer in California?

BetRivers will offer likely a 2nd Chance Bet of up to $500 with a 1x playthrough requirement as its welcome bonus in California. This is essentially the same thing as a $500 bonus bet, although BetRivers doesn’t call it that.

Can I place a bet at BetRivers Sportsbook outside of California?

No. You’ll need to physically be within the boundaries of California to successfully place a sports wager if the app launches in the state. The BetRivers sports betting app would provide geo-tracking restrictions on bettors located outside of California.

Is live betting available at BetRivers?

Live betting, also known as in-game wagering, will be available at BetRivers in California in the future. We don’t recommend using this app to place live bets though. Many customers have complained about the app’s lack of speed and its tendency to lag at times. Live bets are made in a fast-paced arena and need to be made on a more reliable platform. We recommend using the desktop platform for a better experience.

About the Author

Kris Johnson

Kris Johnson is a Senior Writer at Gaming Today with more than 15 years of experience as a sports journalist. Kris' work has appeared in Sports Business Daily, Sports Business Journal, NASCAR Illustrated, and more. Kris also authored a sports betting novel entitled The Endgame.