Like millions of other Americans, you want to get involved in the action and start betting on sports. Why not? You are a sports fan and want to have a little more incentive to the outcome of the games. With more states legalizing sports betting each year, either online or in-person at live sportsbooks, it has become an accepted form of online entertainment by mainstream society. This is the ultimate Oregon Online Sports Betting Beginner’s Guide to help you navigate the wide world of Oregon sports betting, from signing up for an online account to actually getting into the action and placing your bets.

Sports betting was legalized in the state of Oregon in October of 2019 when the Oregon State Lottery officially took over control of the sports betting industry in the state. It is the first legalized sports betting in Oregon since a parlay program called Sports Action was legal from 1989 to 2007. In 2007 Oregon cancelled the program after the NCAA threatened to cancel its championship events in the state. Twelve years later, after the federal legislation ruling of PASPA passed, Oregon once again decided to open its doors back up to the world of legalized sports betting.

Currently, there are only live sportsbooks at the Chinook Winds Casino Resort where players can make sports bets. More tribal casinos are expected to offer sports betting in Oregon by the fall of 2020. Other than that everything in the state is regulated through the Oregon State Lottery mobile sports betting app called the Scoreboard. This app was created by a company called SBTech which also has created betting operations in other states such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Mississippi.

Despite some legal battles between the Oregon State Lottery and SBTech, the Scoreboard still remains as the only legal sports betting mobile app in Oregon. If you want to bet on sports in Oregon on the Scoreboard app, you have to be 21 years of age, and if you want to go into one of the tribal casinos to bet, you have to be 21 as well. While places like Las Vegas and New Jersey have the big names available for US wagerings like MGM sports betting, Hard Rock Sports betting, or Atlantic City sports betting, Oregon only offers these limited sites and as long as the Oregon State Lottery controls the industry, it will remain like this.

If you are just starting out and looking to sign up with a new account at the Scoreboard in Oregon, look no further than this helpful guide. Unlike the rest of the country, Oregon only has the one online mobile sportsbook so the choice to make is quite simple.  Here are some quick tips for once you have signed up with the Scoreboard and you are finally ready to start betting on some sports:

Step 1: Set your limits – One of the biggest mistakes made by new sports bettors is to not limit their bets when they first start playing. Use proportional betting to help your bankroll last and avoid bets with low odds but high payouts like parlays. Stick to single bets and a percentage of your bankroll each time.

Step 2: Learn the sports betting industry – Take a little time to do some research and learn the lingo and language of sports betting. There are also different ways to read odds like decimal odds or American odds. Finally, learn the different types of bets: moneylines, point spreads, point totals, all of these take a different type of skill but educate yourself on the ins and outs of betting types to give yourself a chance of being profitable.

Step 3: Choose the bets you are good at: This seems straightforward but taking the time to study games and learn which types of bets you are more successful with can go a long way for your betting career. If you are good at point spreads, keep betting on point spreads. If you are bad with totals, then don’t bet on totals! Likewise for sports, if you can understand football more than basketball, don’t force yourself to bet on basketball. Stick to football, and then try and learn basketball if you are interested in it.

Step 4: Look at the odds: Sometimes the odds or point spread just does not match your read on the game. It is these edges that will give you an advantage in the long run. If you do not think the Trail Blazers should be underdogs, then bet the Trail Blazers based on your own system. The odds are a guideline set by the bookmaker to get the most amount of action on both sides of the game.

Pick the Sport you want to bet on, learn the dynamics of the games, and tap into the best betting strategies developed over the years. Can you build that elusive hot streak? There’s only one way to find out. Always remember, Bet Responsibly, Bet Greatly:

The sports betting industry is still growing in Oregon but they were able to increase their revenues by 30% over the last couple of months in June of 2020. With the advent of online sportsbooks, the ease of being able to place bets at your fingertips at any time of the day has led to a booming industry. With the state pushing bettors to use their exclusive mobile betting app, Oregonians should be quite familiar with using their mobile phones to place sports bets.

Oregon has many great teams that locals will cheer for including the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers, the Oregon State Beavers, the University of Oregon Ducks, and the Portland Timbers of the MLS. Further to this, there are numerous other teams in neighbouring states such as the Seattle Mariners of the MLB and the brand new Seattle Kraken of the NHL. Every other professional league is available for bettors in Oregon as well, giving them full access to a wide selection of sports to bet on.

The NFL remains the king of sports betting though, as an estimated $6 billion was wagered in America on the Super Bowl game alone this year. Other popular sports to be on include the NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS and European Soccer, UFC events, and PGA Golf. Stand-alone events also bring in tons of betting action, including the Super Bowl, the Haskell Invitational or any other big horse race like the Kentucky Derby or Belmont Stakes, and Golf majors like the Masters or U.S. Open. You are not limited to professional sports leagues though as even things like Triple-A league Baseball games, eSports, and politics can be gambled on online at sportsbooks. The only thing you cannot bet on in Oregon are college sports, dating back to Oregon’s relationship with the NCAA.

The Scoreboard mobile app is similar to most other online sportsbooks in the methods they accept. All of the major payment types are available to players, and at the click of a few buttons, you can easily add funds to your bankroll from your computer or mobile phone.

Note that before you deposit with any of these payment methods you are going to have to sign up for a Play+ account to use with the Scoreboard app. Play+ is an online reloadable account that you deposit into so that you can use your funds to play. Signing up is very easy, and once you do you can associate any of the following payment methods to load up your Scoreboard bankroll. Here is a list of the types of payment methods you can use.

Credit Cards: Straight forward and probably the most common way that players can deposit right into their accounts. The Scoreboard only accepts Visa or Mastercard, the two most common types of credit cards. Keep in mind that some credit cards do not allow the cardholder to make purchases on gambling sites, so be aware of any such issues before reaching for that credit card.

Debit Cards/Bank Transfer: Same idea here, except that debit cards can be used instead of a credit card. A bank transfer is a direct debit from your personal bank account and is just as fast as paying by credit card and generally has a higher success rate for transactions than credit cards.

PayPal: PayPal is another popular money transfer company, but you do need to sign up for an account and link it to a bank account before you try and use it at any onlines sportsbook. It is safe and easy to use though and has become increasingly used at online websites as a method of payment.

Not to fear if you have any questions or concerns about something that happens at the Scoreboard, as they have provided players with 24-hour around the clock customer service . Because online sportsbooks and online casinos are open 24 hours a day and seven days per week, there is always some form of customer service available via email, telephone, or an instant chat function.

These customer service representatives can assist you with anything from deposit or withdrawal issues to questions about certain types of games or bet styles.

Oregon is definitely in its infancy in terms of being a state that has legal sports betting. Currently, with only one mobile sport betting app, the Oregon State Lottery has a monopoly over mobile betting in the state. Could that change in the future? Sure. The state seems pretty keen on keeping all of the revenues made from sports betting, which provides Oregonians with employment as well. If offshore or other sportsbooks like FanDuel or DraftKings make their way into Oregon, the Scoreboard will lose a huge portion of their business.

As more tribal casinos gain live sportsbooks in their buildings, the popularity of sports betting should rise in Oregon. But in a post-COVID-19 world where it remains to be seen how many people will want to travel to casinos, especially the elderly, it will be interesting to see how popular these in-person sportsbooks will be compared to their online and mobile counterparts. Again, the future of sports betting is going to be on the mobile platform, and as the only game in town right now, the Scoreboard has a distinct edge over any new players in the state.

Fun Fact: The largest payout on the Scoreboard so far was in November of 2019 when a player won a 15-leg parlay that paid $81,965 on a $5 bet.

In any state where sports betting has been legalized, the NFL is always the most popular sports league to bet on. Even though Oregon does not have an NFL franchise they do have the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers bordering them on each side of their state. Either way, most sports fans in America are quite familiar with the NFL and have a team that they cheer for regardless of geography.

No doubt, the NBA is going to be popular in Oregon with the Portland Trail Blazers being one of the main draws in the state. Especially since both of the very popular NCAA colleges in the University of Oregon and Oregon State University are not able to be bet on in Oregon. This removes any football games and of course, March Madness as well, which is one of the biggest sports betting events of the year.

We talked briefly above about the big events in College sports that cannot be bet on in Oregon, but what about some of the events that sports bettors can bet on? All of the professional sports leagues are available including the NFL, NBA, NHL, MMA, MLS Soccer, and PGA Golf. Even international leagues like NPB Japanese baseball, cricket, darts, and Aussie rules football are available on the Scoreboard, showing that it is not just American betting that is available.

The NFL will always be the top dog in US Sports wagering though as the Super Bowl pulls in the most handle for any sporting event of the year. Again, whenever the Portland Trail Blazers do well, Oregon will most likely be wagering on their NBA team. The Portland Timbers are also a very popular local team and their success in the MLS should increase the popularity of gambling on soccer as well.

As of now, there is only the Scoreboard mobile app to use in Oregon for online sports gambling. Until more companies are allowed to enter the Oregon sports betting market, the Scoreboard should have a relative monopoly as the go-to mobile sports betting app in the state. The typical settings do apply to the Scoreboard app as well.

Like with most sports betting and fantasy betting sites, users must have the location services on their mobile phone turned on so that the app can detect that they are within the state limits. Bettors who are outside of the state limits can still download the app but they will not be able to place any bets.