When it comes to betting on sports, there are plenty of ways to place a bet. You can do it in person at a land-based book, online through an offshore website or on your mobile phone or tablet. You can even make a bet through your social media account. However, when you make a bet through official betting outlets, the rules and mechanics are different.

Legal sportsbooks have a number of advantages over their illegal counterparts. For one, they are regulated by the state and use licensed software to verify that bettors are who they claim to be. In addition, they are required to pay a tax on the amount of money bet on a game. The tax is typically 5% of the bettors’ gross winnings.

Besides regulating sports betting, states also set standards for advertising and marketing. They regulate the types of ads that can be shown and what they must say. Moreover, sportsbooks must offer bettors a range of payment methods, including credit and debit cards. This way, bettors can easily find a safe and secure betting site that matches their preferences.

In addition to the basic bets like sides and totals, sports betting sites also offer bets on individual player performance. This type of bet is called a prop bet. A prop bet is a wager that predicts how many points or touchdowns a particular player will score or accumulate during the game. These bets are often offered on NFL and NBA games, but they can also be placed on college sports.

The NBA and NFL have both taken a public position against sports betting, but the NHL has not. The league is smaller than the other major professional sports leagues and it believes that it is less prone to negative issues as a result of the legalization of sports betting. The Vegas Golden Knights, the expansion franchise that began play in the league in 2017, have signed sponsorship deals with bookmakers that include data and betting partnerships.

New Hampshire was among the first states to approve sports betting, with retail and online books launching in September of 2019. The Garden State is currently partnered with DraftKings as its sole provider of online sportsbooks. In addition to its online offerings, the state has a few brick-and-mortar locations from which to place a bet.