In 2020, when the news broke that Illinois would legalize online sports betting, sportsbooks all over the globe scrambled to apply for a license.

Why? Well, this was the first time that a state which was home to one of the country's largest cities had come online. Until then, it was Philadelphia, the country's sixth-largest city that represented the largest urban center with legal online sports betting.

Illinois is home to Chicago, the country's third-largest city, a mouth-watering prospect for any sportsbook looking to grow its brand in the US. The state is also home to 13 million residents and five major league sports teams.

In June 2020, after an amendment to the sports betting bill, which did away with in-person registration, BetRivers launched in the state.

It was widely expected that Illinois would shoot above New Jersey, in terms of both licensed sportsbooks and wagers placed. New Jersey through a combination of low licensing fees and taxes coupled with an online sign-up option for customers has firmly established itself as the market leader.

At first, everything looked to be as predicted, with FanDuel, DraftKings, Pointsbet and William Hill all going live in quick succession. Illinois quickly gained ground on New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Indiana, as sports betting revenue poured into the state.

Then in-person registration was re-introduced, meaning customers would now need to go to a physical location to deposit or withdraw cash. Again, sportsbooks scrambled to arrange a physical location that was convenient for Chicagoans, and revenue dropped.

This ushered in a period of oscillation between unrestricted online sign-ups and in-person requirements.

In April 2021, Governer Pritzker decided to reinstate in-person sign-ups.

We do not expect this to be a permanent setup as these types of restrictions can seriously hamper the potential of the local sports betting industry, as we have seen in Nevada.

It is predicted that this in-person requirement will be removed in early 2022.

Until that happens sports bettors in Illinois can expect the choice of sportsbooks to remain the same.

There are a number of factors to consider when picking the best online sportsbook in Illinois:

A license → This is a crucial factor because a sportsbook that is not licensed cannot be trusted. If a sportsbook is licensed in a state other than Illinois it is still perfectly legal to sign-up to the sportsbook but you will not be able to deposit and withdraw in the state of Illinois. You should under no circumstances consider signing up to an offshore sportsbook - they are not licensed in the US and are therefore not liable.

High-value odds → This point isn't rocket science. Ultimately you should place a wager for fun and to potentially earn yourself some money. If a sportsbook consistently offers you low value odds, you're not going to make money and its not going to be fun.

Wide selection of bets → First, your sportsbook should offer a good selection of sports and events for you to wager on. Second, your sportsbook should also offer different types of bets, this can include moneylines, parlays, teasers and point spreads.

A generous but honest welcome bonus → When you sign-up to a sportsbook in a state like Illinois you should expect to be given a nice big bonus. Why? Well, because you're worth it. As a resident of Illinois, you could, in the eyes of your potential sportsbook, represent a lifelong customer and therefore anything that encourages you to sign-up to their sportsbook now would be well worth their money. New customers tend to stick with their sportsbook of they are satisfied with their product because it takes time and effort to get to know a new product. That is why in such a new market, with millions of potential new customers, sportsbooks are offering some truly eye-watering promos. However, in an effort to beat the competition, some sportsbooks have made some misleading claims - including unrealistic turnover requirements. That is why we suggest you do not necessarily just look for the biggest bonus but also the most honest one which offers the most value.

A user-friendly product → Sports betting, especially for beginners, can be intimidating when you're presented with endless lists of odds and wagering alternatives. That is why it is essential that you pick a sportsbook that you find easy to navigate.

Deposit & withdrawal options → Unfortunately the US banking system is not always up to date with the sports betting legislation and deposits via Visa or Mastercard get routinely blocked. It is therefore essential that your online sportsbook offers a suitable alternative like PayPal or Skrill, for both deposit and withdrawals.

Location (temporary)→ As it currently stands new customers are required to sign-up in person. This rule has been removed on a number of occasions and we expect by 2022 this requirement will have been removed. Not all online sportsbooks offer a physical sportsbook in, or around, Chicago, so if you are a resident of the city you should check what sportsbook is most convenient for you to get to.

If your looking for a new Illinois sportsbook then the good news is that you have a plethora of amazing welcome offers to choose from.

Since online sports betting is still relatively new to the state, there are literally thousands of potential new customers waiting to be snapped up by IL Sportsbooks. Once someone picks a sportsbook, as long as they are satisfied with the service they generally tend to stick to it, that's just how humans work, and it's a fact that the sportsbooks' marketing departments are acutely aware of.

That is why sportsbooks are offering some truly outrageous welcome offers to secure you as a customer.

The fact that sportsbooks are competing to offer the best welcome offer can have both positive and negative consequences for you as a new customer.

IL Sportsbook Bonuses - The good, the bad and the ugly

The Good - Let's start with the good news, and that is you can really find some excellent value in some of the offers out there. If you play your cards right you could be picking up literally $1,000s of free bets. These welcome offers won't stick around forever and the reason for this is that it's actually possible to make money from them. The sportsbooks are willing to take a potential hit however as they see the value in securing a new customer as far outweighing the possibility of losing some money on its welcome bonuses.

The bad - Ok, so it may be possible to make some real money, but it is also possible to make some significant losses. It is important to remember that free bets, which these welcome offer you are not free money. You will need to turnover the bet at least once, which means you will need to win a wager in order for it to be treated as real cash. Let's take a risk-free bet for example. You may be refunded if you lose your first wager, but this refund will be in the form of a free bet. This means that if you suddenly regret placing a wager with the sportsbook in question, then tough luck, you still need to win with that free bet in order to withdraw your original wager as cash.

The Ugly - Unfortunately a sportsbook's eagerness to win you as a new customer can result in misleading claims. Now, this is a grey area, as almost always they will cover their tracks in the small print, but you have to ask yourself is that really fair? and is this sort of behaviour indicative of a trustworthy sportsbook? Perhaps the most common misleading claim comes in the form of a high turnover requirement. This means that you must win with your free bets multiple times before the money is yours. In some cases, it can be as high as 26 times which renders - in our opinion - the welcome bonus useless and actually encourages you to gamble more and more money in order to chase the original bonus. These turnover requirements are often hidden in the T&Cs, however, we always point this out in our reviews, and misleading claims always impact the sportsbook's ratings on BettingScanner.

Risk-free bets are currently all the rage.

This type of welcome bonus offers you your first wager back if you lose.

So if you were to place $20 on team A to win, and they do then you will collect your winnings like a normal wager. However, if it is a draw or Team B wins then you will receive $20 in free bets.

You can think of this type of bonus as a form of insurance against your first wager. Sounds amazing right? Well, it is, but like everything in life, nothing is completely free. This free bet you receive will still require you to place at least one more wager (depending on the turnover requirement) in order for the original sum to be considered actual money that can be withdrawn. If you think of a risk-free wager as insurance, then think of the payout - in the form of a free bet - as a voucher.

In the example above you can see that it is possible to lose your original wager. A risk-free bet is really not completely without risk and you should really consider this before placing any large sums as a risk-free welcome offer.

A matched deposit bonus is relatively self-explanatory; the sportsbook will provide you with free bets equal to your first deposit.

There will always be a minimum deposit requirement (usually $10) and always a maximum.

It is this maximum matched deposit amount that is usually emblazoned across all the marketing, but we really urge you to think long and hard about depositing the maximum especially when it is above $500. Part of the reason why welcome offers are so useful is that it is an opportunity to trial a sportsbook to see if you like it. The last thing you want is to be stuck trying to win your free bets so you can withdraw your money.

A no deposit bonus is hands down the best type of welcome offer for you as a new customer.

This type of bonus does not require you to deposit any of your own money in order to qualify for your free bets.

Without any financial commitment, this is really the most generous and safe type of bonus you could wish for.

Even though you will still need to turnover your free bets at least once, you won't have invested a cent into your sportsbook account so there is really no downside to this type of offer.

So what's the catch? Well, if there is one, it's that these offers come around once in a blue moon. Unibet are one of the only sportsbooks to have offered a no deposit bonus this year in the US and they are not up and running in the state of Illinois.

In 2018, the US Senate reversed the ban on sports betting. This left it up to each individual state to decide whether they would legalize online sports betting.

This is has resulted in a patchwork effect across the country with some states that have legalized sports betting, others in the process and others having abstained. This has confused the banking system that had spent decades weeding out any transactions to and from offshore online sportsbooks.

This has resulted in simple Visa and Mastercard payments to sportsbooks being routinely blocked. This is also the case with online banking transactions. You can simply forget about withdrawing funds from your sportsbook using any of these methods.

It is not all bad news, because a number of reputable payment platforms fill the void. Here we have listed the safest and popular of these in the state of Illinois.

All licensed sportsbooks in Illinois offer PayPal as a payment option.

There are several reasons for this:

An easy-to-use platform → PayPal is trusted and used by millions of people across the world. It has built its brand around its functionality and user-friendly interface. It has both an excellent desktop website and a mobile app. If you are using this thing called the internet then it's more than likely you will have a PayPal account.

Ease of payments → As PayPal is trusted by both banks and sportsbooks, it is the perfect middleman, allowing you to circumvent restrictions placed on you by the banks. Instead, the banks simply see money going to your PayPal account, what you do with it after is no one's business but your own.

Security → PayPal boasts a state of the art encrypted security system that guarantees your payments are safe and adds an extra layer of security to your sportsbook deposits and withdrawals. In addition, if you use PayPal as a payment option, you will not need to store sensitive banking information with your sportsbook.

Play+ is a prepaid card that you can use to deposit and withdraw funds using an ATM or online. They are usually branded with the sportsbooks name.

All you need to do is top up the card using your Visa or Mastercard and then you can transfer your funds to your sportsbook.

Withdrawing is also a lot easier than other methods since it is of course a trusted payment platform for your sportsbook. Each time you make transactions you will also pick up loyalty points - the amount will depend on your sportsbook.

You will also be able to sign-up to your branded Play+ card without having to be approved. All you need to do is sign-up for your sportsbook and they won't ask any more questions when you apply for your card. Since it is a prepaid card, they do not need to worry about your credit.

Illinois has several professional sports teams to choose from, including:

• Cubs (MLB)
• White Sox (MLB)
• Bears (NFL)
• Bulls (NBA)
• Blackhawks (NHL)

Some sports teams have already considered opening up sportsbooks in their stadium or entering into partnership deals with sportsbooks.

Currently, there are the following partnerships in Illinois:

• DraftKings sponsors of the Cubs
• PointsBet sponsors of the White Sox and the Bears