Tennessee is unique in the U.S. for allowing online sports betting only – no retail sports betting.

It also is the only state that has sports betting but no casinos, which mostly explains the lack of retail sportsbooks. And finally, the tax rate is based on the total betting handle, not on a sportsbook’s gross revenue.

Tennessee Sports Betting Apps

Best Online Sportsbooks in Tennessee

The offbeat nature of the sports betting platform in Tennessee has not scared off most of the top operators.

So as in most states, resident and visiting gamblers can place their wagers on DraftKings, FanDuel, Fanatics, BetMGM, Caesars, ESPN Bet, and Hard Rock.

There also is Action 24/7, a sportsbook that only offers wagers in Tennessee, where it is based. VIP Play, another Tennessee-only sportsbook (but with aspirations to enter the West Virginia market), launched in mid-2023.

Best Betting Promos from Online Sportsbooks in TN

In Tennessee, if you are a new user your first $5 bet, you receive $300 in free bets in the latest FanDuel promotions.

Action 24/7 gives you a second chance, up to $50, if your first bet loses.

New bettors at Fanatics may risk up to $200 per day for the first 10 days. Any bet that loses gets a consolation prize of a matching amount of FanCash that is redeemable for sports apparel and collectibles on its website.

List of Online Betting Sites in Tennessee

There are currently 12 online sportsbooks and zero retail sportsbooks in Tennessee.

Online Sportsbooks and Official Launch Dates

1. FanDuel – Nov. 1, 2020
2. DraftKings – Nov. 1, 2020
3. BetMGM – Nov. 1, 2020
4. Tennessee Action 24/7 – Nov. 1, 2020
5. Caesars – March 11, 2021
6. ESPN Bet – Sept. 8, 2021
7. BallyBet – March 10, 2022
8. Betly – March 10, 2022
9. Hard Rock – July 27, 2022
10. Fanatics – March 1, 2023
11. VIP Play – May 24, 2023

What You Can Legally Wager On in the Volunteer State

Tennessee residents can wager on all of the popular professional and college sporting events, including games involving in-state university teams.

There are limitations, however. No betting on any college prop bets, whether individual or teams. And no betting on non-sporting events – a la the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating contest, The Academy Awards, or the Emmys and Grammys as are permitted in many other states.

Official Sports Teams

The NFL’s Tennessee Titans, the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, and the NHL’s Nashville Predators are the three franchises in the state in the classic traditional sports.

The University of Tennessee, Memphis, Middle Tennessee, and Vanderbilt are the Division I college football teams in the state. Joining them on the D-1 basketball level are Austin Peay, Belmont, Chattanooga, East Tennessee State, Lipscomb, Tennessee State, Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, and Tennessee-Martin.

Betting on Sports in Tennessee vs Neighboring States

Tennessee borders eight other states (as does Missouri), the most in the U.S. Yet that fact doesn’t impact Tennessee all that much.

Georgia and Alabama don’t even offer legal sports betting at all, while Missouri arrives late to the sports betting game with a Dec. 1, 2025 launch.

and Arkansas has taken in only $1.6 billion in bets all-time entering the lucrative fall college and pro 2025 football seasons – half of what Mississippi has taken in. Kentucky checks in at a shade over $5 billion. Tennessee tops each of those states easily at $19.9 billion in betting handle, about double what has been wagered in North Carolina.

Tennessee’s only worthy neighboring peer, then, is Virginia – which tops Tennessee at $24.7 billion.

Timeline of Legalization of Sports Betting in Tennessee

While Tennessee lawmakers were fairly quick to first post a bill to legalize sports betting and later to have it signed into law, time lags on each delayed the actual launch of the new form of gambling.

2018-2019

• November 2018 – The first bill to legalize sports betting in the state was introduced.
• April 2019 – The bill cleared both chambers of the state house.
• November 2019 – Gov. Bill Lee – who was on record as opposing sports betting legalization did nothing on the bill, the deadline expired, and thus the bill became law.

2020-2023

• February 2020 – Sportsbook regulations are opposed that drew opposition in the industry, such as a ban on wagering on individual sports such as golf or tennis.
• April 2020 – Final regulations were set, but these included a mandatory 10% hold by sportsbooks and a requirement that sportsbooks in the state must buy “official league data.”
• July 1, 2023 – Tennessee regulators replaced their industry-standard 20% sports betting tax rate on gross sportsbook revenue with a model that instead charges a 1.85% tax rate on sports betting handle.

2025

• July 15, 2025 – The Tennessee Sports Wagering Council fined five illegal offshore sportsbooks $50,000 each after the council found that they had been operating in the state.

Thoughts About the Launch

In addition to the delays in implementation, state lawmakers and regulators struggled to come up with sportsbook rules that made sense for both the state and for the operators. That was evident in the major shift in the tax formula in 2023.

Sports Betting Handle and Revenue in Tennessee

Tennessee ranked 12th nationally in all-time sports betting handle through August 2025, while it is placed 15th in terms of state populations. There are eight states with extensive sports betting that have higher betting handles, so Tennessee is pretty much where it would be expected to be.

Official Team and Sportsbook Partnerships

There are three established partnerships between Tennessee in-state teams and national sportsbooks:

1. Tennessee Titans x BetMGM
2. Nashville Predators x BetMGM
3. Memphis Grizzlies x FanDuel

Explore top sportsbooks in Tennessee

Licensing & Oversight – A Fairly New Sports Wagering Council

The Tennessee Sports Wagering Council took on the oversight of the state’s sportsbook industry upon its launch on Jan. 1, 2022, after a brief oversight role for the Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation. The council added authority of the state’s daily fantasy sports operators in mid-2023.

The council reviews the license and registration process for online sports wagering operators and vendors, while monitoring and enforcing operators’ and industry vendors’ compliance with the Tennessee Sports Gaming Act, the Tennessee Fantasy Sports Act, and the related rules.

Responsible Gaming in TN

Tennessee residents who know or fear that they are compulsive gamblers can self-exclude from all of the mobile sports betting sites in the states for one, three, or five years – and they can do it online: https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/swac/documents/forms/Self-Exclusion.pdf.

Another option for problem gamblers is to to call the state’s Gambling Clinic at 901-678-STOP or to email [email protected] to schedule telehealth help anywhere in the state.

The Gambling Clinic at the University of Memphis offers free and confidential telehealth therapy for those with gambling addiction problems.

Should You Wager on Sports in Tennessee?

Top Reasons to Bet in Tennessee

1. By the end of October, Tennessee had a remarkable three teams in The Associated Press college football Top 25: Vanderbilt – far from an annual national football power – at No. 9, Tennessee at No. 14, and Memphis at No. 25. The programs receive solid support regardless, but the first half of the season suggested a historic three-way result could be at hand.
2. While Tennessee at No. 18 was the only men’s basketball team in the state in the AP preseason men’s basketball poll, the Tennessee women were ranked No. 8 and Vanderbilt at No. 19. The men’s team reached the Sweet 16 of “March Madness” in 2023 and the Elite Eight the two previous seasons. Many fans still remember the Lady Volunteers winning six national championships from 1987-2008, and the program is almost certain to at least qualify for the NCAA tournament every season. Tennessee is a state where the college teams arguably are more popular than the professional ones.

Reasons Not to Bother

1. The Grizzlies have won only one NBA playoff series in the past decade, the Titans have won only three playoff games in the past two decades, and the NHL Predators – with the exception of their 2016-17 impressive advance to a loss in the Stanley Cup Finals – have won only four playoff series since their first season in 1998-99. Add to it the fact that none of these franchises have that half-century or century-old history where families have passed on their loyalty for countless generations, and it all paints a pretty grim picture.
2. You’re fine if you’re a meat-and-potatoes type of bettor, but those who would like to swim in the college prop player or team pools or take a flier on a longshot on what the bettor sees as a viable sleeper at the Academy Awards, for instance, are out of luck.

Final Thoughts on Sports Betting in Tennessee

The absence of casinos in the state left gaming regulators at a real disadvantage, and it showed in some of the early hiccups with a slow launch process and naive proposals for sportsbook regulations. But the quirky tax method seems to have worked out almost the same for sportsbooks as the traditional model, so no harm done there so far.

The unique “no casinos, yes sportsbooks” isn’t likely to be duplicated. But on a national scale, it does further underscore the point that while casino retail sportsbooks can be a modest gambling amenity, the absence of them hasn’t at all deterred Tennessee from holding its own in the national sportsbook rankings.

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