Tennessee Sports Betting

Nashville and Memphis might be tourist destinations, but now there is another reason to visit Tennessee, sports betting!

Tennessee is one of a handful of US states that don’t have any casino gambling, and therefore, there are no retail sportsbooks in the state, online mobile/online sportsbooks.

The Tennessee sports betting industry officially launched on November 1, 2020, after a lengthy delay. Sports betting in Tennessee was actually legalized in 2019, but it took the Tennessee Education Lottery several months to review applications and issue licenses.

Tennessee Sportsbooks

Tennesse online sports betting is currently up and running, and both residents and visitors of the state can sign up for a sports betting account today. Creating an account is a simple process that can be completed online or through a mobile app.

Tennessee sports betting rules are very different from other states as there are no retail sportsbooks. This means that you can’t ever visit a retail location as each of the transactions and wagers must be done online. 

In order to sign up for an account and legally place bets, you must be physically inside the state of Tennessee. Location services must be enabled on your mobile device so that the geolocation technology can track your location.

After signing up, you will then be allowed to create a username and password to use when logging in. From there, you will be taken to the banking portion of the site to make your first deposit before you can start betting on sports. 

Tennessee online sports betting is expected to continue to grow in 2022, and there will be a number of online sportsbooks available. 

• Learn the basics about how to bet on basketball.
• Start reading football odds and make bets with higher confidence.
• Use this betting odds calculator to predict your potential profits.

Tennessee Sportsbook Available

Tennessee Sportsbooks
Action 24/7 Sportsbook
Barstool Sportsbook
BetMGM Sportsbook
Caesars Sportsbook
DraftKings Sportsbook
FanDuel Sportsbook
Wagr Sportsbook

Sportsbook Team Partnerships

TN Teams	Sportsbook Partners
Tennessee Titans	BetMGM
Nashville Predators	Bally Bet & DraftKings
Memphis Grizzlies	FanDuel & WynnBET

Tennessee Professional Sports Teams

Tennessee Titans

The Tennessee Titans are coming off one of their stronger regular-season campaigns in recent memory, but they left the postseason with a sour taste in their mouth.

After securing the AFC’s #1 seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, the Titans lost a heartbreaker in Nashville to the reigning AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals, 19-16.

Derrick Henry missed a large chunk of the regular season after suffering a Jones fracture in his foot. He made his comeback against the Bengals in the divisional round, but he was still limited. Quarterback Ryan Tannehill had a day to forget as he finished with three interceptions.

The Titans came into this offseason with a plan to retool and have an eye for the future. After failing to agree on an extension, star wideout AJ Brown was shipped off to the Philadelphia Eagles for the 18th pick and a 3rd rounder. The 18th pick materialized into his replacement, Treylon Burks, a standout wide receiver from Arkansas whose playing style is eerily similar to Brown’s.

The Titans drafted more potential replacements on the offensive side of the football. Derrick Henry, Taylor Lewan, and Ryan Tannehill’s successors were all possibly taken with the selections of Hassan Haskins, Nicholas Petit-Frere, and Malik Willis, respectively. 

GM Jon Robinson and head coach Mike Vrabel have an eye to retool this roster for later years while trying to contend now. The AFC South remains wide open as the Texans and Jaguars are in the league’s cellar, and the Colts have moved onto their 4th different starting quarterback in four years since Andrew Luck’s abrupt retirement.

Nashville Predators

The Predators suffered a lopsided round one loss at the hands of the top-seeded Colorado Avalanche.

In recent memory, the Predators have been on the wrong side of some early playoff exits. Despite being one of the more consistent franchises in the NHL and making the postseason in eight straight seasons, the Preds have only made it past the second round of the playoffs once.

Nashville will look to build off their wild card appearance and make some noise next year. They are led by one of the best defensemen in all of the NHL in Roman Josi. Alongside Josi, the Predators have some firepower with their forwards in Filip Forsberg, Matt Duchene, and Mikael Granlund.

Memphis Grizzlies

The Memphis Grizzlies fought valiantly against the eventual Western Conference champion, Golden State Warriors.

This year, the Grizz were one of the bigger surprises in the NBA, making a giant leap up to the 2nd seed in the western conference. 2019 2nd overall, Ja Morant took a massive jump as he earned his first All-Star selection and won the NBA’s Most Improved Player of the Year award. 

In addition, head coach Taylor Jenkins was one of the three finalists for the NBA’s Coach of the Year award. Although Jenkins fell short of winning the award, the third-year coach has stacked more wins in each consecutive year since he’s arrived in Memphis.

This was the first year Memphis won more than 55 games since the 2014-15 season – the Grizz have one of the more promising young corps in all of the NBA and will continue to look to build around Ja Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., Desmond Bane, and Dillon Brooks.

Tennessee College Teams

University of Tennessee Volunteers

The University of Tennessee is on the up and up. Despite an early exit in March Madness, head coach Rick Barnes was able to win their first SEC tournament since 1979.

Tennessee was one of the more exciting teams in all of the country. Behind freshman standout Kennedy Chandler, the Volunteers were a favorite dark horse selection to make the Final Four.

Even though Chandler has declared for the NBA draft, the Volunteers bring back plenty of talent, including guard Santiago Vescovi. 

New head coach Josh Heupel has garnered plenty of excitement on the gridiron. Heupel put up some of the most high-powered offenses in college football at the University of Missouri and Central Florida. In his first year in Knoxville, the Vols made it to the Music City Bowl. Although Tennessee lost to Purdue, it was one of the best games in the bowl season. Heupel will look to build off some of the momentum he created in year one behind one of the best signal-callers in the entire nation in Hendon Hooker.

But there isn’t a sport that has garnered more attention in Knoxville than the Tennessee baseball squad. Under colorful manager Tony Vitello, the Volunteers are storming into the NCAA Tournament with their best regular season in program history. The Vols are the overall #1 seed behind stellar pitching and an offense that leads the nation in home runs. The Volunteers are the overwhelming favorite to win the national championship. They host a regional in Knoxville – if they finish in the top 2 of their pool, they will advance to the College World Series.

Vanderbilt Commodores

Although the Commodores have seen brighter days, the basketball team was a pleasant surprise in Nashville.

In former NBA star and head coach Jerry Stackhouse’s third season, he more than doubled his win total from his second year, climbing from 9 to 19 wins this past year. Behind the brilliance of Scottie Pippen Jr., the Commodores proved to be one of the peskier teams in the SEC. 

Stackhouse will look to build off that and thrust Vandy into their first NCAA tournament since 2017 under Bryce Drew. 

Let’s just say the Commodores are in rebuild mode on the football field. At the end of former head coach Derek Mason’s tenure, the wheels fell off as he concluded with an 0-8 record in 2020. Vandy brought in new blood bringing in Notre Dame assistant coach Clark Lea to lead the charge.

Lea led the Commodores to a 2-10 finish in his first year. For this upcoming season, Lea will look to capture Vanderbilt’s first win in the SEC since 2019.

On the baseball diamond, you’d be hard pressed to find a better baseball program in college baseball in the last decade than Vandy. Under manager Tim Corbin, Vanderbilt has been to five College World Series, been to four national title games and won two of them. 

After falling just short of a national championship last season as they lost to the Mississippi State Bulldogs, the Commodores will look to find their way back in the hunt in Omaha. First stop: Corvallis where they are the second highest seed in their pool. 

Memphis Tigers

The Memphis Tigers made their first NCAA tournament since 2013-14 under former head coach Josh Pastner. Former Memphis standout and NBA all-star Penny Hardaway has won 20+ games in each of his first four seasons but could not make the tournament until this past year.

Hardaway has been at the forefront of plenty of media coverage due to their highly-touted recruiting classes. Hardaway fell short of expectations in his first few seasons, but he managed to put it all together in 2021-22. The Tigers eased by the Boise State Broncos in the round of 64, and they were just minutes away from defeating the overall #1 seeded Gonzaga Bulldogs in the round of 32.

The Tigers are coming off an uncharacteristic down year for the football team. The Tigers missed their first bowl game in eight years after finishing 6-6 with a measly 3-5 finish in the American Athletic. Head coach Ryan Silverfield will look to improve Memphis back to the top of the AAC heading into his third year in 2022.

Other Division I Programs in Tennessee

College	Conference
Austin Peay Governors	OVC
Belmont Bruins	OVC
Chattanooga Mocs	SoCon
East Tennessee State Buccaneers	SoCon
Lipscomb Bisons	Atlantic Sun
Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders	C-USA
Tennessee State Tigers	OVC
Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles	OVC
UT Martin Skyhawks	OVC

Tennessee Sports Betting Rules

One of the biggest reasons that Tennessee sports betting is more of the robust sports betting markets is because of its progressive rules for sportsbooks and sports bettors (although not so progressive to also allow Tennessee online casinos). There are a number of available betting markets that can be offered, including betting on collegiate sporting events. Additionally, you can find new books vying for market access constantly, as is the case with Wagr.

One of the only major restrictions for sports betting in Tennessee is that live or in-play wagering on collegiate events is off-limits as well as prop bets on college athlets. Sportsbooks are able to offer pre-game bets on college events, and there are some popular college teams in Tennessee that you can wager on including the University of Tennessee and Vanderbilt University.

Over the past few years, Esports has become extremely popular in the United States, and sportsbooks in Tennessee are allowed to offer bets on this market. Outside of betting on college sporting events, Esports has been another the hot button topic in the US sports betting realm of available markets.

The legal sports betting age in Tennessee is 21 years of age. There is no limit to the number of sports betting accounts that a person has, but all of the betting must be done from inside of the state. 

Tennessee Sports Betting Regulations

Representative Rick Staples introduced HB001 in early 2019 in an effort to legalize sports betting in the state. There were a number of opponents to the bill, but Staples was able to generate enough support to keep the bill alive.

That bill quickly advanced and passed through the Senate before coming to a halt in the House of Representatives. Eventually, the bill was approved, and it went to Governor Bill Lee’s desk that spring. 

The governor chose not to sign the bill, but it still became law in June 2019, officially legalizing sports betting in Tennessee. It wouldn’t be until November 2020 that the sports betting industry officially launched in the volunteer state.

The Tennessee Education Lottery was chosen to oversee and regulate the new sports betting industry, and that group helped create some of the regulations that are in place. The TEL looked at other states to help create some of these regulations, but it also came up with some controversial regulations of its own.

There is a minimum hold requirement of 10 percent in their handle on an annual basis in Tennessee, which is easily the highest requirement in the United States. This means sportsbook operators can only payout 90% of the dollars wagered. If sportsbooks do not follow this, they could face a huge fine if these requirements are not met, but that has proven not to be an issue.

A $750,000 annual licensing fee is also in place, and all gross gaming revenue is taxed at 20 percent. Some industry experts believed that these requirements would keep some operators from applying for a license, but that has not been the case. 

Eighty percent of the sports betting tax revenue will be deposited into the Education fund, while 15 percent will be sent to local governments. The final five percent will be used to create programs that target problem gambling. 

• Play in TN with Action24/7.
• Use a StatHero bonus when initially registering.
• Find some tips when playing fantasy football.

Banking Options

Wherever you choose to play, each of these sportsbooks will have several options for you to deposit and withdraw. Here are the most common banking options you’ll have at your disposal:

• ACH eCheck
• Bank Wire Transfer
• Cash at Casino Cage
• Online Banking
• Online Banking
• PayPal
• Play+ Prepaid Card
• Visa/Mastercard

Tennessee Online Sports Betting Timeline

The state of Tennessee first legalized online sports betting in 2019 (LINK). The state’s first sportsbooks were then launched in November of 2020. Tennessee is one of the only states in the country to have an online-only format in regard to sports betting. There are no retail casinos in the state of Tennessee. Because of this, there are no plans to generate physical sportsbooks.

Although it is unconventional, the online-only format has done wonders for the state of Tennessee. Since its inception, the volunteer state has proven to be one of the more robust markets in all United States, with several monthly handles topping $300 million.

Summary

Now that Tennessee has gotten their feet wet, their market has proven to be a major force in the US sports betting industry. With a sports betting handle of more than $386 million during January 2022, Tennessee is staking its claim as a big-time player in the US betting market.

Not having any retail sports betting options in the state hurts the market a bit, but online sports betting has become the most popular way to bet on sports. Three of the biggest online sports betting operators have already launched in the state, and several others are options in Tennessee.

The Tennessee Education Lottery has placed some strict rules and regulations on operators but it has not deterred operators such as DraftKings and FanDuel from thriving in the state.

With a number of available betting markets being offered by sportsbooks in Tennessee, it should attract a wide range of sports bettors. The only major drawback is that there are no retail sportsbooks in the state and no place to gather and watch a big game while betting on your favorite team.