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Is sports betting legal in Tennessee?
Yes.
- Senate Bill 16 passed the Tennessee legislature with bipartisan support in May 2019, and Governor Bill Lee, who had expressed personal reservations about gambling, allowed it to become law without his signature.
- The Tennessee Sports Gaming Act made Tennessee the first state in American history to authorize sports wagering exclusively through online platforms, with zero retail sportsbook operations permitted anywhere in the state - a deliberate design choice specifically aimed at sidestepping the physical casino and gambling-venue debate that conservative Tennessee legislators and their constituents found objectionable.
The state's original framework went considerably further than just banning retail books.
- Alongside a 20% privilege tax on adjusted gross income, the 2019 law imposed two genuinely unusual companion requirements found nowhere else in the country: a mandatory 10% minimum hold on total handle, effectively forcing operators to ensure they kept at least a tenth of every dollar wagered regardless of outcomes, and a -110 minimum odds mandate specifically designed to help operators hit that hold target by preventing sharper, more competitive pricing.
- The first legal wagers were placed November 1, 2020.
Regulatory authority transferred from the Tennessee Education Lottery to the newly created Sports Wagering Advisory Council on January 1, 2022 - since rebranded the Tennessee Sports Wagering Council.
- Effective July 1, 2023, Tennessee overhauled its tax structure: the state eliminated both the 10% mandatory hold and the -110 odds mandate, and replaced the 20% revenue tax with a flat 1.85% tax on total handle - the first state in the nation to tax the total amount wagered rather than operator profit.
- You must be at least 21 years old and physically located within Tennessee to place a bet.
Tennessee rules at a glance
- ✓Online-only marketTennessee permits statewide mobile wagering but no retail sportsbooks.
- ✓21+ minimum ageYou must be at least 21 to use a licensed Tennessee sportsbook.
- ✓Physical location requiredSportsbooks use geolocation to confirm you are inside Tennessee when betting.
- ✓Handle-based taxOperators are taxed at 1.85% of total handle rather than a percentage of revenue.
| Period | Framework | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| May 2019 | SB 16 approved | Tennessee authorized an online-only sports betting model with no retail sportsbooks. |
| Nov. 1, 2020 | First legal wagers | Licensed mobile sportsbooks went live statewide. |
| Jan. 1, 2022 | Regulator transfer | Authority moved from the Tennessee Education Lottery to the Sports Wagering Advisory Council, later the Sports Wagering Council. |
| July 1, 2023 | Tax reform | The 10% hold and -110 odds mandates ended, and a 1.85% handle tax replaced the 20% revenue tax. |
Best Tennessee sportsbook apps
Tennessee currently supports roughly ten licensed mobile sportsbooks, with bet365 among the more recent notable additions, launching in March 2025. The table below links to our full, independently tested reviews of the major national brands active in Tennessee.
| Sportsbook | Our score | Best for | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| DraftKings | 9.6/10 | Overall value | Full review |
| FanDuel | 9.5/10 | App design | Full review |
| BetMGM | 9.2/10 | Odds boosts & casino crossover | Full review |
| Caesars Sportsbook | 9.0/10 | Loyalty rewards | Full review |
| bet365 | 8.9/10 | In-play, soccer, Titans/Predators/Grizzlies fans | Full review |
| ESPN BET | 8.6/10 | Casual bettors | Full review |
| Fanatics Sportsbook | 8.4/10 | Rewards points | Full review |
See the full rankings and our six-category scoring methodology on the sportsbook reviews page. Now that the -110 odds mandate has been eliminated, Tennessee operators can genuinely compete on price the way they do elsewhere - our guide to claiming a sportsbook bonus is worth reading before choosing among the state's active apps.
Which sports can you bet on in Tennessee?
Tennessee sportsbooks cover all the major U.S. professional leagues - NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS, and WNBA - alongside international soccer, tennis, golf, MMA, boxing, and motorsports. Tennessee's professional sports scene centers on the Titans, Grizzlies, and Predators, giving Nashville and Memphis-area bettors a year-round rooting interest across multiple leagues.
Both professional and college sports betting are legal in Tennessee, but NCAA player prop bets are restricted statewide, consistent with the broader national trend of limiting player-level wagers on college athletes specifically. Standard game-level bets on college games, including in-state programs, generally remain permitted.
| Market | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Major pro leagues | Available | NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, MLS and WNBA are covered. |
| College game betting | Available | Standard game-level wagers, including in-state programs, generally remain permitted. |
| NCAA player props | Restricted | Player-level prop bets on college athletes are restricted statewide. |
| Live betting | Available | Licensed books offer live in-play markets with updating odds. |
| Retail betting | Not available | Tennessee's framework is online-only. |
Bet types & live betting in Tennessee
Every licensed Tennessee sportsbook offers moneylines, point spreads, and totals across every major sport, same-game and cross-game parlays, team props, futures markets, and live in-play betting with continuously updating odds - though not college player props, per the restriction above. Our guide to every type of sports bet covers the win condition for each format, and understanding odds and lines explains how to read the prices themselves.
With the state's former -110 minimum odds mandate now gone, line shopping in Tennessee is more meaningful than it was before July 2023 - our line shopping guide covers how comparing prices across multiple books before placing a bet can improve long-run results. Same-game parlays and live in-play betting are available at every operator; see our parlays explained guide and live and in-play betting guide for the mechanics behind each.
Why Tennessee has no retail sportsbooks
Tennessee has no retail sportsbooks of any kind, and this isn't a temporary gap awaiting future expansion - it's the state's permanent, original design.
- The 2019 Tennessee Sports Gaming Act specifically built an online-only framework from the outset, with no casino or physical wagering venue provisions included at all, a choice made deliberately to avoid the broader gambling-expansion debate that a casino-anchored model would have triggered among conservative lawmakers.
- There are no current plans to add retail sportsbooks, and Tennessee's underlying regulatory framework simply has no mechanism for licensing them.
Because there's no retail option to fall back on, Tennessee's entire sports betting market runs through mobile apps, with sign-up and betting handled entirely online from the moment of registration. The supplied page compares Tennessee's outcome to other mobile-only states, while emphasizing that Tennessee reached that outcome through a deliberate political choice rather than the absence of a casino industry.
What online-only means in Tennessee
- ✓No casino visit neededRegistration, funding and wagering are handled through licensed mobile apps.
- ✓No retail fallbackThe state's law contains no retail sportsbook licensing mechanism.
- ✓Geolocation still appliesYou must be physically inside Tennessee when placing a wager.
- ✓Remote account creationIdentity checks and account registration are completed electronically.
Why Tennessee still has no online casino
Tennessee has no regulated online casino product, and given how deliberately the state avoided any casino-adjacent framework when designing its sports betting law in the first place, near-term online casino legalization looks like a distant prospect. The same political dynamics that produced Tennessee's online-only sports betting model - a legislature wary of anything resembling traditional casino gambling - apply with even more force to a real-money online casino proposal.
Tennessee residents interested in online casino-style gaming are currently limited to legal sweepstakes casino platforms operating under a separate regulatory framework, not equivalent to the regulated real-money iGaming products available in states like New Jersey or Michigan.
If online casino gaming matters to you specifically, Tennessee is unlikely to offer it anytime soon given the state's cautious approach to gambling expansion - see our New Jersey guide and Michigan guide for examples of regulated real-money online casino markets.
How Tennessee compares to other states
Tennessee's 1.85% handle-based tax is unlike anything else in the country - every other state on this site taxes some version of operator revenue or adjusted gross income, while Tennessee taxes the total dollar amount wagered regardless of whether the operator actually turns a profit on those bets. That structural choice gives Tennessee a more stable, predictable tax base than revenue-based states experience, since handle tends to fluctuate less dramatically than profit margins from month to month, though it also means the state collects tax revenue even in months where operators post a net loss.
Tennessee's abandoned 10% mandatory hold and -110 odds mandate stand as a unique historical experiment among the states covered on this site - no other state has tried to engineer sportsbook pricing this directly, and Tennessee itself abandoned the approach after roughly three years. Tennessee set a monthly handle record of more than $375 million in October 2021 while the old mandatory-hold regime was still in place.
Tennessee's online-only status also puts it in a small group of mobile-only markets, but the source emphasizes that Tennessee's choice was political: the state deliberately avoided building sports betting around casino-style venues.
| Feature | Tennessee approach | Why it stands out |
|---|---|---|
| Retail sportsbooks | None | The market was designed as online-only from the beginning. |
| Current operator tax | 1.85% of handle | The state taxes the amount wagered rather than operator revenue. |
| Old hold rule | 10% minimum hold | The mandatory hold experiment was eliminated in July 2023. |
| Old odds rule | -110 minimum pricing | The standardized odds mandate was also eliminated in July 2023. |
| Annual license fee | $750,000 | The supplied page describes this as a steep annual operator fee. |
How to sign up
Creating a Tennessee sportsbook account takes about five minutes and can be completed entirely online.
- You'll need your full legal name, date of birth, current address, email, phone number, and the last four digits of your Social Security number for identity verification, a standard requirement at every licensed U.S. sportsbook.
- The app will request location access at sign-up and periodically afterward, since Tennessee sportsbooks use GPS-based geolocation to confirm you're physically within state lines for every bet.
Common funding methods include debit card, PayPal, and ACH bank transfer - Tennessee specifically prohibits credit card deposits, and also bans deposits originating from outside Tennessee even when the funds are ultimately used to bet within the state. Before your first deposit, our bankroll management guide is worth reading to think through stake sizing deliberately.
From account to first wager
- 1Create your accountUse your full legal name and current contact details.
- 2Complete identity checksProvide the verification information requested by the sportsbook.
- 3Enable location servicesYou must be physically inside Tennessee when placing a bet.
- 4Fund with an allowed methodDebit card, PayPal and ACH are listed; credit card deposits are prohibited.
- 5Set a bankroll limitDecide your risk boundary before confirming your first stake.
Taxes on winnings
Sports betting winnings are taxable income at the federal level; Tennessee itself has no state income tax, a notable detail for residents, though federal obligations still apply to all gambling winnings.
- Most Tennessee sportsbooks issue a Form W-2G when winnings exceed roughly $5,000, with standard federal withholding of 24% applying if you provide a Social Security number, or 28% if you decline to.
- This page is not tax advice, so consult a tax professional about your own specific filing situation.
On the operator side - not something bettors pay directly, but a figure that shapes the market you're betting in - Tennessee taxes sports betting at 1.85% of total handle, a structure that replaced the original 20% revenue tax effective July 2023.
- Licensees also pay a $750,000 annual fee.
- See our sportsbook promotions economics article for more on how Tennessee's tax structure shapes the promotional environment bettors see.
| Item | Figure or rule | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Tennessee personal income tax | None | The source states Tennessee has no state income tax, though federal gambling-income obligations still apply. |
| Federal withholding described | 24% / 28% | The source states 24% with a Social Security number or 28% if you decline to provide one. |
| Operator tax | 1.85% of handle | Applied to the total amount wagered rather than sportsbook revenue. |
| Annual license fee | $750,000 | The supplied page describes this as the annual fee paid by licensees. |
| Credit card deposits | Prohibited | Tennessee specifically bans credit card sportsbook deposits. |
Responsible gambling resources
The Tennessee Sports Wagering Council oversees responsible gambling requirements across all licensed sportsbooks.
- Every licensed operator is required to offer deposit limits, session time alerts, and cooling-off periods, and Tennessee maintains a statewide self-exclusion program.
- The elimination of the -110 odds mandate in 2023 also removed a rule some critics had argued worked against bettors' interests by artificially limiting how competitive pricing could get.
1-800-889-9789 is Tennessee's dedicated problem gambling helpline, Tennessee REDLINE, free and confidential for anyone in the state concerned about their own gambling or someone else's. See our responsible gambling guide for a practical walkthrough of the limit tools available inside most sportsbook apps.
FAQ
A few additional questions come up often from bettors curious about Tennessee's unusual regulatory history, beyond the launch timeline and tax reform already covered above.
When did sports betting become legal in Tennessee?
SB 16 passed in May 2019 and became law without Governor Bill Lee's signature. The first legal wagers were placed November 1, 2020, making Tennessee the first state to launch an online-only sports betting model.
Why did Tennessee require a 10% minimum hold and -110 odds?
The 2019 law paired a 20% revenue tax with a mandatory 10% hold on handle and a -110 minimum odds requirement. Both requirements were eliminated in July 2023.
Does Tennessee have retail sportsbooks?
No, and it never has. Tennessee's original 2019 law was specifically designed as an online-only framework with no provision for retail sportsbooks.
Why does Tennessee tax handle instead of revenue?
Effective July 2023, Tennessee became the first state to tax total wagered handle rather than operator revenue, replacing its original 20% revenue tax with a flat 1.85% handle tax.
What is the minimum age to bet on sports in Tennessee?
21. This applies to online sports betting throughout the state because no retail option exists.