Legal XFL Betting in the USA

Every spring, legal XFL betting steps in to fill the void left by the end of the NFL season. After two false starts, one in 2001 and another in 2020 that was doomed by COVID-19 restrictions, the XFL made its return with the start of the Spring 2023 season.

The nation’s most prominent betting sites offer online XFL betting, but coverage is only now beginning to ramp up. In addition, the state-by-state nature of US sports betting law means online sportsbooks don’t offer XFL betting in every jurisdiction.

In this guide, BettingUSA will explain where XFL betting is legal, which sportsbooks cover the league, and everything else bettors need to know to get started.

Legal XFL Betting Sites

States With Legal XFL Betting

Most states with licensed sportsbooks allow XFL betting online, but there are a few exceptions.

The only states with legal sportsbooks that do not allow XFL betting are:

• Indiana
• Ohio
• Washington, DC
• Wyoming

Fans who live in states without legal sports betting can take some comfort knowing that local regulations will likely change. In the meantime, fans in those states can get in on the action via daily fantasy sports sites like FanDuel and DraftKings that offer XFL DFS contests.

The following map provides a comprehensive list of which states allow online XFL betting and which do not. BettingUSA will provide updates as regulators in additional states authorize licensed sportsbooks to offer betting on XFL games.

Map Key

• Blue: Sports betting is legal and XFL betting is approved
• Red: Sports betting is legal but XFL betting not yet approved
• Green: Sports betting is legal but not yet operational

The Relationship Between The XFL And Sports Betting

The XFL differs from the NFL and other sports leagues in more ways than one. Most notably, the XFL is a much younger league and does not share the same complicated relationship with sports betting as do most other leagues.

Unlike the other major sports leagues, the XFL wasn’t around to challenge New Jersey’s effort to overturn the federal sports betting prohibition (PASPA). To the contrary, the XFL has embraced sports betting from day one.

During each of the XFL’s two most recent returns in 2020 and 2023, the league launched with sports betting in mind. For example, the XFL named Genius Sports Limited its “Official Betting Data Distribution Partner” and “Free-to-Play Provider” just ahead of its 2023 season.

Similarly, the XFL launched its 2020 season with betting lines integrated into broadcasts, beginning with the first televised game.

Best XFL Betting Sites

Most licensed sportsbooks offer XFL betting online in states that have approved wagers on the league. This makes finding reputable XFL betting sites a simple matter of staying with mobile sportsbooks licensed in your state.

You can see our state-by-state guides to see which betting sites are licensed in your state.

Currently, there is not much difference in the extent to which XFL betting is offered by sportsbooks in the USA. XFL betting is not nearly as developed as NFL betting, and it appears operators are easing into the league. For the most part, mobile sportsbooks offer a handful of wagers for each XFL game (moneylines, point spreads and totals) along with futures on who will win the season championship.

We expect to see legal betting sites expand their betting menus as the XFL matures and grows its fanbase. The XFL was practically tailormade for betting with rules that foster a faster pace and even more opportunities for in-game props (such as the outcomes of point-after-touchdown plays).

As the XFL settles in and establishes itself as a league with staying power, BettingUSA will revisit these rankings and make changes as betting sites increase their coverage.

In the meantime, there really isn’t much to differentiate one XFL betting site from the next. As long as you stick with sportsbooks that are legal and licensed in your state, you’ll have access to roughly the same types of wagers and your money will be safe.

How To Bet On The XFL

XFL betting largely resembles betting on the NFL. The XFL implements some interesting rule variations that distinguish it from the NFL and that will impact strategy, but the basics of betting remain the same. Any prior NFL betting experience will translate well to the XFL.

As a relatively new sport that has yet to prove its long-term viability and viewership potential, the XFL tends to be covered with only the most basic of wagers so far. XFL betting sites currently offer four primary types of wagers.

XFL Moneylines

XFL moneylines work just like they do in the NFL. The sportsbook prices each team according to which seems most likely to win and you make your selection. The prices posted next to each team indicate how much you stand to win relative to your wager.

The team deemed most likely to win (the favorite) is priced with a negative number, which indicates you’ll be risking more than you stand to win in terms of net profit. This number shows how much you need to risk to win $100.

The other team (the underdog) is priced with a positive number, indicating you stand to win more than your original wager. This number shows how much you stand to win per $100 wagered.

The goal of the oddsmakers is to make it equally worthwhile to bet on either team. Bets on the favorites are more likely to win but come with smaller payouts while wagers on underdogs are less likely to win but come with bigger payouts.

If the oddsmaker does well in pricing the game, the sportsbook will get roughly an equal amount of action on each team.

For example:

• Vegas Vipers: +200
• Houston Roughnecks: -250

The Vegas Vipers came into this game as +200 underdogs, which means you stand to win $200 for every $100 wagered. A successful $100 wager on the Vipers would result in a total payout of $300. You can also break it down even further and say you stand to win $2 for every $1 wagered.

The Houston Roughnecks are priced as fairly heavy favorites at odds of -250. This indicates you will need to risk $250 for every $100 in potential winnings. A successful $250 wager on the Roughnecks would result in a total payout of $350 for a net of $100.

The one shortcoming of the moneyline odds format is that it is not always intuitive when it comes to seeing at a glance how much you stand to win or lose, especially with odd-sized wagers.

However, online and mobile sportsbooks make it easy to select a bet, type in a wager and instantly see how much you stand to win.

XFL Point Spreads

Point spreads also involve picking the winning team in an XFL game but feature odds that are much closer to even money compared to moneylines. In point spreads, the oddsmakers account for differences in skill by requiring the favorite to win by a certain number of points.

For example:

• Seattle Sea Dragons: -3.5 (-110)
• Orlando Guardians: +3.5 (-110)

The Sea Dragons are the favorites in this matchup and we can see they are “giving” 3.5 points to the Orlando Guardians.

If you bet on Seattle in this example, you would need them to win by 4 or more points for your wager to win. If the Sea Dragons lose the game outright or fail to “cover the spread,” your wager would be a loser.

Conversely, the Guardians are being given 3.5 points. If you bet on the Guardians, your wager wins if the Guardians win the game outright or lose the game by fewer than 3.5 points.

XFL Point Totals

With point total wagers, the goal is to predict whether the combined score of both teams will exceed the total set by the oddsmakers. This not a wager on who will win, but rather on how many points will be scored.

Here’s an example from a past XFL game:

St. Louis Battlehawks vs. Arlington Renegades

• 53: -110
• U 53: -110

In this example, the sportsbook has set the points total at 53 points and your goal is to predict whether the actual combined total will be higher than 53 points or lower than 53 points.

XFL Futures

Futures wagers mostly deal with events whose outcomes will not be known until further in the future compared to wagers on an upcoming game. The typical example of an XFL future would be betting on which team will win the XFL Championship.

The time frame over which futures operate is both their greatest advantage and greatest drawback. Placing a futures wager early in the season may lock in a great price on a team that most of the betting public is sleeping on. As your team racks up wins over the season and other bettors scramble to lock in falling prices, you can watch contentedly having locked in a much better price.

This can also work against you because information is increasingly limited the further out you place a future bet. If you back a team that looks very strong at low odds, and then they go on to lose their starting QB or simply fail to perform, you’ll be stuck with a wager that has the worst of both worlds in terms of probability and payout.

Daily Fantasy XFL Contests

The first daily fantasy XFL contests kicked off in tune with the beginning of the first XFL season, giving fans in states without legal sports betting a chance to get in on the action. If you do not live in a state with legal sports betting, daily fantasy XFL is the next best thing.

DraftKings and FanDuel both embraced XFL from the beginning and host some fairly large fantasy contests involving the league. Prize pools for some XFL fantasy contests are already deep into six-figure territory with first-place prizes topping $100,000.

Scoring rules for fantasy XFL differ by site but largely resemble those for fantasy football in general. As a player, you start with a virtual budget and use it to build a team of players from around the league. As they score points and rack up yardage in the real world, your fantasy team earns points to move you up the rankings.

Here’s how each of the nation’s two largest fantasy sites scores XFL contests:

More About the XFL

After a short run in 2001 and an even shorter run in 2020, the XFL launched its third iteration in 2023.

Vince McMahon of professional wrestling fame originally cooked up the idea of a more action-oriented version of football that would appeal to fans by speeding up the pace of the game and giving fans something to look forward as the NFL season winds down each year.

His original vision for the XFL did not pan out for a variety of reasons. Some of it was likely related to the league incorporating too many gimmicky elements from professional wrestling with team names such as the Memphis Maniax and scantily clad cheerleaders, but there were other issues as well that have been thoroughly dissected over the years.

Nearly 20 years later, the XFL made a second go of it with an improved and more family-friendly business model, fewer gimmicks, and more sports betting. The new XFL also aimed to avoid competing head-to-head with the NFL by scheduling its season to pick right up where the Super Bowl leaves off every year.

The 2020 season generated a promising amount of interest, but the timing of its launch couldn’t have been worse. Just five weeks after its 2020 launch, the XFL cancelled the rest of the season due to COVID-19 and filed bankruptcy shortly thereafter.

The XFL made its third attempt in 2023, this time with the backing of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Danny Garcia, and Gerry Cardinale of RedBird Capital.