How to start a sportsbook in South Africa

More and more entrepreneurs are wondering how to open a betting company in South Africa. Before starting a betting business, it’s essential to do careful research and analysis. In this case, you need to answer important questions like “how much does a gambling license cost in South Africa,” “how much do you need to start a betting company,” and “how does SA regulate betting?”

You’ll find the answers to all those questions — and more — in this article.

Africa has grabbed the industry’s attention as home to a number of emerging markets, but at the southern tip of the continent lies its third-biggest economy and biggest betting market. Keep reading to find out why South Africa is a prime destination for online sportsbook operators — and how to start a sportsbook business in the country.

It’s hard to find a country where sports betting isn’t popular.

Sports fans all over the world enhance the excitement of watching a game or match by pitting their intuition against the bookmakers' odds — and as our world becomes more tech-centric, sports betting is moving online along with everything else.

Regulations are a concern in every market. When it comes to legislation, online sportsbooks have one big edge over online casinos — there are more countries that prohibit online casino gaming but allow sports betting than vice versa.

With the right products and effective marketing strategies, along with the right odds, a well-managed online sportsbook can generate a substantial revenue stream.

Emerging markets across Africa are catching the eye of operators and investors. But the Republic of South Africa (SA) has long been established as a prominent, thriving market, one that could provide operators with a solid base to build on while they’re expanding across the rest of the continent into bet-loving countries like Nigeria and Kenya.

While a few decades ago nearly all forms of gambling were banned in the country, today it has a vibrant gambling market, driven in a large part by a well-established land-based casino sector and a substantial and fast-growing sports betting segment. Getting a bookmaker’s license in South Africa is looking like a better idea every day.

What do South Africans bet on? Choosing the sports for the South African market

South Africa has the continent’s third-highest GDP, behind Egypt and fellow sports betting hotbed Nigeria. With the country’s widespread love of sports, it’s no wonder that it’s also Africa’s biggest gambling market.

The online gambling market revenue is expected to reach $2.92 billion in 2025, and over $3 billion by 2029, showing an annual growth rate of 2.08%. The online betting market is projected to grow to $694.2 million in 2025 — the betting industry generates 44.9% of total industry GGR.

South African players have the convenience of spreading internet penetration and increasing access to smartphones. In fact, mobile devices are more popular than traditional desktops. The popularity of online gambling is skyrocketing, and sport betting takes a major share of this market — South African bettors are passionate about sports and supporting their favorite teams.

The confluence of cultural acceptance of gambling, passion for sports, high rates of mobile phone connectivity, and local betting regulation has led to a surge in popularity of sports betting among South African players, particularly in light of the unstable financial conditions.

What sports do South African punters bet on?

South African players like sports in general, and bet on the same sports that are popular everywhere else around the world. However, they also have their local preferences.

The South African national rugby team, the Springboks, has legions of die-hard fans — and therefore plenty of die-hard bettors. South Africans also place bets on cricket, soccer, golf, basketball, and tennis. Both domestic and international football are also in demand, as well as horse racing, which has a long history in the country; for a long time, it was the only available form of betting. South African athletes are also highly competitive on an international level in cricket and golf, both of which the country’s punters enjoy betting on.

Local players also bet on eSports.

Steps to launch a betting business

Starting new betting sites in South Africa looks like a great idea from every perspective. But a betting project is not a simple venture; being consistent is a key to success.

Here are the steps we recommend you take:

1. Choose your niche and decide what sports you will offer (horse racing, esports, football, basketball, or all of them).
2. Decide what business structure is the best for you (franchised white label or individually licensed turnkey).
3. Get a betting license.
4. Partner with payment systems and sport betting data feed providers.
5. Develop a platform and back-end system.
6. Create a well-designed and fully functional website.
7. Ensure your platform’s security.
8. Write a marketing strategy and launch your marketing campaigns.

How do you choose the business structure of an online sportsbook?

Online sportsbooks, like other gambling businesses, require software and legal solutions. The three main options Operators have the options of signing a white label agreement, acquiring a turnkey solution, or developing their own proprietary software.

White label solution

White label solutions allow operators to work with ready-made software and under their business partner’s sublicense. This is the quickest way to go live, but white label options are normally provided only to experienced operators.

Turnkey

For new operators, the turnkey option is often the best. With a turnkey platform, the operator gets ready-made software with a fully customizable frontend and a powerful backend that lets them control every aspect of daily operations.

From scratch

Some new operators opt to develop their own platform software from scratch in an attempt to save money. While that might be true in the short run, this approach will eventually cause more problems than it solves.

An online gambling platform is a complicated project, and inevitably, it needs to be outsourced to professional developers, who will create the project and then hand it over. However, that’s usually the end of the relationship, and when bugs pop up (as they inevitably will) there’s no guarantee the team who built your platform will be around to help keep it running.

This is a more difficult and time-consuming way to start an online sportsbook, but you can save time and money by cooperating with a B2B provider for a readymade platform instead of developing it yourself.

Quality platform software is absolutely necessary. This includes a powerful and smooth-running backend that will support high volumes of traffic without glitching and a frontend customized to appeal to the tastes (and native language) of your target market.

South Africa has eleven national languages, but if you can’t offer a version of your site in all of them, you’ll cast the widest possible net with English and Afrikaans. If you can localize your website in Khosa and Zulu, all the better.

An effective platform will also include a bonus module to improve player retention and provide reporting tools that track, segment, and analyze business performance, enabling you to maintain oversight of daily operations.

Of course, an online gaming platform is nothing without content — in this case, betting opportunities. To set odds and give players the up-to-the-minute info they’ve come to expect, you’ll need live data feeds covering a variety of sports disciplines. Punters should always have plenty of events to bet on — many bettors enjoy placing several wagers at once.

How to get a sportsbook license in South Africa?

Licensed operation is always a safe and stable choice. Let’s see how you can get a sports betting license in South Africa.

How do the provinces break down?

The Republic of South Africa is divided into nine provinces, each of which have their own regulatory authority that oversees gambling and betting. At a federal level, gambling is regulated by the National Gaming Board. National GGR is divided among the country’s nine provinces — but far from equally.

The top three provinces for gambling revenues are Gauteng, the Western Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal. The Western Cape has its second-highest GGR, due to its higher concentration of spending power. Despite being only the fourth-biggest province by population (with a little over 7 million residents, compared to Gauteng’s population of nearly 15.5 million), the Western Cape has the country’s second-biggest provincial GDP.

The Western Cape is a popular destination for sportsbook operators, many of which are licensed by the Western Cape Gambling and Racing Board.

It is reasonable to assume that the province of operation will have a significant impact on various aspects of your business. Provinces with higher GDP per capita, such as the Western Cape, are likely to see a higher average bet — but perhaps less betting frequency — than areas where individuals have less spending power.

Each of the country’s nine provinces has its own regulatory body for gambling and betting. The nine authorities are:

• Gauteng Gambling Board
• Eastern Cape Gambling and Betting Board
• Free State Gambling and Racing Board
• KwaZulu-Natal Gambling and Racing Board
• Limpopo Gambling Board
• Mpumalanga Gambling Board
• North West Gambling Board
• Northern Cape Gambling Board
• Western Cape Gambling and Racing Board

Every province has its own regulations, application process, requirements to fulfill, and paperwork to fill out. Below, we provide an example — the licensing fees that would be paid to the Western Cape Gambling and Racing Board. Some of the forms you will need in order to apply for a WCGRB license will include (but may not be limited to):

• Business Entity Disclosure form
• Additional key employee license
• Bookmaker premises license application form
• Application form for a key employee license
• Personal history disclosure
• Application by license holder for approval of procurement of financial interest

Operators accustomed to coughing up the high licensing fees in the European market could find the licensing fees in South Africa to be a little more inviting. This is a table of costs that might be incurred when applying for a license from the Western Cape Gambling and Racing Board.

Website development

Once your betting company is licensed, you can dedicate your time to the platform and website. Let’s break down the elements that go into a high-performing platform.

UX design

Good UX design and clear website navigation is a must in today’s iGaming market. Bettors won’t spend time looking for what they need or waiting for pages to load — they want to start placing bets as quickly as possible, especially in regions where they like to bet often. Another thing to keep in mind is that in South Africa, where most players use their smartphones to bet, all websites must have mobile versions.

Website functions

SA betting sites should include several important functions for maximum user convenience:

• Registration and personality verification
• Selection of sports to bet on
• Odds display for different events and markets
• Account management where users can place deposits, withdraw winnings, and manage accounts
• Live betting for real-time events
• Results and statistics to help users make informed betting decisions
• Promotions and bonuses
• Responsible gambling tools, including deposit limits, self-exclusion, and educational resources
• Customer support, such as live chat, email, or phone

The back end of a betting platform

The back end is where user segmentation, bonus offers, and identity verification take place. The back end gathers and analyzes data generated by bettors' behavior, facilitating the development of targeted marketing strategies. Sportegrator, Slotegrator's sportsbook platform, also offers bonus management, risk management, personalization, payment methods, and real-time sports data feeds.

Betting website security

Keep in mind that both bookmaker and bettor must be protected. You can offer secure payment processing by partnering with only reputable and secure payment gateways to process financial transactions, ensuring that sensitive payment information is encrypted and handled securely. On top of that, always implement secure password policies and provide user privacy policies.

It’s essential for operators to secure their online operation. We covered this topic in our article Safety first: Slotegrator’s guide to iGaming cybersecurity — read it to learn more about how to deal with your own security.

How much does a betting website cost?

While calculating expenses, keep in mind that developing your own platform and website will be more expensive and time consuming than purchasing a ready-made, customized solution from a sportsbook provider. Developing a proprietary platform will require a full team of developers and managers to organize the work process.

If you decide to hire external professionals, their services will be a cost of your business operations. This will be in addition to the salaries of your own teams, including sales, marketing, and player support, as well as web hosting expenses.

But there’s another financial concern to consider. This is the hidden cost of maintenance. If you collaborate with a software provider, technical support is often included in the cost of the platform. If you choose to build your own proprietary software, finding someone to fix them will cost more and take more time.

How do you choose a payment provider?

Players in different regions have different requirements when it comes to payment processing. Online sportsbooks should always support deposits and withdrawals in the local currency of their market of operation — South African Rand (ZAR) in this case — but cryptocurrencies are exploding in popularity, so it’s not a bad idea to accept Bitcoin or Ethereum.

It’s also important to integrate a range of different payment methods in addition to covering different currencies. Players in many markets — especially African markets — don’t have access to traditional banks, instead making payments through their mobile carrier or through other alternatives like e-wallets. Integrating all these payment systems — and more — will help you make sure a punter is never turned away because they couldn’t make a deposit.

How do you start marketing campaigns for a betting platform?

Marketing campaigns start with a detailed plan that takes into account the chosen market, target audience, local bettors preferences, and languages.

Slotegrator recommends researching gambling advertising laws before planning your marketing in any country. Gambling in South Africa is regulated according to the National Gambling Act 2004 (NGA) and local province-level acts. All advertising materials in South Africa must include responsible gambling messages and avoid targeting minors.

There are a variety of strategies available for promoting your betting platform. Among the most popular and effective sources of traffic is affiliate marketing. However, social media, sponsorships, and bonuses are also common for gambling and betting businesses.

What are the big names in South African sports betting?

A number of well-established domestic and international sportsbook brands, such as Betway, Bet.co.za, Hollywoodbets, and Supabets are licensed to operate in South Africa — very commonly in the Western Cape.

When it comes to race betting, Gold Circle is the totalizer operator in KwaZulu-Natal, and Phumelela offers horserace betting in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, the North West, the Northern Cape, the Eastern Cape, the Free State, and the Western Cape (on behalf of Kenilworth Racing Trust).

How can Slotegrator help you?

Slotegrator is a sportsbook platform and B2B services provider. In our 12 years of industry experience, we’ve gathered a vast amount of knowledge about the iGaming industry, and we share this knowledge through articles and case studies in the Academy section of our site, as well as through direct, free consultations.

Feel free to contact us with any questions or inquiries and get a free consultation about Sportegrator or arrange a call with our sales team and integrate over 400,000 events, 35,000 live events, 4,500 live odds esports events, and 7 virtual sports in 24/7 live HD for your betting project.