Online gambling in Ethiopia

Is there online gambling in Ethiopia? Yes, it turns out. While there are richer markets out there, Ethiopia has plenty to offer new operators and established brands looking for a new horizon.

Sports betting is booming across Africa. South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya are all drawing plenty of attention with their sizable populations of football-loving bettors. But aside from the heavy hitters, there might be other markets that aren’t getting the attention they deserve.

Enter Ethiopia — not the world’s richest market, but with a population of nearly 130 million, far from its smallest. While there might be challenges when navigating Ethiopia’s betting market, there’s great potential for operators willing to do the work.

Is gambling legal in Ethiopia?

Let’s start with the basics: is betting banned in Ethiopia?

Luckily, this basic question has a basic answer: Sports betting has been legal in Ethiopia since 2012. Lotteries are also legal, and Addis Ababa is home to a land-based casino. The only form of gambling that lingers in a gray area is online casino gaming, for which there are no regulations and no licensing scheme.

So, bettors looking for an online casino in Ethiopia often have to go abroad for slots, roulette, and other casino games. But for other verticals — online and offline sports betting, land-based casino games, and lotteries, Ethiopian bettors do have licensed domestic options.

Ethiopian gambling regulations and gambling licenses

Gambling in Ethiopia is overseen by the National Lottery Administration, which operates under the oversight of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development. The NLA sets regulations, issues licenses, supervises activities, and revokes permits if licensing conditions are breached.

There are two main pieces of legislation which regulate gambling in Ethiopia. Gambling is primarily regulated by the National Lottery Administration Re-Establishment Council of Ministers Regulation 2009, which permits “sports-betting lotteries” to accept bets, as well as by the Sports-Betting Lottery Directive No. 172/2021, which offers more specific rules.

Currently, the NLA only issues licenses for sports betting and lottery games. While there is a land-based casino in the country, Ethiopian gambling regulations do not account for online casinos, so licenses simply aren’t available.

The fee for a sports-lottery license is ETB 500,000 (€3,446), and the renewal fee is set at ETB 100,000. Licensees must pay a 15% commission on ticket revenues (effectively a turnover tax) and 15% of the winning prize to the NLA; 0.5% of total revenue must be given to social causes, down from 20%, as was specified in a previous directive.

Additionally, foreign companies cannot directly obtain licenses. Any company that wishes to acquire a license in Ethiopia must have at least one Ethiopian citizen as a co-founder. However, that only applies to B2C licensees; foreign software suppliers can freely offer their services to local brands.

To get a gambling license in Ethiopia, operators have to fulfill several requirements before applying. They have to acquire and register a trade license and a Tin (tax identification number) Certificate, as well as forming a company. Once they’ve satisfied these prerequisites, they follow these steps for license acquisition:

• Submit a business proposal.
• Provide proof of an office that satisfies the NLA’s guidelines.
• Provide a bank guarantee of ETB 1.5 million.
• Pay a license fee of ETB 500,000.

After the application has been approved, new licensees must begin operation within 2 months.

Ethiopian bettors

Just like in other African nations like Kenya and Nigeria, online sports betting is booming in Ethiopia.

And again, just like in those markets, most online sports betting in Ethiopia is dedicated to football. The Ethiopian Premier League is a favorite for betting, along with the English Premier League and La Liga. Ethiopian bettors also enjoy wagering on the FIFA World Cup and UEFA Champions League. Regional tournaments like the African Cup of Nations are also a big draw.

Aside from football, Ethiopian bettors like to wager on athletics, particularly track and field. This is especially true when the Olympics come around, and national pride drives betting on hometown athletes in events like the 5,000m or the marathon.

Tennis and cricket are also popular, but overall, they pale in comparison to the popularity of football.

Economically, Ethiopia is far from being a powerhouse. According to the World Bank, Ethiopia’s GDP for 2023 was $163.7 billion, and the GDP per capita was $1272. However, the country does have a very sizable population of 130 million. An estimated 58% of Ethiopians are between the ages of 15 and 64, and the median age skews quite young, at 19, meaning there are millions of Ethiopians in their prime betting years.

As always, localization would be key for any marketing efforts, but the normal channels are still available: affiliates have found Facebook, TikTok, and Telegram to all be effective ways of reaching out to players.

Established brands in the country include Abyssinia Bet, Powerbet.et, Betika.et, Harifsport, Axumbet, and Gihon Betting.

The Ethiopian gambling market: challenging but promising

Ethiopia is a promising, and perhaps underserved, market — but the opportunity is not without its challenges.

Challenge number one is local regulations.

Without explicit regulations for online casino gaming, operators don’t have clear, effective guidelines for what they can and cannot do. This is probably hampering the growth of the market and limiting the number of licensees, as well as driving players to offshore platforms. There’s also the taxation system to concern; turnover taxes are usually viewed as putting an undue burden on gambling brands.

The second challenge is connectivity.

According to World Bank data from 2021, only 17% of individuals in the country had internet access. However, there are an estimated 56 mobile cellular subscriptions for every 100 people, and 46% of adults over 25 have an account with a financial institution or mobile-money provider. Any platform looking to make headway in the market would do well to accept mobile-money payments like Safaricom’s M-Pesa and Ethio Telecom’s Telebirr (which has more than 34 million subscribers).

Limited connectivity means limited access to the betting audience, though with a population of nearly 130 million, even limited access will translate to a large number of bettors.

The third challenge is cultural backlash. In June of 2022, The Ministry of Women and Social Affairs lobbied to ban sports betting out of concerns about problem gambling. The NLA, however, disagreed, refusing to lump legitimate, licensed operations in with illegal ones.

How can Slotegrator help?

Slotegrator offers the full range of products and services you need to launch an online gambling project.

Our business advisory services will help you choose the right market for your goals and resources, and with our license acquisition services, you can avoid costly mistakes in the license application process.

Our powerful platform software is fully customizable and comes equipped with a range of modules that give you total control over even the smallest aspects of your business’s performance, and with our APIgrator game integration solution, you can instantly integrate over 30,000 games from over 180 licensed game developers in a single session.