{"id":13429,"date":"2025-11-24T12:45:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T15:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/?p=13429"},"modified":"2026-04-19T11:31:06","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T14:31:06","slug":"botswanas-illegal-gambling-market-reaches-p500-million","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/botswanas-illegal-gambling-market-reaches-p500-million","title":{"rendered":"Botswana\u2019s illegal gambling market reaches P500 million"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Despite the popularity of regulated wagering options, many bettors, including a growing number of minors, are drawn to offshore platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Botswana.- A recent study by the Gambling Authority<\/strong> and University of Botswana <\/strong>academics has found that the scale of illegal betting has reached P500m<\/strong> (\u20ac32.2m), totalling twice the size of Botswana\u2019s legitimate betting market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings were presented by the GA\u2019s acting CEO, Moruntshi Kemorwale<\/strong>, at the Botswana Economic Forum<\/strong>, where he highlighted the rapid expansion of the Botswana gambling industry and the need to crack down on unlicensed betting operators.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kemorwale said: “We did research with the University of Botswana and found that now the illegal gambling market has grown to P500 million. This means that the unregulated gambling market is twice the value of the regulated one.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the Gambling Authority’s licensing of online sports betting operators earlier this year, the country witnessed a notable rise in gambling activities, especially among younger demographics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The betting boom was recently highlighted by Super Group<\/a>, Betway’s parent operator, in its latest revenue figures, which showed $646m<\/strong> in African total earnings between January and September,<\/strong> largely fuelled by Botswana’s strong performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, despite the popularity of regulated wagering options, many bettors, including a growing number of minors, are drawn to offshore platforms, which operate outside of the country\u2019s regulatory framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In March, the Gambling Authority pegged the number of active bettors in Botswana at approximately 550,000<\/strong>. However, only about 220,000 individuals, or 40 per cent of bettors, use licensed operators, demonstrating the continued dominance of unregulated betting platforms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kermowale suggested that bringing illegal betting platforms under regulatory oversight could not only increase government revenue but also ensure a safer betting environment for citizens, ultimately contributing to the industry\u2019s long-term sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> SABA CEO warns of threats from illegal online gambling operators<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite the popularity of regulated wagering options, many bettors, including a growing number of minors, are drawn to offshore platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2395,"featured_media":12131,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"A joint study by Botswana's Gambling Authority and the University of Botswana reveals the illegal betting market has reached P500m (\u20ac32.2m), significantly exceeding the legitimate market's size. This highlights critical regulatory challenges, particularly concerning offshore platforms attracting minors, despite the recent licensing of online sports betting operators and strong market performance by entities like Super Group.","focusai_entities":"Gambling Authority, University of Botswana, Moruntshi Kemorwale, Botswana Economic Forum, Super Group, Betway, SABA","focusai_location":"Botswana","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Enforcement Strategy?","query":"What specific enforcement mechanisms and cross-border collaborations is the Gambling Authority implementing to effectively combat the P500m illegal betting market and mitigate the appeal of offshore platforms, particularly to minors?"},{"label":"Impact on Licensed Operators?","query":"How does the P500m unregulated market, which is twice the size of the legitimate sector, impact the GGR and NGR projections for licensed operators in Botswana, and what strategies are being considered to convert these illicit market participants to regulated channels?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[60023,60011],"tags":[71,73,78],"class_list":["post-13429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legal-news","category-south-africa","tag-gambling","tag-illegal-gambling","tag-sports-betting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13429"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13493,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13429\/revisions\/13493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}