How to check a sportsbook licence

A licence is what separates a sportsbook that has to follow your local rules from one that does not. A licensed operator must check who you are, follow local rules on customer money, honour self-exclusion and answer to a regulator if something goes wrong. Checking takes a couple of minutes, and the public registers are free to search.

Find the regulator where you are

Gambling is licensed country by country, and in some countries state by state. The licence that matters is the one for the place you are in when you bet, not where the company is based.

In the United States, Canada and Australia, licences are issued by each state, province or territory, so search for your own regulator's register. The legal-betting pages on OddsKeepr explain the rules in each place and link the source they were checked against.

Check a sportsbook step by step

1. Find the licence details on the sportsbook's site. They usually sit in the footer: the regulator's name, a licence number and the company that holds it.
2. Open the regulator's register yourself. Type the address or use the links above. Never rely on a badge or a link on the sportsbook's own page; those can be copied.
3. Search by licence number and company name. Both should match, and the status should say active or licensed, not suspended, revoked or expired.
4. Check the website address. Many registers list the domains each licensee may use. A lookalike address with a valid-looking licence number is a known trick.
5. Check the licence covers sports betting where you are. A casino-only licence does not count.

OddsKeepr lists a sportsbook only where its records show it is licensed, and each country's sportsbooks page shows where each one is licensed, for example Ireland or Canada. Still check the register yourself before you open an account.

Betting exchanges and prediction markets follow their own rules. In Great Britain and Australia, exchanges are licensed by the same regulators as sportsbooks. In the United States, the exchanges and prediction markets OddsKeepr shows hold no state licence, so it shows one only where the operator accepts residents. The exchanges guide explains the difference.

Warning signs

Any one of these is a reason to stop and check again:

• No regulator, or only a licence from another country.
• A licence number that is missing from the regulator's register, or listed under a different company.
• No identity checks at all before you can deposit and withdraw.
• Withdrawals that need extra deposits, "taxes" or "release fees" first.
• Pressure to deposit, messages from strangers about "fixed" games, or payment only in unusual ways.
• Prices on every side of a market at one site whose implied probabilities add up to less than 100%.

The last sign is worth a worked example. A licensed sportsbook builds a margin into its prices. Say a tennis match is priced at 1.91 on each player:

• 1 ÷ 1.91 = 52.356% for each player, so the two add up to 104.71%.
• The extra 4.71% is the overround, which comes from the sportsbook's built-in margin and is normal.

Now say an unknown site offers 2.30 on each player:

• 1 ÷ 2.30 = 43.48% for each player, so the two add up to only 86.96%.
• Below 100%, a book loses money on every balanced pair of bets. A site offering that has either made a mistake it may not honour, or does not intend to pay.

Paste any two-way prices into the calculator below to see the total. The vig guide explains the margin in more detail.

Self-exclusion only works with licensed sites

Self-exclusion lets you block yourself from gambling for a set time. National schemes bind every licensed online operator in their country (some cover land-based gambling too), which is one more reason to stay with licensed sites: an unlicensed one ignores them.

• Great Britain: GAMSTOP, opens in a new tab covers every online operator licensed by the Gambling Commission.
• Sweden: Spelpaus, opens in a new tab covers every operator licensed by Spelinspektionen.
• France: the ANJ's voluntary gambling ban, opens in a new tab lasts at least three years.
• Germany: OASIS, opens in a new tab blocks you from licensed gambling across Germany, sports betting included.
• Italy: the ADM's self-exclusion register, opens in a new tab covers licensed online operators.
• Netherlands: Cruks, opens in a new tab is the central exclusion register.
• Australia: BetStop, opens in a new tab is the national register for online and phone betting.
• United States and Canada: many states and provinces run their own voluntary exclusion lists; your state or provincial regulator can tell you how to join.

Where there is no national scheme, licensed operators must still let you set limits, take a break or close your account.

Where to get help

If gambling stops feeling like entertainment, free and confidential help is available wherever you are. Each country page lists its helplines and self-exclusion schemes:

• United States and Canada
• United Kingdom and Ireland
• France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Sweden
• Australia and New Zealand