Cyprus

Online sports betting is licensed and supervised in Cyprus by the National Betting Authority (NBA, established 2012) under the Betting Law of 2019, which issues Class A licences for land-based betting and Class B licences for online betting. The NBA's Class B register lists thirteen licensed online bookmakers: Bet365 (at www.bet365.com.cy), Bet On Alfa, Meridian Gaming CY, Winmasters, Ubet, Stoiximan, Fonbet, Allwynbet, Megabetplus, In2Bet, Cybet, Novibet and Copybet. Major operators such as Bet365 hold Class B licences valid into 2026, but many international brands still hold no Cypriot licence.

Online casino games are a different story. Slots, RNG products, online poker and betting exchanges are strictly prohibited, and Cyprus enforces the ban with a weekly-updated blocking list of more than 22,000 illegal domains. Land-based casino gambling is limited to a single integrated-resort licensee, City of Dreams Mediterranean, under the separate Casino Operations and Control Law 2015.

Horse-race betting has a separate regime. The Horse Racing Betting Law (Cap. 352) gives the Nicosia Race Club exclusive rights to organise horse-racing bets and authorise agents nationwide, outside the NBA system. Draft bills to expand legal online gambling were debated at committee stage in 2025 and 2026, but the government has signalled no immediate plans to legalise online casino.

The minimum betting age is 18, with mandatory age verification. Prediction markets and betting exchanges fall outside any licensable category and are treated as prohibited.

Which Betting Sites Are Legal in Cyprus?

Only the Class B licensees on the NBA register are authorised to accept real-money bets online, now that Cyprus has finalised its licensing system under the Betting Law of 2019. Laws on the books could in theory send people to prison for betting with unlicensed bookmakers, but they look unenforceable in practice, since Cypriots have used unregulated betting sites for years without legal trouble.

Where to Bet Online in Cyprus

If OPAP's lottery-style games aren't what you're after, the alternative is one of the Class B online bookmakers on the NBA register rather than an offshore site.

Few betting sites cater to Greek or Turkish speakers, because both Greece and Turkey have restrictive gambling laws. Some sites do offer both languages, and Greek is slightly more common.

Is It Legal to Bet Online in Cyprus?

Yes, but only with licensed providers. The law clearly makes it illegal for companies to accept bets from the public without the proper licence. It could in principle be applied to individual bettors, but that has never happened.

You'll find the occasional news story about the authorities raiding underground gambling dens and breaking up poker games, but none about individuals being prosecuted for betting. Even when the authorities shut down unlicensed betting shops, they go after the operators and not the customers.

Gambling Laws in Cyprus

Cypriot gambling law only makes sense alongside the island's politics, because the island is effectively divided in two. The south is the Republic of Cyprus, which considers itself the legitimate government of the whole island, and every country except Turkey recognises it as such.

The north is under Turkish Cypriot and Turkish control and calls itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Turkey is the only country that recognises it as a sovereign state.

The gambling laws described here are those of the Republic of Cyprus. On paper they apply to the whole island, but in practice they only apply in the south, and the north sets separate rules.

Land-based casinos show the split most clearly. The Republic long banned casino gambling, but a licensed casino industry now operates in the south. That is supposed to cover the whole island, but again, only on paper.

The north's land-based casinos have done well, drawing players from the south as well as tourists from Turkey and Europe. The south has since opened competing casinos, led by the City of Dreams Mediterranean integrated resort in Limassol.

Betting Law of 2012

The Betting Law of 2012 first regulated online gambling in Cyprus and has since been replaced by the Betting Law of 2019. Before 2012, online gambling was widespread and Cyprus was a popular licensing jurisdiction.

The 2012 law ended that. It immediately banned all forms of internet gambling except fixed-odds sports betting and the national lottery run by OPAP, which was the monopoly provider in Greece and now has similar status in Cyprus. Updates to the law in 2016 finally opened the market to foreign betting websites.

Online bookmakers can serve Cyprus if they obtain a licence and authorisation. Licensed sports betting sites must operate on a .com.cy domain and face a range of taxes and regulations. The cost and difficulty of getting a licence, combined with the small population, has led most sites not to apply.

Some betting sites block all customers from Cyprus to comply with the law, while others keep accepting Cypriots without a licence. The law sets penalties of up to 5 years in prison and a €300,000 fine for offering bookmaking without a licence, but Cyprus can't enforce them against sites based overseas.

Players face penalties too. Anyone placing bets with unlicensed Cypriot betting websites "contrary to any of the provisions of present law" can be imprisoned for up to a year and fined up to €50,000.

Cyprus also blocks offshore betting websites. ISPs must block every site on the government blacklist, and those that don't comply face fines of €30,000 per offence.

Online casinos and poker sites remain illegal, and online sports betting requires a costly licence that few companies are willing to obtain. The Betting Law of 2012 has since been replaced by the Betting Law of 2019 (Law 37 (I) 2019).

2016 Update: Licensing Betting Sites in Cyprus

The 2012 law was a blow for online betting in Cyprus, but the 2016 updates paint a much more optimistic picture. The National Betting Authority began issuing provisional licences ahead of fully implementing the new online rules, and it held a one-month licensing window from 3 October to 3 November 2016.

Online betting sites that accepted Cypriot bettors but didn't apply in that window were added to the ISP blacklist, which now runs to more than 22,000 domains. Most are casino sites, which are expressly illegal in Cyprus, and the rest are unlicensed sports betting and poker sites. The sites granted provisional licences in 2016 were Betfair.com, Betonalfaonline.com, Meridianbet.com, Winmasters.com, Sportingbet.com, Stoiximan.gr and Ubet.eu. Today's licensees all operate on .com.cy domains, including www.bet365.com.cy, www.betonalfa.com.cy, www.meridianbet.com.cy, www.winmasters.com.cy, www.ubet.com.cy and www.stoiximan.com.cy.

Licensees need paid-up share capital of at least €500,000 and pay a licence fee of €30,000 for one year or €45,000 for two years, plus a combined 13% in taxes. That's expensive for a country with a fairly small population, but thirteen operators now hold Class B online licences.