Top EU Betting Sites

The European Union could be considered one entity in regards to many financial affairs. That’s thanks to the EU passing economic legislation that applies to all its 28 member countries (which will become 27 after”Brexit”). But when it comes to sports gambling, the EU members remain independent, with each responsible for producing its own legal framework.
Consequently, the legality of sport gambling, including at online websites, varies from country to country. Below are the top EU betting websites.
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1
Betway
Betway makes it easy to get started and keeps you there with its huge choice and numerous ways to wager.
http://www.betway.com
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2
888sport
888sport is a fun site that makes it simple for the newcomer to get started. Additionally, it offers enough extras to keep experienced bettors interested, though some pro-bettors may be turned off.
http://www.888sport.com
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3
bet365
Bet365 serves millions of bettors around the globe – the sheer number of international leagues they pay is unparalleled, among other perks.
http://www.bet365.com
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4
William Hill
A big name that has been in business since 1934 doesn’t need flashy promos provided that the service is dialed-in – William Hill is that title.
http://www.williamhill.com
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5
Paddy Power
One of the most popular and prestigious gambling websites in the united kingdom & Ireland, this family name offers some of the biggest chances selections in the industry. With over 100 lines per match and a premium live-streaming service, it’s not surprising that Paddy Power overlooks the UK sportsbook marketplace.
https://www.paddypower.com
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6
Intertops
Established in 1983 and online since 1996, Intertops is one of the older guard when it comes to sports gambling. Decent chances and enticing bonuses mean their solid stature in the sector is more than deserved.
https://www.intertops.eu
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7
BetOnline
Their massive maximum bonus size is a real head-turner for larger bettors however BetOnline provides something for everyone.
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8
BetVictor
BetVictor has several decades of sportsbook experience and provide a solid all around product while nevertheless offering enticing promos and value-priced chances.
http://www.betvictor.com
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9
BetDSI
BetDSI is similar to a luxury hotel you can stay at for a price. Their sportsbook has offerings typically only found at the larger sites, and they offer you these at a very good price compared to other people.

BetDSI Sportsbook | Sports Betting & Online Casino


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10
SBG Global
Do not be fooled by SBG’s simple appearance and small stature; an easily available bonus arrangement and a wide variety to lines, teasers, and parlays make it a good option for casual players.

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Below, we set out the legal status of online gambling in the four largest European betting regions: France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.
As you will see, every nation takes a legalize-and-regulate approach to online sports betting. But some are much more flexible and liberal with their licensing regime compared to others, and that seriously impacts the amount of legal options available to bettors.
The table below briefly summarizes the situation in each country. The resultant sections provide more detailed descriptions.
COUNTRY IS ONLINE SPORTS BETTING LEGAL? ARE ONLINE BOOKMAKERS REQUIRED TO HAVE A LICENSE? IS IT SMART/SAFE TO USE AN UNLICENSED SITE? DO ONLINE BETTORS Need to PAY TAX ON WINNINGS?
France Yes Yes No Yes. If more than 1,500
Germany Yes Sort of Maybe No
Ireland Yes Yes No No, except for”professionals”
Italy Yes Yes No No
Netherlands Yes, but barely Yes No Yes, but it is withheld from the operator
Spain Yes Yes No Yes, if over $2,500
Sweden Yes Yes Maybe No, so Long as the sportsbook is accredited in EU
France
Online sports gambling is legal but heavily regulated in France. To legally offer sports wagers to French residents, a gambling sitemust be accredited from the ARJEL (Autorit?? de r??gulation des jeux en ligne, which appropriately translates to”Regulatory Authority for Online Games”).
Considering that the French government places substantial tax burdens on operators, several online websites register in other authorities and yet still attempt to supply their services to individuals in France.
Under the current legislative framework, this can be considered illegal. Even if an online sportsbook has a license in a foreign jurisdiction, say Gibraltar, it cannot legally provide sports-betting services to the French public without a license in the ARJEL.
This is true in several areas of the planet. On the other hand, the French governments are somewhat more proactive in policing it than most, going so far as to block access to specific websites from within France.
[Though] the only act of placing a bet for an unlicensed sportsbook may not be prohibited under French legislation… using an unlicensed sportsbook nevertheless includes numerous dangers.
It must be noted that, like in the US, the mere act of placing a wager for an unlicensed sportsbook might not be illegal under French law. The legislation tend to target online gambling providers rather than the individual bettors.
However, using an unlicensed sportsbook still comes with a number of risks. You cannot be certain that unlicensed sites will stay accessible from within France. The government may take action to block access and effectively shut-down their presence in the nation at any time, since it is operating illegally.
Because of this, the safest path for sport bettors in France is to use a licensed sportsbook.
Figuring out which sites are licensed and which aren’t is straightforward. The ARJEL maintains an updated list of all the licensees on its own site: http://www.arjel.fr/-Liste-des-operateurs-agrees-.html.
The ARJEL keeps an updated listing of all of the licensees on its website.
The website is in French, of course, but if you are using an internet browser like Chrome, it is simple to interpret the page to English. (While the grammar won’t be perfect, you will have the ability to decode the essential elements.)
If (when?) Your own sports-betting efforts prove profitable in France, be aware that everything over $1,500 has to be declared as income and, as such, is taxable. In accordance with rgweek.com, online betting is taxed at approximately 9%.
Germany
The legal status of online sports betting in Germany is in a state of flux and has existed for some time. The German government has sought to heavily regulate the marketplace as well as in 2012, passed an amended Interstate Treaty on Gambling, which banned online betting (and online gambling in all its forms) except for those offered by the government or licensed by the regulatory authorities. (This legislation was really a comfort of a previous legislation, which didn’t even allow for licenses and efficiently created a state monopoly.)
The new law came under siege nearly as quickly as it came in to effect. Importantly, the EU’s Court of Justice has ruled that the law impermissibly limits online gambling websites based/licensed in different countries from offering their solutions to Germans.
[T]he EU’s Court of Justice has ruled that [Germany’s online betting law] impermissibly restricts online websites based/licensed in different countries from providing their services to Germans.
The German government reacted by amending the legislation, but only marginally, and said amendment hasn’t come in to force. The amended law would simply increase the number of licenses the authorities could grant; it wouldn’t give foreign sportsbooks carte blanche to operate in Germany. It remains to be seen whether such a law — if it comes into force — would be deemed an acceptable limitation by the courts.
What Germany is currently left with is essentially a crap heap of legislation pertaining to internet sports gambling. The legislation on the books require sportsbooks to possess a permit to operate legally, but the laws themselves (along with the licensing process they produce ) have been deemed impermissible by the EU courts.
In practice, a number of foreign-based sports-betting websites continue to function in Germany (meaning they continue to take German bettors and are still available from inside Germany’s boundaries ). Unlike in France, where the authorities have obtained a hands-on method of restricting access to unlicensed online operators, the German authorities does not appear to be actively trying to prevent these foreign sportsbooks from working in Germany, likely due to the condition of the present legislation.
Since the International Comparative Legal Guides’ 2017 newspaper on Germany says,”[T]he licensing process for… sports gambling licenses… continues to be held incompatible with EU legislation… Criminal proceedings have… rarely been initiated. … German authorities authorities… have been reluctant to impose gaming law offenses, 1 explanation for this likely being that German gaming law was characterised by legal doubt because of it facing severe criticism in light of EU legislation for decades now.
In connection with sports betting… any enforcement actions brought against sports betting operators in a circumstance where a criminal de facto monopoly persists (as held to be true in Germany) is incompatible with EU law”
[I]n the rare cases when [German] authorities do prosecute breaches of gambling legislation, it’s the operator that’s held liable, not the bettor.
The paper also notes , in the rare cases when the government do violate breaches of gambling legislation, it’s the operator that’s held accountable, not the bettor.
The end result is that Germans can feel quite safe — from the state government, at least — when it comes to using online betting sites, whether those are licensed in Germany or elsewhere.
Choosing the Very Best and most-secure sportsbook in Germany does not come down to whether It’s licensed, but will rather be determined by a Large Number of additional factors, such as:
A history of timely payments
A standing for anonymity and security Available and easy-to-use help segments A huge variety of deposit and withdrawal procedures Strong client service representation
A broad selection of sports markets to wager on.
Regarding taxation, only winnings from the state-run websites are taxed. Due to this disorganized and muddled legal program which now exists, there doesn’t seem to be any procedure in place for taxing winnings from private online sportsbooks.
Ireland
Like many European countries, Ireland regulates online sports betting through a licensing system. The Betting Act 2015 is the relevant law right now, and provides that anybody seeking to provide bookmaking or gambling services to people in Ireland has to be granted a license from the Revenue Commissioners, which double as the Irish tax service.
Just like any regulatory strategy, this has advantages and drawbacks for the general public. The fact that sportsbooks have to pay tax and proceed through the bureaucratic hoops of obtaining a license leads to things like higher juice on the other end.
However, the licensing system also guarantees that only legitimate sportsbooks provide their solutions to Irish residents.
How?
Under the current legal framework, the officers of the company applying for a license has to, inter alia, obtain certificates of fitness.
Furthermore, licenses are only granted for two years at one time and, according to the ICLG, among those variables which the Revenue Commissioners consider during renewal software is whether the sportsbook has paid its debts. That is important, as bettors can’t sue sportsbooks for outstanding debts in Ireland, or vice versa. (Gambling debts are generally unenforceable.) The licensing system offers an impetus for sportsbooks to operate on the up-and-up.
As with most countries, the penalties for juvenile sports gambling fall almost exclusively on the operators. But Irish punters are well-advised to stick to licensed novels, nonetheless. If an online betting site is offering its solutions to Irish bettors without a permit, there is going to be a concerning reason for this. Either it does not want to cover the $10,000 license fee, it does not wish to pay the related tax, its application was declined, etc.. No matter the reason, it leads to serious questions regarding the sportsbook’s legitimacy and/or financial health.
If it comes to taxation on gambling winnings, the typical Irish better can break easy. Only professional gamblers need to pay tax on their betting profits.
Who qualifies as a “pro”? That is for the Revenue Commissioners and the courts to ascertain. Generally, it is dependent upon how much a person stakes, their level of expertise, and whether they have another occupation.
Italy
Once on a time, Italy was just like Germany, in that it banned all sports gambling besides state-run websites. The same as Germany, this paradigm was deemed impermissible from the EU and also Italy’s sports-betting laws have since changed (far back in 2006).
Currently, to operate legally in Italy, gaming sites must obtain a license in the AAMS, the regulatory authority from the country. The ones that do not are liable to penalties.
Quite unlike Germany, the regulatory and licensing system established in Italy was deemed acceptable by the EU’s Court of Justice as it’s a lot less restrictive than the process the German’s attempted to implement. To get a license, a website must only have a certain rate of turnover ($1.5M over the previous two years), have its servers situated within an EU member state, fulfill certain fee and taxation obligations, and be”stable” and”reliable.”
If it comes to contraventions of this legal regime, regulations tend to target gambling sites instead of bettors, and Italians who bet at unlicensed operators shouldn’t fear prosecution by state governments.
However, the penalties and ramifications that could be levied in an unlicensed sportsbook would be sensed by this sportsbook’s users, too.
According to ICLG.com,”[w]here a operator features gaming with no permit, he can face criminal… and civil charges. The site will be banned and added to a blacklist.”
Thus, any bettors who choose to use an unlicensed sportsbook at Italy danger losing access to that sportsbook from within the nation.
[A]ny bettors that opt to utilize an unlicensed sportsbook at Italy danger losing access to this sportsbook from within the country. … [T]he safe play for Italian bettors is to utilize a sportsbook that’s licensed in Italy.
Consequently, the safe play for Italian bettors would be to use a sportsbook that’s licensed in Italy. Luckily, due to the rather liberal licensing system (which lets up to 200 licenses), there are a multitude of options that provide competitive odds on the most popular Italian markets, such as football, F1, horse racing, tennis, and cycling.
When Italian bettors hit it rich, they get to keep all their hard-won spoils since sports-betting winnings are not subject to taxation in the country.
Netherlands
Counterintuitively, the typically liberal lawmakers from the Netherlands have a very conservative approach to online sports betting. At present, online sports betting is illegal in the Netherlands except at the websites run by the government-controlled De Lotto corporation.
Regardless of the strict regulatory regime, many overseas sportsbooks offer their solutions to Dutch bettors. However, the regulatory authority from the Netherlands (the Kansspelautoriteit ) takes a hands-on strategy to punishing offenders and contains imposed heavy fines on a number of these websites. As a result, several online sportsbooks have done away with their Dutch-language choices (etc.) and there are relatively few online betting sites that cater to Dutch customers.
While prosecution of those who bet at such sites isn’t a large concern, the capacity for Dutch bettors to shed easy access for their bankroll is a big concern when it comes to utilizing unlicensed offshore sportsbooks. You definitely don’t want to sign up with a site and then have it block Dutch IP addresses the next week.
The new legal regime [place to come into effect in January 2019] will allow foreign-based sportsbooks to get licenses and, consequently, offer their services to Dutch bettors.
The good thing is that the problem in the Netherlands is scheduled to change very soon. A brand new online gambling bill (the Online Gambling Bill) is scheduled to come into force on Jan. 1, 2019. The new legal regime enables foreign-based sportsbooks to obtain licenses and, consequently, offer their solutions to Dutch bettors.
This will improve the betting market in the Netherlands by increasing competition for customers. Up to this stage, the government-run entities were unchallenged and had little reason to improve their product or their chances.
In terms of taxation, Dutch players need to pay tax at a speed or 29 percent of their winnings (over and over $449). But based on Alan Littler of Kalff Katz & Franssen Attorneys in Law,”While participants are accountable for the tax because of decoration, suppliers are required to withhold the appropriate amount when paying out the prize”
Spain
Since 2011 when the Spanish Gambling Act was passed, Spain has taken a nationally legalize-and-regulate strategy to online betting, akin to its major European neighbors covered over. To legally provide online betting services to Spanish residents, gaming sites must acquire a permit from the relevant regulatory body (the Direccion General de Ordenacion del Juego, or”DGOJ”).
This was bad news for internet operators since Spain was previously similar to the Wild West. Despite regulation in the provincial level, it was a lawless land where anything went and online sportsbooks operated with impunity, regardless of place, stability, etc..
While the imposition of a licensing program has diminished the number of (legal) options available to Spanish bettors, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The regime requires sites to meet certain criteria and pay certain fees, which can help make sure that only legitimate sports-betting websites are permitted to operate.
As in Italy and France, it is best for Spanish bettors to use a certified website, though the mere act of placing a bet at an unlicensed site does not seem to be prohibited.
Why?
Consider the following from the ICLG:
[I]llegal offline gaming has ever been duly prosecuted in Spain. But [until 2011] Spanish authorities were quite permissive with respect to illegal online gambling operations.” Now, however, those who breach applicable gambling laws risk”large fines [and] the chance of competent authorities suspending or revoking licenses in case[s] of significant or continuing lack of compliance.
That means online betting sites operating without a license are liable to get their own Spanish surgeries shutdown at any stage, which may, in turn, influence users’ ability to access their own funds.
Considering that the diligence with which the government have assaulted illegal offline gaming, that’s not a danger smart bettors could operate.
How do you tell if you’re employing an illegal website? One requirement of obtaining a license is acquiring a”.es” domain , for example”Bet365.es” or even”WilliamHill.es.” In case the URL of the website you’re using does not end in”. Es” it is likely operating illegally.
On the other hand, the converse isn’t necessarily true: having a”. Es” domain name does not automatically indicate that a site is licensed in Spain. So Spanish bettors should take action to confirm their website of selection has the essential permit from the DGOJ to function in Spain. (To interpret that page to English with Google Chrome, follow these directions.)
Lastly, note that, when bettors Spain win anything over $2,500, it has to be declared as income and is taxed accordingly.
Sweden
The Swedish government exercises strict control over the online sports-betting market. In theory, any company can obtain a permit to offer online betting products to individuals in Sweden. However, in practice, just one entity was granted a license, and that is the government-run Svenska Spel.
As in many jurisdictions with thick bureaucratic barriers-to-entry, many offshore sportsbooks provide their services to individuals in Sweden with no license. Unlike in areas such as Ireland (where licenses are readily accessible ), the fact that a website is accessible to Swedes with no Swedish permit does not indicate anything nefarious (past the fact that it’s willing to function in a legal grey area). Operating without a permit is the only option they have.
That doesn’t mean Swedish bettors must signup with the very first website they locate. You will find both quality sportsbooks and extremely dishonest ones accessible to Swedes, and performing background research is vital to picking a safe, secure, dependable site that caters to your specific preferences.
In certain ways, the situation in Sweden is akin to this in the Netherlands. However, the regulatory system takes a more hands-on approach to penalizing juvenile sportsbooks. According to a newspaper by Erik Ullberg et al. at The Law Reviews, Swedish governments are more inclined to go after the Swedish-based Businesses that aid unlicensed sportsbooks than the sportsbooks themselves:
Since the government don’t have jurisdiction over the foreign gaming operators, they have instead focused on those in Sweden who carry advertisements for these companies.
The result is that Swedish bettors who enroll at unlicensed offshore sportsbooks aren’t putting their bankroll at any risk, unlike their counterparts in the Netherlands, {as long as|pro

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