Botswana's illegal gambling market reaches P500m
Lewanika Timothy | Monday November 24, 2025 06:00
The amount punters lose after winnings are paid out rose to P250 million per annum, whilst betting on illegal and unregulated platforms surged even higher, reaching P500 million this year, according to fresh data from the Gambling Authority. The figures highlight a growing divide between the regulated gambling market and the booming underground sector.
Gambling Authority acting CEO Moruntshi Kemorwale shared the findings this week at the Botswana Economic Forum in Gaborone, highlighting the lightning speed growth of betting in the country. 'We did research with the University of Botswana and found that now the illegal gambling market has grown to P500 million. This meant that the unregulated gambling market is twice the value of the regulated one,' he said.
Botswana has over 560,000 punters who use different betting platforms for both leisure and 'cash-hustling' reasons. Despite the mass adoption, much of the betting was happening on unregulated and illegal sites, with a growing participation of underage children. The surge in betting in the country was recently seen whilst Super Group, the holding company of betting giant Betway, made revenues of $646 million (P8.7 billion) between January and September in Africa, with executives particularly noting the exceptional performance of Botswana since the launch of services in February.
In results published on Tuesday, Betway noted that Africa accounted for 64% of its total revenues of $1.014 billion for the first nine months of the year. 'Botswana continues to show exceptional momentum post-launch,' the group said in a results announcement from New York.
Previous data had shown that punters in the country reportedly placed bets worth P150 million in March alone this year, demonstrating the explosion in gambling activities in the country, particularly those involving sports and online platforms.
In that month, of the country’s betting population estimated at 550,000, only 40% or about 220,000 used licensed operators, highlighting the continued nuisance of illegal betting platforms. Since early this year, when the Gambling Authority moved to licence several online sports betting players, the country has seen a huge uptake of gambling activities, particularly amongst younger people.
Lured by the promise of easy pickings and low entry criteria, such as P1 bets online, growing numbers of punters are spending the day making bets on a variety of sporting events around the world, searching for 'the big score'.