Cyprus Football Betting
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Licensed vs International Cyprus Betting Sites
When searching for Cyprus betting sites, you’ll typically encounter two options. Licensed betting sites which have been approved to accept bet in Cyprus, and international sites. But which option is better?
There’s not really a straightforward answer to that question. Licensed betting sites in Cyprus have robust offerings, but when you’re betting online, live and in-game options are limited.
For this reason, we recommend international sites for Cypriot bettors. These sites typically offer much better benefits because they aren’t beholden to strict regulations governing Cyprus’ licences.
As a result, you’ll find better bonuses, such as free bets and promotions, at international sites. Foreign operators also allow in-game betting, so you can enjoy the action while your favourite team is playing live.
You might also encounter better odds and payouts at international betting sites for Cypriots because those sites have stiffer competition from surrounding regions. Overall, international sites offer several more advantages.
However, you’ll be happy with all of our recommended Cyprus betting sites, whether they’re licensed or international. We only list the very best sports betting sites for Cypriot bettors, so you know you’ll have an enjoyable experience from start to finish.
What Deposit Methods Are Available for Cypriot Bettors?
When you deposit and withdraw at a Cyprus betting site, the process should be seamless. And fortunately for Cypriot bettors, our recommended sites make it easy to fund your account.
Here are some of the most popular payment methods for Cypriot bettors. Keep in mind that other methods, such as cheque deposits, are occasionally available as well, though not at every betting site.
Bank Transfer
Bank transfer is one of the most popular deposit methods for Cypriot sports betting enthusiasts. That’s probably because it’s one of the easiest methods to use.
Simply connect your bank account and you can transfer funds to a betting site within minutes. Some transfers take slightly longer than others, and there may be the occasional fee attached. Always check the fine print so you know how to most efficiently use your money.
Credit Cards
Another favourite among Cyprus bettors: credit cards. Depositing at a Cyprus bookmaker with a credit card is a lot like online shopping. Simply enter your credit card information, including expiration date and security code, and you’re ready.
One note of caution, however. Your bank may decline attempts to deposit at some Cyprus betting sites.. It doesn’t happen too often, but it’s a possibility, so have an alternative payment method ready just in case.
E-Wallets
Services such as Skrill and NETELLER remain popular among online bettors around the world, and Cyprus is no exception. Almost every single one of our recommended sites will accept these online payment services.
There’s also a strong chance that similar e-wallets are available for use as well. We highly recommend using e-wallets because they allow you to make semi-anonymous payments. Plus, they have a near 100% success rate for deposits.
Prepaid Cards
If you prefer to keep a specific card handy to deposit at Cyprus betting sites, prepaid cards might be the route for you. Services such as paysafecard make it easy to add funds to your card, then use them to fund your account.
What Are the Most Popular Sports in Cyprus?
Associations under the umbrella of the Cyprus Sport Organisation (CSO) govern most sports in Cyprus. That said, sports played around the world are popular in the island country. This results in a rich betting market for Cypriots that features fan-favourite sports from all corners of the globe.
Football
As an island formerly under British rule, it’s likely no surprise that football is the most popular sports in Cyprus. The Cypriot Football Association (CFA) has been overseeing events since 1934, and the Cypriot First Divisions is the top standard of domestic competition. The CFA organises the Cypriot Cup and other national events.
Cyprus betting sites typically feature CFA events. But you won’t be limited to domestic events. Football is the world’s most popular sport and betting sites take notice. You’ll find bets available on major events like the FIFA World Cup and on various leagues such as the Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, and the English Premier League.
Basketball
Basketball has a similar standing to football in Cyprus. There is a domestic league comprising professional and semi-professional teams. Though Cypriot basketball teams don’t compete on a global scale, some teams such as EKA AEL have performed well in European competitions.
Of course, international competitions are also popular among the basketball community. European leagues and the NBA (the US National Basketball Association, not to be confused with the National Betting Authority in Cyprus) provide plenty of betting opportunities for Cypriot bettors.
Tennis
Tennis is a popular sport in Cyprus. It’s played recreationally by many Cypriots and spiked in popularity in the mid-2000s when native Marcos Baghdatis reached a career high ranking of 8th in the world. Baghdatis’ success came thanks to his finish as a runner-up in the 2006 Australian Open and reaching the semi-finals of Wimbledon in the same year.
No Cypriot tennis player has emerged to usurp Baghdatis’ position, even since his retirement in 2019. Still, tennis in Cyprus remains a very popular pastime, both in the recreational play and sports betting arenas.
Cypriot bettors will find a plethora of tennis bets on offer at our recommended sites, especially for the four major tennis tournaments: Wimbledon, the US Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open.
Rally Racing
Rally racing is a unique motorsport that sees drivers race across all types of terrain. The cars made for rally racing are road-legal and can run at normal speeds, which sets the sport apart from other race types like Formula One or NASCAR.
Cyprus betting sites naturally feature rally racing. In particular, the annual Cyprus Rally is extremely popular among Cypriot bettors. The annual event joined the World Rally Championship in 2009 to become the organisation’s only mixed-surface rally racing event. International rally races are thus quite popular with Cypriots, as their country hosts one of the sport’s premier races.
Athletics
Individual feats of athletic achievement are a source of national pride worldwide, and this is especially true of the Olympics. Cyprus has sent athletes to every Olympic Games since 1980. However, it took some time for the country to come home with a medal. In 2012, Pavlos Kontides won the silver medal in men’s laser sailing.
To date, Cyprus has yet to win another Olympic medal, but the country will continue to take part in future games. With a population of about 1 million, Cyprus struggles to compete on the global scale with countries such as the US, Australia, the UK, and China. However, you can still bet on your favourite athletes, Cypriot or otherwise.
Rugby Union
Rugby is still relatively new to Cyprus, but it is quickly growing in popularity. The Mighty Mouflons is Cyprus’ national rugby team. The name derives from a horned sheep, which is also the country’s national animal.
Though they have occasionally been disqualified from tournaments for not meeting rugby union requirements, the Cyprus team has a huge claim to fame. The team holds the world record for most consecutive international rugby union wins at 24. The streak lasted for six years and was ended by a loss to Latvia.
Thanks to the growing influence of the Mighty Mouflons, rugby is steadily increasing in popularity in the island country.
Is Online Betting Legal in Cyprus?
Cyprus is an island country that provides ample opportunities for betting enthusiasts. While there are some options for online betting in Cyprus itself, international sites are the best option for Cypriots. The country has an interesting history with online betting, but now there are more ways to bet than ever before.
Cyprus: A Brief History
Cyprus is nestled in the Mediterranean Sea surrounded by Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. An island nation, Cyprus is unique because it is partitioned into two parts. The internationally recognised and primarily Greek Republic of Cyprus controls the south and west of the island, approximately 60% of the country. The remaining portion in the north is controlled by the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
This situation has been in place since 1974, when Turkey invaded the island. Turkey remains the only country to recognise the north as an independent nation, while the wider international community considers the northern end of the island as a territory occupied by Turkish forces. Though tensions have lifted somewhat in recent years, Cyprus remains a nation divided.
Online Betting in Cyprus
In Cyprus, online betting is legal in some forms, as long as the operator holds a license to operate in the country. This means that popular gambling pastimes such as horse racing and sports betting are accessible to Cypriots.
However, Cyprus betting sites must have a license. The country’s laws prohibit betting sites from accepting bets without one. For individuals, though, international betting sites are a viable alternative. Cyprus authorities occasionally crackdown on illegal operations, but they remain focused on the larger scale rather than individuals. For this reason, you can safely bet on your favourite sports at our recommended sites.
Cyprus Gambling Oversight
In 2012, Cyprus passed the fittingly named Betting Law 2012. The law’s main purpose was to place the newly established National Betting Authority (NBA) as the organization to oversee Cyprus betting activity. Cyprus NBA sets the rules and regulations, and grants licenses to gambling operators.
Betting Law 2012 regulated sports betting and lotteries in Cyprus, but it also banned other forms of internet gambling. Popular gaming types like online poker and online casinos were the main casualties of the law. Sports betting exchanges were also outlawed, as they allowed live betting.
Three years later in 2015, the country passed the Cyprus Casino Control Law. This law allowed for the construction of a Cyprus casino and four satellite locations. Melco Resorts won the licence and built the City of Dreams Mediterranean Casino Resort, which still operates today.
FAQs
Yes, there are several Cyprus betting sites available to bet on your favourite sports. The country has two types of betting sites: licensed and international. Licensed sites are sanctioned and approved by the Cyprus government. International sites are licensed in foreign jurisdictions. International sites offer better odds and bonuses because they face stiffer competition from other sites. They also can offer live betting, which Cypriot sites cannot do.
Cyprus betting site operators pay taxes to operate in the country, so long as they’re licensed. As a bettor, you do not need to pay taxes on your sports betting winnings in Cyprus. The only form of gambling that requires players to pay taxes in Cyprus is the lottery, which taxes winnings over €5,000.
Absolutely. You can bet on the Cypriot First Division at most Cyprus betting sites, including international bookmakers. You’ll also find a wide variety of other Cyprus sports available, plus an array of events that are popular around the globe.
Football reigns supreme in Cyprus, just as it does in many other countries around the world. It’s an incredibly popular pastime to play, to watch, and to bet on. Basketball, tennis, and rally racing are also extremely popular among Cypriots.
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Cypriot betting sites are making a comeback due to recent changes in the law. Cyprus once served as an online gambling hub that licensed international betting sites, but did away with all that with anti-gambling legislation passed in 2012. The country stopped issuing licenses for a period, but that has changed since the passage of new laws that came into effect in 2016.
During a one-month period in late 2016, Cyprus held a licensing period during which international betting sites were able to apply for licenses. The National Betting Authority ultimately awarded only a few licenses to date. Most international betting sites have not yet applied for a license in Cyprus.
Best Cyprus Betting Sites
There remain laws on the books that could in theory put people behind bars for placing bets with unlicensed bookmakers. The good news is these laws appear unenforceable as can be evidenced by Cypriots visiting unregulated online casinos for years without any legal trouble. The risk isn’t zero, but it’s pretty close.
In any case, that should no longer be an issue once Cyprus finalizes its licensing system. Some betting websites are actually authorized to accept wagers as of today. The Cyprus betting sites that we recommend above have all been granted to accept real money wagers and can be considered fully legal.
Where to Bet Online in Cyprus
If you’re tired of Greek-controlled OPAP and its paltry selection of lottery-style games, you’re going to have to take your business to offshore gaming sites. The sites recommended above are all licensed by Cypriot authorities and can be considered safe places to play.
Greek and Turkish aren’t particularly catered-to in online gambling due to the restrictive gaming laws in both of those countries. Even so, some sites do offer their services in both languages, with Greek being slightly more common.
The biggest challenge you’ll face is getting around government internet censorship. A blacklist of more than 2,500 websites is blocked by local internet service providers. If you are intent on playing at an unlicensed provider, the best way to get around the block is to purchase a VPN subscription. Basically, a VPN creates an encrypted connection between you and each website you visit, thereby preventing prying eyes from watching what you’re doing and evading censorship measures.
Is it Legal to Bet Online in Cyprus?
Cyprus does allow online betting, but only with licensed providers. It is unclear if the law targets individual gamblers, but the law does clearly state that it is illegal for companies to accept wagers from the public without the proper license.
The laws of Cyprus could possibly be applied to individual gamblers, but this has never happened. You’ll find the occasional news story of Cyprus authorities raiding underground gambling dens and breaking up poker games, but there are no stories of individuals being busted for gambling.
Even in cases where authorities break up unlicensed betting shops, they go after the operators and not the customers. It would be a stretch to imagine the authorities actively monitoring the internet to bust people for betting at offshore gambling sites.
Gambling Laws in Cyprus
To make sense of the gambling laws in Cyprus, we must first talk about the political situation there. The island is essentially divided into two different nations. One of these is the southern, Greek-controlled side of the island called the Republic of Cyprus. The Republic of Cyprus considers itself the legitimate government of the entire island. Every nation except Turkey recognizes the Republic of Cyprus as the rightful government of the whole island.
The northern side of the island is controlled by Turkish people and the country of Turkey. This side of the island considers itself an independent nation called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Turkey is the only outside nation that recognizes this as a legitimate, sovereign nation.
The gaming laws that I describe here are put forth by the Republic of Cyprus (the south side). They apply to the entire island on paper, but in practice really only apply to the south side of the island. The northern side of the island marches to the beat of a different drum.
Nowhere is this situation more clearly depicted than in the brick-and-mortar gambling industry. The Republic has a longstanding ban on gambling and does not allow the operation of physical casinos. This is supposed to apply to the entire island but again, that’s just on paper. The northern side has at least 20 casinos.
The brick-and-mortar casino industry in the north has been doing well for itself. Southerners head north all the time to gamble in addition to tourists from Turkey and Europe. The south is discussing legislation to open its own competing casinos. A legal framework was discussed in 2014 with the hopes of establishing the first southern casino in Cyprus some time in 2015.
Betting Law of 2012
Online gambling in Cyprus is regulated by the Betting Law of 2012. Before the Law was passed, online gambling was widespread in the nation. Cyprus served as a popular licensing jurisdiction for years. Some of the biggest betting websites that we still know today were licensed in Cyprus at one point.
That all came to an end in 2012 with the passage of the Betting Law. The Law immediately banned all forms of internet gambling except for fixed-odds sports betting and the national lottery operated by OPAP. OPAP was the monopoly provider in Greece and now enjoys similar status in Cyprus. Updates to the law in 2016 finally opened the market to competition from foreign betting websites.
Online bookmakers are allowed to offer their services in Cyprus as long as they obtain a license and authorization to do so. Licensed sports betting sites must operate on a .com.cy domain and are subject to a variety of taxes and regulations. The expense and difficulty in getting a license combined with the relatively small population has led most sites to not get a license.
Some betting sites opted to block all customers from Cyprus in order to comply with the nation’s laws. Other sites continue to accept customers from Cyprus despite not having a license. The Betting Act promises punishments of up to 5 years in prison and a €300,000 fine for anyone offering bookmaking services without a license, but it has no ability to enforce such punishments for gambling sites based overseas in other nations.
The Betting Law also includes punishments for people who place bets with unlicensed Cypriot betting websites. Anyone found placing bets “contrary to any of the provisions of present law” may be imprisoned for up to a year and fined up to €50,000. Fortunately, it appears this law is completely unenforced.
To top it all off, Cyprus also implements web censorship to block access to offshore gaming sites. At last word, the government had a blacklist of more than 2,500 websites that ISPs are required to block. ISPs that don’t comply face fines of €30,000 per offense.
In summary, online casinos and poker sites are illegal, online sports betting requires a costly license and few companies are willing to obtain that license. Cyprus will need to update its laws if it wants to compete with the rest of the European Union for gambling euros. And right now, Cyprus needs every euro it can get.
2016 Update: Licensing Betting Sites in Cyprus
Whereas the 2012 law was a terrible thing for betting online in Cyprus, updates to the law in 2016 paint a much more optimistic picture. The National Betting Authority began issuing provisional licenses in anticipation of fully implementing new online gaming laws. Most recently, the National Betting Authority held a one-month licensing window running from 3 October to 3 November 2016 during which operators could apply for licenses.
Any betting sites that failed to apply for a license during that time had their names added to the ISP blocking blacklist. At last count, the list prevented citizens from accessing more than 2,500 unlicensed gambling websites. Eight operators applied and have been granted provisional licenses:
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- Betfair.com
- Betonalfaonline.com
- Meridianbet.com
- Winmasters.com
- Sportingbet.com
- Stoiximan.gr
- Ubet.eu
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The current licensing conditions require prospective licensees to have paid up share capital of at least €500,000 and pay a licensing fee of €30,000 for one year or €45,000 for two years. Furthermore, licensed operators pay a combined total of 13% in taxes. It’s a bit of an expensive proposition for a country with a fairly small population, but eight operators have so far deemed it to be worthwhile.
Opap Cyprus Football Betting
After the licensing period ended, the National Betting Authority announced that it would be adding 2,500 unlicensed gambling operators to the internet blacklist. Most of the named sites are involved in casino gambling, which is expressly illegal under Cypriot gaming laws. The list now contains a mixture of unlicensed sports betting sites, online casinos and poker sites.