Ethiopia revokes all sports betting licences with immediate effect from 15 December 2025

Ethiopia has withdrawn the operating licences of all sports betting firms, effective 15 December 2025, after a federal-level review found widespread regulatory violations, financial irregularities and national security risks across the sector.

Ethiopia’s sports betting market has been shut down nationwide after the Ethiopian Lottery Service (ELS) announced that it has revoked the operating licences of all licensed sports betting organisations, with effect from 15 December 2025 (Tahsass 06, 2018 E.C.). The decision follows directives from the federal government and was communicated in an official notice issued on Monday.

According to the ELS, the blanket revocation applies to every licensed operator in the country, including those whose licences had previously been suspended. All forms of sports betting are affected — retail shops, online platforms and agent-based networks — and companies have been ordered to halt operations immediately, preserve customer and financial data, and cease offering any betting services. Financial institutions have been instructed to block betting-related transactions, with regulators warning that attempts to circumvent the ban will trigger legal sanctions.

The move comes on the heels of earlier enforcement action. On 25 November, the ELS suspended the licences of 22 sports-betting operators as part of a multi-agency investigation into alleged concealment of more than Br100bn (€1.59bn) in government revenue, involving suspected tax evasion, illicit fund transfers and unlicensed activity. Officials say that subsequent nationwide assessments uncovered illegal practices “on a massive scale” across the wider industry, prompting the decision to withdraw all remaining licences.

Authorities frame the sweeping intervention as necessary to protect public interest, close regulatory loopholes and address emerging threats to financial integrity and national security. In the short term, the decision freezes a sector that employed thousands and handled millions of birr in annual betting turnover. In the longer term, market observers will be watching whether the government opts to rebuild a more tightly controlled, re-licensed sports betting framework or maintains a de facto prohibition on commercial betting in Ethiopia.