Gambling licensing
Which gambling licence, for which business
We file the corporate and platform side of licence applications in seven jurisdictions. The table is the short version; each page carries the fees, the law and the sources.
Seven licences, one table
Figures checked 13 September 2026 against regulators' schedules where published and licensing agents where not. "Banking" is our reading of which payment providers onboard licensees in practice, not a promise.
| Jurisdiction | Covers | Application | Annual | Tax | Presence | Time | Banking |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cyprus Class B | Online betting only, Cyprus market | fee on filing | €30,000 (1 yr) / €45,000 (2 yrs) + €500k capital + €550k guarantee | 10% GGR + 3% (4.5% voted) | Cyprus company/branch, Cyprus server, .com.cy | 3–5 months | Tier one |
| Anjouan | All verticals, crypto, prediction markets | €17,828 | €17,828 | 0% (reported) | None | 2–8 weeks | Offshore PSPs, crypto |
| Gibraltar (prediction markets) | Event contracts; stablecoin settlement | £30,000 | £100,000 | 0.15% of commission; CIT 15% | Substantive presence on the Rock | 1–6 months | Tier one |
| Tuvalu | All verticals, crypto | ≈ USD 1,200 | USD 15,850–17,200 | 0% | None | 3–4 weeks | Small offshore PSPs |
| Isle of Man | All verticals; crypto allowed | £5,250 | £36,750 full / £5,250 sub-licence | 1.5% → 0.1% GGY; CIT 0% | Manx company, 2 resident directors, island servers | 10–12 weeks after complete file | Tier one |
| Tobique | All verticals, crypto | €2,500 review | €33,500 yr 1, €19,875 renewal + €7,000 compliance | 0% | None | 2–8 weeks | Interac, EU EMIs, Trustly, Skrill |
| Finland | Online betting, casino, bingo; residents only | €29,000 | Supervision €4,000–434,000 by GGR | 22% GGR; CIT 20% | EEA company or EEA representative | ≈ 6 months; live from 1 Jul 2027 | Tier one |
How we choose
In the order we ask the questions.
1. Where are the players?
A regulated market needs its own licence. Finland from July 2027, Cyprus for Cyprus, Ontario for Ontario. Offshore licences give you the rest of the world minus the restricted list, which now includes most of Western Europe and the US on every offshore regime.
2. How do they pay?
Cards and open banking mean you need a licence tier-one acquirers accept: Isle of Man, Gibraltar, an EU licence, or at minimum Tobique. Crypto-first brands can run on Anjouan or Tuvalu and save €20,000 to €40,000 a year.
3. Which studios and feeds?
Tier-one game studios and odds feeds have their own licence lists. Anjouan requires every supplier to hold a B2B recognition certificate since July 2025; Finland requires a Finnish software licence from July 2028. We check your intended supplier list against the target licence before you pay any fee.
4. What is the budget for year one, honestly?
Anjouan or Tuvalu: €22,000 to €28,000 all in. Tobique: €63,000 to €79,000. Isle of Man: £50,000 in fees plus two resident directors, an office and island hosting. Cyprus: about €1.1 million tied up before the first bet. Gibraltar prediction markets: £130,000 in fees before staff.
Licence pages
Cyprus Class B betting licence
A Class B licence from the National Betting Authority lets you run a sportsbook for players in Cyprus. It does not let you run a casino, and it is not an international licence. Both points decide whether it is worth your money.
Read the pageAnjouan gaming licence
The cheapest widely used offshore licence after Curaçao's 2024 reform. One licence, one fee, a few weeks. The trade-off is banking: tier-one acquirers will not touch it, and the Comoros central bank publicly disputes the regulator's standing.
Read the pageGibraltar licence for prediction markets
In 2026 Gibraltar became the first jurisdiction with a purpose-built regime for event contracts. The authorisation is expensive, demands real presence on the Rock, and is the only licence in Europe today that says in writing that stablecoin settlement is fine.
Read the pageTuvalu gaming licence
The newest offshore licence on the market and the cheapest all-in. It is also the one where we have the most caveats, because the regime is administered by a private company and no Tuvalu government source confirms the law behind it.
Read the pageIsle of Man gambling licence
One of the three licences a tier-one bank or studio will accept without a conversation. It costs real money and real presence on the island, and since 2024 the Gambling Supervision Commission has been actively shrinking its own licensee list.
Read the pageTobique gaming licence
A First Nation licence modelled on Kahnawake without Kahnawake's server rule. Roughly 190 licences on the register in September 2026, Interac and several EU payment institutions onboard, and a fee schedule that only exists on the licensing agents' sites.
Read the pageFinland gambling licence
Finland is the last Nordic monopoly to open. Fifty operators had applied by June 2026 for a market that goes live on 1 July 2027. The economics are clear (22% tax, 20% corporate tax). The product rules are the hard part.
Read the page