Being a fan of Sports betting, one would always be curious about the various betting options as they move into a new location. A few years ago when I moved into Namibia from Zimbabwe, I owned 2 online sports booking accounts, Unibet and William Hill. I had tried, without success, to open an account with Bet365 and Betway since they could not operate in Zimbabwe and was equally excited about the opportunity of finally being able to do so. So how did it turn out, well I’m glad you asked as I’ll be explaining my experience in Namibia in this Best Sports Betting blog post.

Namibia sports betting options

Namibia Casino and Gambling Guide Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia formerly known as German South-West Africa and then South West Africa is a country in Southern Africa. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east, and South Africa to the south and to the east. Namibia: Gambling Laws and Regulations 2021. ICLG - Gambling Laws and Regulations - covers common issues in gambling laws and regulations – including relevant authorities and legislation, application for a licence, licence restrictions, digital media, enforcement and liability – in 37 jurisdictions.

The gambling laws in Namibia do not explicitly prohibit the operation of various international bookies in the territory, though they apply to local bookmakers. Whilst there are a sizable number of the latter, they rarely offer solid online betting experiences, and one would typically be forced to visit the brick and mortar shop. On a day where I could not place an online bet with international bookies, my visit to the local shop often resulted in disappointment as not many market options are available (and perhaps bookies want to keep it that way).

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The biggest advantage that however came with this move was my ability to register an account with Bet365 which truly offers a remarkable betting choice, live coverage, and features. But not without problems as will be explained later.

The options for sports betting in Namibia include the following:

• Local bookies – Truthfully, the local bookies are very far from international standards. There is only one local bookie, Premier Sports Trading, with an online betting platform that is poor, and one has mostly the choice to make a trip to the shop itself to place bets. Even in such a case, there are also not many sports options to place bets on using these local bookies as often choices are limited to football, 1×2 bets or a few overs and under bets.
• Regional Bookies – Looking into the Southern African bookie pool, there are not many bookies operating in the regional countries that would allow one to open an account whilst in Namibia, although they may, of course, allow one to place bets. South African bookies like World Sports Betting allow for one to open an account using Namibian details. The rest of the major South African bookies such as Hollywoodbets, Gbets, Betway, Sunbet, and others only allow for placing bets whilst in Namibia, provided the owner had been registered in South Africa. The good thing about such is they offer deposits in ZAR, which reduces losses due to currency conversion.
  
• International bookies – The laws, whilst they regulate the local operation of land-based bookies, do not seem to affect international bookies. As such, there is a vast number of offshore International bookies such as Bet365, William Hill, Betway and many others which accept Namibian punters, although limiting the choice of deposits to the use of the USD, GBP or Euro currency in some cases. There is, therefore, a loss when it comes to currency exchange. I have previously tried in vain to make use of local bank cards to make deposits into international bookies such as Bet365 and Unibet, and there appears to be a restriction on the bank. My way around this was to make use of e-wallets (Skrill and Neteller) for making deposits into the bookies, with a few additional fees, however. Skrill deposits became completely banned as Namibia is now one of Skrill’s specified countries.

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My luck ran out in the last weeks of February 2020 when Bet365 stopped accepting any deposits using Neteller, limiting me to the options of credit, debit cards or wired transfer only. Bet365 has of late also become notorious also on restricting betting when you are in a country that is NOT your country of registration.

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Casinos in Namibia

The local offerings for casinos are mostly limited to visiting a brick and mortar casinos for an assortment of slots and table games whose availability is only limited to three cities. I have not enjoyed their somewhat rigid wagering terms when it comes to roulette. There is however increased visibility of “Jackpot” Bergmann Roulette machines, commonplace around the country.

These, however, have poor variety, and most would prefer the use of international casinos for online gambling. The options, in this case, are very wide, including popular casinos such as William Hill, Genesis Casino, and many others that mostly offer transactions in USD/EUR/GBP. Take note that NetEnt casino games are banned from operating in Namibia, and any access using a Namibian IP address will not be allowed.

How to bet from Namibia

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There are a number of betting options that can be pursued by punters in Namibia. I would not recommend local bookies as these have very poor game selection and services. Whilst South African bookies can be accessed and offer the best option if one does not wish to lose the value of money during currency exchange, only a few accept new customer deposits.

A majority will, however, accept bets provided one has an account with them already. International bookies are also very good options – Skrill is not available for use, whilst Neteller may be restricted in some cases. My best advice for those wanting to place sports bets from Namibia is to sign up with a South African bookmaker, rather than an internationally based one!