This guide explores the current status of Lalibet, what happened to sports betting in Ethiopia, which website should be approached with caution and what players can do if they still have money tied to an old account.
Is Lalibet Legal in Ethiopia?
No sports betting operator holds a legal licence in Ethiopia. On 15 December 2025, the Ethiopian Lottery Service revoked the operating licences of every sports betting organisation it had licensed, with immediate effect. The revocation covers online platforms, retail betting shops, agents and the payment services attached to them.
Roughly seven months later, the Lottery Service issued a public notice confirming the ban was still in force. That applies to the entire sector rather than to any single brand.
Do not deposit with any site presenting itself as a licensed Ethiopian bookmaker, Lalibet included. This page carries no link to the operator.
If you are looking for a Lalibet login, a Lali Bet bonus, the Lalibet app, or simply whether the site is safe to use, the answer to all of them is the same one, and it is not really about this bookmaker. Ethiopia closed its entire sports betting sector in December 2025. Any Ethiopian sports-betting licence Lalibet previously held ceased to provide current operating authority when the Ethiopian Lottery Service revoked all sports-betting licences on 15 December 2025.
Why Ethiopia Revoked Every Betting Licence in December 2025
- Nov 2025: The National Intelligence and Security Service announced the arrest of 24 people described as owners and associates of sports betting companies, alleging the concealment of more than 100 billion birr in government revenue.
- 4 Dec 2025: The Ethiopian Lottery Service suspended the licences of 22 betting companies following information from the security service, citing embezzlement, tax evasion and illegal financial transactions.
- 15 Dec 2025: All sports betting licences were revoked outright, with immediate effect. The Lottery Service cited repeated breaches of licensing conditions, illegal financial transfers and activities regarded as a threat to national security. Operators were placed under data preservation orders.
- Mid-2026: The Lottery Service issued a public notice reaffirming that the ban remains in force, and confirming that no sports betting organisation is operating in Ethiopia with a legal licence.
The scale is what makes this different from a single operator losing a permit. Twenty-two companies were suspended, and then the entire licensing category was closed, in a market where betting shops were a visible part of the high street.
Lalibet Balance: How to Claim Money Stuck in Your Account
This is the section worth reading properly, because there is a genuine basis for a claim and it is easy to miss.
When the Lottery Service revoked the licences, it stated that operators’ obligations do not disappear along with them. Former licence holders remain responsible for existing liabilities, and that expressly includes customer balances and unsettled wagers. They were also placed under strict data preservation requirements covering server records, financial documentation and user data.
In other words, the regulator has said the money is still owed, and the records must be kept. What we have not seen is public evidence that refunds have actually been paid, so treat recovery as uncertain rather than assured, and act as though the evidence burden sits with you.
- Gather what proves you are owed. With Lalibet, that means shop receipts for deposits and withdrawals, your user ID, any deposit or withdrawal codes you still have, and dated screenshots of your account balance if you can still reach it.
- Screenshot the account before it becomes unreachable, with the date visible in the capture. An account that stops loading takes your evidence with it.
- Put a claim to the operator in writing through whatever contact route still works, and keep a copy. Ask specifically for the balance to be settled and for confirmation of how.
- Report it to the Ethiopian Lottery Service. It is the body that revoked the licences; it has told operators their liabilities survive, and it is the only party with leverage over a former licensee.
- Keep your records even if nothing happens quickly. Enforcement and any eventual settlement process will need evidence from the people affected, and the data preservation orders exist precisely so that record-keeping is possible.
Nobody Can Recover Your Balance for a Fee
A shuttered betting market is exactly the situation recovery fraud targets. The approach arrives by Telegram, WhatsApp or social media, offers to get your money back, and asks for a fee, a verification deposit, remote access to your phone, or your mobile money PIN first. It is a scam every time, and it takes a second payment from someone who has already lost the first. No regulator charges a player, and no legitimate process needs your PIN.
Is Lalibet Licensed? The GAL Sport Betting and South Sudan Claim
Lalibet has long been described as licensed, and the licence usually cited is not an Ethiopian one.
The brand is connected to GAL Sport Betting, which is based in South Sudan and licensed by the Gaming Board of South Sudan. Lalibet’s own about section names Gal Sports rather than a separate Lalibet licensee, which is why the connection turns up in nearly everything written about the brand. Some pages add a Curaçao authorisation alongside it.
Neither authorises betting in Ethiopia. A licence issued by another country regulates the operator in that country; it has never made a site lawful for Ethiopian bettors. Before December 2025, the relevant permission was an Ethiopian one issued by the National Lottery Administration. Since 15 December 2025, there is no Ethiopian permission to hold.
What the Lalibet Licence Check Establishes
- Every Ethiopian sports betting licence was revoked on 15 December 2025, and the ban has been publicly reaffirmed since.
- The licence cited for this brand is South Sudanese, held through GAL Sport Betting, and does not extend to Ethiopia.
- We are not alleging wrongdoing by any particular operator. The revocation was sector-wide, and the allegations reported by the authorities were made about the industry rather than about this brand specifically.
Lalibet Login: Which Website Is the Real One?
Several domains carry the name. The pattern is worth knowing before you type one into a browser.
| Domain | What the archive record shows |
| lalibet.et | The Ethiopian address. Captured normally until 2023, then returning an error in late 2024 and a redirect by April 2025 |
| lalibet.net | Captured serving content from 2023 through to 2026 |
| lali-bet.com | A redirect in late 2024, then serving content from 15 December 2025 – the day the licences were revoked – onward |
We are not asserting that any of these is fraudulent, and we cannot verify who operates each one. The narrower point is the one that matters to a reader: a brand with several live domains, in a market whose regulator says no licensed operator exists and where reporting describes scammers moving into the vacuum, is a situation where a lookalike would be very easy to mistake for the real thing.
If you are determined to reach an account despite everything above, do not arrive through a link in a message, an advert or a search result. And do not enter mobile money credentials on any of them.
Lalibet Bonus, Sports Markets and Casino Games
Recorded because people search for it and deserve an accurate answer. None of it is available to claim, and none of it is a reason to look for a way in.
Lalibet ran sports betting alongside a casino section, with the sportsbook as the main product. Markets covered soccer, basketball, tennis, cricket, MMA, boxing, rugby, table tennis, ice hockey, snooker and handball, with competitions including the Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A, the Champions League, the Africa Cup of Nations, the NBA, the EuroLeague, NBL, UFC and Rugby Union. A live betting section carried in-play markets on competitions such as Liga MX, the Chinese CBA and the Australian Open.
The Lalibet Welcome Bonus: 100% up to 5,000 ETB
The headline offer was a 100% first deposit bonus up to 5,000 ETB, credited to a sports bonus account. The conditions were stated as a turnover requirement of four times the deposit, counting only bets at minimum odds of 1.4 and total odds of 6.00, to be completed within one month. Bets on the same match could not be used to clear the turnover, and players with another active bonus were excluded.
Read the wagering base rather than the multiplier, because that is what decides the size of the obligation. Four times sounds small next to the thirty and forty times common elsewhere, but it applied to the deposit rather than the bonus alone, and the minimum-odds condition of 6.00 total meant it could only be cleared on accumulators.
Lalibet Casino, Virtual Sports and Fast Games
The casino section was described on the site itself as still under construction. Virtual sports included Virtual Football Pro, Football Cup, Instant Horses, Instant Greyhounds, Instant Trotting, Instant Speedway, Virtual Racing, Penalty Shoot-out and Virtual Tennis. Fast games included Era of Gods, Blazing 777, Jumping Fruits, Jackpot Builders, Los Muertos, Bar & 7s, Blood Queen, Football Mania, Hungry Night and Neon Fruit. Table games included Gold Roulette, Neon Roulette, American Roulette 3D, Lucky Spin Euro Roulette, 3D Blackjack, American Poker V, Three Cards, Darts 180 and Odd One in. There was no dedicated eSports product, and no mobile app: the site ran in a mobile browser on Android and iOS.
How Lalibet Deposits and Withdrawals Worked
This part matters for anyone assembling a claim, because Lalibet did not run on card or mobile money transfers in the usual way. Money moved through the retail shop network using codes.
| Deposit | Withdrawal |
| Visit a Lali Bet shop with your user ID and ask the cashier to deposit | Request a withdrawal in your account and choose the Shop option |
| The cashier issues a deposit code | A withdrawal code is emailed to your registered address |
| Enter the code under Deposit, then Shop, in your account | Take the code to a shop, where the cashier may ask for your user ID and the amount |
| Complete the deposit and the balance credits | The cashier redeems the code and pays out |
Two consequences follow. Any receipt or code from a shop transaction is part of your evidence, so keep it. Because the revocation covered agents and payment services as well as the operators themselves, the shop network that handled both ends of this process is within the scope of the ban.
One caution about figures circulating for this brand. Published withdrawal limits for Lalibet have appeared quoted in Tanzanian shillings rather than birr, alongside a note that bank wire payments settle in euro. Ethiopia uses the birr, so treat any limit stated in another currency as copied from a different market rather than as a term that applied to an Ethiopian account.
Why Lalibet Is Still Described as Licensed Elsewhere
Search for this brand, and you will find current-looking pages describing an operating bookmaker with a licence, a welcome bonus and a working login. That is not usually deception. It is content written before December 2025 that has not been checked since, in a market where the rules changed in a single day.
Three questions separate material written before the revocation from material written after it, and they work on any page about any Ethiopian bookmaker:
- Does it mention 15 December 2025, or the revocation at all? Anything describing an active Ethiopian licence without acknowledging it predates the change.
- Which regulator does it name? A South Sudanese or Curaçao licence tells you nothing about legality in Ethiopia.
- Does it give a licence number you could check? A regulator’s name with no number attached has never been a claim anyone could verify.
Is Sports Betting Coming Back to Ethiopia?
Officials have indicated that a regulated and licensed market could be considered in future. No framework, timetable or reopening date has been published, and the Lottery Service has reaffirmed the ban rather than signalled its end.
Until that changes, the position is straightforward: betting is prohibited, no operator is licensed, and a site claiming an Ethiopian licence is claiming something that does not currently exist. If the market does reopen under a new framework, the licence numbers issued under it will be checkable, and that is the point at which any operator’s claim becomes worth testing again.
Lalibet Ethiopia FAQs
Is Lalibet legal in Ethiopia?
No sports betting operator holds a legal licence in Ethiopia. All licences were revoked on 15 December 2025, covering online platforms, retail shops, agents and payment services, and the Ethiopian Lottery Service has since confirmed the ban remains in force.
That applies sector-wide, not to one brand. Any page describing Lalibet as currently licensed in Ethiopia is describing a position that ended in December 2025.
What happened in December 2025?
In November 2025, the National Intelligence and Security Service announced 24 arrests of people described as owners and associates of betting companies, alleging concealment of more than 100 billion birr in government revenue.
On 4 December, the Ethiopian Lottery Service suspended 22 companies’ licences. On 15 December, it revoked all sports betting licences outright, citing breaches of licensing conditions, illegal financial transfers and national security concerns.
Can I get my balance back?
The Lottery Service stated that operators remain responsible for existing liabilities including customer balances and unsettled wagers, and placed former licence holders under data preservation orders covering server records, financial documentation and user data. That is the basis of a claim.
Gather your evidence first: shop receipts, your user ID, any deposit or withdrawal codes, dated screenshots of the balance. Put the claim in writing to the operator and report it to the Lottery Service.
We have seen no public evidence of a completed refund process, so treat recovery as uncertain. And nobody who asks you for a fee or a PIN to recover money is legitimate.
Why do other sites say it is licensed?
Most of that material predates December 2025 and has not been re-checked. The licence usually cited belongs to GAL Sport Betting and is issued by the Gaming Board of South Sudan, with some pages also naming Curaçao.
Neither authorises betting in Ethiopia. A licence in another country has never made an operator lawful for Ethiopian bettors, and since 15 December 2025, no Ethiopian licence exists to hold.
Which Lalibet website is the real one?
Several domains carry the name, including lalibet.et, lalibet.net and lali-bet.com. Archive records show the Ethiopian address returning errors and redirects from late 2024, while lali-bet.com began serving content on 15 December 2025, the revocation date.
We are not asserting any domain is fraudulent and cannot verify who runs each one. But a brand with several live domains, in a market with no licensed operator and reports of scammers moving in, is one where a lookalike would be easy to mistake for the real site.
What was the Lalibet welcome bonus?
A 100% first deposit bonus up to 5,000 ETB, credited to a sports bonus account. Turnover was four times the deposit, counting only bets at minimum odds of 1.4 and total odds of 6.00, within one month.
The multiplier was low by industry standards, but it applied to the deposit rather than the bonus alone, and the total-odds condition meant it could only be cleared on accumulators. This is on record, not on offer.
Is betting coming back to Ethiopia?
Officials have indicated a regulated market could be considered in future, but no framework, timetable or reopening date has been published, and the Lottery Service has reaffirmed the ban rather than signalled its end.
Until that changes, no operator is licensed, and any site claiming an Ethiopian licence is claiming something that does not exist.
Sources for This Lalibet Report
- Ethiopian Lottery Service – revocation of all sports betting licences with effect from 15 December 2025; the 4 December suspension of 22 companies; operator liability for customer balances and unsettled wagers; data preservation requirements.
- Ethiopian Lottery Service public notice, 2026 – confirmation that the ban remains in force and that no sports betting organisation is operating in Ethiopia with a legal licence.
- National Intelligence and Security Service, reported November 2025 – the arrest of 24 people and the allegation of concealed government revenue exceeding 100 billion birr.
- Ethiopian and international trade press, December 2025 to 2026 – scope of the revocation across online platforms, retail shops, agents and payment services, and subsequent reporting on the regulatory vacuum.
- Gaming Board of South Sudan – the licensing authority for GAL Sport Betting, the company named in connection with this brand.
No Affiliate Link on This Page
10OnlineCasinos earns commission when readers sign up through links elsewhere on this site. Rankings come from our published rating methodology – commission is not an input, and an operator cannot pay to move up. This page carries no link to Lalibet and encourages no sign-up. Sports betting is prohibited in Ethiopia, and we do not promote operators into markets where gambling is unlawful.
If Gambling Has Stopped Being a Choice
Over time, gambling costs money – that is how the industry pays for itself. If it has stopped feeling like a choice, help exists, and it is free and confidential.
Losing access to an account with money in it carries its own pressure, and it pushes people toward chasing the loss somewhere else. If you are looking for another site to make back what is stuck in this one, that is the moment to stop – and in Ethiopia, any site offering to take that bet is operating without a licence.
18+ Adults only.
At a glance
| Market | Ethiopia |
| Legal status | Prohibited |
| Licences revoked | 15 Dec 2025 |
| Companies suspended | 22 |
| Regulator | Ethiopian Lottery Service |
| Licensed operators | None |
| Licence cited | South Sudan |
| Balances owed | Yes, per regulator |
| Our score | None – see why |
Do not deposit. This page carries no link to the operator.
Verification status
Ban confirmed
Domains checked
No Ethiopian licence
Refunds unevidenced