Add up the implied probabilities across a three-way market and the total lands above one hundred per cent. That surplus is the margin, it is charged on winning and losing slips alike, and the pages under Casino margins and Live margins take it apart market by market so a price can be read before it is taken. The index beside each name is a different object and this page keeps the two apart: a weighted sum, set out in full on The arithmetic, in which the size of the catalogue carries the heaviest share, licensing and withdrawal terms come next, support after those, and a welcome offer is worth six points in a hundred. What the licence columns hold is a count rather than a verdict, and the count earns its place because the six bookmakers covered here answer the same question six different ways. Five print at least one permit number. Three of those five put a body's name next to a number, and the three do not all name the same body. Two print bare digits and name nobody. The sixth prints no number and no issuer at all, which is why it also has no row: a bookmaker reaches the table on a licence line legible enough to quote or on an offer it has published, and that one has neither. Where a figure would exist only if somebody here had opened an account and watched what happened next, this site prints no figure, and no column is dressed up to stand in for one.
Published prices, one index, and nothing promised on top of it
This register has no operator with its own published assessment yet, so the table is left out rather than printed empty. What is documented sits in the record below.
What we measure
A permit number and the body that granted it are two separate facts on this market, and they hold two separate columns because they come apart so often: most of these footers set out digits with nobody named beside them, and the longest of them, three lines deep, names an issuer on its first line and its last but not on the one in between. The third column exists because the sports side and the casino side are permitted separately here, so a bookmaker can print a number for the pitch and leave the tables blank. Rank order is the weighted sum published on The arithmetic, which means a row moves when a weight changes or a fact under it does, and at no other time.
| # | Bookmakers by index | Permits printed | Body named | Casino permit | Index /100 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Betway Nigeria | 3 | Lagos State Lotteries and Gaming Authority (LSLGA) | separate number | 83 | Open |
| 2 | SportyBet | 1 | National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) | not printed | 73 | Open |
| 3 | Bet9ja | 2 | NLRC | separate number | 73 | Open |
| 4 | MSport | 1 | Lagos State Lotteries and Gaming Authority (LSLGA) | not printed | 60 | Open |
Full comparison table
Odds margin by bookmaker
Withdrawal times
Data usage
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- About
- Best betting sites in NigeriaOur ranking of Nigerian bookmakers based on measured odds margin, withdrawal times and app performance.
- Betting calculatorsFree calculators: return, accumulator, each way, bonus expected value and margin. No signup.
- Casino margins
- Crash margins
- Data usage
- Deposit methods comparedBank transfer, USSD, OPay, PalmPay and cards compared on fees, speed and how often each one fails.
- How the margin index is builtExactly how we sample odds, time withdrawals and measure data usage: so you can repeat any of it yourself.
- Account limiting comparedWe tracked which Nigerian bookmakers limit winning accounts and how quickly. Results with the methodology shown.
- Live margins
- Odds margin measuredThe margin each Nigerian bookmaker builds into its odds, measured across thousands of markets. This is what you pay.
- Markets
- Masthead
- Measurements
- New betting sitesNew entrants to the Nigerian market, put through the same measurement protocol as the established names.
- Offer value
- Maximum payout limitsEvery Nigerian bookmaker has a maximum payout. Here are the caps, and what happens when your slip exceeds one.
- Payout speed
- Privacy
- Reading odds
- Responsible gamblingSetting limits, self-exclusion and support services in Nigeria.
- State licensing
- Terms
- The arithmetic
- GuidesMeasurement notes: where the margin sits in a Nigerian price, how the same match differs across books, and what verification does to the money after the bet wins.