Best Balkans Betting Sites in 2024
SportsBetting
- Operating since 2003
- Mobile friendly website
- Live Chat
- 24/7 customer support
- Live Casino
- Supports cryptocurrencies
- Unavailable in many countries
Meridianbet
- Operating since 2008
- Promotions and Bonuses
- Mobile friendly website and application
- 24/7 customer support
- No live chat
Find the Best Balkans Bookmakers Every Time You Look
When you attempt to find the best gambling experiences with the top Balkans bookmakers, it’s not long before you realise that the choice is overwhelming. Sure, there are some great betting sites out there, but finding them consistently can be tough because advertising does not always reflect the actual sportsbook services that are being offered inside.
This huge amount of choice can make the task of finding the best Balkans betting sites really tricky. However, with our list to guide you, finding the best operators becomes simple, as you can see clearly which bookies in the Balkans are worth your time. That’s because it contains a wealth of insight into which sites deliver where it really matters.
This is all possible thanks to the painstaking work carried out by our review team who tirelessly evaluate every Balkans gambling site on the market. The great news is that by adding our page to your web browser favourites, you can access what it offers anytime you like. Do so and you’ll never need to suffer from a poor betting experience again.
About Online Betting in the Balkans
The Balkans is a region of the world that has experienced its fair share of chaos over the last 50 years. After the civil war in the 90s that eventually resulted from the demise of General Tito in 1980, the area has a very different look today. Despite once being just one nation – Yugoslavia – it is now made up of a variety of nations, each with its own gambling regulations.
Here are the nations that exist on this new frontier of online gambling:
- Slovenia – Regulated by the 1995 Gaming Act, online gambling is permitted only from operators that are already licensed as a bricks-and-mortar casino.
- Croatia – New rules have existed since joining the EU in 2013, with the Act on Games of Chance being put into place on 1st Jan 2015 for domestic operators.
- Bosnia & Herzegovina – Again, only land-based operators that already exist are able to offer online gambling or sportsbook services.
- Serbia – Has the same rules as Slovenia and Bosnia & Herzegovina.
- Kosovo – Up until 2019, there were no laws relating to gambling. However, after 2 high-profile, gambling-related murders, a 10-year ban on all gambling was introduced.
- Albania – Since 2018, all forms of gambling were banned by the government, both online and offline. This was in an attempt to address the gambling problems of its citizens.
- North Macedonia – Online gambling was legalised in 2011, however, all domestic services are state-run, as the government has a monopoly.
Almost all of these regulations relate to domestic sports betting services, but most do not cover international operators. Sites like Bet365, 888.com and 1xBet are often the preferred choice for Balkans players due to the value for money and the wide choice they offer. While not technically legal for many, it’s not something that is typically prosecuted.
What Do Balkan Sportsbook Services Offer?
When betting on sport in the Balkans, you’ll typically have the same wide range of choices – particularly when using international or ‘off-shore’ sites. There are a number of sports that enjoy popularity in the region, with football featuring prominently. Water polo, volleyball, handball and basketball, however, all have a large following.
The main European and American sports can all be bet on at sites in the Balkans, so you can expect a wide choice that includes horse racing, cricket and rugby, as well as the likes of NHL hockey, NBA basketball, Major League Baseball and NFL football. So, as you can see, there’s a wealth of opportunities for Balkans betting fans to get their teeth into.
That’s before we even start talking about new markets like the massively popular sport of MMA and the sphere of eSports where top console gamers compete against each other. When all is said and done, there are so many markets on which you can wager, with a range of different types of bets also adding to the variety.
The Types of Bets That Can Be Made
There are many ways in which you can place bets on sports, which is one of the reasons why it can be so exciting. Here are some of the options available to you.
- Win bets – A.k.a Moneyline bets, it simply involves predicting the winner
- Eachway bets – Similar to a win bet, but you also win if you finish placed
- Acca bets – Accumulators involve predicting the winners of multiple events
- Under/over bets – Here you guess if more or fewer goals/points are scored than a set number.
- Special bets – These side bets are for peripheral matters like number of throw-ins
- In-play bets – Here you bet on events as they unfold – offering great excitement.
A Review Process That Leaves Nothing to Chance
We’re able to offer the recommendations we are because of the hard work of our review team. They assess every metric that’s important to the value for money and excitement on offer and typically include:
- Customer service availability & standard
- Total number of sports betting markets offered
- Fairness of welcome bonus offers re wagering requirements
- Online security provided for players
- Payment methods accepted
- Mobile playability
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the metrics that get assessed. Suffice to say though, that every single site that features amongst our recommended picks will have earned its place and then some.