Betting in Portugal as a British expat
Portugal is one of the friendliest countries in Europe to move to and one of the strangest to bet in. The market is legal and regulated, but small, taxed in a way that shows up in the odds, and missing every big British brand including bet365.
Updated August 2026
The short version. Portugal regulates online betting through the SRIJ. None of the UK bookmakers hold a Portuguese licence, so all your UK accounts become unusable; you register fresh with one of the nine licensed books, using your NIF. Odds are noticeably worse than the UK because operators pay an 8% tax on turnover, not profit. Do not be tempted by grey-market sites: Portugal is one of the few countries where the regulator says players themselves can be fined.
What happens to your UK accounts
Everything closes. bet365 walked out of Portugal in 2015 rather than accept the licensing terms and has never returned; its site is blocked for Portuguese residents. William Hill lists Portugal as a no-access country. Sky Bet serves only the British Isles. Ladbrokes has no Portuguese entity, although its parent company Entain does run bwin.pt, which is the nearest same-family option and still means a brand-new local account. Withdraw your UK balances before you move.
The nine licensed bookmakers
The SRIJ has licensed nine online sportsbooks: Betano, Betclic, bwin.pt, ESC Online, Placard, Casino Portugal, Solverde, Lebull and GoldenPark. Betano and Betclic are the biggest and cover the Premier League properly. Verify any operator on the SRIJ register at srij.turismodeportugal.pt.
Registering as a foreigner
Registration requires a NIF, the Portuguese tax number, plus photo ID; a passport works for Brits. Any legal resident can get a NIF, and you will need one for Portuguese life generally. Portuguese sites are typically only reachable from inside Portugal.
Payments
Local rails dominate: Multibanco and MB Way are standard alongside cards. A Portuguese bank account makes everything smoother.
Why the odds are worse, and the tax silver lining
Portugal taxes fixed-odds sports betting operators at 8% of turnover rather than a share of profit. That cost lands in the prices: margins at .pt books run visibly fatter than a UK book on the same match, and it is exactly why the biggest international brands stay out. The compensation is on your side of the ledger: betting winnings are not taxed for players in Portugal. What you win is yours.
Offshore sites: Portugal is not the place
Portugal enforces harder than most of Europe: hundreds of illegal sites are ISP-blocked, payment blocking is in place with the banks, and new legislation against illegal operators was being prepared in summer 2026. More importantly for you, the SRIJ states that players using illegal sites can face fines of €2,500 to €25,000. Prosecutions of individual punters appear rare, but this is a live legal risk that simply does not exist in most neighbouring countries, on top of the usual grey-market problems of no protection and no complaint route. With a legal market available, use it.
Not in Portugal? See which bookmakers accept British expats where you actually live, vetted for licence and payout record.
See the vetted bookmakersThis page contains no paid placements and no affiliate links; every bookmaker named here is included on merit. Some links elsewhere on this site are affiliate links: how this site is funded. This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice; gambling law depends on your country of residence and changes. Updated August 2026.