SifuFinds now covers 33 African countries, up from 23. Five new markets (Benin, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Togo and Congo-Brazzaville) get full bookmaker comparisons. Five more (Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Somalia and Tunisia) get an honest legal breakdown instead, because betting itself is banned or heavily restricted in each of them. That's the short version. Here's the detail, and why we built it this way.
Most affiliate betting sites expand by copying a template into a new country and slotting in whichever bookmaker pays the best commission. We didn't do that. Every one of these ten pages is built on original research into local gambling law, currency, payment rails and which bookmakers genuinely operate there, not which ones we assumed would.
Five new betting markets
Benin now has two verified operators. 1xBet holds a licence issued via the Benin National Lottery through its local partner IBET SARL, and Premier Bet also runs a Benin-facing site. The regulatory picture shifted in 2023 with the creation of the Cellule de Supervision du Secteur des Jeux, which now actively monitors online operators, and a 2025 finance law introduced a 25% tax on online gambling revenue. MTN Mobile Money and Moov Money are the main ways to fund an account there.
Burkina Faso is the trickiest of the five to get right. In February 2025 the government ordered its telecoms regulator, ARCEP, to block every online betting platform that isn't partnered with the state lottery, LONAB. Only LONAB's own Lonabet.bf and a small number of confirmed-compliant partners survived that cut. 1xBet is one of them, operating under a specific LONAB partnership contract, and it's the only bookmaker we list for the country. We're not going to recommend an operator that might get blocked by the next government directive.
Gambia sits in a genuine grey area. Land-based gambling was banned by presidential decree in 2015 and unbanned again in 2017, and online betting has never had a working licensing system either way. It isn't explicitly illegal, but nobody is properly regulating it either. 1xBet runs a dedicated Gambia site that accepts the Dalasi (GMD), and QMoney and AfriMoney are the payment methods bettors there actually use.
Togo gets a full country page with real detail on currency, payment methods and the Togolese Championnat National, but no bookmaker listing. We looked. LONATO regulates land-based gambling, but we couldn't independently confirm a licensed online operator for Togo through a first-party source. Most sites in this space would list one anyway, on the strength of a third-party affiliate blog. We're leaving the slot blank until we can back a name with a real source, and we'll update the page the moment we can.
Congo-Brazzaville, not to be confused with DR Congo, brought in a proper licensing law in October 2024 and stood up a new regulator, ARJHA, in March 2025. Premier Bet has a dedicated Congo-Brazzaville site. Its currency is the Central African CFA franc (XAF), which is a different currency from the West African CFA franc (XOF) used in Benin, Burkina Faso and Togo, and different again from DR Congo's own Congolese franc. Three CFA-adjacent currencies, three different countries, and they get mixed up constantly, so we've flagged it clearly on the page.
Five countries where we list no bookmaker at all
This is the part most betting comparison sites skip. We checked the actual law in Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Somalia and Tunisia, and in every one of them, promoting a bookmaker would mean promoting something illegal.
Algeria bans all online gambling under Law 18-05, and a 2025 law separately made it a criminal offence to use a VPN to reach blocked content, including betting sites. Libya's penal code and a 2022 cybercrime law make running an online gambling site a criminal offence, carrying a minimum two-year prison sentence. Mauritania bans gambling outright and, unusually, bans advertising it too, which is exactly what a "best betting sites" listicle would be. Somalia's government named the operator 1xBet specifically in a November 2023 order and directed local banks to freeze related accounts. Tunisia permits only one legal product, the state-run Promosport pools game, and a law reported in 2026 would jail anyone who promotes an unlicensed platform there for up to five years.
For all five, we built a page anyway, because "is betting legal in my country" is a question people genuinely search for and deserve an honest answer to. What you won't find on any of them is a bookmaker link, a bonus code or a "claim now" button. That's deliberate.
New markets at a glance
| Country | Legal Status | Regulator | Currency | Bookmakers Listed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benin | Regulated (CSJ, 2023) | CSJ / Loterie Nationale du Bรฉnin | XOF | 2 |
| Burkina Faso | Regulated, ISP-enforced | CNJH / LONAB | XOF | 1 |
| Gambia | Unregulated grey market | Gambia Gaming Board | GMD | 1 |
| Togo | No online framework yet | LONATO | XOF | 0 (verified pending) |
| Congo-Brazzaville | Newly licensed (2024) | ARJHA | XAF | 1 |
| Algeria | Prohibited | None | DZD | 0 |
| Libya | Prohibited | None | LYD | 0 |
| Mauritania | Prohibited, advertising banned | None | MRU | 0 |
| Somalia | Prohibited, actively enforced | NAMLC/FRC | SOS | 0 |
| Tunisia | State monopoly only | Promosport | TND | 0 |
Why this matters beyond these ten countries
The same standard now applies across all 33 African countries SifuFinds covers, from established markets like Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and South Africa through to the newest additions. Every bookmaker we list has to clear a real bar: a working, verifiable link to the market, whether that's a licence, a confirmed regulatory partnership, or a dedicated country-facing site we could independently check. If we can't verify it, we don't list it, and we say so on the page instead of quietly filling the gap.
That's slower than the alternative. It also means some of our new country pages look thinner than a typical "top 10 betting sites" round-up, because we won't pad a list with brands we can't stand behind. Nigeria has been researched for years and has a deep bookmaker bench as a result. Togo was researched this month and currently has none. Both states are honest, and both will keep updating as our research does.
FAQ
Is online betting legal in Burkina Faso?
Yes, but only through operators partnered with the state lottery, LONAB. Since February 2025, Burkina Faso's telecoms regulator has blocked platforms that aren't part of that arrangement. SifuFinds only lists 1xBet for Burkina Faso because it's the one operator we could confirm holds a LONAB partnership contract.
Why doesn't SifuFinds list any bookmakers for Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Somalia or Tunisia?
Because betting itself is banned or heavily restricted in all five. Algeria and Libya criminalise online gambling outright, Mauritania bans both gambling and its advertising, Somalia's government has actively enforced a ban against a named operator, and Tunisia only permits its own state-run pools product. Listing a bookmaker in any of these markets would mean promoting something illegal under local law, so we don't.
Which currency does Congo-Brazzaville use?
The Central African CFA franc (XAF). This is different from the West African CFA franc (XOF) used in Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Cameroon, and different again from DR Congo's Congolese franc (CDF). Congo-Brazzaville and DR Congo are two separate countries that share a border and a similar name but not a currency.
Is 1xBet available in all of SifuFinds' new African markets?
No. It's confirmed for Benin, Burkina Faso and Gambia, but it isn't listed for Togo (no confirmed licensed operator there yet), Congo-Brazzaville (research found it operating without local licensing, so we list Premier Bet instead), or any of the five restricted countries.
Will SifuFinds add more bookmakers to Togo's page?
Yes, as soon as we can independently verify one. The page currently states plainly that no licensed operator has been confirmed, rather than listing an unverified brand to fill the space. Check back as our research continues. We'll update the page the moment that changes.
18+ | Bet Responsibly | Gambling laws vary by country. Always confirm the legal status of online betting where you live before depositing anywhere.