Norway is not a country that’s famous for sports betting, something which its pretty strict gambling laws confirm. Gambling regulations in Norway seem prohibitive at face value, but this doesn’t mean you can’t bet if you’re based in this country. It is possible to place sports bets without any legal consequences in Norway and we’re going to teach you how to do it.

Is Sports Betting Legal in Norway?

At the moment, there are only two online bookmakers with licenses issued by the Norwegian gaming authority. Those operators are Norsk Tipping and Norsk Rikstoto. These state-owned sportsbook platforms are where players can make sports bets, as well as play lottery, horse racing and so on.

The betting offer at those two bookmakers is pretty good as you don’t have to pay taxes on your winnings with these bookmakers. What’s not that good are the odds these sportsbooks are offering are very low. Because they have a monopoly over the Norwegian betting market, they have the luxury to offer odds that are not very competitive.

In fact, they are very unfavorable from the players’ perspective, especially when compared to the odds offered by non-Norwegian sportsbooks.

This is the main reason why a big number of bettors based in Norway prefer betting at foreign bookmakers. Even though the government of their country is trying to prevent them from doing that, betting at those sites is fully legal for you by Norwegian law.

What this practically means is that if a foreign bookmaker is willing to accept Norwegian players, they can sign up and start betting without any worry of getting into legal trouble.

Still, there is a catch – if you decide to bet at an online sportsbook that doesn’t have a license issued in Norway, you sometimes have to pay taxes on your winnings.

Gambling Tax in Norway

The only restrictions on betting with foreign bookmakers from Norway is that the banks are issued a list of companies from the authorities, which they are prohibited to transfer money to. In practice this is not working very well, because for every company the authorities add to the blacklist, the bookmakers have set up 2 new ones to replace it. So, with nothing stopping them from doing it, a huge percentage of Norwegian bettors still go to foreign sportsbooks to bet.

What you should now is that as long as you’re betting with EU based bookmakers and you win less than 10 000 NOK on a single bet, those winnings are tax free. If the winnings are above 10 000 NOK, you need to pay 28% tax of your gross winnings. For example, if you bet 4000 NOK on Liverpool to win at 2.00 in odds, your winnings would be 8000 NOK.

This is below the 10 000 NOK limit and would be tax free. So that means, if you profit 9,999 NOK from one bet, you are not taxed one cent. While if you bet 6000 NOK on Manchester United to win at 2.00 in odds and win 12 000 NOK, you would have to pay 28% tax on the win. 12 000 NOK x 28% = 3 360 NOK in tax.

Most sports bettors out there aren’t making 10,000 NOK or more from a single bet, so for the most part, Norwegians are not taxed on their sports betting winnings.

Funding Your Sportsbook Account

The fact that the banks in Norway aren’t allowed to let the players use their services for betting with companies on the blacklist, means that the players can experience that they are unable to deposit money into some of the bookmakers with their Visa or MasterCard.

The good news is that there are several ways that still work, including:

• PaySafeCard

Paysafecard is by far the best option here. It is a one time bank card that you can purchase at most grocery stores and kiosks like Narvesen.

One can also look into alternative options such as:

• Skrill
• Neteller
• Entropay
• PayPal

But from 2020, if you deposit money into your Skrill or Neteller account, you will not be able to deposit money into a bookmaker. While if you had money in your account already or received it via a friend’s transfer, it would work to deposit into the bookie.

In addition, the bettors from Norway can also use cryptocurrencies to fund their accounts at foreign online sportsbooks.

Best Bookmakers for Norwegian Players

Several years have passed since the government of Norway decided to pass legislation with the purpose of preventing the bettors from placing sports bets at foreign bookmakers.

The legislation, however, doesn’t seem to have too much impact. There are more than 300 bookmakers out there that accept Norwegian players!

Of course, this doesn’t mean all of them are great. Some are better than the others, offering more attractive odds and bigger sign-up bonuses.

As a Matched Bettor, sign-up bonuses are the most important aspect to a bookmaker. To help you out on your Matched Betting quest, here are a couple of online bookmakers we think are perfect for Norwegian bettors.

LeoVegas

An online sportsbook that gives away a fantastic welcome present to its new players. If you sign up to LeoVegas Sportsbook and deposit 3,000 NOK, you will qualify for a bonus of 3,000 NOK.

Betsson

Betsson is a big-name in the sports betting universe. Not only does this operator accept Norwegian customers but it also rewards them with a 2,000 NOK sign-up bonus if you deposit 2,000 NOK yourself.

Coolbet

Similarly to Betsson, Coolbet also gives a 2,000 kr bonus to its new players. And same as Betsson, this sportsbook too is known as a trustworthy operator.

Bet365

Bet365 is one of the biggest sportsbook operators in the world. Not only does it accept players from Norway, but it also gives them a welcome present. It comes in the form of a 100% match deposit bonus up to 1,000 NOK, which you can turn over with the help of Oddshero.

Other bookmakers that are a good choice for Norwegian players:

• Nordicbet
• Mobilebet
• Comeon
• MrGreen
• 12Bet
• Unibet
• William Hill
• 888Sport
• Betway

For more great bookmakers, make sure to check out the list of operators Oddshero works with. To do that, all you have to do is register an account at Oddshero.

Finally, the players from this Scandinavian country can also place sports bets at some Asian bookmakers, either by registering an account at each individual bookmaker or getting access to a bulk of bookmakers by using a betting broker such as BetInAsia or SportMarket.