Africa’s regulated online gambling market generated US$5.2bn in GGR during 2025, but licensed operators continued to account for less than one quarter of total activity, according to Gaming Compliance International.
GCI is a regulatory technology and consultancy business providing gambling market monitoring and compliance intelligence to governments and regulators. Its Africa report examined regulated and unregulated online gambling across all 54 countries using data covering 2024 and 2025.
Regulated revenue increased from $4.4bn to $5.2bn, while estimated unregulated revenue rose from $15.6bn to $17.8bn. These figures place the combined market at $23bn in 2025, compared with $20bn in the previous year. The regulated share increased from 22% to 23%.
Ismail Vali, GCI President, said success should be measured by the proportion of consumers using licensed platforms rather than simply by the number of licences issued. Online gambling participation increased from an estimated 198m people in 2024 to 215m in 2025. However, the number of unregulated operators targeting the continent rose from 3,644 to 4,129.
GCI estimated that African governments lost $3.55bn in potential tax revenue to unregulated gambling during 2025. Consumer exposure to licensed operators increased from 10% to 11%, while exposure to unregulated platforms declined from 90% to 89%.
The findings suggest that regulated operators are expanding without materially reducing the absolute size of the offshore market.
GCI called for stronger monitoring, enforcement and regulatory cooperation, alongside tax, payment and product policies that allow licensed businesses to compete effectively.
The figures are estimates rather than official totals compiled by a continental regulator. Measuring illegal activity also requires modelling because unlicensed operators do not generally publish audited revenue data.
However, the report highlights the scale of the channelisation challenge. Licensed revenue is growing, but the unregulated sector still accounts for 77% of estimated online GGR.
