South Africa’s Online Betting Boom: What the Growth Means for Fraud

VerifyNow’s 2026 iGaming report tracks rapid online betting growth, World Cup demand and the fraud risks facing licensed South African operators.

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South Africa’s Online Betting Boom: What the Growth Means for Fraud

South African bookmaker sports-betting gross gambling revenue reached R47.892 billion in FY2024/25, up from R8.178 billion five years earlier. That makes the latest figure 5.9 times the starting value in the National Gambling Board’s audited series.

The latest NGB online measure covered six provinces, where online betting supplied R44.458 billion. It accounted for 85.5% of the betting revenue reported across those provinces.

Our new 2026 iGaming Industry Report follows that growth through the player journey, from a new account and its first deposit to login recovery and payout.

Gross gambling revenue is the amount left after player winnings are subtracted from the stakes an operator receives. The figure comes before business costs and taxes. The NGB’s FY2024/25 statistics provide the South African market data used here.

Betting climbed every year in the NGB series

The five-year South African bookmaker series rises every year:

Financial year	Bookmaker sports-betting gross gambling revenue
FY2020/21	R8.178 billion
FY2021/22	R12.833 billion
FY2022/23	R20.694 billion
FY2023/24	R32.074 billion
FY2024/25	R47.892 billion

The NGB published online figures for the latest two years, and the group of provinces changed. FY2023/24 covered five named provinces. Eastern Cape joined in FY2024/25. Our five-year growth finding therefore comes from the consistent bookmaker sports-betting series, while the two online values show how much reported betting revenue came through that channel.

Growth is visible outside South Africa too. The American Gaming Association recorded US commercial sports-betting gross gambling revenue of $16.89 billion in 2025, up 22.6%. Europe’s total gambling market reached an estimated €123.4 billion in 2024, according to the European Gaming and Betting Association and H2 Gambling Capital.

The World Cup brought another wave of demand

The 2026 FIFA World Cup ran across 104 matches and drew 6.81 million spectators, according to FIFA’s final tournament figures. Cloudflare recorded an overall rise in requests to gambling-industry websites after the opening game. In Optimove’s group-stage operator data, average US bettors reached 119% of the pre-tournament level and first-time depositors reached 174%.

FIFA’s Integrity Task Force found no suspicious betting activity or signs of match manipulation across the tournament, a finding from its competition-integrity monitoring. The identity, payment and account fraud findings in our report come from operator surveys and transaction networks.

The International Betting Integrity Association reported 300 suspicious betting alerts during 2025 across its member network, including 110 linked to football. Its Africa review recorded 117 alerts on African sporting events from 2021 through 2025, while the wider network monitors more than US$300 billion in annual sports-betting turnover.

During a large event, new accounts arrive quickly alongside returning players, promotion hunters and automated attacks. Fraud teams have more decisions to make while the tournament is live.

Fraud reaches the account through several doors

A global iGaming operator survey cited in our report asked operators to name the main stage where they encountered fraud. Deposits ranked first at 41.9% of responses, followed by onboarding at 23.8%, withdrawals at 22.9% and in-game activity at 11.4%.

A clean-looking sign-up can lead into a stolen-card deposit, while an account opened by a legitimate player can be taken over months later and sent to a new payment beneficiary shortly before withdrawal.

Fraudsters use stolen identities, altered documents, synthetic evidence and repeated selfies. Bonus rings spread activity across accounts that appear to belong to separate players, which makes a reused device or payment detail a valuable investigator lead. Mule accounts give stolen funds somewhere to land, and credential stuffing opens access to profiles that have already passed identity checks.

LexisNexis findings cited in our report cover more than 116 billion online transactions during 2025 and record a 76% rise in the gaming and gambling attack rate within its network. Malicious bot attacks rose 59%, while a separate operator survey found that 78% of respondents had seen more AI-generated identity documents.

Automated sign-ups and repeated synthetic evidence can fill the same review queue until the work begins to resemble a DDoS attack made from AI slop. Screening capacity disappears into the volume, which slows decisions for legitimate players and makes serious cases harder to find.

What the South African figures include

South African law prohibits general online casino gambling. The National Gambling Board says licensed local bookmakers may accept sports and horse-racing bets online within their approved scope. Our report uses “iGaming” as the global industry term. Every South African revenue figure comes from a licensed betting category published by the NGB. The international evidence covers fraud methods seen across online betting and casino products.

How VerifyNow helps licensed betting companies

Identity checks add the most value when their results sit beside device, payment and account behaviour throughout the player journey.

At sign-up, South African ID verification confirms identity details and date of birth for the operator’s 18-plus decision. Passive Liveness checks one selfie for signs of live presence. When a higher-risk case needs stronger identity binding, Face Match compares the selfie with a trusted reference such as the supported Home Affairs identity photo.

The operator’s own fraud platform should connect those results with device, contact, IP, payment, bonus and wagering signals. Reused details become more useful when investigators can see the other accounts linked to them.

Account recovery can call for another identity decision. A beneficiary change made from an unfamiliar device soon after recovery gives the operator a clear reason to request a fresh liveness check or face comparison before access or payout continues.

At withdrawal, Bank Account Verification checks the nominated account and account-holder details. Operators can use it before a first payout, after a payout-account change or when a withdrawal triggers review. A mismatch gives the fraud team a reason to hold the payment and examine the case.

Document Authentication supports journeys where a passport or foreign identity document needs to be checked. AML, PEP and sanctions screening can enter the flow when the operator’s own risk rule calls for it.

VerifyNow supplies identity, biometric, document, screening and bank-owner evidence through web workflows and APIs. Each check returns a clear result that the operator can place at a defined point in its journey.

The wider fraud stack handles device intelligence, payment monitoring, bonus analysis, wager patterns and linked-account investigation. Those signals become more useful when the operator can connect them to a verified person and a documented decision.

Our iGaming verification page shows example signup and payout paths for licensed South African betting companies. Teams can start with SA ID verification and Passive Liveness, then add stronger checks when a defined event raises the risk.

Read the full 2026 iGaming Industry Report

The 2026 iGaming Industry Report contains the five-year South African charts, global market evidence, World Cup figures, fraud methods and a practical operator playbook from account opening to payout.

Licensed online betting companies can contact VerifyNow to review their current player journey and decide where identity, liveness, Face Match, document or bank-account checks belong.