Norway gives Norsk Tipping the sports betting monopoly, lets residents bet with foreign sites without penalty, and makes it as hard as it can to pay them: banks must block gambling transactions, and since 2024 the authorities can order DNS blocks on foreign domains. The Malta-licensed brands serve Norwegians anyway, in kroner. Here are the state operator and the two international sites that scored best in our tests with a Norwegian account.
Norsk Tipping runs sports betting, lotteries and online casino under the state monopoly, supervised by the Lottery Authority, with mandatory loss limits, identity through the national system and Vipps payments. Norsk Rikstoto has horse racing. Both are competent and their prices are wider than the international market, as monopolies’ are; the loss limits are strict enough that heavy bettors leave.
Foreign operators cannot be licensed, but Norwegian law does not punish the player, and Betsson, Unibet, ComeOn, bet365 and others have served Norwegians for years from Malta, with Norwegian-language sites and kroner accounts. The state fights the payments: card transactions coded as gambling are blocked by Norwegian banks, transfers to gambling companies are refused, and the Lottery Authority now orders DNS blocks and fines the operators’ advertising. Bettors route through e-wallets, foreign accounts and crypto. Winnings above 10,000 kroner from foreign operators in a single win are taxable; winnings from Norsk Tipping are not.
Payments at the foreign sites are Skrill, Neteller, bank transfers through intermediaries and crypto; withdrawals to Skrill arrived within hours in our tests.
Ranked by our test score. Norsk Tipping is the monopoly; the other two serve Norwegians from Malta without a Norwegian licence.
The monopoly’s sportsbook, with the Eliteserien, European football and winter sports, live betting, Vipps in and out within a day, mandatory loss limits and Norwegian recourse. Prices are wider than the foreign sites; the safety is complete.
Betsson has treated Norway as a home market for two decades from Malta, with a Norwegian site, kroner accounts, streaming and Skrill withdrawals within hours in our test; no Norwegian licence, no local recourse.
Unibet serves Norwegians from its Maltese licence with a Norwegian-language product, streaming and statistics, and e-wallet withdrawals within hours; the same caveats apply.
All serve Norwegians from foreign licences; payments are the obstacle, not registration.
Vipps on the state site; e-wallets and crypto on the foreign sites, since Norwegian banks block direct gambling payments.
With Norsk Tipping, yes; betting with foreign sites is not an offence for the player, but the operators cannot be licensed and their payments are blocked.
Not from Norsk Tipping; single wins above 10,000 kroner from foreign operators are taxable.
Norwegian banks must block transactions coded as gambling to unlicensed operators.
The Lottery Authority can order DNS blocks since 2024 and has begun to use them.
Rankings on this page come from our tests with a real account opened in the country. Some links are affiliate links; sponsored boxes are labelled and never affect the order.