Top Online Sportsbooks in Nepal - August 2026

Displaying online Sportsbook sites that accept players from Nepal. To change country go to Country selector or to see all sites in our database visits Online Sportsbook Directory.

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18+. New players only. 100% first deposit bonus. Max bonus amount: €100. Minimum deposit: €10. Wagering requirement: 3×. Neteller/Skrill deposits do not count. Minimum odds: 1.50. Valid for 30 days. T&Cs might differ based on country of residence. Full T&Cs apply.
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18+. New customers only. Minimum €20 deposit required. Bonus and deposit are subject to 6x wagering requirement, bets with minimum odds 1.80. Unused bonus expires within 60 days. Bonus needs to be requested within 7 days of registration. T&Cs apply.
Online sports betting is fully illegal in Nepal. Thus, all of the online sportsbook sites in Nepal are entirely offshore. There is no license to get, no regulator to complain to, and since April 2026, the government has blocked more than 7000 betting apps and websites. Yet, Nepal bets constantly, with Cricket being the most popular market at offshore providers and digital wallet workarounds with VPN. I am an expert in testing and reporting on the grey-area gambling market, and I will guide you through the whole process, from the law, through the risks, and to the ways you can find safe, yet legally gray ways to place bets. 

Betting in Nepal at a Glance: The Quick Answers

Is online sports betting legal in Nepal? No
Are there trustworthy sportsbook sites accepting players from Nepal? Yes, offshore ones
Which Laws mention a ban on online gambling in Nepal? Section 125 of the National Criminal Code 2074 and the preceding Gambling Act of 1963.
Are Nepalese people still gambling online? Yes, massive numbers with billions of rupees in turnover by police bust reports.
Can I deposit via eSewa, Khalti, or Skrill? At some sites, yes
Do online sportsbook sites accept NPR? A few. Most convert to USD or EUR
Is crypto a workaround? It’s separately banned and carries worse penalties than betting. The biggest fine-risk comes with services connected to the Nepal Rastra Bank
How many blocked sites exist in Nepal? Over 7,000 websites and apps taken down since April 2026

Is Online Sports Betting Legal in Nepal?

No. Not in any form, not with any workaround, and not because of some ambiguity a clever reading could escape. Here's the landscape in one table, then the actual law.
Question Status Legal basis Note:
Online sports betting for Nepali citizen Illegal According to Global Animal Law, Muluki Criminal Code 2074 (2017), §125; Gambling Act 2020 BS (1963)  This is a general prohibition to all gambling activities
Domestic sportsbook licensing Doesn’t exist No framework set Due to the prohibition mentioned above, the law doesn’t need to make a licensing structure
Offshore sites accepting Nepalis Accessible but blocked at ISP level According to Xinhua Net, Telecommunications Act; NTA directives  Offshore sites accept players from Nepal, but do not take responsibility if a player will get caught.
Player penalty Stake confiscation, up to 1 year prison, fine up to NPR 10,000 According to Bhandari Law, Criminal Code §125(4) Nepal will punish its locals for playing at offshore sites when caught.
Operator/promoter penalty Cybercrime and AML charges stack According to BWC,Criminal Code §125; Electronic Transactions Act 2063; ALPA 2064  Promoters will face more dire consequences than players
Advertising betting services Illegal Advertisement Regulation Act 2076 (2019) Advertising gambling by a local company is also punishable
Crypto for betting (or anything) Illegal, separate and worse offence NRB notices 13 Aug 2017 and 23 Jan 2022; Foreign Exchange (Regulation) Act 2019 (1962); NRB Act 2058  Crypto is more illegal than gambling, and thus, crypto-gambling elevates the consequences to another threat level.
Land-based casinos Legal for foreign passport holders only, 18+ Casino Regulation 2070 (2013) Nepal has casinos for tourists to increase the local economy.
Lottery A few government-run exception Lotteries Act 2025 BS (1968) There is a Nepalese lottery, but that’s the only exception by law
Games of Skill None Court practice The law did not consider this

Nepalese Laws On Betting: Criminal Code Section 125, Gambling Act 2020

There are two laws applying to all locals and visitors. The older one is the Gambling Act 2020 BS, which was passed in 1963 by the Western calendar. It’s a short, blunt statute from the Panchayat era that declared gambling a punishable offence and gave police wide search powers around gambling dens. And for decades, this was the only prevalent gambling law. The other one is an expansion to the law, considering technological advances and the influx of offshore (and thus locally illegal) operators. This is Section 125 of the National Criminal Code 2074, in force since 2018. You can find the English translation through the Nepal Law Commission. Section 125 defines gambling as playing a game with the intent to gain or lose property based on chance. It then prohibits both gambling and betting, and separately prohibits causing or facilitating either. It carves out two exceptions: Games approved by the government for public festivals, and authorized lotteries.

Penalties for Players vs Operators

The law splits gambling and betting into separate penalty tracks. According to Onesphere Law Associates, a Kathmandu firm whose statute breakdown matches the code itself, gambling as a first offence carries up to 3 months imprisonment or a fine up to NPR 30,000 or both, rising to a year and NPR 50,000 for a second offence, with property and winnings confiscated. Betting specifically, which is what a sportsbook wager is, carries up to 1 year imprisonment, a fine up to NPR 10,000, and forfeiture of the staked amount. Operators, organizers, and promoters face the sharper end. Running a betting operation stacks charges. The facilitation clause of Section 125, foreign exchange violations under NRB rules when money crosses borders, and organized crime provisions when it's a ring. That's how you get cases with billions of rupees cited in the charge sheets.

What Actually Happens in Practice

Enforcement energy overwhelmingly targets the supply side. The headline cases of the last two years say it plainly. According to The Kathmandu Post,  a Latipur bust with dozens arrested and NPR 7.7 billion in cracked transactions. Then a call centre raid seizing 85 laptops, and an IPL betting racket run by Indian nationals. Sometimes Nepali actors are changed for promoting 1xBet in ads. The state is brutal when it comes to cracking down on rings, agents, promoters and money handlers. Casual bettors are rarely the priority, and prosecutions of ordinary punters are uncommon. But rarely doesn’t mean never. People can be swept up in raids, and if they allow their data to leak into the government, then chances are sooner or later they’ll find you. This is why people who wish to access offshore services have to make extra efforts.

The Regulators: Ministry, NTA, NRB, Cyber Bureau

Nepal has no gambling regulator, so four bodies split the enforcement work. The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation licenses the land-based casinos attached to five-star hotels. The NTA blocks the domains and apps. Nepal Rastra Bank polices the money, foreign exchange controls, wallet oversight, and the crypto ban. And the Nepal Police Cyber Bureau, together with the Central Investigation Bureau, runs the raids and builds the criminal cases.

iGaming Licences in Nepal

There are none. No domestic licensing body, no framework, no pending bill in parliament, nothing on the horizon. The only gambling licences Nepal issues are for land-based casinos under the Casino Regulation 2013, foreigner-only venues bolted onto luxury hotels, which Nepali citizens can't legally enter to play. So every single sportsbook serving Nepal operates on an offshore licence, usually Curaçao, occasionally Anjouan or similar. Understand what that means for you in practical terms: no Nepali court will hear your dispute, no local ombudsman exists, and if an operator confiscates your balance, your recourse is a complaint to a Caribbean regulator with a webform.

How We Rate Sportsbooks for Nepal

Since I am not a Nepalese local, I can easily test all of the offshore sites without taking risks. Of course, I still had to filter out every online betting site that accepts players from Nepal. Thus, my methodology was simple: I acted like I was in Nepal, and I was trying to play at offshore sites with the legal system. I used the payment methods accessible to Nepalese people, and I treated crypto as a life-threatening sentence. With that attitude, I registered an account at every single site, and tried various functions and placed several bets. I even changed my VPN settings to route me to Nepal’s IP. I did this test to give you a clear list of what sites are safe to use if you decide to risk the offshore betting route.

Best Online Sportsbook Sites Accepting Nepali Players

Every operator below is offshore, because there's no other kind serving Nepal. What I looked at is the stuff that actually matters here. Whether the site handles your money sensibly, whether the app runs on a mid-range Android phone with patchy 4G, and whether the cricket coverage goes deeper than just match winner odds. And most importantly: Whether the operator will actually pay out on winnings or not.

1xBET Sportsbook

1xBET Sportsbook has the biggest name in Nepal. It’s the site the arrests get named after. NPR appears in the currency list at registration. The cricket markets are absurdly deep, and the mobile version is light enough for a six-year-old Samsung. It has a clean interface, and you might want to opt in to the e-mail offers as a Nepalese. All in all, the government is very cautious with this site. But just because this is the one locals trust the most.

22BET Sportsbook

This is the cleaner cousin. Similar market range, similar wallet-friendly deposit options, less visual noise. Cricket and football coverage is strong, and live betting loads fast even on mobile data. Balances run in USD or EUR for most Nepali players. For those risking the offshore route, the site has many mirror links, allowing it to be pseudoanonymously accessible. They have some of the best online sportsbook bonuses and promotions.

PlanBet Sportsbook

This is a newer face with a surprisingly generous line of weekly cashback and accumulator promotions. Fewer niche markets than 1xBET, but the ones that matter locally are all present.

Ivibet Sportsbook

Ivibet has custom parlays, which I greatly appreciate. This is a generally innovative site, with many features that make it not just unique, but stand out from the rest. They are also very flexible with certain markets. However, Ivibet might not accept Nepalis for long; we’ll have to see that in a few months.

Everygame Sportsbook

This is the veteran of this list, running since the nineties under various names. It's slower to add trendy markets. It has longer withdrawal times, but in exchange it carries the former Intertops brand, which was one of the first online sports betting services in the world. First in an illegal market in Germany, then later moving to the UK, where they were given space to operate as they wish.

20Bet Sportsbook

My final pick rounds things out with solid odds on football and a straightforward welcome offer. Nothing spectacular, but nothing broken. I appreciate the APK working the way it was intended.

What to Check Before You Sign Up

There are many things scammers try to deceive you with. One is creating sites identical to offshore sites. Thus, it’s important to be prepared on how to check whether you are at the real deal or not. First and foremost, I’d highlight: The links on our sites are all legit links. But if you want to take your safety into your own hands:
  • First, name matching. The name on your sportsbook account must match the name on whatever payment account funds it, because a mismatch is the single most common reason withdrawals get frozen at KYC review.
  • Second, know that the site's main domain may not stay reachable, and operators publish alternate addresses; only ever trust the ones communicated through your account or the official app, since fake mirror pages are a phishing goldmine. 
  • Third, read the withdrawal reports. Not the reviews on the sportsbook's own page, obviously. Community threads, complaint boards, that sort of thing. An operator with no local legal accountability is only as good as its reputation, so check the reputation.

What Nepal Actually Bets On

Cricket Is The Most Popular Sport

If you want to understand betting in Nepal, start with cricket, because roughly everything else is a footnote. The sport arrived through India and never left, and somewhere in the last decade it stopped being a pastime and became a national identity.

The Nepal Premier League (NPL)

The NPL launched in December 2024, and Kathmandu went feral for it. Sold-out stands at Kirtipur, city rivalries invented overnight, and a betting wave to match, with offshore books posting markets on a domestic Nepali competition for the first time at real depth. According to ESPNcricinfo, the inaugural title went to Janakpur Bolts, and the league has since become the anchor of Nepal's home cricket calendar.

IPL Season

Then there's the IPL, which isn't Nepali at all and doesn't need to be. From late March to May, teahouse conversations, office group chats and half the betting turnover in the country orbit around Indian franchise cricket. The big police busts tend to cluster around the IPL season too.

Nepal National Team

The Rhinos are the emotional core of it all. Nepal qualified for the 2024 T20 World Cup, and at the 2023 Asian Games the team piled up 314 runs in a T20 against Mongolia, with Kushal Malla smashing the fastest T20I century on record and Dipendra Singh Airee the fastest fifty.

Football: EPL Saturdays and Dashrath Stadium Nights

Football is the clear number two. English Premier League matches on Saturday and Sunday evenings, Manchester United and Liverpool shirts are everywhere in Thamel, and when the national team plays at Dashrath Stadium the atmosphere rivals anything cricket produces. Football also carries scar tissue: a 2015 match-fixing scandal saw national team players, including the captain and goalkeeper, arrested on charges connected to thrown international matches. The case eventually collapsed in court, but it left a permanent mark on how Nepal talks about betting and sport in the same sentence.

Volleyball: the Official National Sport Since 2017

Nepal's national sport is not cricket and not football. According to Himalayan Wiki, volleyball was declared the official national sport in 2017, a nod to a game played in every village and school courtyard across the hills. And yes, you can bet on it. International volleyball markets are standard fare at the offshore books, and domestic tournaments occasionally show up during big events.

The Outsiders: Esports, Kabaddi, Basketball, Tennis

Esports betting is growing fast with Nepal's young, mobile-first internet population, mostly around Dota 2, CS2 and mobile titles. Kabaddi rides its Indian pro league popularity across the border. Basketball and tennis are steady niche markets, the kind of thing people bet on when there's no cricket on, which in fairness isn't often. Furthermore, since there are no skill-based gaming rewards defined in law, I’d wager in a few years we will see mixed solutions.

How Online Betting Actually Works From Nepal in 2026

Nepal runs a national blocking regime through the Nepal Telecommunications Authority, which directs internet service providers to cut access to gambling domains. The NTA also fields public complaints about betting platforms, and it acts on them. The Google Play Store and App Store show no betting apps for Nepali accounts, main sportsbook domains go dark without warning, and the whole ecosystem lives in a cat-and-mouse rhythm of blocked domains and replacement links. A typical bettor's phone setup involves a sportsbook running in the mobile browser or as a sideloaded APK, a digital wallet, and a contact for an agent who tops up betting balances for cash.

The April 2026 Blocking Wave: 7,000 Sites Down

According to Akashvani News, Nepal's new government approved a 100-point governance reform package in a cabinet meeting on March 27, 2026, and one of those points was shutting down betting apps and websites. Within days, the NTA and the ISPs had taken down more than 7,000 of them, with over 50 fresh public complaints arriving in a single week. It's the most aggressive move against online betting in Nepal's history, and it reshaped the market overnight.

Registering at an Offshore Sportsbook: What They Ask For

Registration itself is mundane. Name, date of birth, email, phone number, currency choice. The real gate is verification before your first withdrawal, when the operator asks for a citizenship card or passport photo and sometimes a selfie or proof of address. This is where the name-matching issue from earlier comes back to bite people: if your deposit came from an account under a different name, expect questions, delays, or a frozen balance. Offshore books are lax at the entrance and strict at the exit. Plan for the exit.

Payment Methods for Betting in Nepal

Method Type Betting-site Availability Speed Legal risk
eSewa Mobile wallet Wide at Nepal-facing offshore books, often via agent/gateway Instant Wallet use is legal, but gambling transactions aren’t. Wallets tend to report suspicious flows.
Khalti Mobile wallet Wide Instant Same as eSewa
IME Pay Mobile wallet Moderate Instant Solid backup, remittance-linked user base
ConnectIPS Bank transfer rail Narrow Instant Bank statements are legible to investigations
Visa/Mastercard Card Narrow international gateways often reject these Instant Heavily restricted and connected to banks
Skrill / Neteller International e-wallet Wide Instant Funding them from Nepal is not easy
Crypto (USDT, BTC, etc.) Cryptocurrency Very wide Minutes Illegal in Nepal, more than gambling
Prepaid Vouchers (Payesafecard etc.) Voucher Narrow from Nepal Instant It’s available in Nepal, but offshore sites accepting prepaid vouchers are questionable, so I wouldn't recommend it.

eSewa and Khalti: How the Wallets Meet the Sportsbooks

Nepal's two dominant wallets were never built for betting, and neither company endorses it. What happened is that the betting economy grew around them. Some offshore cashiers list local wallet options through third-party payment processors, and where they don't, the agent system fills the gap. You send wallet money to a middleman, the middleman credits your betting account, and the reverse happens for cashouts. It's fast, and it's everywhere, and it's also the layer where most scams live, because an agent who vanishes with your top-up isn't someone you can report to anyone.

Cards, ConnectIPS, and Why Bank Transfers Are the Worst Option

Nepali cards mostly bounce off gambling merchants, and honestly, that's the kind thing. The unkind thing is a direct bank transfer, which creates a clean, dated, named record of a payment to a gambling operation sitting in a regulated Nepali bank. In a country where betting is a criminal offence, voluntarily generating that evidence trail is a decision I struggle to explain. If a site only offers you bank transfer as a Nepali player, close the tab.

Crypto and USDT: Read This Before You Even Think About It

Cryptocurrency is not a grey area in Nepal. Nepal Rastra Bank has banned trading and transacting in crypto through a series of notices, and according to Notary Nepal, violations fall under the NRB Act 2058, which allows confiscation of the assets, fines up to three times the transaction value, and imprisonment of up to seven years. Compare that to the betting penalty, which tops out at one year and a 10,000 rupee fine. Funding a sportsbook with USDT means stacking the far more serious crypto offence on top of the betting one. Plenty of offshore sites will happily take your Tether. They're not the ones facing a Nepali courtroom. A P2P crypto scene exists in Nepal regardless, as reporting by Khabarhub has documented, but existing and being safe are two different things.

Online Sports Betting Sites Accepting NPR

While some options might linger, generally there are no online sports betting sites that accept players from Nepal and allow making deposits in NPR. Most online sportsbooks that do accept players from Nepal count as online sports betting sites accepting EUR or USD. What you should know in this regard is that in case you deposit at an online sports betting site which does not support your domestic currency, that site will make a currency conversion on your behalf, in some cases for free, in others for a small exchange fee.

Dashain and Tihar

Dashain and Tihar are two Hindu festivals. This is the season when everyone gambles anyway. People play card games like marriage and kitty culture at these festivals. We can view these festivals as the days when legislation is blinking for a day. While this isn’t a one-day ban-lift from gambling sites, at the same time? If you are a gambler who wants to visit Nepal, I definitely recommend visiting from October 11 to October 25 for Dashain and November 7 to November 11 for Tihar. Furthermore, you can visit the Teahouse Parliament, where people argue match predictions on sports. It really feels like stepping into a realm that mimics the online sportsbook news sites.

Responsible Gambling in Nepal

Prohibition means Nepal has no safety net. There is no self-exclusion register, no regulated operator obligated to intervene, no licensed local helpline to call. Agent credit is the accelerant. When your bookie is also your lender, the brakes are gone. What exists instead of a safety net: the operator-side tools at the offshore books themselves, which typically include deposit limits, loss limits, timeout periods and permanent self-exclusion, and they work if you use them before you need them. Internationally, services like GamCare, Gambling Therapy and Gamblers Anonymous offer free support online regardless of where you live. There is, however, one champion in the country: The Nawa Upakar Nepal Sudhar Kendra, which works with gambling addiction rehabilitation programs. They are legally allowed to help you recover. For more information, visit their website or call them at +977 9851195489/ 9843857045.

FAQ

Is Online Sports Betting Legal In Nepal In 2026?

No. Section 125 of the National Criminal Code 2074 prohibits betting outright, online or offline, and the government blocked over 7,000 betting apps and websites in April 2026. No licensed Nepali betting operator exists, and no legalization bill is currently pending in parliament.

Can Nepali Players Still Access Offshore Sportsbooks?

Yes, in practice. International sites licensed in Curaçao and similar jurisdictions accept Nepali registrations, and players reach them despite NTA domain blocking through browser play and alternate links. Doing so remains a criminal offence for the bettor, punishable by up to one year imprisonment.

What Is The Penalty For Betting In Nepal?

Betting carries up to one year imprisonment, a fine up to NPR 10,000, and forfeiture of the staked amount under the Criminal Code. Enforcement mostly targets organizers, agents, and promoters rather than casual bettors, but individual arrests do happen during raids on betting rings.

Can I Deposit With eSewa Or Khalti At Betting Sites?

Some offshore sportsbooks route deposits through local wallets via third-party processors, and cash-to-balance agents fill the gaps elsewhere. Neither eSewa nor Khalti endorses gambling use, and wallet accounts showing gambling patterns can face restrictions. Agent transactions carry a real scam risk with no recourse.

Do Any Sportsbooks Accept Nepali Rupees?

Very few. 1xBET lists NPR among its account currencies, but most sites convert Nepali deposits into USD or EUR balances at the operator's exchange rate. Expect a conversion cost of roughly two to five percent across a full deposit and withdrawal cycle.

Is Betting With Crypto or USDT Safer In Nepal?

No, it's substantially more dangerous legally. Cryptocurrency transactions are banned by Nepal Rastra Bank, and violations carry confiscation, fines up to three times the transaction value, and up to seven years' imprisonment under the NRB Act, far exceeding betting penalties.

What Do Nepalis Bet On The Most?

Cricket dominates completely: the Nepal Premier League, the IPL, and the national team's matches drive the heaviest betting volume. Football follows, led by the English Premier League, then volleyball, Nepal's official national sport since 2017, with esports growing among younger bettors.

Are There Legal Casinos In Nepal?

Yes, but not for locals. Land-based casinos operate legally inside five-star hotels under licences from the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, and the Casino Regulation 2013 restricts play to foreign passport holders. Nepali citizens are barred from gambling in them.

Is Gambling During Dashain Legal?

Festival card games like marriage and kitty occupy a tolerated space. The Criminal Code exempts games approved by the government for public festivals, and family card play during Dashain and Tihar is a deep tradition police rarely touch, though the exemption is narrower than practice suggests.

Will Nepal Legalize Sports Betting?

Nothing suggests it's close. No bill exists, no regulator is being formed, and the April 2026 blocking wave signals the current government is moving toward stricter enforcement, not liberalization. Regional pressure and lost tax revenue keep the debate alive, but for now the answer is no. Nepal is definitely a hard nation to convince, and with the most recent ban on online gambling sites in India, I believe my answer is no for now.