Top 5 Best Betting Sites in Turkey

Which are the leading online betting sites in Turkey?

Take a look at our table with the best online bookmakers for Turkey.

Introduction

While Turkey is officially a secular state, most of its citizens are Sunni Muslims with strongly held religious beliefs. In recent years, the government of the country has been steadily leaning more towards following Islamic (or Sharia) law. This has led to the country cracking down on all forms of gambling, which is viewed as Haram (forbidden) by the Qu’ran.

Officially, there are just nine “casinos” in the whole of Turkey, despite it being a nation of close to ninety million inhabitants. Unofficially, even this is misleading. These so-called casinos are, in fact, nothing more than bookmaker shops. They simply offer limited sports betting and a place to buy tickets for the official state lottery.

Top online betting websites in Turkey

Take a look at our top recommended betting websites for Turkish customers:

Visit 1xBet

Visit 22Bet

Visit BetWinner

Competition between Operators

The government monopoly and a low number of alternatives give all of these companies little reason to compete too heavily with each other. They are all taking a major risk by being in the country in the first place, after all. Despite this, 1xBet, 22bet, and BetWinner all offer sign-up bonuses as well as offering free bets to their regular customers.

Promotions such as these are generally not offered by the IDDAA because they are incompatible with the teachings of the religion. Whilst some things can be said to be open to interpretation. However, the whole concept of a bonus is particularly problematic for believers.

For those who do wish to gamble, there is no question that the international betting sites listed above offer a better deal than the IDDAA. Ascertaining which offers the best value of the three is a little more difficult to do without proper access to their websites.

Available Payment Methods

If you wish to place bets with any operator other than the state-controlled IDDAA, you need to be very careful about how you choose to deposit and withdraw. The Turkish Government actively pursues and prosecutes both individuals and banking companies that facilitate illegal online gambling.

A nationwide Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) has been set up to oversee and block transactions to and from international betting sites. This makes bank transfers and debit/credit card payments all but impossible, but some other options do exist.

The largest e-wallets Skrill and NETELLER, do not currently accept Turkish customers. However, WebMoney, ecoPayz, and Jeton are all still available at present. Prepaid cards, including Paysafecard, are an ideal option for depositing. But withdrawing using these cards can sometimes be problematic.

Mobile Betting in Turkey

Smartphone betting is available via both the IDDAA controlled sites as well as 1xBet, 22bet, and BetWinner. This is one area in which Turkey does not currently lag behind other countries. Sports betting is particularly well served for Turkish bettors, although this is not the result of any particular effort on the part of the IDDAA or the international gaming sites.

Adobe’s Flash Software was officially dropped from the internet in December 2020, which forced a hard deadline on all providers of online gambling software by which they needed to update their software platforms. This forced all websites that used streaming video or interactive content to update their services or risk having their services become inaccessible.

Additionally, more than 60% of all internet access is now performed using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Desktop computers and laptops are fast becoming the preserve of enthusiasts and businesses. So it makes little sense for any company offering a recreational activity via the internet to fail to update their software so that it functions properly for users of these devices.

Leading Sports for Betting in Turkey

• Football
  Football remains the most popular sport amongst Turkish gamblers. This is unsurprising as the sport is wildly popular throughout the country. The country is home to several world-class teams, including Be?ikta?, Fenerbah?e, and Galatasaray. They all play in the nations own elite Süper Lig as well as being regular competitors in top European competitions such as the Champions League and the UEFA Europa League.
• Basketball
  Basketball is another hugely common target for Turkish bettors, as the country’s second most popular team sport. The country has its own Basketball Super League (BSL) with 16 teams and is one of the few leagues outside of the USA where the NBA regularly scouts for up-and-coming talent. Turkish Basketball is even popular with bettors in other countries, too. Live streams of the games can be found on some of the largest international bookmakers far outside of Turkish borders, a true testament to the high quality of Basketball played within the country.
• Volleyball
  Volleyball is a niche sport in some countries but is a common recreational activity amongst many Turks and throughout much of the Middle East in general. The domestic Efe League sees lots of betting activity, and the individual teams have been very successful in Europe-wide Volleyball competitions. Unfortunately for Turkey, their National team has not been so lucky.
• Horse Racing
  Horse Racing is popular with gamblers around the world, and Turkey is no different. Betting on horse racing has been allowed in the country for some time, with track-side bets being legal as far back as 1953. Whilst the Turkish Derby doesn’t quite attract the same level of interest as the British Grand National or Cheltenham meets, prize money usually exceeds the $400,000 mark.

The profile of a Turkish bettor

An interesting question regarding Turkish Bettors might be, who is the primary market? Is it primarily ex-pats, or are there a large number of non-practising Muslims also taking part as well? Online gambling is illegal in large parts of the USA, but the risks associated with participating in the practice are low. Few prosecutions have resulted from US online gambling, despite the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and the theoretical risks and penalties associated with doing so.

This is not the case in Turkey. The threat of prosecution for breaking gambling-related laws is very real in Turkey, particularly for businesses and financial institutions that are assisting players with making bets.

What is clear is that the majority of Turkish Bettors are participating in the activity via the state-sanctioned IDDAA despite the poor odds and lack of promotions and other incentives. The winds of change do regularly blow in Turkey, though, so perhaps things could improve if the country begins to move back towards its secular heritage at any time in the future.

FAQ

Our Verdict

Sports betting in Turkey is highly regulated, and the state-controlled monopoly makes it very difficult to regularly make a profit if you want to stay on the right side of the law. As the first country in the world to prosecute individual players for participating in unregulated online betting, it is very difficult to recommend getting involved in online gambling unless you are extremely proficient in using VPN software and purchasing and trading cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

Turkish citizens who still wish to get involved in sports betting should be sure to use only the state-owned sports betting sites operated by the IDDAA unless they are comfortable with the possibility of being prosecuted and served a penalty of up to $700.