A guide to the ins and outs of wagering on sports behind the former Iron Curtain. By Marko Mitevski

Sports betting has expanded globally in recent years, but this industry has been widely present in Eastern Europe since the late 1990s. Usually, this region is way behind world trends, but when it comes to sports betting, you will probably find the largest so-called betting experts per capita in the world.

There are many reasons for that, and it has a lot to do with economics and culture. This region had many geopolitical turbulences in recent decades, which resulted
in poverty, inflation, corruption and unemployment. Sports betting has opened many jobs in this region and, at the same time, given people hope that they can win money quickly and easily.

This process started quietly in the late 1990s, and today there are bookmakers at every corner. The bookmaker companies in countries like North Macedonia are among the top 10 in annual profits considering every industry.

In most of the countries in Eastern Europe, online betting organized by foreign companies is prohibited by law, so the vast majority of the money from sports betting stays there. That has made these companies gather huge capital and power. For instance, basketball clubs Red Star and Partizan from Serbia are both sponsored by betting companies that are added to the teams’ names. Just to give a perspective of how big these clubs are, Partizan has an average attendance of 19,916 fans in their home games in the EuroLeague, which is significantly more than 18,324 in the NBA in the 2023-24 season.

There is a huge competition in the market, and some of the bookmakers have brought in sports legends like Ronaldinho or Gabriel Batistuta for local advertising.
However, enough with that, let’s get into the real betting culture in this region. The biggest difference between sports betting in this region and the U.S. is the fact that in Eastern Europe, online betting almost does not exist.

Yes, you can place a bet on worldwide bookies from some of these countries, but accepting the winnings to your account in a local bank can put you in legal trouble.
So, if you want to place a bet, you will need to visit a bookmaker site, and they are literally everywhere. You cannot go to the market, bus station, or pick your kid from school without passing by one of these sites. They usually operate by midnight, and on game days you may even have to wait in line to place your bet.
Around 75 percent of the male population in Eastern Europe is betting occasionally or regularly, so sports betting is one of the most common topics people are talking about. You can have a law degree, be an artist and work out every day, still, you will most likely hear about sports betting on a daily basis.

The bookmakers in this region follow the trends when it comes to the events you can bet on. Soccer is the main sport, but you can also place a bet on any sport in the U.S. professional leagues, tennis, volleyball, you name it. However, no sporting event comes even close to the popularity of betting on soccer. Most of the pundits in this region would rather bet on a soccer game from the Finnish Third Division that they cannot even watch on TV than on an NBA game, the Super Bowl or the World Series.
Soccer is a religion here. So if you know who got injured in the last game in Australia, if the team in Belarus did not get paid on time this month or if your cousin knows a man who went to school with a domestic player who now plays in the German fifth division, you are the man. These are hot takes that make you stand out among other sports experts in this region.

The events you can bet on can be found on the bookmakers’ websites, but there are many pundits who prefer the old-fashioned way of spending hours going through the printed version of the games, looking for the right bets.

Unlike the U.S., most of the pundits in Eastern Europe are betting on parlays instead of single bets. One of the reasons for that is the buying power of the population. Most of the pundits are not able to place a wager higher than a couple of bucks, so in order to win a significant amount, many are putting 10 or more games on their bet. At the end of the day, it is just for fun, right?

However, sometimes the fun part goes away as the betting industry has a huge impact on society. At the beginning of the expansion in the late 1990s and early 2000s, even juveniles could have placed a bet. Today it is regulated that no person under 18 can enter a betting site, but kids always find a way. Don’t be surprised if on your way out of one of these places, you are stopped by a kid who kindly asks you to place a bet for him. This problem has gone so far that there are organizations that demand law amendments that would prohibit betting sites from being located closer than 500 yards from a school.

Another issue that not many are talking about is fixing games. There are many team owners with a suspicious background, players with low salaries and corrupted institutions, which makes this region an ideal place for fixing games.

If you ever travel in this part of the world, there is no way you will miss a booking site, and it is up to you if you would try your luck.

*** This article was originally published in March 2025 edition of Sports Betting Operator Issue 015 Volume 007***