At the southern tip of Africa, there is a small country sandwiched between South Africa and Mozambique—Eswatini (formerly Swaziland). Recently, due to the explosive growth of online gambling, it has become a new focus of industry attention.
Although the national population is only 1.22 million, it is rapidly moving beyond the limitations of a "small country size."
🧭 How hot is the market? A 75% surge in one year
According to official data, the number of registered users of online gambling in Eswatini jumped from 220,000 to 385,000 between 2023 and 2024, an increase of 75% year-over-year.
The number of active players increased from 60,000 to 73,000. In other words, one in every four people in the country has registered on an online gambling platform.
In 2025, the parliament approved the legalization and regulation of online gambling, preparing to establish an independent licensing and review mechanism.
According to the new regulations, the license fee for online casinos is set at 1 million euros, corporate income tax at 25%, and withholding tax for non-residents at 15%. Although the license price is not cheap, it is still considered an "entry-level ticket" compared to South Africa's application threshold of millions of euros.
Looking at the player profile, almost all online gambling users in Eswatini are young people aged 18 to 35. They are familiar with mobile operations, and most of them place bets through mobile devices.
In popular game types, football betting remains the king—Premier League, Champions League, and Africa Cup are all traffic leaders. Followed by slot machines, live dealers, and roulette-type online casino games.
Interestingly, more and more female users are entering this market, especially favoring mobile mini-games and light slot machines.
💡 Who is leading the market?
Currently, online gambling in Eswatini is dominated by four core brands:
MulaSport: Both sports and casino lines, high digitalization;
eBet: Known for the "Responsible Gambling Alliance" in cooperation with the government and community organizations;
8Bet: Mobile force, focusing on lightweight experience;
DiskiBet: Specializes in sports live interaction.
Local operators currently hold about 60% to 70% of the market share.
🏦 How to enter this market?
For overseas operators looking to enter, Eswatini is a typical "light start, high growth" market.
Similar to other African markets, you can start with sports-related lead generation products, as well as light slot machines: such as Crash-type #airplane games—these contents have strong dissemination and fast social fission.
Additionally, solving payment issues is crucial. If electronic transfers and instant payments can be implemented, introducing cryptocurrency payments and real-time withdrawal mechanisms would be ideal, which is very attractive to young African players.
The player community in Eswatini is extremely sensitive to "trust"—a combination of local customer service + mobile payment wins more loyalty than advertising.
The Eswatini market may not be the largest, but it is becoming the "grey diamond market" of the African gambling industry. Young players, policy shifts—all signals are telling us: "Now is the right time to enter."
————
This is the only gambling industry knowledge channel on TG, aimed at elite executives in the gambling industry. Produced by "Global iGaming Leaders - PASA". Deep content on the past, present, and future of the gambling industry is published daily.
This content is exclusively created by https://t.me/gamblingdeep. If you like our content, feel free to share it.
Free data report: @pasa_research
Join the member group: @pasa002_bot
PASA official website: www.pasa.news
