Sports Betting in China

China Sports Lottery: the only legal sports betting channel

If you want to bet on sport in mainland China, the China Sports Lottery is the whole story. Its physical stores are the only regular and legal channel for buying sports lottery tickets in the country, and the only official and legal way to buy football lottery in the mainland². The games are issued and organized by the Sports Lottery Administration Center of the General Administration of Sport, with provincial sports lottery centers selling within their own regions⁷.

A genuine store is easy to spot: it carries clear signage and the China Sports Lottery logo, and displays a China Sports Lottery Sales Agency Certificate issued by the lottery center and bearing its official seal⁸. If a shop does not have that certificate posted prominently, it is not an authorized seller.

The sports betting side of the lottery is called Jingcai (竞彩), fixed-odds betting on real football and basketball matches. For the full picture of those games, see our in-depth page on Jingcai Sports Lottery Betting, which covers every football and basketball game, how the odds work and what each one pays.

Football lottery games and how they work

The football lineup is built around a few core games, all at fixed odds.

Win-draw-win (胜平负) is the basic game. For each match you pick one of three outcomes: home win, draw or away loss. Odds are fixed by the State Sports Lottery Administration Center before sales for each round begin, and the odds at the moment you bet are the ones that decide your payout, no matter how they move later⁹. You can bet a single match or parlay several together; to win a parlay you must get every match in the bet right¹. Betting closes 90 minutes before a match kicks off, and bets on matches already in stoppage time are not accepted⁹.

Half/full-time (半全场) works the same way but asks for two results per match, the half-time and full-time result, giving nine combinations to choose from¹.

Total goals (总进球) asks you to predict how many goals both teams will score combined, with eight options: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 or more. Each ticket has only one winning opportunity and cannot be paid twice¹⁰.

Correct score and 4 goals round out the single-match games. The 4 Goals game also costs CNY 2 per bet and can be multiplied 2 to 99 times¹¹.

Beyond the single-match games there is a long-running pool game: the 14-match football lottery, where you pick outcomes across a full coupon of fixtures. Our page on The 14-Match Football Lottery explains how the coupon is set, how the prize pool is shared and what a winning line looks like.

One rule worth knowing: if a match is postponed and not played within the period the center sets, sales on that match stop and stakes are refunded. If a postponement drags past 36 hours with no new time announced, the match is void and you get your original stake back¹⁰.

Basketball lottery games

Basketball betting mirrors the football setup. The big/small game (大小分) asks whether the total points in a game will be over or under a line, at CNY 2 per bet, with single bets and parlays from 2 to 99 legs. Odds are fixed before each round of sales and locked at the moment you bet¹².

The winning margin game (胜分差) asks you to pick the margin of victory. It supports single-match betting, parlay betting, single selection and multiple selection betting, at CNY 2 per bet with a 2 to 99 times multiplier. It shares a prize pool and adjustment fund with the other China basketball lottery single-match games¹³.

Payout caps for basketball follow the same ladder as football: CNY 100,000 for single-match bets, CNY 200,000 for 2 and 3-leg parlays, CNY 500,000 for 4 and 5-leg parlays, and CNY 1,000,000 for parlays of 6 legs or more¹³.

Lottery draws and instant-win tickets

Alongside match betting, the China Sports Lottery runs draw games and scratch cards.

Super Lotto (大乐透) is the flagship draw. It is drawn every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 21:25, sold per draw period with three periods a week³. A basic bet costs CNY 2, and you can add an additional bet for CNY 1 more. Prizes run from a fixed CNY 5 for ninth prize up to a capped CNY 5,000,000 for the first and second prize per bet. You can enter up to 99 consecutive draws at once³. Of every yuan of sales, 51% goes to prizes, 13% to issuance fees and 36% to the public welfare fund³.

Other draw games on the sports side include 7 Star Lottery, drawn every Tuesday, Friday and Sunday¹⁵.

Fengcai instant tickets are the scratch-card side. You scratch off the covering film, and if a money symbol appears you win that amount, paid on the spot. Denominations range from CNY 1 with 2 winning chances and a CNY 10,000 top prize, up to CNY 20 with 20 winning chances and a CNY 1,000,000 top prize¹⁶.

For the wider draw and scratch-card world, including the welfare lottery's Double Color Ball, see The China Lottery and Scratch Cards in China.

Ticket prices, bet limits and payout caps

Everything in the sports betting games starts at CNY 2 per bet, and premium or discount sales are prohibited: a bet costs CNY 2, full stop¹⁷.

Price: CNY 2

You can multiply any bet 2 to 99 times, and a single ticket can carry up to 10,000 bets, but the total value of one ticket cannot exceed CNY 20,000¹. The same CNY 20,000 ticket ceiling applies to the basketball games¹².

Of the money that goes into the football games, 73% of sales is allocated to prizes, 9% to issuance fees and 18% to the public welfare fund; within the prize fund, 72% pays current prizes and 1% feeds the adjustment fund¹.

Prizes do not wait forever. A winning football ticket is valid for 28 days including the draw date; after that the prize is treated as automatically forfeited and goes to the adjustment fund¹⁷. Winning tickets can be redeemed anywhere within the provincial-level region where the ticket was bought¹⁸. Note also that lottery tickets do not return principal and do not pay interest.

Where to buy: stores, couriers and apps

The physical store is the anchor of the whole system. Beyond dedicated lottery outlets, tickets reach a wide network¹⁶:

• Transport hubs
• Shopping malls and supermarkets
• Convenience stores
• Postal outlets
• Newsstands
• Gas stations
• Street-side sales points

Fengcai instant tickets have their own unusual channel: SF Express. The lottery center signed a cooperation agreement with SF Caicai (Shenzhen) Technology Development Co., Ltd., so Fengcai tickets are sold by SF Express couriers, at SF Best stores, through the SF Express official account and the Fengcai section of the SF Finance app, with home delivery. They launched in Guangdong, Hunan, Jiangxi and Jiangsu, with plans to expand nationwide. Prizes under CNY 1,000 can be claimed yourself by scanning the QR code on the back of the ticket¹⁶.

What about apps? The China Sports Lottery's official online platforms, its WeChat account, app and mini programs, do not offer any sales function⁶. Third-party apps such as 口袋彩票 exist for Android and iOS and cover sports lottery, welfare lottery, Jingcai football and basketball, and a long list of draw games, with purchase, results, group-buy and live-score features¹⁹. But none of these is an authorized sales channel: the lottery administration has never authorized any website, app, mini program or social software to sell sports lottery tickets, and has never cooperated with any company or individual on internet sales². Treat any app that claims to sell official tickets as unofficial at best.

Online football betting is illegal in mainland China

Online football betting in China is a criminal offense, not a gray area. Organizing it, acting as an agent for it, or participating in it can amount to the crimes of opening a gambling house or gambling, with administrative or criminal liability, and money lost to online football betting is not protected by law and cannot be recovered⁴. Any sports lottery sold through the internet is illegal⁶, and unauthorized online lottery sales are firmly prohibited nationwide⁸.

For Chinese citizens, the same law reaches across borders: gambling abroad, gambling online, and providing funds or technical support for gambling all violate the Criminal Law and the Public Security Administration Punishment Law²⁰. In practice, that means offshore betting sites are not a legal option for mainland residents, and winnings and stakes on them have no legal protection. Visitors and foreign residents in the mainland face the same prohibition on online betting while there.

Macau SLOT: football and basketball betting from Macau

Macau has its own legal sports betting operator, and it is not the China Sports Lottery. Macau Slot Co Ltd is the territory's sole authorized sports-betting operator, offering in-person, telephone and online wagering on football and basketball⁵. So a trip to Macau, or an account used from Macau, opens a different and legal route to betting on matches.

Be aware that illegal football betting also circulates in Macau through unlicensed channels, including websites offering electronic games, live dealer games, board and card games, fishing games and Hong Kong Mark Six betting²¹. Only Macau SLOT holds the license.

For the full detail on what Macau SLOT offers, how its football and basketball odds work and what its instant games pay, see our page on Sociedade de Lotarias e Apostas Mútuas de Macau, Lda.: Macau SLOT Football and Basketball Betting.

Hong Kong Jockey Club betting access

Across the border, Hong Kong runs its own separate system. The Hong Kong Jockey Club is the only body authorized by the government there to operate lottery, football and horse betting²², offering horse race betting, football betting and a lottery²³. Football and horse racing are the sports people in Hong Kong can bet on legally²³.

Access is tightly controlled. Stringent controls are enforced at the Club's two racecourses, all Off-Course Betting Branches and its betting websites, and the Club's sites provide access only to the Club's own betting and lottery services²⁴. Mainland residents should note that the Club's online betting is for use within Hong Kong's rules, and using it from the mainland would fall under the mainland's own ban on online betting.

If you are in Hong Kong, our pages on The Hong Kong Jockey Club and HKJC Football Betting cover the odds, bet types and how to place a wager.