Sports Betting in Macau

What sports betting is legal in Macau

Football and basketball are the only sports lottery betting in Macau¹, run by a single concessionaire, Macau SLOT. There is no open market of competing bookmakers, no licensed betting shops run by casino companies, and no legal wagering on tennis, golf, baseball, esports or anything else. If you want to bet on a match legally in Macau, you do it through the one concessionaire.

That concessionaire covers matches organized by international, national or regional leagues, associations or federations, and only competitions the gaming regulator, the DICJ, has approved³. So while the sports on offer are narrow, the range of matches within them is wide: leagues from around the world are selected, with odds and handicaps set for customers to bet on⁶.

For the wider picture of what you can and cannot gamble on in the city, see gambling in Macau. If your interest is casino games rather than sports, the casinos in Macau page covers the resort floors, and casino games in Macau explains what is on the tables.

The concessionaire: SLOT and Macau Lottery Limited

The sports lottery concession belongs to Sociedade de Lotarias e Apostas Mútuas de Macau, Lda., universally known as Macau SLOT, a franchise concession company of the Macau SAR government operating sports betting lotteries⁷. Its betting arm is Macau Lottery Limited, which selects leagues from around the world and sets the odds and handicaps for customers to bet on⁶. Macau SLOT remains the only operator authorized to offer football and basketball betting and instant lottery products in the territory, and its concession has been renewed year by year².

Macau SLOT operates soccer and basketball lotteries, providing handicap-goal and odds betting, and accepts bets on selected matches drawn from important league and cup competitions⁸. Over the years it has added products such as the self-selected 2-in-3 combination bet and first goalscorer betting⁹.

The company runs a network of betting centers across the city. It has operated 14 betting centers in Macau, where customers can bet at counters, by telephone or via the internet¹⁰. Many of these are slot lounges and betting outlets attached to or near the big casino resorts, so you will usually pass one somewhere on a casino strip. For the full story of the operator, its football and basketball products and its instant lottery games, see the in-depth page on Macau SLOT football and basketball betting.

Football betting: markets and how odds work

Football betting is based only on the results and data of matches organized by international, national or regional football leagues, associations or federations, and licensed by the DICJ³. Within that scope, the menu of markets is broader than many visitors expect.

Pre-match, the standard markets include³:

• Win/draw/win, the classic 1X2 result bet
• Asian handicap
• Over/under total goals
• Correct scores and correct scores special
• Half/full time result
• Total goals, odd/even, and which half has more goals
• Goals scored by team, first team to score, first goalscorer
• Corners handicap and corners over/under

Live, in-play betting is limited to five markets: Asian handicap, over/under, next goal, corners handicap and corners over/under³. Alongside single-match betting there are accumulator bets on tournament outcomes, including outright winner, qualifying team, group forecast, golden boot award, group winner and the two finalists³. Bets can be singles, picking one option, or parlays combining two or more options into a chain bet³.

Odds are set by the concessionaire and can move during the acceptance period, but once your bet is accepted, the odds at that moment become fixed for your bet, and your prize is the stake multiplied by those fixed odds¹¹. The same principle applies across the sports lottery: each bet is paid at the odds registered when the bet was placed¹². So a price you see on the board in the morning may not be the price you get at kickoff if you wait, but the price you accept is locked in.

Winnings must be collected within 30 days of the official announcement of results, or the right to them is lost¹³.

Basketball lottery betting

Basketball betting follows the same concession structure. The regulations apply only to betting based on the results of championships or cup competitions organized by international, national or regional basketball associations and permitted by the DICJ¹³.

There are two core bet types: the single match bet, where you pick the winning team of a designated match, with a handicap system that may apply, and the outright bet, where you pick the winning team of a championship, cup or league¹². Bets can be singles or parlays, and parlays can combine options within one match or across matches¹³.

The handicap system starts at zero and moves in half-point increments, set in advance by the concessionaire. If the result is a draw under the handicap, or an over/under bet exactly equals the preset total, stakes are refunded in full¹³. First half and full game bets are accepted until kickoff; second half bets are accepted from the end of the first half until the second half begins, and anything after those cutoffs is void¹³.

If a match is interrupted for more than 24 hours past its scheduled start, or canceled, single bets on it are void and stakes refunded in full. Parlays that include the void match remain valid, with that leg counted as a winner at odds of "1", meaning the rest of your combination carries on¹³. Winnings equal the stake multiplied by the fixed odds at registration, stake included, settled in MOP or HKD in the currency used when the bet was accepted¹³.

Horse racing: the end of the concession

For decades, horse racing was the third pillar of Macau betting, alongside football and basketball. The Macau Jockey Club offered day, dusk and night race meetings¹⁴, and bettors could wager at the track, at 13 off-course betting centers, by telephone and over the internet¹⁰. In the 2004/05 season the club held, generally two meetings a week¹⁰:

That era is over. The Macau Horse Race Company asked the government in 2023 to terminate its concession, citing operational difficulties and the inability of horse racing to meet the current development needs of society, and noting that racing's appeal to local residents and tourists had been declining for years⁵. The concession was terminated by mutual agreement, and horse racing activities ceased from April 1, 2024⁵. There is no racing to bet on in Macau today.

Two cross-border points are worth knowing if you are combining a Macau trip with Hong Kong. Hong Kong never permitted a two-way betting arrangement with Macau and had no plan to allow betting in Hong Kong on Macau races¹⁵, and betting in Hong Kong with the Macau Jockey Club's off-course branches was a criminal offense under Hong Kong's Gambling Ordinance¹⁶. The full history of the track, its race days and its betting operation is on the horse racing in Macau page.

How to place a bet: channels and minimum age

Football betting regulations set out three channels: at the concessionaire's betting centers, via the concessionaire's telephone system, and via the concessionaire's official website³. Basketball betting offers the same three: cash betting at centers open to the public, telephone betting, and the operator's official internet site¹³. Bets are taken in MOP or HKD; betting in other currencies requires prior approval from the DICJ¹³.

The legal age for betting on football and basketball in Macau is 18⁴. This is worth noting because it differs from the casino floor: people under 21 are banned from entering casinos in Macau, but the age for legal participation in betting on horse racing, football and basketball has remained 18¹⁷. An 18-year-old can legally bet on a match but cannot walk onto a casino floor. The details of who may enter what are on the casino entry rules page.

If you are arriving from Hong Kong, SJM Resorts runs a customer service counter at Shop 329, Shun Tak Centre, 200 Connaught Road Central, Sheung Wan, next to the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal and opposite the TurboJET ticket office near the West Bridge entrance. It is open daily from 9:00 to 22:00, reachable at (852) 3690 2388 during opening hours, and handles ferry ticket handover, membership registration and general guidance¹⁸.

Offshore betting sites and the gray area

No online gaming of any kind has been approved in Macau beyond the concessionaire's own website, and offshore platforms and their equipment are not located in Macau, so the territory has no jurisdiction over them¹⁹. In practice, this means the only legal online sportsbook in Macau is Macau SLOT's official site, covering football and basketball.

Offshore sites licensed in places like Curacao, the Philippines or the Isle of Man serve much of Asia²⁰, and some visitors use them anyway. Two things are worth knowing before you do. First, such sites hold no Macau license, so you have no local recourse if a dispute arises. Second, mainland Chinese law is actively enforced against gambling websites that recruit mainland citizens as members²¹, which matters if you are a mainland resident or traveling on a mainland document. The practical risk for a visitor betting on a phone in a hotel room is low, but the legal footing is genuinely gray rather than permitted. For the wider picture of unlicensed sites, see online gambling in Macau.

Reading the odds: decimal and American formats

Macau SLOT publishes its odds at betting centers and on its official website, with local Macao date and time¹³. Like most Asian operators, it works in decimal odds. Decimal odds show your total return per unit staked: multiply the stake by the decimal odds, and the result includes your original stake. A $1 bet at 6.0 odds returns $6, of which $5 is profit²².

If you are used to offshore sites, you may see other formats. American odds use plus and minus signs based on a $100 wager: a minus number shows how much you need to bet to win $100 and marks the favorite, while a plus number shows what you would win on a $100 bet and marks the underdog²³. So -150 means you wager $150 to win $100, and +150 means a $100 bet wins you $150. At +/-100, even odds, a $100 bet wins $100²³.

Most international sportsbooks let you switch formats in settings. Decimal, American and fractional are the common trio²⁴, and some sites offer additional formats including Hong Kong, Malaysian and Indonesian odds²⁵. If you are comparing a price on Macau SLOT's board against an offshore site, make sure both are in the same format before you judge which is better.