Colombia is a country with 50 million people that are very passionate about sports. Therefore, it’s no surprise that Colombians are big into sports betting.
Like many South American countries, they particularly love to wager on football (soccer). They also have a few other favorites when it comes to gambling.
One problem with gambling at Colombia betting sites, though, is that their laws have changed greatly within the last few years. They now feature regulated internet gambling mixed with some offshore operators.
We’re going to discuss these recent law changes along with everything else you should know regarding Colombian betting websites.
This country shares the world’s passion for football. In fact, over three million Colombians play some organized form of football.
Many residents of this country have get-togethers that revolve around watching big matches, and they especially get excited when the Colombian national team plays on the big stage in the Copa America and World Cup.
Given Colombia’s love of football, they bet on this game far more heavily than anything else. And because Colombian betting sites draw a significant portion of their revenue from football, they offer a wide range of lines centered on this sport.
However, betting in Colombia also involves a number of other games. Cycling is arguably the nation’s second-biggest sport. Their fascination with cycling stems from the success of elite riders like Martin Emilio “Cochise” Rodriguez, Nairo Quintana, Fernando Gaviria, and Esteban Chaves.
Other popular sports in the country include boxing, mixed martial arts, and baseball. While these are all secondary to football and cycling, they still draw plenty of gambling action.
Colombians can look forward to using a wide variety of options when depositing at online sportsbooks. For starters, they have access to Visa and Mastercard, which are the two most popular credit card brands in the gambling industry.
They can also use popular e-wallets like Neteller, Skrill, and Skrill 1-Tap. Some Colombian sportsbooks also accept PayPal, although not to as large a degree as the other deposit methods mentioned.
Prepaid cards are yet another route for Colombians to fund their accounts. AstroPay and Paysafecard are two such prepaid cards that some online Colombian sportsbooks accept.
ACH (eChecks) offers one more way to enjoy betting online in Colombia. This option allows gamblers to send funds directly to and from a bank account.
Although online sports betting was once a grey area in this country, the eGaming Act of 2016 cleared up many questions regarding the matter.
The eGaming Act officially legalizes most forms of online gambling including sports betting, casino games, poker, and daily fantasy sports. The catch, though, is that all operators in the market are required to be licensed.
This is a major departure from previous times when offshore sportsbooks commonly served Colombia. Now, the market is mostly made up of licensed and regulated bookmakers.
Coljuegos, which enforces Colombia gambling laws, has cracked down on offshore operators. They issued threats to prosecute such bookmakers in 2013. While these threats never came to fruition due to various complications, they showed how serious Colombia has gotten about the matter.
Coljuegos has, however, carried through on a promise to ban offshore operations. They’ve blocked 325 domain names from unregulated bookmakers to date.
While this move hasn’t completely prevented offshore sites from serving Colombians, it has prevented a significant amount of unregulated gambling.
Colombia betting sites that do obtain licensing are subject to taxes and rules that are outlined in the eGaming Act. They must pay a 15% tax on gross betting revenue along with up to a 1% administration fee to Coljuegos.
The best way to get started betting online in Colombia is to research the various sites that are available. You want to look at multiple aspects during this process, including available markets, bet types, promotions, customer service, and overall reputation.
Feel free to browse the sites that we’ve listed at the top of this page. We’ve thoroughly vetted these sportsbooks to find the best Colombian betting sites that excel in several aspects, including reliability and available betting options.
Although some residents are still gambling at offshore sportsbooks, they must now use a virtual private network (VPN) to get around the current Colombia gambling laws.
Once you find a bookmaker that you like, the next step is to review their Colombia deposit methods and choose one that you can use. Credit cards, debit cards, e-wallets, prepaid cards, and eChecks are all available.
You shouldn’t have much trouble making a deposit once you pick an option. Bookmakers do their best to make this process as simple as possible.
If you do have trouble, though, you can contact customer support and have them walk you through the steps. You might also consult the FAQ section to see if it covers various issues with the Colombia deposit methods available on your betting site of choice.
No. One of the best things about Colombia betting websites is that you don’t have to pay any taxes on your profits.
The way the country sees it, operators are covering taxes for the entire market. They currently pay a 15% rate on their gross revenue, along with up to an additional 1% for Coljuegos administration fees.
Considering the lack of taxes on winnings, Colombia makes an excellent place to live if you’re a successful bettor. Everything you earn is pure profit, with no taxes coming out in the aftermath.
You can technically still bet at offshore sportsbooks. But Coljuegos has taken measures to prevent this from happening.
They’ve blocked domain names from 325 operators and have plans to continue adding to this list. Their goal is to make sure that all of the Colombia betting websites have a license.
The main way you can get around these restrictions is by using a virtual private network (VPN), which masks your IP address. You can therefore be in Colombia, yet appear to be in whatever country your phony IP address is operating from.
However, this country offers several licensed online sportsbooks that may meet your needs. You might start by considering these before going the VPN route.
A big reason why some Colombians are using VPNs to gamble at offshore sportsbooks is because they’re not satisfied with the legal options.
Colombia only offers several regulated internet bookmakers. Contrast this to the hundreds of options they used to have when the country was a grey market.
Offshore sportsbooks typically have access to much larger pools of players. Therefore, they can afford to feature better odds, lines, promotions, and market selection than the average Colombian site.
Of course, Coljuegos is fully aware that their market could use more options. They plan on legalizing more online betting sites in the future. With 50 million residents, they have the capacity to support more bookmakers than what’s currently available.
You must weigh several factors when deciding the best Colombia deposit methods. These aspects include transaction times, acceptance rates, fees, and whether a banking method can be used for both deposits and withdrawals.
Visa and Mastercard are by far the most popular ways to fund accounts when betting in Colombia. These cards offer instant funding when approved, allowing you to quickly place bets. But they also reject gamblers’ deposits at a high rate and charge bigger fees than most other banking options.
Neteller and Skrill are reliable e-wallets that allow players to move funds from a linked bank account. Each of these options features a higher acceptance rate than credit and debit cards. However, drawbacks include high fees and delayed approval on deposits.
EChecks are very attractive from the perspective that they don’t require fees. The only problem is that they force one to enter their banking account details online, which may bother some bettors.
You can see that there’s no universal answer on the top deposit method. Instead, you need to make a personal choice based on what you value most.
Your credit and debit card deposits should theoretically go through when betting online in Colombia. However, your transactions may be blocked for one or more reasons.
Visa and Mastercard are very cautious with regard to internet gambling. Even when serving perfectly legal markets, they sometimes reject deposits. You can’t take it personally when this happens.
You can either try contacting the credit card company’s support if you run into issues or simply use a different method to fund your account.
Placing bets in Colombia is safer than it’s ever been. The eGaming Act has paved the way for a regulated environment that includes oversight from Coljuegos. The latter is important because Coljuegos has government backing and can provide certain protections for players.
Betting with offshore sites through a VPN is a riskier venture. After all, you’re dealing with unregulated sites that could rip you off with no recourse.
However, Colombians who use VPNs take the same risks as grey markets who don’t. Going further, many countries are perfectly fine betting with offshore operations that have a long history of success and a good reputation.
