Sports Betting Philippines

Best Betting Sites for Filipino Players Rated by Industry Experts 

There’s a lot more to reviewing legit betting sites in the Philippines than just looking at how many sports they have, the average odds they offer across their markets and what welcome offers you can look forward to. That really is just the tip of the iceberg and, to put it bluntly, the easy part. 

The harder part is to know exactly what to look for in betting sites in general and why exactly we’re looking for that in the first place. In other words, why it’s important to your experience at the top betting sites in the Philippines. But even then, that’s not the full story. 

With sports punters in the Philippines having such different betting habits and preferences for such things as payment options compared to punters in say the UK and Australia, the next challenge is to assess how good a particular betting site is for Filipinos, not just any old betting customer.

All of which means that here at AskGamblers you’re in good hands because we’re industry experts who have been doing this for a long time. Combining betting expertise, industry knowledge, hard work and attention to detail, we’re perfectly positioned to advise you on the top online betting sites in the Philippines.  

How We Rate Philippines Betting Sites 

So, what do we look for when it comes to the best online betting sites in the Philippines, and why are we here at AskGamblers perfectly suited to giving you advice on which betting sites to play at?

There are certain major categories that we consider the most important and which will have the greatest influence on your experience at the best sports betting sites in the Philippines. Below, we’ll explain what those are all about and why they should be important to you, as well. 

• Sportsbook’s licence: We’ll look at which betting licences the site holds, as Sportsbooks that hold licences such as that of the UK Gambling Commission, the Malta Gaming Authority, or the Curacao licence accept bettors from the Philippines. We don’t endorse a site that doesn’t hold a valid licence.
• Reputation: We start by looking at how often a site has been flagged up in our Customer Complaints Section, the reasons for the complaints and whether the issue was resolved. Then we look at the player reviews of a particular Sportsbook written by customers themselves, who should know as well as anyone the strengths and weaknesses of a particular sports betting site.
• Security: A top-tier site goes beyond just facilitating the placing of bets; it safeguards your funds and personal details with vital certifications for its protective software, shielding against potential threats from hackers or fraudsters. However good a site is in other areas, if it’s not secure, it’s not worth playing at. 
• Betting bonuses and promotions: Bonuses are a big part of online sports betting. We give extra points to those betting companies who, in addition to giving away genuinely valuable bonuses, do so on a regular basis and come up with original promotions rather than just doing what everyone else is doing. Sportsbooks are penalised in our reviews if the wagering requirements on bonuses are too high. 
• Number of sports/markets: The more sports on offer, the better, because let’s face it: there’s no such thing as there being too many sports or competitions available to bet on. It’s also crucial that the site offers the sports that customers from that country actually want to bet on.
• Payment options: The more payment options that legit online betting sites Philippines have, the better. But just as with the sports above, they need to be popular ones in that particular market rather than having a one-size-fits-all approach irrespective of where their customers are from.
• Betting odds: Serious bettors know that consistently offering odds that are fair or, better still, higher than what they are at the competition is as important as just about anything else.
• Customer support: Sooner or later, you’ll have a query or issue that needs resolving, so you need their Customer Support to be helpful, knowledgeable and easy to deal with. It’s also important that you can reach them in several ways such as phone, e-mail or Live Chat and that they’re available almost round the clock, rather than just a few hours a day.

How to Choose a Top Philippines Betting Site Based on Your Betting Preferences  

We’ll come to the love affair between the Philippines and basketball in a minute but for the time being, suffice to say that this is the nation’s favourite sport by a country mile. So, you’re not going to be considered one of the best betting sites in the Philippines unless you cover all the major basketball competitions that Filipinos want to bet on, including, of course, their own domestic league, the PBA. 

And it’s a similar story when it comes to the betting markets themselves. Take basketball. If it’s betting on different handicap lines at different odds you like, then it’s vital the site always has plenty of them, whereas if it’s player props you enjoy betting on, then the Sportsbook needs to have a good selection of those. 

Or maybe you’re after one of the rare sites that has Bet Builders available on basketball matches. Or maybe you like placing big accumulators and want a Sportsbook that gives odds boosts to them when you have a lot of selections, or a money-back promise if just one of the legs loses. 

The point about all of this is that if you’re going to get the most out of your sports betting site, you need to make sure they cater for your individual needs. Our reviews will give you a good indication of which sports and betting markets they cover, but if your betting preferences are a little bit off the beaten track, it might be best to also have a quick look at the site yourself.   

How Is Sports Betting Regulated in the Philippines   

Betting has been a popular pastime in the Philippines for centuries. There are records of cockfighting and other blood sports going back almost 500 years, while horseracing betting was legalised in the 1930s, with money derived from it used for charitable purposes. 

An important date in the history of betting in the Philippines was 1976, when the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) was founded. 

Long before the days of the internet, it was originally set up to regulate floating casinos and later land-based casinos but when sports betting was legalised in 2012, that came under its remit too, both in land-based operations and online. 

These days, it’s responsible for the issuing of betting licences to land and online casinos and other forms of betting, including online sportsbooks. It helps to control the gambling market as a whole, ensure the transparency of games of chance and sports betting markets, as well as promote responsible gambling and help monitor advertising on it. 

The body controlling advertising in the Philippines is actually the Ad Standards Council (SC), which keeps an eye on adverts to ensure they are fair and truthful as regards what they’re actually promoting. PGACOR is one of the entities that falls under the control of the ASC. 

Then there’s the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority, also known as CEZA. Created in 1995 with the enactment of the Republic Act 7922, it’s responsible for the gambling regulations in the Cagayan Valley Region. It operates alongside PAGCOR and also has the power to issue betting licenses, though for reasons that are hard to understand, a betting company that holds a CEZA license can’t accept Filipino players who reside in the Cagayan Valley Region. 

So, this is where the geography of the country comes into it.  Filipinos who live in the capital of the country, Metro Manila, can gamble at any of the best betting sites in the Philippines they like, whereas those living in the Cagayan Valley Region can only bet with offshore betting companies. 

The latter isn’t a problem from either a legal point of view or from a logistical one, as Filipinos can access foreign betting sites just by using a VPN.  

How Often Do We Add New Philippines Betting Sites? 

As we’ve just seen, Filipinos are free to play at any sports betting site they like, with that notable exception.

However, that’s not to say that any betting site accepting Filipinos as customers will automatically be added to our list of recommended sites. 

For starters, whether the site is licensed in the Philippines or elsewhere, it needs to be properly licensed. The importance of this is that the site needs someone checking their activities when it comes to such things as the fairness of their betting markets, the safety and security of the site and that they have practices in place to stop such things as underage gambling or money laundering.

If the site didn’t answer to a higher body that issues the licence and can also revoke it, you as a customer wouldn’t have any protection if something went wrong, such as them refusing to pay out your winnings.  

Once that licence hurdle has been cleared, we then review the site in the meticulous way detailed above. If we’re happy with what we’re seeing, then yes, we’ll add it to our list of recommended sites. 

Exactly how often this happens depends on the frequency with which new sites accept Filipino customers and the quality of the top betting sites in the Philippines themselves. 

Most Popular Payment Options for Sports Betting in the Philippines 

The best sports betting sites in the Philippines look to offer as many payment options as they can to give customers as much choice as possible when it comes to getting their money in and out:

• Skrill: Once known as Moneybookers, Skrill has emerged as a preferred e-wallet option embraced by online betting enthusiasts worldwide, including the Filipino community.
• MasterCard: As a prominent issuer of credit and debit cards, Mastercard stands out as a reliable and user-friendly funding option embraced by top-tier betting platforms in the Philippines.
• Neteller: Neteller’s popularity has been on the up among Filipino online betting enthusiasts due to its advanced encryption technology, which ensures secure transactions and protects user privacy.
• Visa: Much like Mastercard, Visa stands as a globally acknowledged provider of credit and debit cards.
• Paytm: Popular due to near-instantaneous deposits, Paytm imposes no fees for both depositing and withdrawing funds.
• Gcash: Gcash has recently emerged as a prime method for transferring funds and cashing out winnings on major betting platforms.

Most Popular Sports Betting Competitions and Sports in the Philippines 

We’re not sure we’ve come across a country before where basketball is both the most popular sport to watch and bet on. That’s certainly the case here in the Philippines, but then again, it’s not the only sport that’s popular to bet on. 

Basketball

According to photographer Dave Carswell, who has photographed Filipinos playing basketball on the streets and ready-made courts for years: “Basketball is a pivotal part of Filipino culture and is on par with religion as one of the few cultural hallmarks to transcend socio-economic status. On a national level, I would say there is no other country in the world that has such an obsession with basketball like the Philippines.”

So perhaps it’s no surprise that their national basketball league, the PBA, is the oldest in Asia and the second-longest running league in the world behind only the USA’s NBA. Those two are predictably the most popular leagues to bet on, though the national team’s matches and basketball at the Olympics also see a lot of money bet on them. 

Boxing/MMA

For over two decades, Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao, now a politician in his homeland, was one of the world’s best fighters across numerous weight divisions and the sporting darling of the Filipino people. Mixed martial arts (MMA) and, in particular, the UFC are other fighting sports that are much loved for betting on, with small fortunes wagered on the biggest UFC fights. 

Esports 

Esports are extremely popular to play, watch and bet on throughout most of Asia and the Philippines are no exception. Favourite games to wager on include Dota 2, League of Legends, FIFA and CS 2, while the greater availability of live streaming of the events, sometimes via the actual betting sites in the Philippines, has further increased the appeal.

Football

It’s rare that we talk about the favourite sports to bet on in a particular country and don’t include football on the list. Though it does make the list, it’s not the leader like it is in lots of other countries, and in this case, it is light years behind basketball, as we’ve already seen. The Premier League and La Liga are the two most popular leagues to bet on in addition to the Champions League, Europa League and their domestic league, the simply named Philippines Football League.

Future of Online Sports Betting Sites in the Philippines 

One of the things we didn’t mention is that PAGCOR isn’t just a regulatory body; it’s also involved in the day-to-day running of numerous land casinos and has a greater involvement in the day-to-day operations of gambling organisations than the equivalent of it in other countries. But not for long. It’s vowed to step away from this side of things in the near future and act solely as a regulatory body, though admittedly, this has greater relevance to land casinos than sports betting sites. 

One thing that may change is the levels of taxation that betting sites licensed in the Philippines will pay in the future, as the Filipino government felt its targets in this regard hadn’t been met over the past few years. Not that this is something you, as a Philippines-based betting customer, should be worrying too much about. 

Online betting may evolve here in areas like more sites offering the use of cryptocurrencies and customers buying into that, whereas it would also be nice to see promotions that are a little more tailor-made for Filipinos. 

But the country has so far done an extremely good job of regulating online sports betting, penalising anyone found guilty of accepting underage gamblers or operators encouraging players with gambling problems to carry on being active. Stepping away from the operations side of things should allow PAGCOR to focus even more on this side of things. 

Finally, whether CEZA changes its policy of not allowing players from the Cagayan Valley Region to bet at sites they license themselves remains to be seen.