Betting apps, and why you cannot just download one

Why there is no app in your store

Google publishes a list of countries where real money gambling apps are allowed on Play. Somalia is not on it. Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania are, which is why a Somali reader in Nairobi has a completely different experience to one in Mogadishu (Google Play country allowances).

Apple is stricter still. App Store rule 5.3.4 requires a real money gambling app to hold a licence in every location where it is used and to be geo-restricted to those locations (App Store Review Guidelines). Somalia licenses nobody, so no compliant listing can include it. iOS also has no sideloading outside a few regulated markets, and Somalia is not one.

The practical result is simple. On Android you install a file downloaded from the operator site. On iPhone you use the mobile site, and you should stop looking for an app that cannot legally exist for you.

Installing an APK without breaking your phone

An APK is an Android install file. Downloading one from an operator site is normal for this industry, but it removes the checks Google would otherwise run, so the burden moves to you.

1. Type the operator address into the browser yourself, or use the link on our review page. Never install an APK sent to you on WhatsApp, Telegram or Facebook, however genuine the sender looks.
2. Android will warn you about installing from an unknown source. That warning is correct. Grant the permission to your browser only, and turn it off again afterwards.
3. Check the app opens to the operator's real login screen and that the address it loads matches the site you downloaded it from.
4. Updates will not come through Play. The app will prompt you itself, and you should let it, because old builds break when the operator changes its payment flow.

On iPhone, use the browser and add it to your home screen

Every operator here runs a mobile site that works in Safari. Open it, tap the share icon, then choose Add to Home Screen. You get an icon that launches full screen with no browser chrome, which is close enough to an app that most people stop noticing the difference. It costs no storage and it cannot be an impostor build.

If you are in the diaspora, this changes

Play permits gambling apps in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and across most of Europe. If your Play account is registered in one of those countries you may find licensed operators listed normally. That does not mean the operators on this list will appear, because they hold Curacao and Anjouan licences rather than local ones. Betway, Parimatch and Bet9ja are the three here most likely to show up in a store, and only in the markets where they are licensed.

Our page for Somalis abroad covers which of these operators will accept your registration in the first place, which is the question that comes before the app.