Ethiopia is preparing to rebuild its sports betting and digital lottery industry using a technology-driven regulatory system, according to an investigation by Fana Broadcasting Corporate (FBC). The report says licensed operators accumulated an estimated 27.5 billion birr in unpaid government obligations during a period when betting transactions grew rapidly.

Fana’s investigation, citing a draft audit of the sector, found that licensed operators circulated about 199 billion birr between July 2022 and December 2025, but remitted only a fraction of the commissions assessed by the government. Across the period, the government said approximately 30 billion birr in commissions were due.

However, only 3.6 billion birr was paid, meaning operators remitted roughly 12% of the commissions assessed and left about 9 out of every 10 birr unpaid. The 27.5 billion birr figure includes unpaid commissions as well as penalties, license renewal charges, and registration fees.

Fana notes that the figures are based on a draft audit and remain subject to completion of the audit process and later legal recovery actions. The report also found that Dash Betting alone accounts for 8.64 billion birr of the outstanding obligations nearly a third of the total.

It says that the remaining close to 19 billion birr is owed collectively by about 10 other companies. The scale of liabilities suggests that what looked like a crackdown on individual operators was actually a bigger question about how Ethiopia regulated a rapidly expanding digital industry, one moving tens of billions of birr.

Beza Girma, CEO of the Ethiopian Lottery Service, confirmed the findings to Fana. He said the investigation and audit were intended to establish the sector’s conditions using evidence and to provide a basis for reforms already underway. The Lottery Service says it will work with relevant institutions and pursue legal measures to recover the amounts once the audit is finalised.

Fana’s data shows how quickly the industry outpaced the regulatory system. It reported that only 4.7 billion birr circulated through the sector during all of 2022, but by September 2025, monthly betting turnover reached about 20 billion birr. In other words, the amount wagered in a single month in 2025 was more than four times the total recorded in the entire year of 2022.

The shift was driven by mobile connectivity, digital payments, and online platforms, which allowed deposits, wagers, and withdrawals to move electronically rather than through physical betting shops alone. Regulatory oversight, however, did not expand at the same pace.

Ethiopia’s Lottery Service says it is developing a unified digital system to record and monitor operators financial and legal obligations, moving supervision toward technology-based oversight. Licensing establishes that a company is authorized to operate, but it does not automatically give regulators continuous visibility into the money flowing through its platform.

A stronger digital monitoring system could help authorities compare real betting activity with commissions, fees, and other obligations owed. Officials suggest the problem was not simply the absence of rules, but weak enforcement, monitoring, and revenue collection.

Ethiopia has had a legal framework governing private lottery and betting operations for nearly two decades. The National Lottery Administration Re-establishment Proclamation No. 535/2007 opened the sector to private participation while assigning the regulator responsibility for licensing, supervision, and revenue collection.

Sports betting was covered under Ethiopia’s lottery framework, with operators required to meet licensing, financial, and social-development obligations.

Fana reports that sports betting became one of Ethiopia’s fastest-growing digital consumer businesses before authorities moved against the sector in late 2025. By 2020, Ethiopia reportedly already had dozens of licensed sports betting companies, with competition intensifying as operators expanded into online platforms, agent networks, promotions, and payment channels.

The rapid expansion was followed by increased scrutiny over financial reporting, tax obligations, and compliance. Authorities later investigated more than 100 billion birr in allegedly concealed revenue, and this contributed to the revocation of sports betting licences and the termination of the public-private partnership supporting the digital lottery, citing regulatory and contractual violations.

Even after licensed operations were suspended, the Lottery Service says illegal betting continued. That creates a second regulatory challenge: if licensed options are closed, demand may move to unlicensed platforms, informal agents, or offshore websites beyond direct regulatory control.

Because of that, the policy challenge is no longer simply whether sports betting should exist, but how to build a market regulators can effectively monitor, so they can enforce financial obligations, protect customers, and respond quickly to non-compliance.

Beza said preparations are underway to relaunch sports betting and digital lottery services “in a new form,” indicating a move toward a tightly supervised re-entry rather than a permanent ban.

For operators hoping to return, the implications could be significant. The previous market saw aggressive customer acquisition as betting shifted to mobile platforms. The next phase, the report suggests, may require greater emphasis on traceable transactions, stronger regulatory reporting, settlement of government obligations, and integration with supervisory technology.

That could also increase compliance costs. Operators may need to prove not only that they meet licensing requirements at entry, but that obligations can be monitored continuously during operations. Banks and payment providers may also face additional scrutiny to help distinguish licensed activity from illegal operators.

The significance of Fana’s investigation extends beyond gambling. Ethiopia is moving toward a more digital economy, where more payments, lending, commerce, and public services are handled electronically. The betting sector is a case study showing how fast digital businesses can scale beyond the regulatory systems originally designed to supervise them.

A sector that recorded 4.7 billion birr in transactions across all of 2022 reportedly processed 20 billion birr in a single month less than three years later. When regulatory technology, reporting systems, and enforcement mechanisms do not grow alongside that expansion, protecting public revenue and consumers becomes harder.

The government says its goals are to secure public revenue, protect players’ rights, and build a sector based on transparency and accountability.