The Ethiopian online sports betting scene is starting to build momentum and while almost all sites are rudimentary, they are building a database of punters.

Ethiopian betting sites offer very few betting services and almost all provide players with a sportsbook and live betting. There are no football jackpots, betgames, casinos, virtual play and possess a severe lack of promotions. We would rather recommend you choose from Vamos Bet, Habesha Bet, Best Bet, or Winner.

That said, they do have active players, and Blenbet is gaining a following despite its limitations, ostensibly due to legislative issues in the East African country.

All sites reviewed from the country have platforms which look remarkably similar, with the only changes coming in the form of slight variations in look and feel, lay out and gameplay.

The main landing page for the blenbet web and mobi sites offer a main menu directory, with headline links to a home page, a sportsbook, live betting and a tab for ‘today’s matches,

The site does offer a wide variety of sporting codes, and this runs both down the left-hand flank of the landing page, as well as horizontally across the top of the page.

Next to each sport there is a figure showing active bets.

The soccer sportsbook is by far the most played, with more than 40 000 active bets, while sports such as basketball (5000 active bets), ice-hockey (4000 active bets), tennis, handball and American football (all in 500-1000 active bet range).

Blen Betting

This means the Ethiopian betting public is taking to blen betting, across all the sporting codes, indicating a substantial bet market, and keen interest in punting.

The centre of the landing page is taken up by the current bets for the day, with each sport available by clicking on the corresponding link, opening a page of fixtures and bet markets.

The sporting fixtures are taken from across the globe, with the football showing matches from China through to the Champions League. The Far East games fit into the time zone for punters in the country, with bets starting in the morning and running through into the late evening.

As with many Ethiopian betting sites in the market space there are a few glaring errors with the platform taking in factors like a poor range of bet opportunities, no promotions and a negligence towards important details like a proper glossary, FAQ section, lack of terms and conditions as well as an absence of how to play explanations.

There are a few tabs to be found at the bottom of the main landing page, highlighting links for betting rules, About and Contact, FAQ’s and Private Information.

The real problem lies in the fact that only the betting rules is an actual link, taking the punter to explanations for all the bet-market related rules and bet-types. Clicking on the other tabs is pointless as they are not hyperlinks, and do not take the punter anywhere. What is the point of having a link for something like FAQ’s then not being able to glean any info bout the topic? This is poor and needs to be rectified sharpish. That said there is a glut of active bets so the average punter in the country may not be too discerning about these vital points.

There are no discernible banners, links or tabs for any form of banking option, so new players will now know where to deposit, how to withdraw and where to top up account.

There is a complete lack of a ‘how to play’ link, and newcomers to the betting world will be left clueless as to how to become an active member.

Normally if they are no promotions on display, these can normally be found under the terms and conditions link, but there is no tab for this, which is frustrating and potentially a turn off for players.

Back to the actual bet-market, there is a large variety of betting types to be had on each sport, with the punter needing to click on the desired sport, for example soccer, then clicking on the league they want to bet, and then checking out the markets on each game, such as 1×2, over/under, handicap and more.

The gameplay is severely limited to punters will just have to make do with a decent sportsbook. For Ethiopia this platform falls in the average range – plenty of users but little to play. Country-specific means this site is recommended, if only for the fact that there are many just like these, so the model seems to work in Ethiopia.