We have witnessed that betting houses today are one of the main sources of entertainment and earnings around the world, so this trend is also current in Croatia. With the advent of the Internet, traditional Croatian bookmakers were replaced by online bookmakers, so today players can enjoy betting from the comfort of their homes by simply clicking and choosing their favorite sports betting site in Croatia. Although there are still traditional bookmakers in Croatia, online operators have taken over the primacy and show stable and continuous growth every year.
Although it is always difficult to determine which betting house is better than others, as well as which is the most relevant list for online Croatian bookmakers, in the following text we will try to bring you closer and clarify which bookmakers in Croatia are of the highest quality, as well as which ones are of the highest quality worldwide operators where you can also bet.
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Quick Jump
Online betting has been strictly regulated in Croatia since 2010. Citizens of the Republic of Croatia can bet online if they are over 18 years old. So, currently, online betting and gambling are completely legal in Croatia, with some restrictions implemented by the Ministry of Finance headed by the Government. Most games of chance are under the monopoly of the Croatian Lottery (Hrvatska Lutrija) which exercises strict supervision over sports betting, casinos, lotteries, and bingo.
The Law on Gambling of the State of Croatia was given the green light by the European Commission in November 2014. The new law refers to special commissions imposed on operators, which commissions they must pay to the state. The new regime began operating in 2015, and experts still consider this law to be one of the strictest laws in all of Europe. Namely, the state has blocked a large number of well-known operators, and players from Croatia must use alternative links to access them.
What many players of Croatian betting shops do not like are the various taxes that reduce their potential winnings. While, for example, any ticket with a total odds of 2.00 should have an amount that is exactly twice the stake for potential winnings, this will not be the case in Croatian bookmakers. Namely, there has always been a so-called manipulative cost, i.e. a percentage of each stake that the bookmaker took for itself, and most often it amounted to 5% of the total stake. However, today the situation for the players is even worse because one percent will be deducted from their potential winnings.
This tax can be different depending on the amount of the winnings, and its amounts are as follows:
Of course, these measures are very unpopular among players who actually lose quite large amounts of winnings, and this is one of the main sources of frustration that foreign bookmakers in The Republic of Croatia consider them illegal since they did not tax either the stake or the profit.
Is Online Sports Betting Legal in Croatia?
Online sports betting is legal in Croatia. Players can access various sports betting sites - domestic ones with ease, foreign ones under certain conditions, such as not using bank accounts for payments.
There are a large number of criteria that you must take into account when choosing your favorite sports betting site in Croatia, and here are a few of the most important ones that can certainly help you in your search for the best online bookmaker to register with.
Good bookmakers are characterized by a brilliantly optimized site, which is at the same time very intuitive and simple, so the player can easily find what interests him. There are many examples of poorly organized online betting houses, where the layout of the site itself is so bad that it can only take away your precious time, and this is what you definitely want to avoid in the online betting world.
Perhaps the most important item of any quality online sportsbook in Croatia is the bonuses and promotions that a bookmaker offers to its newly arrived users, as well as to regular players. Nowadays, world-famous brands simply compete with their offers, and in addition to welcome bonuses, offer other interesting bonuses, such as reload bonuses, promotional games, and free bets.
A negative side of every sports bookmaker in Croatia and the region compared to foreign companies are the lower quality bonuses that you can get in a certain regional or domestic bookmaker. Here, foreign bookmakers often have an advantage thanks to their great welcome bonuses for all registered players, so you can find bonuses that reward you with a deposit of 100% of your first payment (Welcome Bonus), as well as many similar promotions.
Certainly, one of the most important factors when choosing a sports bookmaker must be the bookmaker’s offer. This is one of those categories in which foreign online bookmakers are significantly different from Croatian bookmakers, and it is almost always an unwritten rule that you will find a better betting offer precisely in foreign companies.
The rich betting offer includes betting on almost all types of sports that exist in the world, as well as on various other events from different social spheres (Oscar Awards, US Presidential elections, etc.), and also offers a selection of different types of games on which to bet. the player can bet at any time. Bookmakers in Croatia still need to work on their offers in order to be competitive with foreign bookmakers.
Looking at the differences between Croatian bookmakers on the one hand and popular European operators on the other when it comes to odds and margins, there is a significant difference that cannot be ignored when deciding whether it is worth registering with a sports bookmaker. Namely, in our humble opinion, the margin is acceptable if it is in the amount of 2% to 6%. Domestic and regional bookmakers often have a very high margin, up to 10-15%, which is absolutely unacceptable. A sportsbook that does not have high-quality odds and margins cannot possibly be called one of the best bookmakers for players from Croatia.
Live betting is the fastest growing betting discipline in the last few years. Today, there is almost no online sportsbook, both domestic and foreign, that does not have live betting in its betting offer. Quality online bookmakers offer a live stream service where you can follow the course of your match, as well as graphs with statistics, and this is certainly a criterion you should keep in mind when choosing your bookmaker. Live stream services can be watched if you have funds in your account, and the statistics of the live match can certainly be followed.
If you’re a fan of Live betting, you’ll definitely want to register with a sportsbook that has a quality mobile betting app. The best online bookmakers for players from Croatia also allow you to bet via the mobile version of the site, which is often just as convenient as betting via the website. The only difference is that the application must be installed on your mobile device, and the mobile version of the site can only be activated via a browser.
Bearing in mind that online bookmakers definitely require money payments in the digital world, you will certainly want to access the bookmaker that has a large number of online services for the payment and withdrawal of your money in its assortment.
The best domestic and foreign companies are those that allow payment through several different payment methods, so bookmakers in Croatia and those around the world offer services such as e-wallets (Skrill, Neteller, PayPal, etc.), credit and debit cards (VISA, Maestro, Mastercard, Dinacard, American Express), bank transfer, as well as many other more or less popular methods.
The best bookmakers stand out from their competition thanks to reliable player protection, so you must also keep in mind whether your favorite online company has the necessary licenses that protect you from all types of fraud.
The world’s most reputable bookmakers usually have licenses from regulatory authorities based in Great Britain (UKGC), Malta, or Gibraltar, and this is a good sign that your betting in an online bookmaker is reliable and safe. Bookmakers in Croatia mostly have a license from the Croatian state, and not a single domestic company has any other license. In the region, MeridianBet is the only bookmaker licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority.
Every quality betting house has great professional support that is always at the player’s service, be it via live chat on the page, via email address, or phone number. The best Croatian bookmakers, as well as foreign ones, also have a FAQ section on their website where you can find answers to the most frequently asked questions of players, and this can save you a lot of time when playing.
Some of the potential new players have never tried to create a betting slip in one of the bookmakers before, and the same applies to tickets online. However, online betting in Croatian bookmakers might provide them with a little more comfort when starting betting, and it would certainly help them learn some of the small details that more experienced players know and often use.
There is a lot to know before starting to bet, and it is precisely those more experienced players who will say that it is very important to know what types of bets and outcomes there are in order to be able to properly read the offer prepared by the bookmaker.
The offer is one of the main characteristics of the bookmaker, by which players will actually choose where they want to play. If we compare Croatian bookmakers and their offers with foreign, larger bookmakers, we will very quickly come to the conclusion that foreign bookmakers are much more advanced in that segment. Likewise, online bookmakers in Croatia often have a different range of offers, and that’s why it’s important to research that segment when choosing.
Some Croatian bookmakers also have their own physical branches, but by far the majority of their traffic is generated via the Internet. In order for players to be able to play in one of them online, they must register.
The bookmaker registration process is almost the same in each of them, and players will be guided through it step by step. It is mostly necessary to enter your personal data such as name, surname, address, and OIB, and to create a username and password that will be used to log in to the site.
The next step in the registration itself came after another relatively new decision, and all bookmakers must include it, which is the confirmation of the player’s identity. This is a process that is extremely important so that players do not open multiple accounts at the same bookmaker as this is prohibited by the bookmaker’s terms and conditions. In addition, it is one of the ways of trying to prevent money laundering by using betting houses and similar sites.
Identity confirmation is done so that the player must choose one of two personal documents (identity cards or passports) and either take a picture of them or copy some of the numbers from them. Here, players can sometimes panic because they are not comfortable giving information from personal documents, but the guarantee of every bookmaker today is that these documents will be safe and will not be used for purposes the player does not want.
Deposit and withdrawal methods are an integral part of using online sports betting sites in Croatia and playing in them. In order for the player to actually bet and pay tickets online, he needs to deposit some game funds into his account. Today, this can be done in a very large number of different ways, and the simplest is certainly by making a payment in one of the physical branches of the bookmaker so that the funds are available in the online account.
Payment by card is available in all Croatian online betting shops, while other methods may vary. Among these other methods, we include various e-wallets and vouchers that can be purchased at certain points of sale. The most famous and most used e-wallets in Croatia are Skrill and Aircash, while the most popular vouchers include A-bon and Paysafecard. What is equally important are the payment methods, and when players deposit funds with one of the offered methods, they generally want to pay using it, so bookmakers in Croatia must make sure that they are able to do so. If a situation occurs where it is not possible to pay out using the same method as the payment, we can say that it is a big oversight by the bookmaker. Select the desired method and deposit some funds to kick off.
Once your account is active and you have money to bet, select the matches and markets you wish to bet on.
The average sports betting site in Croatia today offers its players up to fifty sports that they can bet on. Each of these sports has its own leagues, which means that in just one day, players can choose from literally thousands of different pairs to play on. However, some sports are much more popular and players play them more often, while they avoid some spots and do not play them. It is difficult to say what the reasons are, but mostly the simple popularity of a certain sport has an influence on the selection.
Football is simply the holy grail of betting and the most popular sport in the world, Croatia included. The offer for it is by far the most extensive, especially when we talk about the strongest leagues in the world in that sport. A person does not even have to be a top connoisseur of the bookmaker and its features to be able to accurately predict a football match. We are in a time when there are various sites that offer live football results and a bunch of statistics and information along with them. All this information gathered in one place can be more than a good help to predict a football outcome.
Furthermore, in their live betting offers, bookmakers today have the option of providing their users with live broadcasts of football matches, and this is a great way to learn more about a particular team and place a bet while the match is still going on. Live betting is the most profitable feature of bookmakers today, and watching a live match has become a convenience that many have begun, quite unjustifiably, to take for granted.
Tennis is a sport that not everyone likes, but most Croatian bettors are familiar with tennis events and can easily make a ticket containing only events from that sport. Since it is not a team sport, it makes it much easier to collect information and statistics because when analyzing a tennis match we only have to pay attention to two players. Data such as mutual ratio, form, the surface on which the game is played, etc. are of great importance and relevant data can be obtained in a shorter period of time.
What's great about tennis is that it is practically played all year round, which means that there are almost hundreds of matches every day, so players won't have to worry about whether or not a tennis tournament is on offer. In addition to all that, the number of potential outcomes that can be played in one tennis match is very large, which means that players have more options among which they can more easily find the right one to play.
Basketball is definitely one of the main sports in Croatia. One competition is particularly significant when it comes to betting on basketball, and it is easy to predict that it is the NBA league. The NBA league is the strongest basketball league in the world, full of big stars, and the offer of bookmakers on every game of this competition is very rich.
The potential in the NBA league is very high, and all that is needed is to spend a little more time analyzing individual trials. This principle can actually be applied to all sports, but with the NBA league and basketball in general, it comes to the fore because of the format of the competition.
Although very popular in Croatia, handball is a sport that cannot be included in the category of major sports when it comes to betting. If we are talking about major competitions such as the World or European Championships and the Champions League, the offer for handball events is quite extensive. However, when it comes to domestic leagues and similar competitions, it is often overlooked and there is not a large number of bookmakers who will place bets on it. However, it is clear that the offer for handball events in Croatian bookmakers simply has to be expanded so that players start paying tickets for handball events more often.
It is clear that some other sports, which are popular for betting like volleyball or ice hockey, were not found on our list. It is far from saying that they do not offer potential for earning, because we are convinced that they do, but these are sports that are not so well covered in Croatia, and it is difficult to find essential information about them.
If we focus on ice hockey, it is hard to even remember when we could watch a broadcast of a hockey game or hear the results of some major European leagues in the news. It's a similar thing to volleyball, and that's why many people won't decide to play these sports. However, if you are someone who can access these data and follow them faithfully, you should absolutely be betting on these sports because you will have a great earning potential that you have afforded yourself with your effort and knowledge.
Types of markets, offers of leagues, matches, and games of bookmakers in Croatia are other very important factors that will help decide where to register and deposit your money. The purpose of the huge number of markets is to give the user as much freedom as possible when it comes to creating bets and to get the feeling that he has as many choices as possible. The best bookmakers also have the largest number of available markets available that they can provide for a single sport. Probably the basic games that almost all online bookmakers offer today are:
In addition to all that, there are various additional markets that some sportsbooks in Croatia offer and some don’t, for example:
This is often the deciding factor for someone who wants to bet on a certain market and finds it in a particular bookmaker. The best bookmakers in Croatia are those that will provide you with a lot of flexibility in this type of service. The main types of bets in Croatia are:
Betting on a certain period of a match can usually be found when a player looks at the offer for a live event. We can say that this type of bet is intended for those with an extremely good feeling, because betting on a certain period of the match requires them to predict the outcome for only one part of the match. For example, will there be a goal in the next 10 minutes of the football match or will we see two or more goals in the first half.
A person who has a very good understanding of sports and the teams he bets on will be able to profit in a very experienced way. What’s great about betting on a certain period of the match is the fact that the odds are often excellent. For example, a really small percentage of people can guess in which interval of a soccer match a goal will be scored, and that’s exactly how the odds were formed. That’s why with this type of bet, having such a feeling is extremely profitable and could bring really big winnings to the player.
Placing a bet with a handicap means that at the start, we give one of the two teams or one of the two players some kind of advantage. For example, if the odds of one team winning are too low, we can say that they will win with a 2, 3 or more goal difference. In that case, we still believe that that team will win, but with a more goal difference, and in that case the odds are significantly higher.
Of course, such a bet brings with it a greater risk, but it is still one of the most frequently played types of bet in Croatia. There are several types of handicaps, and they work in different ways.
In sports where a few more goals or points are scored, such as, for example, handball or basketball, it is possible to bet on the number of points that an individual player will achieve, and this is often a very popular type of bet among punters in Croatia. This is especially the case with the strongest basketball league in the world, the NBA league, in which 30 teams participate, and several games are scheduled every day. Then it is very easy to follow the form of individual players and, counting on who will not play in which match, it is possible to very precisely and accurately predict how many points a player could score.
When it comes to over/under betting, it is very popular to bet on the number of assists or rebounds of a player, which gives this type of bet extra charm. Most often bets on total goals or points for a set limit will have some number ending in “.5”. For example, the limit of the number of goals set for a match is 3.5, which means that an outcome with 3 or fewer goals will mean that the winner was achieved by the one who played at “less than 3.5”, while an outcome with 4 or more goals will mean that the winner achieved the one who played at “more than 3.5”.
Bettors usually try to find a way to beat the bookie. If you want to be profitable in the long run, you need to know how to calculate odds, but you also need to know how bookmakers work in general. The bookmaker doesn’t make money from the team winning or losing, but from all possible results. We will explore the methods thanks to which bookmakers and professional bettors show profits.
Bookmakers have been around the world in one form or another for thousands of years. The role of bookmakers is similar to that of a broker. They accept money for different results from several different people and pay the winner at the end of the event. In return, they receive a fee (also known as a margin) for this service, and since it is not a charity, their goal is to make a profit.
Online bookmakers employ a team of people commonly known as dealers or oddsmakers. Their task is to set up odds based on statistical probabilities and public opinion with the aim of showing the chances of all possible results plus the margin as faithfully as possible. Counting all the variables is by no means an easy task. Traders need to calculate current form, injuries to key players, referee influence, and crowd for each match. After weighing all the variables, the realistic chance of the opportunity is calculated, and then the price of service (in other words, margin).
Below is an example of odds from a reliable bookmaker for a Leicester City v Norwich City match played a few years ago:
Leicester City – 65.32%
Tie – 14.68%
Norwich – 22.02%
If you add up the probabilities, you find that you get a total of 102.3%. This means that the bookmaker has a margin of 2.3%, at least assuming that people bet equally on all options. Depending on the market and the betting activity of the bookies, the price of the match can be between 101% and 120%. For example, Premier League matches are usually rated around 104% according to some sports portals in Croatia.
All profitable bettors try to maximize their profits by finding the highest possible odds (odds comparators are a great help in finding the best odds). The higher the bookmaker’s margin, the lower odds that bookmaker offers, so margins can affect your long-term profitability.
It is extremely important to know your bookie’s margin. If popular markets like the Premier League are offering a margin of over 104%, you should probably look for another sports betting site in Croatia. Among the less popular leagues, the usual margin is around 110%.
Although it is an advantage to have a unique bonus offer, it is precisely those most popular types of bonuses that are offered today that have been implemented on almost all major sports betting sites in Croatia. If you had to list the most popular bonuses that are also the most profitable, the following types of bonuses would be on that list:
Among the listed bonuses, the one that is by far the most used and offered to players the most is certainly the welcome bonus. As its name might suggest, it is intended for new players who should register for the first time at one of the sports betting sites in Croatia. It mainly works in a way that the bookmaker will underpay the first payment to the new player, which means that he will have twice as much funds to play on the site. Also, the welcome bonus sometimes does not even require the player to deposit his funds, but the bonus funds are received automatically after completing the registration process. This type of bonus is very dear to many more experienced players in Croatia who already know how it works and therefore register on several sites in order to use it and try to cash out.
Cashback is a type of bonus that is designed to return the amount invested to the player’s account after a losing ticket and a bet. This amount is most often returned as a bonus amount and requires some conditions to be fulfilled in order to be paid, but it is certainly one of the most popular bonuses for players because it gives them a kind of guarantee that they have nothing to lose once they play their bet.
A free bet is a bonus that players receive from their sports betting sites in Croatia. It is a kind of the equivalent of the bonus of free spins given by the casino, because in this case, players can play what they want for free, that is, they do not have to invest their funds, but the bookmaker provides them with a bet.
Under other bonuses, we certainly include those bonuses that we have not specifically mentioned, and which can be found in casinos and betting shops. These are bonuses that are not that common but are mostly unique or designed to work only at one casino or bookmaker.
Many sites will periodically reward their players for loyalty. VIP programs work in a way that they monitor the activity of their players and based on it, award them different rewards. Bookmaker bonuses can thus be given to players by looking at various factors. For example, if the player is active on the site or if he has diverted a certain amount of funds, he could receive a VIP bonus.
In addition to the bonus, one of the most important things for new users is the methods of payment and withdrawal of funds to the account in the bookmaker. It is very important for bookmakers to provide as many payment and withdrawal options as possible to players in order to use their services, and on the other hand, it is important for players that the sportsbook has the one that suits them best among the payment and withdrawal methods. It is worth noting some of the most popular payment and withdrawal methods that every Croatian betting shop should have.
✅ Croatian Betting Office – Depositing and paying out in the branch is a very popular method in Croatian bookmakers. Since there are still a large number of slightly older players who are not fans of making payments using some online services, they prefer to visit a bookmaker and deposit or withdraw funds from their account on the spot. They consider this method to be the most secure, and it really is, although other types of payment are today at an extremely high level of security.
✅ Cards – Payment by credit card is available in every betting shop in Croatia. The player is required to enter the number of his card from which he makes the payment and the three-digit code from the back of the card, and he will be able to deposit and then withdraw his funds from his card. This is also a very simple method, and since the IBAN must often be entered during registration, payment to a current account does not require any additional data entry.
✅ E-Wallets – E-wallets are another interesting and frequently used method of depositing and withdrawing funds in the sports betting sites in Croatia. They are used to complete various purchases, payments, and withdrawals via the Internet, and thus found their way to online betting shops. The most popular e-wallet today is certainly PayPal, but a relatively small number of bookmakers around the world have this e-wallet as a means of payment and withdrawal. The most represented among Croatian bookmakers are e-wallets such as Aircash and Skrill.
✅ Vouchers – Some bookmakers in Croatia have managed to create their own vouchers, which can be bought mainly at kiosks and gas stations, and are excellent means of payment for online betting in Croatian bookmakers. They are personalized only for that one specific bookmaker, and with them, you can also find universal vouchers such as A-bon or Paysafecard vouchers that can be used for payment to e-wallets or directly to the online bookmaker.
What Is the Best Payment Option for Croatian Players?
Croats have a huge variety of payment methods and when talking about domestic betting sites, credit cards and in-person deposits are the most common ones. For foreign betting sites, e-wallets are by far the best option.
Gambling is legal throughout the whole country but there are some slight restrictions that need to be followed. Make yourself acquainted with the law before placing sports bets.
Croatia is full of legal and licensed gaming houses. Choosing either one of them will provide a safe gambling experience.
Yes, there are various bookmakers, both foreign and domestic ones, that are licensed, and therefore quite safe.
Each bookmaker will set different deposit limits. In addition, payment methods will influence such limits as well. Be that as it may, all sports betting sites in Croatia will set affordable minimum deposit limits.
This tax can be different depending on the amount of the winnings, and its amounts are as follows:
If all the games on the betting slip have been predicted successfully, all the winnings will be transferred to the betting account immediately after the final match. After that, the winnings will be on your banking account within a matter of hours or days, depending on the option.
All punters in Croatia have their preferences and finding a betting site according to their tastes will make it the best option.
Dozens of sports are available in Croatia to bet on. Football, tennis, basketball, handball, moto races – almost everything.
Croatia is primarily a football nation and naturally, football will be the most popular sport to bet on. Additionally, Croatian bookmakers offer the most options for football matches.
Odds are represented in decimal numbers and the lower the odds, the higher the chance of an outcome.
Some bookmakers in Croatia, mostly foreign ones, will offer free bets as part of bonuses and promotions.
The first, and sometimes the only condition, is to create an account. After that, the sports betting site will award the player with such a bonus. Other times, it is necessary to deposit some money first.
Apart from the local hospitals and psychotherapists, players suffering from gambling addiction can reach Dr. Vorobjev, Hupis, and Sveti Ivan centers for help.
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