On 1 July 2026 every online bookmaker taking bets in Ireland moved onto a licence issued by a new regulator. The announcements were short and the detail was left in a register and a commencement table that almost nobody reads. These notes read them.
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costs you nothing and it does not change what we write — including when the
answer is "this offer is not worth taking".
Thirty-four licences, all issued on the same day, all expiring on the same day. What the register shows, and the three parts of the law that have not started yet.
Buying a contract on an election is a bet under Irish law. The platform needs a licence for it, and the ones without are being told to block Irish users.
Seven clauses decide what a welcome offer is really worth. The first one — whether the stake comes back — can cut it by a third on its own.
Shanghai Masters and Wuhan Open tennis, Newmarket's Future Champions Festival and British Champions Day at Ascot: the TV channel first, then what licensed bookmakers say about streaming and on what conditions.
We would rather publish a few pages worth reading than thirty that repeat each other. Next up, once we can source the date from the regulator rather than from secondary coverage: what changes for betting shops as the in-person licences come across.
It is not tipping. We do not sell predictions, we do not run a Telegram channel with "sure things", and we do not publish bankroll systems. Betting loses money on average — that is the arithmetic of the margin, not an opinion. What we can usefully do is explain the rules, the licences and the small print, so that the money you do spend is spent with your eyes open.