On 1 July 2026 the first remote betting licences from the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland took effect, and the online bookmakers serving this market moved onto them. The register of who holds one is public. It is also awkward to read, so here is what is in it.
On the day we checked, the register listed 34 entries of type Remote Betting. Every single one carries the same issue date, 1 July 2026, and the same expiry, 30 June 2029. That is the shape of a changeover rather than a market: the whole existing field was moved across on one day, and the next natural reshuffle is three years out.
Names you are likely to recognise, with their licence numbers where we noted them:
| Operator as registered | Better known as | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| BoyleSports (Gibraltar) Ltd | BoyleSports | GRAI-0852-RB-26-0001 |
| Betway Limited | Betway | GRAI-0524-RB-26-0001 |
| WH Ireland Limited | William Hill | GRAI-1096-RB-26-0001 |
| PPB Counterparty Services Ltd | Paddy Power | — |
| Betfair International plc | Betfair | — |
| Hillside (Europe) ENC | the bet365 group | — |
| 888 EIRE Ltd | 888 | — |
| Smarkets, NetBet, QuinnBet, Fitzdares, Kwiff, Midnite, TonyBet, LiveScore, Dabble, DragonBet, Bar One Racing | — | — |
The first column is the point. The company that actually holds the licence is often not the brand on the app icon — Paddy Power bets sit with PPB Counterparty Services, William Hill's with WH Ireland Limited. If you go looking for a brand name and do not find it, search the corporate name before concluding anything.
The register lives on the regulator's own site at grai.ie, under the licence register. Two practical notes from doing it:
The Gambling Regulation Act 2024 is usually discussed as though it were switched on in one go. It was not. The Statute Book keeps a commencement table showing, section by section, what is actually in force. As of its 17 September 2026 update:
| Sections | Status | What they cover |
|---|---|---|
| 86–89 | not commenced | the business-to-business licence itself |
| 137–141 | not commenced | — |
| 142(1) | in force 5 Feb 2026 | 142(2) is not |
| 143–151 | not commenced | advertising obligations |
| 152–156 | in force 5 Feb 2026 | — |
| 157 | not commenced | targeted inducements — the "free bet in your inbox" rules |
| 164–226 | in force 5 Feb 2026 | — |
Two things follow, and both are routinely got wrong in coverage of this law.
The B2B licence does not yet exist in force. Sections 86 to 89 are the statutory basis for licensing suppliers to the industry, and they have not been commenced. So the widely repeated line that suppliers "now need a GRAI licence" is, as of today, describing a future state.
The advertising restrictions are not live either. Sections 143 to 151, and section 157 on targeted inducements, are the part most people mean when they say the new law restricts gambling ads. On the commencement table they are still switched off.
None of that makes the Act toothless — sections 164 to 226 have been in force since February 2026. It means the timetable is staged, and the stage you are in decides whether a rule applies to you or not.
If you bet online from Ireland, the practical effect is small but real: a licensed operator is answerable to a regulator here, on rules written here, rather than only to a licensing body somewhere else. Complaints have an address. Advertising and inducement standards are coming, even if they have not arrived.
What it does not change is the arithmetic. A licence makes an operator accountable; it does not make its margin smaller, and it does not make the long-run expected outcome anything other than negative. Treat the licence as a floor for trust, not as a reason to bet more.
irishstatutebook.ie/eli/isbc/2024_35.html), as updated
17 September 2026.