B2B and B2C licence
A B2C licence authorises a company to offer gambling directly to players, while a B2B licence authorises a supplier to sell or supply gambling products and services, such as game software, odds or hosting, to licensed operators rather than to the public. In Ireland both are issued by the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland under the Gambling Regulation Act 2024, and other regulators, the Malta Gaming Authority among them, draw the same line under their own names. The player only ever holds a contract with the B2C side.
What each licence authorises under Irish law
Section 89 of the Gambling Regulation Act 2024 lets the GRAI issue a Business to Business gambling licence that authorises the holder to sell or supply, directly or indirectly, a gambling product or gambling related service to a licensee in the State, to a person outside the State, or to an operator of the National Lottery, and to advertise that product or service to those buyers.
The Act defines a gambling product as any machine, equipment or software used for or in connection with gambling. A gambling related service covers things such as supplying odds, online hosting, risk and fraud management, player-protection tools, and the installation or upgrading of software.
B2C licences are the ones aimed at the public, and the GRAI splits them into betting, gaming and lottery types, each available in person, by remote means, or both.
Where a company is providing gambling activities to people in Ireland, the GRAI states that it needs a B2C licence, and offering betting without one is a serious offence under the Act.
Where the player meets each licence
On a betting or casino site, the licence printed in the footer is the B2C licence of the company you are contracting with, and it is the one that matters for complaints, KYC checks and withdrawals.
The game studio behind a slot, or the platform that runs the account system, sits on the B2B side. Its licence governs how the product was certified and supplied, and it gives the player no direct route to a refund or a complaint.
This is where readers most often go wrong. A footer that names a supplier’s B2B approval, or a game provider’s certificate, is sometimes read as proof that the site itself is regulated, when the licence that answers for your account belongs to the operator alone. What I check first is the legal name of the operator in the terms, and then whether that exact name appears on the regulator’s public register against a B2C licence of the right type. In Malta the same distinction runs between a gaming service licence, which is B2C, and a critical gaming supply licence, which is B2B, and a supply licence held by a studio says nothing about the site where its games appear.
A foreign B2C licence is also not an Irish one: it binds the operator to another regulator’s rules, not to the obligations the Act places on GRAI licensees.
B2B and B2C licences side by side
The rows below set the two licence families against each other on the points the Act and the GRAI’s own licensing pages describe.
| Point compared | B2C licence | B2B licence |
|---|---|---|
| Who holds it | Operator dealing with players | Supplier to operators |
| Customer | Members of the public | Licensees and National Lottery operator |
| Typical holder | Bookmaker, casino, lottery | Game studio, platform, odds provider |
| Key section of the Act | Betting, gaming and lottery provisions | Section 89, with Chapter 8 |
How the Irish licences are being phased in
The Act does not switch on every licence at once; each class needs its own commencement order, and the GRAI opens applications class by class.
Betting licences came first. A commencement order effective from 5 February 2026 allowed betting applications, the GRAI portal opened on 9 February 2026, and the first remote betting and betting intermediary licences took effect on 1 July 2026.
The GRAI has given 2027 for remote gaming and 2028 for lottery, B2B and charitable licences as its stated expectation, but we found no commencement order yet for gaming or B2B licences, so those years are a plan rather than law in force. Until a B2B order is made, suppliers to Irish operators cannot hold the Irish licence that section 89 describes, and B2B licensees will later have to show that their products meet standards the GRAI sets under section 123.
Check the register, not the footer.
