Ireland gambling licence register: how to verify a GRAI operator

Ireland's new gambling regulator is the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland, or GRAI. Its licence register is now the strongest first-party source for checking whether a named legal account holds a current Irish betting licence. On 13 August 2026, Atlas reviewed both register result pages and found 24 licence-holder records. The records expose the account name, trading names, licence activity, licence number, issue date and expiry date.

That does not turn every familiar brand in a record into a generally licensed gambling site. The first operational phase concerns betting licences. The evidence must remain attached to Ireland, the named legal account, the recorded trading name, the exact activity and the licence dates. Gaming, lotteries, poker and casino products cannot be added to the conclusion unless a suitable current licence record supports them.

The GRAI register is changing quickly because Ireland's first remote-betting licences commenced on 1 July 2026 and further approvals have followed. Atlas counted 19 current records on 10 August. By 13 August, the public result count had reached 24, including records issued on 11 and 12 August. A static operator list can therefore become wrong within days during this launch phase.

The most material change for the existing Atlas brand layer is PPB Counterparty Services Limited. Its record, issued on 11 August, names Paddy Power and Betfair as trading names for Remote Betting. A separate Betfair International plc record authorises Betfair Exchange as a Remote Betting Intermediary. Atlas updated those two brand relationships only after the granted records appeared; earlier notices of intent were not treated as licences.

GRAI describes a Remote Betting Licence as permission to provide betting activities by remote means. A Remote Betting Intermediary Licence covers a facility that enables one person to bet with another person remotely. The distinction is visible in the licence numbers: RB identifies Remote Betting, while RBI identifies Remote Betting Intermediary.

Betfair illustrates why the product field matters. PPB Counterparty Services Limited holds an RB record with Betfair and Paddy Power as trading names. Betfair International plc separately holds an RBI record for Betfair Exchange. One record should not be used as a substitute for the other. Betdaq provides another useful example because Exchange Platform Solutions Limited currently holds both an RB and an RBI instrument under the same account.

The legal account is the entity responsible for the licence. The trading name is the consumer-facing name recorded under that account. The licence number identifies a specific permission and activity. Bet365 is therefore not the full legal record: the register names Hillside (Europe) ENC and licence GRAI-0539-RB-26-0001. William Hill is recorded under WH Ireland Limited, while 888Sport and 888 appear under 888 EIRE LTD.

The same legal account can have several trading names. ElectraWorks Limited, for example, lists Sportingbet, PartyCasino (Sports), PartyPoker (Sports), Bwin and Coral under one Remote Betting record. That parenthetical sports scope matters. It would be inaccurate to convert the record into evidence for casino or poker products merely because those words occur inside a trading name.

The GRAI record structure contains a domain-name section, but the 24 records reviewed by Atlas returned no consumer domains. That creates an important evidence limit. A trading-name match supports the relationship shown by the regulator, but the register alone does not prove that every similarly branded web address, app, mirror or international site belongs to that record.

For a practical site check, copy the exact domain from the browser and compare it with the operator's Irish legal disclosure. Then connect that disclosure back to the GRAI account and licence number. If the domain-to-entity step cannot be established, report the GRAI trading-name match and the unresolved domain separately rather than presenting a complete licence chain.

GRAI requires an applicant to publish a notice of intention at least 28 days before submitting a licence application. The regulator also publishes received notices. Those pages document an application-stage step; they do not contain a granted licence number, issue date and expiry date and should not be described as licence-holder records.

This distinction prevented Atlas from assigning new licensed statuses prematurely. Paddy Power and Betfair remained not listed in the Atlas GRAI layer until the 11 August records appeared. The same rule applies to any other brand: a press report, portal application or notice of intent may signal future change, but the licence register controls the current granted status.

The Gambling Regulation Act framework anticipates betting, gaming and lottery licence categories, including remote forms. GRAI also states that the new regime is being introduced in phases. The licences currently visible in this launch register are Remote Betting and Remote Betting Intermediary records. They do not provide a product-by-product online casino or poker permission.

A sportsbook brand can market casino content in another jurisdiction or place casino wording inside a wider trading name, but neither fact expands an Irish RB licence. Atlas therefore records the confirmed Irish category as sportsbook or exchange where appropriate and keeps casino and poker in transition unless a later GRAI instrument explicitly supports those products.

Atlas found 24 licence-holder account records across the two public result pages. Twenty-two accounts displayed a Remote Betting instrument. Three displayed a Remote Betting Intermediary instrument, but Exchange Platform Solutions Limited appears in both groups because it holds one of each. The result is 24 accounts and 25 licence instruments, not 25 different operators or brands.

The trading-name layer is larger again because a single account can list several names. The current 15-brand Atlas Ireland layer is a different unit: ten relationships now have an exact current match, while PokerStars, Matchbook, Spreadex, Kwiff and TonyBet remain not listed in the checked GRAI betting records. These counts answer different questions and should never be merged into one market-share or coverage figure.

Begin by naming Ireland and the exact activity: remote betting, betting intermediary, gaming, lottery or another product. Search the GRAI register for the consumer name and open the account record. Copy the legal account, every relevant trading name, licence number, activity, issue date and expiry date. Confirm that the licence is within its validity period on the date of the check.

Next establish the domain-to-entity relationship from a current legal disclosure because the register records reviewed by Atlas do not supply domains. Use the Ireland country profile and Atlas operator profiles as navigation aids, then retain the GRAI URL as the controlling primary source. Save the date and describe any missing link as unresolved.

How many GRAI licence-holder records are in the register? Atlas found 24 when both result pages were checked on 13 August 2026. Does that mean 24 legal online casinos? No. The current records reviewed here concern Remote Betting and Remote Betting Intermediary activities.

Is Betfair licensed for both sportsbook and exchange activity? The register shows separate evidence: PPB Counterparty Services Limited names Betfair under Remote Betting, and Betfair International plc names Betfair Exchange under Remote Betting Intermediary. Does a notice of intent prove a licence? No; use the granted licence record.

This high-change evidence pack was checked on 13 August 2026 and is assigned a 14-day review cadence while the first GRAI phase is expanding. It does not prove account eligibility, geolocation, a particular consumer domain or permission for products outside the recorded activity.

New approvals, withdrawals, trading-name changes and later gaming or lottery commencement can change the result. The live GRAI register controls if it conflicts with this dated guide. Source-backed corrections can be submitted through the Atlas corrections process without payment or preferential treatment.