MelBet Uganda – Closure Record

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Licence holderFox Bet Limited, trading as MelBetMarket closedUgandaRegulatorNational Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory BoardOverall statusLicence LostUnlicensed from1 January 2026Public notice5 January 2026Last verified10 September 2026
MelBet is a large global betting brand. Its Ugandan business was run by a local firm, Fox Bet Limited. That company held a licence from the Ugandan gambling regulator. That licence was not renewed. From 1 January 2026 MelBet was no longer licensed in Uganda. On 5 January the regulator told the public. It advised MelBet customers to take their money out without delay.
31 Oct 2025Renewal deadline missed1 Jan 2026Licence gone5 Jan 2026Regulator notice0 daysNotice to players

01 · The set-up

A global brand behind a local company

MelBet takes bets in a lot of countries. In Uganda it did not use its own name for the licence. A local company, Fox Bet Limited, held the licence and traded as MelBet.

That is a normal arrangement in African betting markets. It happens in plenty of others too. A local company holds the paperwork. The global brand supplies the product and the name. It keeps the big brand separate from local rules.

It also means something else. When the local licence goes, the local business goes too. The global brand carries on somewhere else, mostly without a mark on it. That is exactly what happened here.

02 · The shutdown

A renewal that never came

Ugandan betting licences have to be renewed. The regulator is the National Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board. It set 31 October 2025 as the deadline to apply. Tax clearance and compliance paperwork had to be attached.

Fox Bet Limited did not meet those requirements. The regulator said so directly. As a result the licence was not renewed. MelBet was no longer legally licensed in Uganda from 1 January 2026.

The regulator published a public notice on 5 January 2026. It confirmed this. That is five days after the licence had already gone.

This is not the same as a company deciding to close. It is a licence running out and not being replaced. We cannot tell you which of those two things really happened. Failing to meet renewal requirements can mean two different things. It can mean a company could not satisfy the regulator. Or it can mean a company decided the market was not worth the tax bill. The company simply stopped filling in the forms. We have found nothing that settles it either way.

03 · The money

The regulator told players to get out

The regulator did the thing that matters most. Its public notice told MelBet customers to withdraw any remaining funds without delay. It also told them to close their betting accounts.

That is the regulator telling the public something serious. It is saying something plain. A business it used to license can no longer be trusted to hold their money. It is a warning, not a guarantee. There was no compensation scheme attached. No deadline was set by anyone.

Ugandan players had money on the site on 1 January 2026. They were in a bad spot. We could not find any advance notice from the operator. The licence had already lapsed by the time the public was told. Once the local licence was gone, the global brand had no Ugandan duty left.

We have found no reports of players being refused. We have also found no confirmation that anyone got paid. The honest answer is that nobody has said what happened to Ugandan balances.

The global MelBet site is still fully live today. We loaded it and it works normally, with sports, casino and everything else. We could not check whether Ugandan visitors are now blocked. We are not in Uganda.

A licence that lapses does not usually come with a player deadline. There is nobody left to set one. A regulator might tell you an operator is no longer licensed. If so, treat that as the deadline. Withdraw the same day.

04 · The receipts

How we verified this record

Every claim on this page is graded by how firmly we could check it. Confirmed means we saw it in the operator’s own notice. Or we saw it in a document that cannot easily be faked. Observed means we saw it ourselves. We saw it on the live site or domain, on the date given. Unconfirmed means it has been reported but we could not prove it.

ConfirmedMelBet was no longer licensed in Uganda from 1 January 2026, after Fox Bet Limited failed to meet renewal requirements by 31 October 2025Stated in the regulator own public notice and reported by four unrelated outlets.
ConfirmedThe regulator published its notice on 5 January 2026Carried with that date across the same reports.
ConfirmedThe regulator advised MelBet customers to withdraw remaining funds without delay and close their accountsQuoted from the regulator notice.
ConfirmedThe Ugandan licence was held by Fox Bet Limited trading as MelBetNamed in the regulator notice and in coverage of it.
ObservedThe international MelBet site is still fully liveLoaded on 10 September 2026. It works normally with a full sportsbook and casino.
UnconfirmedWhether Ugandan visitors are now blocked from the international siteWe could not test this from outside Uganda.
UnconfirmedWhether the licence lapse was a compliance failure or a business decision to leaveThe regulator says the renewal requirements were not met. Nothing we found explains why.
UnconfirmedWhat happened to Ugandan player balancesNo operator statement, no deadline and no reports either way.
What we checked, and what we did not. We took the licence dates, the renewal deadline and the advice to players from the regulator own public notice as reproduced across four unrelated outlets, and checked that all four carry the same dates. We loaded the international MelBet site ourselves on 10 September 2026 and recorded that it is fully live. We could not test Ugandan access from outside Uganda, and we say so rather than guessing. We searched for player reports of unpaid balances and found none either way. We did not contact Fox Bet Limited. Last independently checked: 10 September 2026.

05 · The questions

MelBet Uganda – the questions still open

Q. Has MelBet closed?

Only in Uganda. Its licence there was not renewed and it has been unlicensed in that country since 1 January 2026. The international site is still running.

Q. Why did it lose the licence?

The regulator says the licence holder, Fox Bet Limited, failed to meet the renewal requirements by the 31 October 2025 deadline.

Q. Was MelBet fined or banned?

No fine or ban was reported. The licence simply ran out and was not renewed.

Q. What did the regulator tell players?

To withdraw any remaining funds without delay and to close their betting accounts.

Q. Was there a deadline to withdraw?

No. Nobody set one, which is part of the problem. The regulator notice came five days after the licence had already gone.

Q. Can Ugandan players still use the international site?

We could not test that from outside Uganda. Using an unlicensed site is a matter for local law wherever you are.