Betting With Multibanco

How to deposit with Multibanco

Generate a Multibanco reference (entity, reference and amount) in the operator's cashier area and pay it at an ATM or via online banking within the stated deadline.

Unlike MB WAY, Multibanco is not normally used for withdrawals — an IBAN is required for that instead.

Once the reference is paid, most operators credit the deposit within minutes, though it can occasionally take a little longer if paid through online banking rather than directly at an ATM, since the confirmation has to travel back through the bank's own processing before the operator's system registers it.

What the Multibanco network is

Multibanco is Portugal's interbank ATM and payments network, operated by SIBS since 1985, and is one of the most extensive and long-running ATM networks in Europe relative to the country's population. Beyond cash withdrawal, Multibanco terminals support a wide range of operations — bill payments, mobile top-ups, balance checks — through an interface common to practically every bank operating in Portugal.

The Multibanco reference system, used for payments to merchants and service providers (including betting operators), is one of the network's most-used features: any entity needing to receive payments can generate references in the entity-reference-amount format, payable at any Multibanco ATM or through online banking, without the payer needing any prior commercial relationship with the beneficiary's bank.

How to generate a reference at the operator

In the operator's cashier area, selecting Multibanco as the deposit method and entering the intended amount automatically generates a reference made up of three elements: the entity (a number identifying the operator or its payment processor within the Multibanco network), the reference (a specific number generated for that transaction), and the amount to pay, already fixed and not editable at the moment of payment.

These three elements are usually shown together, ready to copy or enter manually at an ATM or in the online banking app, and stay valid for a limited window, stated at the moment of generation — paying within that window matters, since an expired reference stops being accepted by the system, even if all three numbers are still technically correct.

Paying at an ATM vs. paying through online banking

Paying a Multibanco reference at a physical ATM follows a route familiar to anyone in Portugal: selecting 'Payment of Services/Purchases' from the terminal's menu, entering the three reference numbers, confirming the amount shown, and authorising the operation with the usual bank card and PIN.

Paying through the online banking app follows similar logic, but without needing a trip to a physical ATM — most Portuguese banks have an equivalent 'service payment' or 'pay Multibanco reference' option within the app itself, where the same three numbers are entered and the payment confirmed digitally, often using the same kind of authentication used for other online banking operations.

How long a reference stays valid

Every Multibanco reference an operator generates has a defined validity window, usually shown alongside the three numbers at the moment of generation — this window exists so the operator doesn't end up with old, unresolved references sitting around indefinitely, and to make sure the associated amount stays current with the customer's original deposit request.

If the reference expires unpaid, the fix is simple: return to the cashier area and generate a new one, since an expired reference can't be reactivated or paid outside its original window, even if the numbers are still visible somewhere from before. There's no penalty for letting a reference expire unpaid — it simply stops being valid.

Why Multibanco doesn't support withdrawals

The technical reason Multibanco can't be used for withdrawals lies in the reference system's own design: it was built as a one-directional payment mechanism, for a payer to send money to a beneficiary through a reference that beneficiary generated — there's no equivalent mechanism within this specific system for the beneficiary to send money back to the payer using the same kind of reference.

This contrasts directly with MB WAY, designed from the outset as a two-way system for sending and receiving money between phone numbers linked to bank accounts. Because of this structural difference, any operator accepting Multibanco deposits always needs a separate method to process withdrawals — typically a direct bank transfer to an IBAN, covered in the next section.

IBAN for withdrawals: what to know

To withdraw funds from an operator accepting Multibanco deposits, an IBAN (International Bank Account Number) is normally required, tied to a bank account in the name of the betting account holder themselves — the same ownership-matching requirement applied to any other payment method, for KYC reasons.

Processing time for a traditional bank-transfer withdrawal tends to be slower than an MB WAY or Pix withdrawal, since it depends on the receiving bank's traditional transfer system rather than an instant-payment system — typically one to three business days, depending on the operator and bank involved, rather than seconds or minutes.

Multibanco beyond the betting context

Like MB WAY, the Multibanco reference system was already, long before any betting operator adopted it, an established part of everyday financial life in Portugal — paying the electricity bill, water bill, internet bill, or an online purchase from a Portuguese shop follows exactly the same entity-reference-amount format used to deposit at a bookmaker.

This prior familiarity is one reason Multibanco stays relevant even as MB WAY has risen as the faster, more convenient method — for anyone who's already been paying bills this way for decades, generating and paying a reference to deposit at a betting operator introduces no extra friction at all, following a pattern that's already deeply familiar.

Common mistakes when paying a Multibanco reference

The most frequent mistake is entering one of the three reference numbers — entity, reference, or amount — incorrectly, which usually results in the payment being immediately rejected by the ATM or the banking app, rather than being processed to the wrong destination, since the system validates the combination of all three numbers before accepting the operation.

A second common mistake is trying to pay a reference after it has already expired, without realising why the payment keeps getting refused — it's always worth checking the expiry date and time shown at the moment of generation, especially if the plan is to pay later that same day, or at some point over the following days, rather than immediately.

Security built into the reference system

One security feature of the Multibanco reference system is that the amount to be paid is fixed at the moment of generation and can't be changed at the moment of payment — unlike a traditional bank transfer, where the payer manually enters the amount to send, a reference already shows the exact amount, leaving little room for a typing error to accidentally change the amount transferred.

This also reduces the risk of certain fraud types built around manipulating a payment's amount — since the amount is embedded in the reference itself, generated by the beneficiary, there's no way for a malicious intermediary to alter just the amount without invalidating the whole reference, forcing any fraud attempt to rely on more elaborate methods than simply changing a number.

Multibanco vs. MB WAY: which to choose for depositing

For anyone who already has MB WAY activated on their phone, it tends to be the faster, more convenient option for depositing, thanks to near-instant confirmation through the app. Multibanco remains the natural choice for anyone who prefers paying through their usual online banking app, or for anyone who simply hasn't activated MB WAY and doesn't want to just for a one-off deposit.

Neither method is objectively better in every scenario — the choice mostly comes down to which tool is already set up and used regularly day to day, rather than any meaningful difference in cost or security between the two, since both are run by the same entity and follow similar security standards.

Value limits associated with Multibanco

Just as with MB WAY, ATMs and online banking apply value limits to Multibanco reference payments, set by the bank issuing the card or account used to pay — these limits exist mainly for security reasons, and tend to be configurable within certain parameters directly in the bank's app or at a branch.

For larger deposits, some operators may also automatically generate multiple separate references, each within the allowed limit, rather than a single reference for an amount that would exceed the limit configured on the customer's account — it's worth checking this possibility with the operator's customer support before attempting an unusually large deposit.

Confirming a payment and resolving issues

After paying a reference at an ATM, the terminal itself issues a physical receipt confirming the operation, worth keeping until the deposit shows up confirmed in the betting account — the same principle as a Pix receipt or an MB WAY confirmation, serving as proof of the transaction if any discrepancy needs resolving with the operator's customer support.

If a payment confirmed at the ATM or through online banking doesn't show up reflected in the betting account within a reasonable period, usually a few minutes, contacting customer support with the receipt or bank confirmation is the most effective way to resolve things, just as it would be with any other payment method covered across this whole set of payment guides on the site, rather than assuming the deposit has simply vanished somewhere in between with absolutely no way to track it back down again. In practice, genuinely lost Multibanco payments are rare once a receipt exists, since the paper trail on both sides makes tracing the money a fairly routine task for support staff.