Danish Online Casino Market Goes up While Sports Betting Drops

Danish gambling regulator Spillemyndigheden posted the results for the last quarter of 2018, revealing a rise in share claimed by online casinos.

These numbers also indicate that sports betting has gone down during the last three months of the previous year.

Local Operators Saw Their Revenue Increase

According to the country’s gambling watchdog, locally licensed operators generated $248.5 million in gross gaming revenue, which represents a slight increase of 0.8% when compared to the corresponding period of 2017, and 1.9% higher in the previous quarter of the same year.

Sports betting, both online and land-based, is still the dominant vertical, with a market share of 40.1%, or $99.7 million when converted to hard currency. However, this result represents a 7% drop from the Q4 2017.

On the other hand, an online casino share went up to 33.5%, while its revenue improved by around 16% to $83.4 million. This is also a record-breaking result for the Danish regulated market.

Nearly half of sports betting revenue (48.2%) came from mobile, which is a modest annual drop from 2017, and the third year-on-year quarter this vertical has ended with a decline. Desktop betting increased to 18.5%, while wagering at brick and mortar venues also dropped, to 34%.

Yearly Revenue Also Jumped

Revenue from land-based gaming machines dropped by 3.3% to $54.2 million, while land-based casinos recorded $13.3 million in revenue, 2.8% less than in the same quarter of 2017.

For the entire 2018, the market in Denmark improved by 7.4% to $960 million, with betting increasing by 8.4% and online casino by nearly 20% to $380 million and $320 million respectively. Revenue from gaming machines and land-based casino both saw their revenue drop.

17.687 people registered at ROFUS, the country’s self-exclusion program as of February 1, 2019, which is more than 4,000 new names when compared to the same period of last year. More than two-thirds of these exclusions have decided for a permanent ban with local operators.

In related news, Scientific Games has announced on Monday that it has signed a new five-year deal with Danske Spil. Under the provisions of the new deal, Scientific Games’ SG Digital will offer new products for the Danish former gambling monopoly.