Denmark: channelisation to licensed gaming reaches record high

The Danish Gambling Authority has reported that channelisation to the licensed gaming market reached 90 per cent last year.

Denmark.- The Danish Gambling Authority (Spillemyndigheden) has reported that channelisation to licensed gaming hit a record 90 per cent in 2020.

The regulator’s Gaming Market in Figures 2020 report shows that channelisation rose from 88 per cent in 2019. It’s a major improvement on the 69 per cent channelisation seen when the Danish gaming market was opened up in 2012.

The report notes that the number puts Denmark in fifth place in Europe for channelisation, behind the UK, Italy, Spain and the Czech Republic.

At DKK9.17bn (€1.23bn), gross gaming revenue (GGR) in Denmark fell 6.5 per cent in 2020 due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and related closures of land-based venues.

Lottery was the biggest vertical, contributing DKK3.2bn, down 0.1 per cent year-on-year. Online casino gaming came second, generating DKK2.45bn – up from DKK2.35bn in 2019. 

Sports betting revenue fell 8.9 per cent to DKK2.29bn, while land-based gaming fell even further. Slot machines brought in DKK986m, down 29.3 per cent, and land-based casinos generated DKK239m, down 31.7 per cent year-on-year.

Danish casinos were closed for much of the year due to Covid-19 lockdowns, reopening in May this year. However, online gaming’s market share rose just five percentage points in 2020, reaching 59 per cent.

The average gaming spend per person was DKK37.80 per week, which compares to DKK40.62 in 2019. That puts Denmark seventh place in Europe in terms of average spend per capita.

The average annual spend per capita was DKK2,086, putting Denmark behind Norway, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, Malta and Ireland, but ahead of the UK, Italy and Cyprus in per capita spending. 

Denmark had 771 gaming licensees last year, and 360 non-profit lotteries that don’t need a licence. There were 325 permits for slot machines, 35 for online casino, 23 for sports betting and nine for land-based casino operations.

As for comparison against Denmark’s wider economy, GGR represented 0.39 per cent of Denmark’s GDP in 2020. That’s a slight drop from 0.42 per cent in 2019 but remains in line with annual variation seen since the market opened in 2012.