Denmark: gambling revenue drops 5%
Total gambling revenue across all channels suffered a drop to DKK1.53billion (€205.7million) in the first quarter of the year.
Denmark.- The Danish gambling regulator Spillemyndigheden has revealed the country saw a drop in gambling revenue of 5 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2020.
Total gambling revenue across all channels suffered a drop to DKK1.53billion (€205.7million).
Even online casino revenue declined, dropping by 1.1 per cent in comparison with Q1 2019 to DKK555.1 million (€74.4million).
Sports betting saw an increase of 2.6 per cent to DKK635million despite the cancelation of sporting events in March, with 50 per cent of bets being placed by mobile.
Land-based casino and gaming machine revenue fell by 20.2 per cent and 21 per cent respectively owning to closures from March 13.
But online casinos revenue also fell by 1 per cent, showing that Danes did not seem to be moving their betting online during the Covid-19 crisis.
It appears that Q2 may fail to see a significant change as Spillemyndigheden has said that online casino deposits between March 9 and May 3 had grown by just 2 per cent, which the authority said did not seem unusual for a growing sector.
Morten Niels Jakobsen, Director of the Danish Gambling Authority said: “It very much looks like some of the measures that have been put in place in connection with the lockdown of Denmark has had an effect on parts of the gambling market – particularly on betting, land-based casinos and gaming machines.
“Although it is still too soon to measure the full effect of the Coronavirus crisis on the gambling market, it does not appear as if the decrease in gambling at land-based casinos and gaming machines as well as betting has caused an increase in gambling on online casinos.”
Of the online casino revenue, 74 per cent came from online slots (up 2.5 per cent), while online gambling revenue from roulette dropped by 11.1 per cent.
Last month, the Danish regulator blocked access to 16 gambling sites.
