Online gambling rises in Portugal
The local gambling regulator revealed that a sports betting rise helped a year-on-year positive development.
Portugal.- Serviço de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos (SRIJ), the Portuguese gambling regulator, has revealed that online gaming revenue increased during the third quarter of 2017. The market growth has been driven by a hike in sports betting activity.
During the three month period from June to September 20, online gambling revenue totaled US$34.7 million, a 21.5 percent hike when compared to the same quarter in 2016. Sports betting reported approximately US$21 million, or a 16.6 percent more than the second quarter of 2017, even if the SRIJ believes that the increase was given because of the return of the football season, which helped sports betting amount 78 percent of the whole online sports betting segment in the three months.
Moreover, the results achieved in sports betting last month were slightly down from the yearly peak of US$8.6 million registered in January. Online casino revenue also rises to US$15.4 million in the third quarter, a 15 percent increase over the second quarter of this year.
Nevertheless, slots are still the biggest modality in the Portuguese online market, with 42 percent of the shares of internet casino revenue in the three month period. Year-to-date results indicate that total online betting revenue amounted to US$101 million, whilst sports betting t US$56.2 million and online casino revenue US$45.2 million.
