Portuguese online gambling revenue crosses €1bn mark

Online gambling in Portugal continues to show double-digit growth.

Portugal.- The Portuguese gambling regulator SRIJ has reported that annual revenue in the online gambling sector surpassed €1bn for the first time in 2024. In what was the ninth year since regulation, online gambling revenue continued to show double-digit growth, rising by 42 per cent year-on-year to €1.07bn.

Betting volume over the 12 months reached a new high of €19.5bn. Player winnings reached €18.5bn.

Q4 set a quarterly record with gross revenue of €323m, up 41 per cent year-on-year and 21 per cent sequentially. Sports betting revenue rose by 90 per cent year-on-year and 51.7 per cent sequentially to €138m. Meanwhile, the revenue from games of chance rose by 19.5 per cent year-on-year and 5.5 per cent quarterly to €184m.

There were 30 active online gambling licences at the end of the year: 13 for sports betting and 17 for games of chance. The number of active players reached 1.23 million, up 12 per cent Q4 2023. The total number of registered players was up 15 per cent at 4.7 million, and 78 per cent of players were aged under 45.

Gambling taxes for 2024 totalled €357m, up by a third from 2023. Of the total, €153m was generated by sports betting and €203m by games of chance. Both segments are charged a rate of 33 per cent on net revenue.

As for land-based gambling in Portugal, revenue rose by just 0.67 per cent year-on-year to €272m. Slots accounted for three-quarters of all land-based revenue.

In January, CIRSA announced the completion of its acquisition of the Portuguese online gaming and sports betting operator CasinoPortugal (CasinoPortugal.pt), one of the main players in the Portuguese market. It had entered into a share purchase agreement in September in which it agreed to acquire a 68 per cent stake in CasinoPortugal.