World Cup boosted the Portuguese iGaming market
The FIFA World Cup boosted the online gambling segment and drove sports betting and online casino revenue up.
Portugal.- The Serviço Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos do Turismo de Portugal (SRIJ), Portugal’s gambling regulator, revealed that the FIFA World Cup boosted the online gaming segment during the second quarter of 2018. Both the sports betting and the online casino segment have benefited from the tournament and saw hikes during said period, while the domestic poker market experienced a structural change.
The SRIJ explained that online sports betting revenue rose year-on-year from €13.9 million to €20.5 million, while total sports betting handle increased over the €22 million from last year to reach €89.8 million. The 2018 World Cup saw football accounting for 74.4% of all sports wagers as it took place between June and July.
Besides boosting revenues, the World Cup had customer registrations going up nearly 40,000 year-on-year as 103,000 new customers signed up with the eight licensed online operators.
Online casino revenue increased €5.4 million year-on-year to reach €16.8 million. Slots made the top contribution to overall revenue, while poker’s share increased quarter-on-quarter from 18.6% to 20.4%. Cash games and tournament poker represented 15.3% and 5.1%, respectively.
