SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The European gambling sector has stabilised in 2022, according to the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) and H2 Gambling Capital.
Publishing the “European Online Gambling – Key Figures 2022” report, the duo revealed that cross-continental GGR rose by 23% to €108.5bn (2021: €101.2bn), whilst rising by 8% on 2019 pre-pandemic levels, servicing a customer base of 28.9 million.
This was driven by a ‘significant rebound’ in the land-based gambling sector, the trade body asserted, as continued reopening of bricks-and-mortar venues pushed revenue up by 34% to €70.3bn (€47.28bn).
“Europe’s gambling market began to stabilise this year following the unprecedented upheaval and disruption of the pandemic,” said Maarten Haijer, Secretary General, EGBA.
Whilst land-based was the big success story this year, online gambling continued to make progress of its own, with revenue rising by 8% from €3,056bn to €38.2bn.
Despite the strides made by retail, online betting and gaming also continued to perform better on pre-COVID levels, as the former still registered a decline of 8% on 2019 trading.
This somewhat mirrors figures published by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) last month, which showed that Britain’s retail sector is continuing to recover from COVID, with revenue rising by 110.5% from the 2020-21 financial year, but still representing a 21.5% decline on 2019-20.
A product breakdown of EGBA members performances – with data taken from the likes of bet365, Betsson Group, Entain, Flutter, Kindred Group, and William Hill – showed sports betting as the most dominant vertical, albeit only slightly.
Sportsbooks accounted for 6% of online gambling GGR, with 111.6 billion bets processed for a total value of €202.9bn and returning €191.3bn in winnings, whilst online casino closely followed at 45%.
Regarding sports betting, in-play was the most popular method of choice for EGBA members’ customers, whilst market preferences saw sports betting generate revenue of €10.8bn and horse race betting revenue of €2.1bn.
Meanwhile, a gaming breakdown saw casino revenue stand at €13.6bn, poker at €1.5bn and other forms of ‘skill gaming’ at €4m, whilst lottery revenue hit €5.1bn and bingo income reached €1.1bn.
Lastly, analysis of national markets showed Sweden as having the highest online gambling share at 80%, followed by Latvia (75%), Lithuania (67%), Romania (65%) and the UK (65%), with Spain, Italy, Germany, and France earmarked as among the markets with the lowest online share.
“While the steady upward trend of online gambling continues, land-based gambling is now rebounding from the widespread shutdowns of casinos and betting shops during the past two years,” Haijer continued.
“The World Cup provided an uplift for operators this year, with several unexpected match results being friendly to the bookmakers.”
