Online gambling continues to grow in Europe
Online gambling in Europe generated 220,000 million euros in 2018, 11% more than in 2017. The Spanish market, in sixth position, accounts for 4.7% of the European share, a percentage that contrasts significantly with the 34.2% of the United Kingdom. What are we Europeans playing the most and what does the future hold for the online modality in this new stage?
Online gambling continues to grow within the European Union and already reports gross revenues of 220,000 million euros. What future does it portend for the sector in this decade with new challenges? ©piviso/pixabay
Forecasts predict a promising future for the sector
Online gambling continues its expansion within the European Community and the European Economic Area: this has been announced by the European Betting and Gaming Association (EGBA) in its latest report regarding the year 2018 . The European market accounts for 49.2% of global revenues of online gambling on a global scale.
The gross revenues of the online modality generated a total of 220,000 million euros in 2018, with a market share of 23.2%. This supposes a 11% increase over the previous year . Based on the growth rate observed in recent years, the report forecasts that revenues by 2022 will reach 293,000 million euros. On the other hand, net income, the report points out, reached 54,100 million euros. However, there is still a way to go: the offline game continues to bring together the largest share, 76.8%, with revenues that exceeded 735,000 million euros in that same year.
According to the report, sports betting and casino games are positioned as the most popular modalities among players in Europe with odds of 42.5% and 32.4%, respectively. Far behind are others such as the lottery (12.6%), poker (5%) or bingo (4.3%). Games of recent incorporation in the world of iGaming such as eSports would enter within the remaining 3.2%.
In total, they registered 316 billion bets in the 28 member states during 2018. Sports betting accounted for a disbursement of 23,600 million euros, which represents about 44% of the total generated by online gambling. Thanks to current technology, live betting on sporting events is the order of the day: they make up 63% of the income generated in this modality.
It is also evident that the work of web adaptation that operators and suppliers are doing is paying off to adapt to a new reality. In 2018 43% of users used their mobile devices to play and bet online. 2021 is expected to mark a turning point in this trend: 52% will use mobile for this purpose versus 48%.
The Spanish market, with a 4.7% share, occupies a modest sixth place, close to countries such as Germany (11.1%), France (8.8%), Italy (8.1%) and Sweden (5.2%). The UK's market share makes it clear the deep-rooted tradition for gambling in the country : 34.2%, a percentage that exceeds the markets of Germany, France, Italy and Sweden combined, as well as the rest of the European countries combined excluding New Zealand, Finland (4.1%) and Denmark (3.6%).
This is the online player profile in New Zealand
According to the DGOJ report on the online player there were 1,476,385 active players in New Zealand in 2018, (81,436 more than in 2017), the vast majority of them men (83.25%). Players between the ages of 26 and 35 account for 34.08% , closely followed by the 18-25-year-old (29.17%) and 36-45-year-old (21.66%) segments. However, the average annual expenditure is higher in those between 36-45 years ($697) and 46-55 years ($569).
The preferred gaming segment by Spanish users are sports betting (47.92%) and 16.55% combine these with the casino games (blackjack, slots, roulette, live and baccarat). As for the popularity of poker, it stands at 8.03%.
In case a regulation similar to that of the ban on cards in the UK , something that several groups of Spanish civil society have already put on the table, a large percentage of players would have to look for an alternative payment method. And it is that 70.93% used bank cards to deposit funds, behind e-wallets (18.27%) and prepaid cards (8.65%). For withdrawals, the distribution is somewhat more balanced: 44.40% by cards, 28.22% by transfer and 25% with ewallet.
Despite the political uncertainty and a possible national regulation to limit the advertising of the sector , the DGOJ's 2019 quarterly reports show an increase in net online gaming revenues in New Zealand from 229 million euros in 2013 to 699 million in 2018 , a trend that, we predict, will continue along the same path.
The legal situation of online gambling has seen positive progress in the vast majority of European countries. Will we soon see a common European legislation that protects the interests of users in an equitable way? ©EGBA
European legislation for online gambling: yes or no?
The current legal map of online gambling in Europe looks very different from 10 years ago: this economic activity has been regulated in all countries (with the exception of Slovenia), with only two states with a monopoly on the activity and three countries in the legislative process (Ireland, Slovakia and the Netherlands).
The EGBA proposes integrating the online gambling sector into the Digital Single Market with a view to the European Union's commitment to strengthen it within its work programme for 2020. According to the organization's studies, Denmark is the only member state that has fully implemented the European Union's recommendations on consumer protection and responsible advertising.
The association argues that the degree of user protection is not equitable within the European Union, since it depends on the Member state in which they reside. This is due to the disparity of national legislations in matters about online gambling. Thus, for example, only 14 of these have excluded player registrations and only 13 force operators to use the +18 symbols in their advertisements.
"EGBA welcomes with positivity the European Commission's commitment to making the single market work for the online consumer. More than 16.5 million Europeans bet online but their rights are not protected by any European Union regulation. It is time to move the European Union's approach to the online gambling sector to the twenty-first century. The Commission should take action on the matter.” – Maarten Haijer , General Secretary of the EGBA
Is there a decade of change ahead for the sector at the legislative level?
