Something is happening with the online gambling culture in Portugal. If you look at the revenue stats, it’s clear that it’s expanding. The numbers from Q2 are record-breaking. When you compare it with last year’s numbers, there's an increase in numbers across the board. It’s not only online gambling that’s rising, but land-based gambling as well.
It’s quite the record Portugal presents on their online gambling revenue in Q2, 2023. Compared to last year’s Q2, which was €145.2 million, this year’s €205.9 million is very impressive. It’s also an increase of almost 5% from Q1 which was also a record-breaking number. The numbers for online gambling include a number of online activities such as casino games and sports betting. Games of chance accounted for an impressive €122 million of the total amount. It was an increase of more than 50% from last year. For sports betting, its total revenue reached €84 million. This is also an increase of almost 30% from last year.
The by far most popular sport to bet on in Portugal was football. Football accounted for no less than 68.4% of the total sports bets in Q2 of 2023. The next most popular sport to bet on is tennis which accounted for 20.1%. Basketball was 7.4% and 4.1% were other sports. So, there’s no doubt that it’s football that the Portuguese are betting on on platforms like Betway and others. This is not only the case for Portugal but a general tendency that football is the most popular sport to be betting on. This also means that the betting sites offer a broad selection of football odds for bettors to choose from. Today, it’s possible to find almost every football game on online platforms.
Land-based gambling revenue also rose in Q2
It may come as a surprise for some that it wasn’t only online gambling that experienced growth in Q2, so did land-based gambling too. It’s obviously not reaching the heights of online gambling but it’s still on the rise. In Q2, the revenue amounted to €66.8 million. This was an increase of 6.8% from last year. Almost all this revenue came from slot machines alone. It’s not only in Portugal that slot machines are by far the most popular type of casino game – that’s a global fact. The total amount for slot machines was €49.6 million out of the €66.8 million. €17.2 million came from bingo and casino-style games. This was also an increase of 24.4% from last year.
Portugal isn’t alone – it’s a global trend
When looking at the global numbers for gambling market size and revenue it’s the same tendency as the Portuguese gambling revenue numbers. From 2022 to 2023, the global market size grew from $44.04 billion to $702.45 billion. This is an increase of no less than 56.4%.and this type of increase isn’t expected to continue but the market in itself is expected to continue to rise at an annual growth of 8.54% until 2027.
These numbers mean that more people will begin gambling online and they will spend more on online gambling than previously which also means that a larger focus on responsible gambling is needed on a global scale. This is why many countries have already started to change their regulations on gambling. One important factor is there’s going to be higher demands from online gambling providers when it comes to ensuring the safety of their players. In many places today online gambling providers don’t have much responsibility but this is something that’s going to change.
