Online Gambling Market in Denmark Improves, Land-Based Declines

The Danish Gambling Authority, officially called, Spillemyndigheden, revealed this week the official gambling market results from the first quarter of 2019.

The numbers are showing that online gambling made an improvement compared to the same period last year…

…while land-based wagering saw a decline during Q1.

More Details on the Results

Operators licensed to offer their services in Denmark managed to generate revenue of just over DKK1.6 billion in the first three months of this year, with a modest 4.5% improvement in comparison to the first quarter of 2018.

Sports betting is still the most successful gaming vertical in Denmark…

…since its revenue came to DKK619 million in the first quarter of the year and it represents 39% of the total revenue in the state.

Although those numbers are showing that this year’s sports betting revenue was 10.4% higher than during the same time last year, it is still the lowest total the market has generated in four quarters.

Mobile apps remain the most favorite ways of online gambling with a 53.3% share of total betting revenue.

Other Sources of the Revenue

Desktop wagering came up second with 27.3%, but this form of gambling increased more than five points year-on-year. Land-based wagering ed for 21.9% of total wagering revenue…

…which is actually down almost 2.5 points year-on-year.

Online casino revenue was up 6.6% year-on-year to DKK556 million, while the total sum for the first quarter of the year was only DKK1 million higher than the market generated in the last quarter of the last year.

Online slots claimed 62.3% of the online casino revenue, followed by roulette with 14.6% and blackjack with 12%. Desktop remain the dominant online casino device gamblers are using since it was at 56.8%.

Danish revenue coming from gaming machines in arcades and restaurants fell 3.6% year-on-year to DKK346 million, which is the lowest total on record.

Also, all seven Danish land-based casinos saw their revenue decrease 10.8% to DKK83 million.

The Launch of a Whistleblower Scheme:

This week, the Danish Gambling Authority issued an official statement saying that the state had to establish a new whistleblower scheme.

This means that people who are working for licensed gambling operators from now on will have the opportunity to report to the regulator if they notice that their employee is laundering money.

It doesn’t matter if they only suspect it or if they have credible evidence…

…because the national gambling regulator would investigate each report related to the violation of gambling laws.

Blocking the Access to 25 Websites

Back in April, the regulator has also decided to block access to 25 unlicensed gaming websites.

Spillemyndigheden collaborated with the country’s telecommunications and internet service providers to block Danish customers from gaining access to 10 online gambling sites and 15 skin betting sites.

“We use our authority to block websites on an ongoing basis. We do this to protect the gaming providers who are actually authorized to offer games in Denmark, but also to protect the players,“ Spillemyndigheden director, Birgitten Sand, explained.

“Here we are focusing in particular on sites that offer skin betting, as they often target children and adolescents under the age of 18,” she added.

Source:

“Denmark gambling market a case of online gain, land-based pain”, Steven Stradbrooke, calvinayre.com, May 17, 2019.