Portugal’s regulated online betting and gaming market recorded strong growth during the first half of 2020, despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports betting.
Portugal’s regulatory body SRIJ published the results of licensed online gambling for the first half of 2020. Online gambling reportedly earned €139m, a 44% rise compared to €96m for the same period in 2019.
Total wagers increased by 62.5 per cent to €2.53bn in H1, with sports betting wagers down 1.5 per cent to €239.9m, offset by a 74 per cent increase in online casino wagers to €2.29bn.
Online casino GGR grew significantly, climbing 74 per cent to €83.7m, of which 70 per cent was derived from slots and 12 per cent from French roulette. A further 10 per cent of total GGR came from poker, 8 per cent from blackjack, with French Banca contributing the remaining 2 per cent.
There were 287,800 new player registrations during the period, an increase of 27 per cent versus a year ago. The highest number of players recorded was in March with 60,000 and the greatest dip in the player count was in May with 33,500.
The SRIJ also stated that despite being relatively new, the country’s online gaming market proved to be capable, and able to “resist and adapt” during a time of enormous change as June saw the market return to pre-pandemic levels of activity.
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