Interactive
Portugal – Online gaming on the rise again in Portugal
By Phil - 2 November 2017
The online gambling market in Portugal is on the rise once more thanks largely to an increase in football sports betting.
According to figures published by the regulatory body Serviço de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos (SRIJ) last week, revenue experienced a rise compared to the second quarter of just over 21 per cent in the three months ending September 30.
This was good news for the industry after the online sector experienced a drop of almost 20 per cent from the first to the second quarter of 2017. Gross income during the second quarter of this year, reached €25.4m or about €6m less than the first quarter. However, during the 3rd quarter the online market saw a trend towards gross revenue growth, which stood at €29.3m approximately €4m more than the previous quarter – a 15.6 per cent increase.
Football betting for the quarter amounted to 78 per cent of the total of the sports betting market followed by tennis (13.8 per cent) basketball (6.6 per cent) while other sports betting games made up the remaining 1.9 per cent. Revenue for online sports betting stood at €16.3m compared to €13.9m in the second quarter.
In the three months ending September 30 gross revenue for casino games stood at €13.1m compared to €11.4 m the second quarter. Online cash poker accounted for 22.09 per cent of market share, tournament poker made up 7.55 per cent, blackjack 9.11, French roulette 19.27 while slot machines made up the lion’s share accounting for 41.95 per cent.
In the third quarter of this year, there were 82,400 new player registrations. This was higher than the second quarter of this year when the number of new registrations stood at 64,400.
However, there was little change to player demographics when compared to the previous quarter. As of September 30, players aged between 25 and 44 accounted for 61.8 per cent of all registered players, with the predominant group being aged between 25 to 34 (almost 40 per cent). For the same period, individuals between the ages of 18 and 24 accounted for 27.8 per cent of the total of registered players, which was slightly lower than in the previous quarter.
