Operator News
Uruguay – Uruguay lottery operator continues its upswing
By Phil - 28 January 2019
Betting on games managed by The National Lotteries and Quinielas (DNLQ) of Uruguay increased by 17 per cent in 2018 compared to 2017.
According to the Director of the DNLQ Luis Gama, Uruguayans gambled US$469.5 million in 2018. According to the data, on average Uruguayan players gambled more than US$1.2m on lottery games such as Cinco de Oro, Quinela, scratch cards and state run sports betting games a day.
Quiniela was the most popular game, sales for which stood at around US$160m, which made 34.2 per cent of the total. However, the winner year-on-year was Supermatch, which recorded bets of US$93.8 million a 78 per cent increase, according to Uruguayan newspaper El Observador. After Supermatch came Cinco de Oro with US$85m which increased by 18 per cent, followed by Tómbola (US$82.5m), Raspadita (US$26.5m) and the Lottery (US$21.1m).
The growth of sports betting on Supermatch was down to Uruguay’s success in the World Cup which had been a key factor according to the official. The DNLQ had expected a higher volume of bets for the year, but the final amount had exceeded expectations. This year will see a number of improvements with games being fine tuned with the board hoping for steady growth for this year.
Supermatch, which went live in October 2005, is the first and only officially sanctioned sports betting site in Uruguay. The site, which is locally run and was developed locally, allows Uruguayans to bet on a number of sporting events including football from a number of leagues around the world. However, up until recently Uruguayans had played via sites offered by off shore operators. In February 2018, Gama announced that the agency was working together with a number of different organisations to detect online gambling sites, and announced that they would be blocked. Gama said that 178 sites have been blocked so far and is moving to block 40 more in the near future.
