DGA publishes first interim market figures
Danish Gambling Authority releases results for the first three months of 2012 " the first figures since the issue of licences in January " and announces projections for full-year GGR.
The Danish Gambling Authority (DGA) has published interim market figures, the first official numbers released for the market, which opened on 1 January.
Gross gaming revenues from sports betting reached 285m (£30.6m) Danish Kroner (DKK) for the quarter, while online casino drew in DKK185m, for a total online GGR of DKK470m for the first three months of the market opening. This is expected to grow to DKK1.87bn for the full year, broken down into DKK1.135bn for sports and DKK735m for casino.
The DGA has only released numbers for gross gaming revenue (GGR) for the first three months of 2012, and admit that the numbers are likely to be revised over the course of the year as better communication between the regulator and operators in the market is established, along with the development of a central reporting network to monitor gaming machines.
The results are not based on exact figures, but rather on the egaming tax paid by the country’s 31 fully licensed and 7 income-restricted licensed operators. The full-year projections have been determined on the basis that revenues from Q1 will be representative of each quarter, and do not take into variables which may cause fluctuations in the market, such as the European Football Championships and the London Olympics.
GGR from the country’s land-based gambling outlets rose marginally, with revenues from the country’s 25,000 gaming terminals up 4.5% year-on-year, from DKK440m to DK460m. This was supplemented by a rise in GGR from land-based casinos, which rose 7% on 2011’s figures of 75m to 80m. As a result the DGA has projected total GGR of DKK7.5bn for the year, almost three and a half times larger than 2011’s total GGR of DKK1.7bn.
The market opened on schedule at the beginning of January despite a delay in launching NemID, the standardised Danish ID verification system, for European operators.
That same month Jens Aaløse, CEO of Danske Licens Spil, the egaming division of the country’s former monopoly, described NemID as a hindrance to operators as it was perceived as an inconvenient and inefficient method of verification by players, saying: “I’m unsure whether customers like using NemID; the online industry is driven by customer convenience, which is something we don’t feel the solution provides.” Aaløse went on to reveal that Danske Spil had pushed to have the compulsory use of NemID removed from egaming legislation, but still admitted that the market opening had “exceeded all expectations.”
While the company was unwilling to release exact figures on market share, Danske Licens Spil is said to be the market leader in online casino and poker, after its software, supplied by bwin.party, launched in January.
However, the Danish sportsbook market is thought to be much more competitive, with several operators having made high-profile acquisitions to challenge Danske Spil’s leading position. Sportingbet finalised its acquisition of sportsbooks Danbook and Scandic Bookmakers for a consideration of £8.5m in late January, while March saw Unibet and Betsson snap up competitors to build a stronger foundation in the market.
Unibet moved first, acquiring Bet24 for 13.5m in a deal which CEO Henrik Tjärnström described as a move “to close the gap” on Danske Spil. This was followed by Betsson’s 65m takeover of Nordic Gaming Group, again to boost sportsbook revenues.
At the time CEO Magnus Silfverberg said: “Betsson’s brand portfolio is strengthened significantly within the betting segment, as NGG receives approximately fifty percent of its revenues from sportsbook.”