Analysis: Denmark and Italy lead way in dot.country switch
Both regulated markets capturing more than 80% of national online spend
The Danish and Italian regulated online gaming markets are both providing a successful argument for dot.country regulation, with both now capturing more than 80% of online gambling spend.
According to eGaming Review‘s data partner H2 Gambling Capital, the introduction of the dot.dk market drove up total Danish player gambling gross win by nearly 20% to DKK9.51bn (1.28bn) in 2012. This means more than 80% of the country’s interactive market is expected to captured by the onshore scheme during 2013.
Meanwhile in Italy the dot.it market has benefited from the recent launch of interactive slots and is expected to grow from 735m to approximately 910m this year. This accounts for 86% of total Italian online revenues with interactive channels accounting for just over 6% of the total value of the nation’s total gambling spend.
Denmark’s relatively low tax rate at 20% of gross win for all products, plus international liquidity, all major product verticals and no other major product restrictions have all gone to ensure not just a strong start but continued growth in all but the seasonally slow third quarter.
This sustained growth story has been similar to Italy’s first year of dot.country, where the aggregated value of the market’s fifth quarter was 39% higher than the first. Tournament poker for instance, arriving in September 2008, was 2.26 times bigger in its fifth full quarter than it had been in its first.
Bingo, launched in December 2008, was 1.36 times bigger though later products such as casino tables and cash poker “ both launched July 2011 “ saw comparable performances of 50% growth and a 34% fall.
In comparison, France’s dot.fr market has suffered from stunted growth due to the relatively high taxation rate “ particularly for betting “ as well as the limited product verticals and the tight technical regulations.
The fifth quarter of dot.fr operations saw a total gross win from sports betting and poker of 104m, 7% lower than in the market’s first full quarter, even though the market opened in Q3, the slowest of the year.
Excluding state lottery products, the dot.fr market is expected to grow from 707m to approximately 715m this year. This is expected to account for 65% of total French online spend with interactive channels accounting for just over 12% of the total value of the nation’s total gambling revenues.
The dot.es market in Spain, at first glance, shows the most promise of all the onshore regulation markets, with recent 42% quarter-on-quarter growth.
While H2 is yet to analyse the data for the third quarter of the dot.es market, it expects to see the growth rates fall back considerably as the market, as was the case in France, commenced during the slowest time of the year for interactive gambling.
It is expected the dot.es market, excluding state lottery products, will grow from 117m to approximately 315m in 2013 and will account for 75% of the nation’s total interactive gambling spend. In turn, online gambling is expected to account for just under 6% of Spain’s total gambling market in the current year.