Danish casino growth offsets online betting decline
Second-quarter numbers from regulatory authority SKAT shows overall GGR up more than 6% quarter-on-quarter.
Danish regulatory authority SKAT has published second-quarter numbers for the country’s fledgling egaming market, revealing a significant quarter-on-quarter revenue increase from the casino vertical.
Gross gaming revenue from the country’s online casinos rose 27% compared to the first quarter under the regulated regime, coming in at DKK235m (£25.2m), however online betting GGR dropped 7% to DKK265m. Overall, GGR from the online gambling sector rose 6% quarter-on-quarter.
SKAT anticipates the dot.dk licensees, the first of which received approval last December and began operating on 1 January, to generate DKK1.87bn across the first year of operation, with an approximate 65% to 35% split between sports betting and online casino.
Based on these calculations, online gambling is expected to contribute 24.9% of the country’s overall gambling market for the year, once lotteries, gaming machines and other offline gaming activities are taken into account.
Since the opening of the market in January, there has been a period of consolidation with a number of multi-million Kroner acquisitions involving market-leading operators since Betsson’s acquisition of Betsafe in June 2011.
In January this year Sportingbet completed its £8.5m acquisition of Danish-facing operators Danbook and Scandic, following the initial announcement of the deal in October 2011, with all three brands remaining separate.
April saw Unibet strike a 13.5m (£11.25m) agreement to acquire Bet24 from Modern Times Group, while just one week after that deal Betsson agreed a 65m purchase price for Nordic Gaming Group.
In the meantime there has also been a crackdown on unlicensed operators, with internet service provider 3 ordered to block sites belonging to 12 operators including bet-at-home and Winner.
There has also been significant progress on the part of former monopoly Danske Spil, which last year split into three divisions to meet regulatory requirements.
The operator’s online arm Danske Licens Spil launched dot.dk casino and poker offerings with bwin.party in January, leading to a 33% increase in online profits reported in last week’s interim results statement.
Last October saw Danske Spil issue a tender for an online sports betting platform, and last week OpenBet emerged as the successful bidder.