COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s gambling revenues were significantly boosted by online gambling in 2016, according to yearly figures tabulated by the nation’s gambling regulator.
Danish gambling regulator Spillemyndigheden called the expansion of online casino operations the key to facilitating a national year-on-year increase in gross gaming revenue (GGR) for 2016, with all vertical performance providing a telling profile of the Danish market.
The final tally shows online gambling and sports betting at a cumulative total of US$5.3 billion for 2016, representing a 13 percent year-on-year increase from 2015’s final totals. This compares well against the 6% overall increase the gambling industry registered in year-on-year growth to US$1.2 billion (US$1.1 billion in 2015).
Online casino take shined the most brightly, growing 24 percent in 2016 to approximately US$200 million.
The most popular form of online play in Denmark was online slots play, accounting for 72 percent of all online gaming operations in the potentially lucrative Scandinavian jurisdiction. At the same time, land-based operations did fall 3 percent in GGR from gaming machines in halls to US$213 million, with casino operations overall nonetheless growing a very decent 8.5 percent to US$54 million.
Sports betting continued to impress as well. Research figures showed a jump of 8.8% more year-on-year despite a relatively flat fourth quarter, with online betting response.
Another performance of note was the slight Q4 improvement of online poker, coming back from a worst-ever quarterly performance in Q3 that still could only remove slight sting from the 10% plus drop in full-year GGR.
The main thing that stands out is that Denmark players have their specific preferences, but show an overall willingness to go online without hurting the land/based market. Land/based and online play look set to grow, with online pay contributing an increasingly larger slice of GGR in coming quarters and years.
