Sports betting boosts Portugal’s Q4-2017 figures

The Portuguese online gambling regulator Serviço Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos do Turismo de Portugal (SRIJ) has released Q4-2017 financials in respect of online gambling, revealing that revenues rose Euro 10 million compared with Q4-2016 to reach Euro 36.5 million.

Online sports betting accounted for much of the increase at Euro 20.5 million (26 percent up on the same period in 2016) despite government’s harsh 12 percent tax on turnover for the vertical.

Seven licensed operators are supervised by the regulator, and the fourth quarter numbers bring total revenues from online gambling for 2017 to Euro 122.6 million. Portugal is notorious for its punitive online tax regime, and the government will make a total of Euro 54.3 million from the operators – a significant 44.2 percent cut.

In FY 2017 terms, online sports betting revenues contributed 55.5 percent of all revenues at Euro 68.1 million.

Football generated the most betting revenue at 76 percent, with tennis and basketball distant favourites with the punters.

The online casino and poker vertical in Q4 delivered Euro 16 million, bringing overall FY 2017 numbers to Euro 54.4 million.

Online slots were the stars of the show, bringing in 45 percent of the vertical’s revenue and trailed by online poker cash games (19.7 percent). Online poker tournament action generated just 6.7 percent of revenues.

During Q4-2017 Portuguese-licensed operators attracted 132,000 new online punters, boosting the number of registered players in the market to 800,000. Self-exclusions in the quarter totalled 17,600 or 2.2 percent of those registered.

Related and similar