Online casinos drive Portugal’s gambling revenue in Q3 to a record high
The Serviço de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos (SRIJ), Portugal’s gaming regulation service, has announced a record-high revenue from online gambling in the third quarter of 2022. Riding majorly on online casinos, the industry has roped in €159.1 million in Q3. This marks a year-on-year increase of 39.3% and also surpasses the previous high of €158.5 million that was recorded earlier this year in the first quarter.
Sports betting was most frequent on the country’s top football league, the Primera Liga. ©Nidia Piza/Unsplash
The regulator confirmed that 15 operators were granted licenses for either online gambling or online sports betting, or both, on September 30, 2022. Twenty-six licenses were approved for the 15 operators who entered the Portuguese gambling market. All 15 operators applied for online gambling licenses, whilst 11 of them also applied for online sports betting ones. The revenue recorded for online gambling in the third quarter of 2022 was 8.6% higher than the revenue recorded in the second quarter of 2022.
There was a spike in the Special Online Gambling Tax (IEJO) in Q3 of 2022. The total value gained from this tax sat at €50.3 million, which was approximately €10.3 million more than the tax value of the third quarter of last year. Between the second and third quarters of 2022, new player registrations went up by 17.5%. Simultaneously, the SRIJ said, the responsible gambling sector also saw the self-excluded players list grow by 7.7% between Q2 and Q3 of 2022.
Total revenue coming in from online gambling and online sports betting in Q3 of 2022 was reported to be €44.9 million higher than the corresponding period last year. The sector roped in 56.5% of the revenue from online gambling, while 43.5% came in via online sports betting. According to the report, gross revenues were up by €12.6 million in Q3 of 2022, marking an 8.6% increase compared to the Q3 of 2021. The 8% spike in online gambling revenue has been the major reason behind this increase
European football drives sports betting revenue
Of the total sports wagers, 78% were made on football. The revenue marked a 40.1% year-on-year increase but stayed below the record high of Q1 2022. Close to 78% of bets came from several football competitions before the World Cup. Portugal’s top-tier football league Primera Liga was responsible for 11% of the total bets.
The UEFA Champions League followed closely with 10.5%, and then came the English Premier League with 6.2%. 5% of bets were placed on Spain’s La Liga, while 4.5% of wagers were related to Italy’s top-division Serie A. The second-largest portion of sports wagers came from Tennis – which made up 17.1% of the share. These sports wagering figures, however, were a 3.2% drop from the second quarter of 2022.
Spike in the number of registered and self-excluded players
New operators brought in new players, as the Authority recorded 194,700 new player registrations. In comparison to the second quarter of 2022, 29,000 more player registrations were made in Q3 of 2022. This took the total number of registered players to a record-high of 771,300.
The report found that 36.1% of the 771,300 players are exclusively betting on sports, while 29.4% concentrate on online gambling in particular, with 34.6% participating in both. As the player registration numbers increased substantially, the number of self-excluded players rose in the third quarter of 2022. Close to 138,000 out of 771,300 players chose to be self-excluded from online gambling; 7.9% of the self-excluded players picked a break period, while the remaining 92.1% took an indefinite break.
