Spillemyndigheden has released its ‘2020 Danish Gambling Report’, revealing that lottery sales continue to overshadow all other verticals, contributing over one-third of the market’s gambling revenue.
The regulator’s report also noted that online casinos achieved a greater market share than sports betting for the first time, with its revenues amounting to DKK 2,453m (€330m) representing a market share of 27%, whilst sports betting accounted for 25% of the sector’s overall income.
However, both verticals were dominated by lottery sales, which totalled 35% of the Danish gambling market’s overall revenue in 2020 with a BSI of DKK 3,205m (€431m).
The changes were largely attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced land-based casinos and gaming halls to close, and the postponement of international and domestic sporting events, leading to a notable downturn for associated gaming verticals.
Land-based casinos and slot games were the hardest hit, amounting to 2% and 11% of the total Danish gambling sector respectively.
In total, the BSI for the Danish gaming industry reached DKK 9.2bn (€1.2bn), a decrease of more than DKK 600m (down 6%) when compared with 2019 results. However, BSI is still far ahead of previous years figures, as industry tracking from 2012 to 2019 saw the figure grow by almost DKK 2bn, reflecting a combined increase of 25%.
Concerning the wider Danish economy, which also grew between 2012 and 2020, Spillemyndigheden notes that gambling consumption has ‘accounted for almost the same share’ in the national economy during this period, remaining stable at between 0.39% and 0.43%.
A noteworthy change during this time was a consumer transition away from traditional land-based casinos towards emerging online verticals. In 2012, land-based gaming represented over 40% of BSI in comparison to online gaming, which accounted for 20%.
However, by 2020, online gaming accounted for over 45% of BSI, whilst land-based verticals stood at just over 30%. Although COVID-19 had a significant impact on this, online gaming came close to equalling its land-based counterpart in 2017, before finally overtaking it in 2018, and has remained the more prominent of the two verticals ever since.
In comparison to other European markets, Denmark was in the top 10 in terms of the most money spent per adult in 2020, standing in seventh place, but in comparison to other Nordic markets, the sector lagged.
Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland all had a higher consumption than Denmark for 2020, with Norway reporting the highest overall consumption at DKK 2,594 per adult, just over 500 more than its Danish neighbour.
Additionally, the Spillemyndigheden has also offered a breakdown of responsible gaming statistics, revealing that by the end of 2020 over 26,115 players were registered with the Danish Gaming Authority’s Register of Voluntarily Excluded Players (ROFUS), an increase of over 24,000 since 2012.
Furthermore, over 76% of self-excluded players were men whilst 24% were women since the creation of ROFUS, a trend that continued in 2020. However, the number of relatives and professionals who contacted the ‘StopSpillet’ gambling addiction advice forum stood at 512, a decline from the 728 inquiries received in 2019.
