Annual Gambling Revenue in Denmark spikes in 2022
The Danish Gambling Authority, Spillemyndigheden, recently published a positive report of its fourth quarter which recorded a 4.5 percent year-on-year increase after generating a gross gaming revenue (GGR) of DKK 1,762 million from online casinos, sports betting, gaming machines, and land-based casinos. The positive Q4 report comes in weeks after the Danish Regulator recorded significant spikes in three out of four gambling segments in the country in the monthly overview of December 2022.
Annual gambling revenues spiked in Denmark in 2022
?Nick Karvounis/Unsplash
The GGR in the fourth quarter of 2021 was DKK 1,686 million. Exactly a year later, the gambling market has roped in an additional DKK 76 million, confirming a 4.5 percent rise. The annual revenue rose from DKK 6.2 billion in 2021 to DKK 6.7 billion in 2022. In the fourth quarter, 43.8 percent of the GGR came from Online Casinos. The segment roped in the highest amount of all four segments after closing the quarter at DKK 770 million, recording a 6.5 percent rise. In the entire year of 2022, Online Casinos generated DKK 2.90 billion in revenue, marking a 3.2 percent year-on-year spike.
Sports Betting Rises in Popularity
The second biggest segment of the quarter was Sports Betting, which was responsible for 34.4 percent of the GGR after contributing DKK 607 million. This was 2.5 percent higher than the previous quarter and could have received a slight boost because of the FIFA World Cup that took place in the last two months of 2022. The net annual revenue generated by the Sports Betting segment was DKK 2.32 billion, which was 3.9 percent higher than the GGR recorded in 2021. More than half of this revenue came via bets placed via mobile phones. 26.7 percent of the revenue was generated via retail shops, while 10.8 percent was generated via websites accessed using a computer.
Slot Machines were the third biggest segment in the Danish Gambling market as they roped in DKK 295 million and made up 16.8 percent of the quarter’s total GGR. The final figure was 3.2 percent higher than the preceding quarter. In the entire year of 2022, Slot Machines generated DKK 1.15 billion. The massive net annual revenue was 47.6 percent higher than the revenue of a pandemic-inflicted 2021. As expected, a hefty chunk of the total revenue this year from this segment was roped in via designated slot halls, while 22.7 percent came from restaurant slot machines across the country.
Finally, land-based casinos continued to perform well and roped in quarterly revenue of DKK 89 million. Despite this segment making up only 5 percent of the total revenue of the fourth quarter, it marked a 5.9 percent increase, highlighting the road to recovery for land-based casinos after the Covid-19 pandemic. This segment was able to generate a GGR of DKK 3,490 million in the entire year of 2022. Compared to 2021, this was 58.6 percent higher. The spike was rather expected because the Covid-19 restrictions impacted the 2020 and 2021 revenues. The rise marks the segment’s recovery after a tough couple of years.
Apart from the gambling revenue statistics, the Danish Gambling Authority also shed light on the numbers revolving around the country’s self-exclusion register (ROFUS). According to the published report, the total count of self-excluded players at the end of 2022 was 38,921. This sector has also noted an increase of 27.8 percent. The ROFUS gives players an option to self-exclude themselves on a temporary basis or permanently. Out of the total players registered on the platform, a little over 66 percent of the players have opted for permanent exclusion from all gambling activities in the country.
Spillemyndigheden is extremely cautious when it comes to player safety. The Gambling industry is growing at a constant pace in the Nordic state and worldwide as well. With that, the responsibilities of licensed operators, especially around player safety, are quite stringent. Hefty fines await operators who fail to comply with the code set forth by the nation’s regulator. Land-based and online gambling in Denmark is subject to taxes, with land-based operators paying a 45 percent tax on their GGR and online operators paying a variable tax rate that ranges from 20 to 28 percent, depending on the type of game they offer. These taxes help fund various social programs in Denmark, including healthcare and education.
Spillemyndigheden reported a positive monthly report earlier
A few weeks before publishing the analysis and report of its fourth quarter, the Danish Gambling Authority reported a positive monthly performance in the final month of 2022. Three out of four of the aforementioned gambling segments reported a significant increase in their monthly revenue. Surprisingly, Sports Betting was the only segment that reported a dip, whilst Online Casinos, Land-based Casinos, and Slot Machines were all reporting numbers that were higher compared to the preceding month.
In 2023, the GGR from Land-based Casinos and Slot Machines is expected to rise as more and more players head back to brick-and-mortar casinos without pandemic directives breathing down their necks. Online gambling will likely be the biggest segment for years to come in an increasingly digitised world. Pandemic or not, online gambling is expected to flourish, not just in Denmark but globally. That is where the fight against illegal operators gets intense as several gambling regulators utilise all available measures to curb the threat of unlicensed operators in their respective nations.
