Danish gambling revenue declines 5.0% in Q1

The Danish Gaming Authority (Spillemyndigheden) has reported a 5.0% year-on-year decline in gambling revenue for the first quarter of 2020, days after revealing that land-based closures had not led to an increase in online play.

Total revenue across land-based and online fell to DKK1.53bn (£182.1m/€205.7m/$222.0m), and while online casino’s contribution of DKK555.1m was the second largest of all products, this was down 1.1% from Q1 2019.

The vast majority of online casino revenue came from online slots, which accounted for DKK410.5m (74.0%) of the total, up 2.5%. Roulette, however, saw revenue fall 11.1% to DKK50.3m, while blackjack’s contribution declined to DKK39.5m.

Whether this decline continues into Q2 remains to be seen, with Spillemyndigheden reporting a 2% increase in average weekly online casino revenue for the period from 9 March to 3 May. However, the regulator suggested that this may simply be an ongoing growth trend, rather than being related to lockdown, noting it increased by a larger margin from 2018 to 2019.

In fact sports betting, despite being impacted by the suspension of all major sporting events from mid-March as a result of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, was the only vertical to report growth. Revenue was up 2.6% to DKK635.1m in Q1.

This was down to mobile growth, with revenue for the channel up 9.6% to DKK329.6m. Revenue from bets placed via desktop sites fell 15.0%, while land-based betting revenue grew 2.0% to DKK209.0m.

With Denmark one of the first European countries to introduce lockdown measures, from 13 March, the land-based channels suffered the biggest declines in Q1 revenue.

Gaming machine revenue was down 20.8% year-on-year at DKK277.7m, of devices located in gaming halls contributed DKK217.2m, with the remaining DKK60.6m coming from machines hosted in restaurants.

Land-based casinos, meanwhile, saw revenue decline 20..5% to DKK66.0m.