Portuguese online gambling revenue reaches €65.4m in Q4

Online gambling revenue in Portugal amounted to €65.4m (£55.6m/$72.3m) in the fourth quarter of 2019, with national gambling regulator Serviço Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos do Turismo de Portugal (SRIJ) noting growth across all areas of the market.

Revenue for the three months through to 31 December 2019 was up 52.1% year-on-year from €43.0m in the final quarter of 2018. Q4 also represented the eighth consecutive quarter in which the market set a new revenue record, surpassing the previous high of €54.1m in Q3.

Sports betting revenue for the quarter amounted to €33.4m, up by 55.0% on the previous year. Consumers wagered a total of €185.3m, an increase of 67.5% from Q4 of 2018.

Football was the most popular sport to bet on in Q4, accounting for 74.6% of all wagers in the period. Basketball followed in a distant second with 13.3%, then tennis on 6.3%.

Meanwhile, revenue from online games of chance revenue also increased 49.1% year-on-year to €32.0m, while the amount spent by players on such games rose by 47.9% to €852.2m.

Slots were responsible for 69.0% of all online casino bets in Q4, some way ahead of French roulette on 13.6% and poker with a 9.4% share of the market.

A total of 12 approved operators were active in the Portuguese market in Q4, compared to nine in the same period last year. The operators held 20 licences between them, nine of which covered sports betting, with 11 for games of chance.

Licensed operators paid a total of €35.8m in online gambling tax during Q4, an increase of 67.4% on the previous year.

Some 163,900 new account registrations were recorded in the fourth quarter, up from 103,500 in the same period in 2018, while it was also revealed that a total of 390,400 people placed online wagers during the period.

Meanwhile, the SRIJ published figures for the country’s land-based sector, with overall revenue for the market down 0.8% year-on-year to €80.6m.

Gaming machines were the most popular form of land-based gambling during Q4, accounting for €66.1m of total revenue, though this was down 3.5% on the same period in 2018.

Table games revenue was up 15.5% year-on-year to €13.6m, but poker and bingo revenue was down 10.1% to €991,190.