Online Betting Market In Portugal Sets New Revenue Record

• This marked the first time that online casinos have brought in more revenue than land-based casinos in the country.
• Land-based casinos in Portugal were forced to close in March due to COVID-19.
• Portugal has ten licensed online sports betting operators and they all reported an increase in revenue in Q1.

LISBON, Portugal — The online gambling market in Portugal has set a new revenue record in Q1. Despite major sports being taken off the betting menu for more than a month and a half, the online betting market in the country has been able to flourish because land-based casinos were forced to close their doors due to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the Serviço Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos do Turismo de Portugal (SRIJ), the regulatory body in the country, licensed legal online gambling operators generated €69.8m which was €5m more than the previous record of €65.4m in Q4 of 2019.

Although most major sports leagues have been halted in Portugal, legal sports betting was still able to grow by 39.2% which generated €34.5m in revenue for the first quarter.

Total betting handle decreased 19.6% to €149.1m, but the keep on that handle was greater than quarters before which is what resulted in the revenue increase. Of the amount wagered, soccer took in the most bets with about three-fourths of bets wagered on that sport alone.

Portugal’s Premeira Liga soccer league proved to be the most popular among bettors having accumulated 11.4% of the total handle. Among strictly soccer bets it took in 15.2% of bets. Other sports that followed include Basketball which took in 11.1% of wagers, tennis gathering 9.1% of bets, and ice hockey which generated 2.5% of bets.

Of all Portuguese online gamblers, 41.2% gambled only on sports, 39.4% only on casino games and 19.4% on both.

With online betting becoming so widespread and rampant, earlier this month Portugal’s government passed Bill-326 that requires some limitations on online gambling while the country is still in lockdown. Although the government hasn’t taken any gambling sites offline, the bill laid the groundwork for restrictions to be put in place.