Europe’s online gambling market grew 11% in 2018 – new data confirms
11.12.2019
Europe’s online gambling market grew 11% – from €20 billion gross gaming revenue (GGR)[1] in 2017 to €22.2 billion GGR in 2018 – according to market data published today by the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) in partnership with H2 Gambling Capital. The data confirms the ongoing popularity of online gambling in the EU.
According to the new data, covering the 2018 market year, EGBA members had 16.5 million active customers and generated €5.41 billion in online gambling GGR – accounting for 24% of the total EU online gambling market.
The annual data collection includes data on the overall EU online gambling market and EGBA member companies – including information about their market value, payments, games, sports, customers, licensing and compliance.
EGBA represents bet365, Betsson Group, GVC Holdings PLC, Kindred Group PLC, MRG, and ZEAL Network, who combined had a total of 121 online gambling licenses across 20 EU countries.
Online gambling share grows
The data confirms a record-high online gambling share of the EU’s total gambling market, with online gambling activity generating €22.2 billion GGR, accounting for 23.2% of the total EU gambling market – up from a 21.2% share in 2017.
The UK market (34.2%) accounted for the largest portion of the total EU online gambling market, with a market value of €7.3 billion GGR.
Meanwhile, offline gambling (lotteries, casinos, bookmaker shops, etc) had a total GGR of €73.5 billion, accounting for 76.8% of the overall EU gambling market. The total EU gambling market value was €95.7 billion GGR.
Sports betting leads the way
Sports betting was the most popular online gambling activity with 42.5% of the total EU market share (worth €9.4 billion GGR), followed by casino games at 32.4% (€7.2 billion GGR), lottery at 12.6% (€2.8 billion GGR), poker at 5% (€1.1 billion GGR), bingo at 4.3% (€1 billion GGR), and other games with a 3.2% market share (€0.7 billion GGR).
Customers go mobile
57% of online bets were placed from a desktop computer, while 43% of online bets were placed from phones and tablets – up from 39% in 2017 and highlighting a shift towards the use of mobile devices.
“Europe’s online gambling market continues to show a strong demand-driven growth and a switch to mobile devices. But its increased popularity reinforces the need for more consistent and strong consumer protections and industry standards across all EU countries. The current situation of diverging and sometimes conflicting regulations in EU countries is detrimental to consumers, authorities and operators alike,” said Maarten Haijer, Secretary General of EGBA.
The full 2018 market data can be found here.
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[1] Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) for companies is the difference between the net profit (the amount players wager minus the amount they win) and costs.
