New Figures Show How Online Gambling Continues to Grow in Portugal

Whether they’re playing casino games on their mobile during the morning commute, having a flutter while watching the big match or even taking their first steps into betting on the ever-growing world of eSports, it seems a huge number of people across the world are embracing online gambling as a pastime at the moment.

The activity appears to be in such rude health at present and the development of online services in recent decades has undoubtedly boosted its availability. This has taken it from an offline pastime enjoyed by those prepared to venture to “land-based” outlets to a whole new level, where anyone can access it at any time and from anywhere. However, if there is one continent where it appears to be thriving more than ever, it is probably in Europe.

A major impact

Research released by the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) at the end of last year undoubtedly put a spotlight on this issue, with the organisation revealing that its members had more than 12 million active customers in 2017. It also found that while online gambling had a 20.7 per cent share of total EU gambling activity, this figure is expected to grow to almost 25 per cent by 2020.

In terms of the most popular forms of the pastime, sports betting led the way with casino games following just behind. Other notable activities included lottery, poker and bingo, while overall the economic size of the online sector in the EU is expected to reach €24.7 billion by 2020. These numbers are somewhat staggering.

The EGBA study is undoubtedly eye-opening and highlights the huge impact that the gambling industry has had in Europe in recent years, but more recent figures have brought the spotlight onto the state of play in one country in particular – Portugal.

Growing in popularity

Online gambling has only been available in the country for a few years, but it has quickly grown to become very popular. A site like casino.pt is a good example of this, as it shows the sheer range of online casino sites operating in Portugal and provides information and reviews on the services that they provide. The spread of such sites perhaps contributes to the popularity increase, offering bettors a fast way of finding reliable platforms.

Now, if new figures are to be believed, it looks like these sites are all doing pretty well at the moment. The statistics from the Serviço Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos do Turismo de Portugal (at srij.turismodeportugal.pt) have revealed that the country’s online gambling market enjoyed its best-ever quarterly performance at the start of this year, generating revenues of more than €47 million in the three-month period which ended on March 31st.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

More than half of the revenue was specifically generated by betting, with football accounting for almost 75 per cent of online wagering. This put the sport well ahead of its nearest rivals including basketball and tennis. In terms of gaming, revenues were up to €22.6 million with gaming machines – or slots – accounting for more than 63 per cent of that. Trailing behind were other games such as online roulette and blackjack.

An intriguing time

The online gambling market appears to be thriving in Europe at the moment and these new figures concerning Portugal only seem to reinforce that fact. Revenues in the country have seen a significant jump in the past 12 months and all eyes will be on whether it can ultimately keep up this pace in the months and years ahead. It is undoubtedly an intriguing time for the industry and it will be interesting to see just what comes next.