APAJO Expects Sports Betting Revenues in Portugal to Reduce by 75%

Due to the new Coronavirus causing danger to the health and livelihood of our society, sporting events all over the world are being cancelled and postponed causing major economic problems for the Portuguese sports betting world.

And as sporting and competition events are crucial for the sports betting industry, revenues will now, unfortunately, reach a crucial fall of an estimated 75%, according to APAJO. Once football matches and other sports events resume, wetten.com/pt/ expects betting volumes in the country to recover back to normal fairly quickly.

Ripple Effect on the Global Economy

Now, with a lot of countries going in complete lockdown, the harsh effects of the virus will have an even bigger impact on the international economy.

As the only way, you can operate a business and make a living is if you are providing an essential service or selling essential products, these businesses are also limited by what they can trade. They can only trade essential products and nothing else, which is also causing non-essential service providers and product manufacturers to be affected by the dire economic consequences of the virus.

Great Losses for Sports Betting

With all sports competitions, including EURO2020, being cancelled all over the world, the online betting sector has suffered great losses. With no clear prospects of a full recovery soon according to APAJO (Portuguese Association of Online Gambling), players should be concerned as steps will be put in place for recovery in due course.

Associates of APAJO have warned that in March the online sports betting have suffered a loss in the region of 70%-75%, which can escalate to 100% during the month of April, due to sporting competitions and events being cancelled and postponed.

Gabino Oliveira (The President of APAJO) also stressed the fact that limitations will be much larger in Portugal as the Coronavirus has hit the country very seriously.

Betting Sector in Portugal At Risk

In addition to suggestions already announced, the proactivity of operators, regulator and government will determine the survival of this recently added sector and its job opportunities in Portugal. As the sector has only been active in Portugal now for under 4 years, major steps will have to be put in place to ensure future growth and stability to get the sector back to its strength.

The Silver Lining

With the gaming sector being a very important part of Portugal’s tourism industry, there is some hope, with €3 billion packages already being approved in Portugal for the economy, there are at least some positive views.

The gambling industry in Portugal employs thousands of workers, so these measures are important to in order to provide a safety net for operators, both online and offline.

Curbing Illegal Gambling

Also, a very important factor to be considered is the dangers of illegal gambling, as it may attract players in this time when all sporting competitions and events are cancelled or postponed. Illegal gambling operators should not be benefitting from this epidemic as it would weaken the economy of the legal sector even more. It is therefore imperative that measures are put in place to curb illegal practices and for regulators to continue pressuring illegal activity.

These operators not paying taxes to the government or providing safety towards gamblers could also be very dangerous to local players as well as tourists interested in Portugal’s gaming and safety overall.