Industry News
From strength to strength, Ivo Doroteia, CEO of Sportingtech, looks at the growing prominence of Portugal’s betting market


Ivo Doroteia, CEO of Sportingtech, looks at the growing prominence of Portugal’s betting market and the country’s prospects for becoming an established presence in Europe
The Portuguese market is one that has often operated in the shadow of its neighbor, Spain. With good reason: a much larger country, it possesses a player base that dwarfs Portugal’s and has always historically been further ahead in terms of regulating online gambling.
Prospects for a narrowing of the gap between the two came following the introduction of a regulated online framework in 2015, though optimism for positive change in Portugal was initially met with skepticism in equal measure. The naysayers were inevitably proved wrong; today, market growth is clear to see, with several high-profile operators performing well in the region, even in comparison to other, much larger European countries.
From my perspective, this was expected – Portugal’s land-based industry has always been robust, with bricks-and-mortar casinos consistently displaying good numbers for the likes of lottery and bingo, and the renaissance of sports betting is just another string to the market’s bow.
These past 18 months have seen a dramatic shift in fortunes for the Portuguese market – figures from Q4 2020 onwards show strong growth for gambling in the country, with sports betting leading the charge. The growth can be attributed to a number of factors, including Covid-induced lockdowns benefiting the shift from land-based to online and a changing of fiscal policies in 2020 removing the higher rates of tax for betting and gaming.
Whatever the cause, it is clear today that the presence of top-tier industry players now makes Portugal an extremely attractive proposition indeed, and no one is better positioned to take advantage of this fact than Sportingtech, with its extensive knowledge of the market and varied range of leading sports betting platforms.
Portugal is a country with sports at its heart, and now it has an effective means to bet on it. Questions have been raised about the long-term viability of this growth, some suggesting that a post-lockdown world will revert to type, with land-based betting once again taking precedent.
I disagree with this sentiment – the ingredients for sustained success are very much present in Portugal and I see no reason to suggest that this market will be anything other than a bastion for sports betting on the worldwide stage. The difficult battle, acquisition, has already been won – retention is now the market’s key directive. Sportingtech’s Quantum platform is expertly placed to assist in this – Quantum Power, for instance, is designed to improve and boost both player acquisition and retention and is a fully localized product, featuring open APIs for full integration and customization.
The sharp increase in numbers will level out in time, but this is to be expected. What the market must do to future-proof the progress it has made is provide stability with robust and scalable platforms. This, combined with high-quality content and good UI/UX, will provide a workable framework for a continuation of current trends. This would, in turn, attract even more tier-one operators who, once established with a tried-and-true platform like Quantum, could fuel the second wave of growth.
Online gambling in Portugal has now established itself, and emphatically so. While proceeding with caution, the market must take constructive steps to solidify its position as a potential cornerstone of the European industry. Putting faith in the platforms that have already proved they are worthy of fuelling growth, such as Quantum, is one such step. The stage is set for this market to truly make its mark on the betting industry: underestimate it at your peril.
Industry News
Dallmeier Shortlisted for the European Casino Awards 2023

Dallmeier, an expert in video technology for casinos, has been shortlisted in two categories for the upcoming European Casino Awards 2023, its Panomera W8 360° cameras as “Best new innovative product” and Casino Automation Technology CAT as “Best table gaming product”.
The Panomera W8 is a 360° camera with 4K resolution ensuring complete 360° coverage without a “blind spot” below the camera. Six sensors are arranged in a circle, a seventh sensor covers the overall scene and an eighth sensor captures the blind spot below the camera. From these eight images, the software then stitches a complete image of the half-sphere around the camera location that has been captured without gaps. Within this overview image, multiple operators can open any number of detail areas with a mouse-click and zoom in and move around in these areas as if it was a PTZ cam.
Casino operators who use such systems report that they regularly reduce the time needed from the detection of an incident to the resolution – e.g., by catching an offender – by a factor of up to 10 or more.
Furthermore, the overall costs for monitoring the gaming floor are reduced. Although the costs per camera are higher than a PTZ system, far fewer cameras need to be installed. The resulting savings in installation, infrastructure, and maintenance as well as in operation itself outweigh the additional costs for the cameras themselves.
Industry News
Gaming Innovation Group: Share issue

Reference is made to the announcement from Gaming Innovation Group Inc. (GiG) on 15 December 2022 regarding the acquisition of casino affiliate websites Askgamblers.com, Johnslots.com, Newcasinos.com and several smaller domains from Catena Media Plc.
As stated in the announcement, GiG will finance part of the initial consideration through a share issue and the Board of Directors has approved commitments of EUR 10.2 million from a group of investors to finance the equity part of the acquisition. Pursuant to agreed terms, the share price has been set to NOK 25.61, which represent a discount of 2.6% from the volume-weighted average share price for the GiG share so far in 2023.
4,267,112 new shares will be issued, and the number of outstanding shares will increase by 3.5%, from 122,786,526 to 127,053,638. The new shares are expected to be issued and admitted to trading next week and will be issued under the Company’s 150,000,000 authorized shares.
Closing of the acquisition is expected by end of January 2023.
Industry News
Euromat Adds Spain to its Growing Membership

The European federation of gaming machine trade associations, Euromat, has added Spain to its membership.
The organisation has welcomed the Club de Convergentes as its 14th country member. Novomatic, Merkur, Zitro, Aristocrat and Bally Wulff are among the Club de Convergentes’ members.
Euromat now covers 11 countries and has nine corporate members. Last year it added Serbia and three new corporates into its membership.
Bernhard Teuchmann, president of the Club de Convergentes, said: “Joining Euromat and collaborating more closely with our colleagues across Europe reflects our desire to continue to grow our sector responsibly and ensure that we have the best possible offer for our customers.
“We want to play our role in helping to raise the standards for our industry across Europe and learn from the experience of others.”
Euromat president Jason Frost said: “Having the Club de Convergentes in Euromat is a vote of confidence in our association and its capacity to benefit its members.
“The Club de Convergentes shares our belief that our industry is stronger when working together to share knowledge and expertise, while always making the case with policymakers for a better business environment.”
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