The gambling market during the pandemic, has taken a hit due to the decline of trade from traditional brick and mortar casinos. As feared, the online gambling market was not enough to recuperate the losses from land-based facilities, with overall European iGaming revenue figures plummeting by 23%.
Despite the chaos, growth and regeneration within the market is expected as online gambling is continuously evolving. The new betting sites 2021 have already been introduced for the new year and the word is out amongst the gambling community, that things are not slowing down just yet.
Data published by the European Gaming Betting Association has released formal statements with comparing figures from the gross gaming revenue from 2019 and 2020. During the year 2019 (pre-COVID), the year ended with €98.6 billion, whereas the commencing and current year 2020 is expected to end with €75.9 billion, solely due to the catastrophe caused by the pandemic.
Data from the EU and UK markets have projected that the quarter will end with a 7% increase at almost 2 billion, even though there was a dramatic drop to the previous second Q2 from the cancellations of sporting events internationally. Meaning, sports betting was the industry that took a hit amongst gambling-online and offline industries. Offline and land based revenues have shown significant losses, with the end of the quarter expecting a total of 33% decrease from the previous years and €24.5 billion. This has been explained due to the lack of consistency when it comes to opening times for bookmakers and casinos in general all across the country, due to social distancing and governmental regimes in place.
Even though online gambling was not able to make up for all the declines that offline gambling had, there has been considerable growth that is commendable and many would say that without the presence of online gambling-mobile gambling specifically, the situation at the end of the quarter could have been much worse. The online gambling market is expected to show consistent growth and predicted to take over the global revenue for gambling by a further 33.6% by the end of 2025. Mobile betting and gambling is expected to make further progress than that of online gambling as a whole, with expectations of it amassing an empire of 50.8% of the entire industry by 2022 and 58.2% for 2025 respectively.
Further market data from EGBA highlights all the growth, habits, regulatory compliance and safety efforts made by the industry’s biggest names, such as Bet365, William Hill, Betsson Group etc. In terms of safety, 37% more of the gambling community this year had opted to use safer gambling tools, with an actual 1.2 million intervention schemes by online betting platforms (50% more than the previous year) having taken place this year 2020. Further positive news circulating the gambling community includes a further 145 new gambling licenses that have also been authorised across 17 locations within Europe.
The EGBA officially released a statement on all the data released, saying how they commend the support to increase awareness for safe online gambling, from all the reputable platforms across Europe. The successful growth line projected for online gambling has a direct correlation to COVID and the increasing number of more people being at home due to the pandemic. Therefore, ensuring player safety and sustainability in a time where many are exposed to gambling more often, is an imperative focus now more than ever.
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