Online gambling revenue in Portugal has experienced significant growth, reaching €196.4 million in the first quarter of 2023, according to the country’s gambling regulator, SRIJ. This marks a substantial increase of 24.8 percent compared to the same period last year, surpassing the record GGR achieved in Q4 2022.
In the online sports betting sector, wagers amounting to €441.4 million contributed to a revenue of €85.7 million. Although the sports betting handle saw a slight decrease of 3.8 percent compared to Q4, it exhibited a promising year-on-year growth of 19.5 percent. Football accounted for the majority of bets at 70.6 percent, followed by basketball and tennis. Additional online betting activities reached a total of €2.97 billion in bets.
Meanwhile, land-based gambling revenue generated by casinos and game machine halls amounted to €65.9 million, reflecting a year-on-year increase of 22.2 percent but a marginal decline of 1.7 percent from Q4 2022. Non-banked games, including poker tournaments and bingo, experienced significant growth with a revenue of €998,490, representing a remarkable 50.3 percent year-on-year increase. Gaming machine revenue also saw a positive uptick of 15.9 percent year-on-year, totaling €50.9 million, while banked games generated €14 million.
The SRIJ’s report further revealed that as of March 31, a total of 166,300 players were registered on Portugal’s gambling self-exclusion list, indicating an increasing awareness of responsible gambling measures in the country.
