Portugal’s online gambling market once again broke records in the first quarter of 2020, it has been revealed.
Statistics shared by the country’s national regulator showed a 47.5% rise in iGaming revenue for the three months leading up to 31st March.
Q1 2020 was also the first time that online gambling generated more revenue than its land-based companion.
Key figures for online betting
Total online gaming revenue for the first quarter of this year stood at €69.8 million. This was slightly higher than Q4 2020’s figure, which was €65.4 million.
Casino accounted for the majority of this, with €35.3 million coming from related games. Meanwhile, sports betting contributed €35.5 million. Within this vertical, that highlighted a 39.2% quarterly growth percentage.
Sports betting revenue growth was in spite of a 19.6% decline in the amount that players wagered (€149.1 million). 11.4% of bets were placed on the Portuguese Superliga, which is the country’s main footballing division.
Football was the most popular overall sport to wager on, with 74.7% of money being spent here. Basketball was the second-most popular, at 11.1%. Tennis and ice hockey were third and fourth on the list.
Player behaviours
€960.8 million was wagered in total through casinos, signalling a growth of 12.7% compared to Q4 2019. 69.8% of that was placed on slots, with roulette (12.6%) second and blackjack (6.4%) third.
New online players in all verticals rose by 25.8% to 157,400, though self-exclusions also went up by 47.1% – reaching 52,100.
25-34 continued to be the largest age group, taking up 38.4% of the share – compared to 33.3% at the end of last year.
Players in Portugal aged between 18 and 24 dropped from 29.9% to 23.3%. Taking its place in second was the 35-44 age bracket, with 23.8% of players falling into this category.
41.2% of Portuguese players betted just on sports in Q1 2020, with 39.4% committed to just casino and 19.4% spending some cash on both.
