European Gambling Revenue On The Rise
Gambling figures around Europe are looking up. France and Greece have reported strong growth in the third financial quarter this year.
The French regulator, ARJEL reported that the local industry has seen great growth. OPAP in Greece have also reported a massive jump in revenues of 64%, up from the same period last year.
France Sees Solid Growth In October
ARJEL have seen their sports betting and online poker services get the biggest boost this year with revenues topping out at $639 million. This is an impressive 23% increase in earnings in these markets. Online sports betting alone accounted for $125 million of those earnings.
Soccer is still the most popular market in French sports betting, making up a 60% share of all betting in the region. Player numbers jumped from 239 000 in 2016 to 301 000 in 2017. Horse racing has seen a 15% revenue increase as well which made up $70 million of the tax revenue for this quarter.
ARJEL credits a more streamlined range of betting products that operators have made available to their members. They also noted that improved royalty programs also played a significant role in pushing revenues for the year. Online poker saw the biggest market revenue rise in 6 years. Revenues increased by 11%.
Greek Revenues Grow Impressively
Greece’s OPAP revealed a massive 64% revenue jump for the third quarter of 2017. This follows the delivery nationwide of long promised Video Lottery Terminals. Profits have leapt by more than $20 million compared to the same period last year. Gross revenue jumped 12% to $421 million. OPAP also cited the reversal of litigation provisions, which helped raise profits by $18 million.
Of course the biggest contributing factor to the great third quarter figures is of course the delivery of 5297 video betting terminals to venues across the country. There is a 12% gross revenue increase that can be attributed to the introduction of these terminals. These new figures come just as the government mulls plans to limit the amount of, or wager limits on these terminals. It is clear that they definitely generate a lot of state revenue for Greece.
The original plan was for 35 000 of these VLT’s to be installed across the country but lawmakers are pushing to limit the terminals to only 10 000. OPAP have a monopoly on gaming in Greece, making them Europe’s 4th biggest betting operator. They offer services in more than 5000 shops around the country
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