While sports betting has not yet recovered from the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) enforced sporting suspension, a robust performance from online casino meant the market grew year-on-year in May.
Total revenue across all products climbed to €169.6m, a 20.7% improvement on May 2019’s €140.4m figure.
Growth was underpinned by a stellar performance for online casino, with revenue rising 50.9% to €105.5m and beating the previous monthly record of €98.3m, set in April this year.
While PokerStars remained the market leader for online casino, its share dipped slightly from the operator’s all time high of 14.2% of revenue reported in April, to 13.9%.
Coming in second was Sisal, which accounted for 8.6% of all casino revenue, followed by third-placed Lottomatica, on 7.4%.
Lottomatica’s growth came at the expense of 888 Holdings, which fell from second place in April to fifth in May, on 6.8%. Snai experienced a month-on-month decline in market share, though from 7.2% to 7.0%.
Turning to poker tournaments, while revenue was up 128.9% year-on-year to €14.4m, it fell 30.1% from April’s €20.6m, an all-time record. Cash games revenue was also down compared to April, though its total of €8.8m represented a 74.8% increase from May 2019.
For each product, PokerStars remained the market leader by far, with no other competitors even reaching double figure shares.
May also saw the sports betting vertical begin to recover, having hit a low of €20.9m in April, at a time when all major sports were suspended as a result of Covid-19. That figure represented the lowest monthly total for betting since February 2017.
In May, revenue amounted to €35.4m, down 37.1% from May 2019, but up 69.2% from April. This was almost all generated online, with Italy’s betting shops only reopening from 15 July. This resulted in the retail channel posting a €13,693 loss, based on payouts for bets placed before the shutdown.
This resulted in Bet365 leading the market with a 17.6% share of revenue, ahead of Playtech’s Snaitech on 13.9%. Sisal came in third on 12.1%, ahead of PlanetWin365 operator SKS365 on 10.9%.
All data and figures from the regulator are processed by leading European corporate advisory firm Ficom Leisure, a specialist in all segments of the betting and gaming sector.
Ficom Leisure also provides monthly figures on the New Jersey online market in the New Jersey iGaming Dashboard, Pennsylvania in the Pennsylvania iGaming Dashboard, Indiana in the Indiana iGaming Dashboard and Iowa in the Iowa iGaming Dashboard, all of which are available on iGB North America.
It also provides quarterly figures on the Spanish online market in the Spain iGaming Dashboard, the Portuguese market in the Portugal iGaming Dashboard, and the Danish market in the Denmark iGaming Dashboard.
