Portugal’s gambling regulator Serviço Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos do Turismo de Portugal (SRIJ) reported a 24.7% year-on-year increase in online gambling revenue for the fourth quarter of 2021.
Revenue for the three months to 31 December 2021 was €141.1m (£121.0m/$150.7m), up from €113.2m in the corresponding period in the previous year. This was also 23.6% higher than €114.2m in Q3.
Online casino revenue for the period reached €75.3m, which was up 53.3% from €49.1m in Q4 of 2020, while online sports betting revenue also edged up 2.6% to €65.8m.
In terms of consumer spending, online casino wagers during Q4 totalled €2.10bn, up 17.8% year-on-year, while online sports bets also increased 26.9% to €377.3m.
Slots were by far the most popular form of online casino games among players, accounting for 78.3% of all wagers in Q4, ahead of French roulette with 9.4% of bets and blackjack on 5.1%.
Some 77.3% of online sports bets placed in the quarter were on football, with basketball second with 11.5% of total bets and then tennis with 6.6%. The remaining 4.7% of online bets were split across other sports.
The SRIJ also revealed that 212,600 new accounts were opened across online casino and sports during Q4, a 27.6% drop on last year, while as of 31 December, a total of 109,400 people had self-excluded from all forms of regulated online gambling.
In addition, the SRIJ said it blocked access to a further 119 websites that had been operating without the relevant approvals in Q4, while another 34 sites were ordered to halt activities in the country.
Meanwhile, the SRIJ also published figures for the country’s regulated land-based gambling sector for Q4, during which revenue increased 61.3% year-on-year to €58.1m.
Some €46.3m of this total was generated through gaming machines, accounting for 79.7% of all revenue in Q4, while €11.1m was attributed to table games and €697,920 to bingo and unbanked poker.
