Europe, the world’s largest gambling market, is predicted to grow at double the rate of the global gambling market. According to research data analyzed and published by Safe Betting Sites, this market held a 49.2% market share of the global online gambling industry in 2018 in terms of the gross gaming revenue (GGR).
In 2020, the European online gambling market is estimated to be worth €25 billion, marking a remarkable growth rate of 20% as compared to its worth three years ago. On the other hand, another report estimates that the worldwide online gambling market will grow at a CAGR of 9.98%, half the growth rate of the European market.
Data from the EGBA report reveals that in 2018, the European online gambling market generated GGR amounting to €22.2 billion. Though this was almost half of the global gaming market share, it was only 23.2% of the total gambling market in Europe.
Offline gambling businesses, on the other hand, accounted for 76.8% of the market. They enjoyed a total GGR of €73.5 billion. However, as the EGBA report goes on to show, the European region’s online gambling market is growing at a faster rate than its land-based counterpart.
Part of the reason for this is technological change, which has prompted easier access to online gambling. Another factor behind the growth has to do with changes in the EU’s regulatory landscape. These have resulted in a majority of countries creating dedicated regulatory frameworks for online gambling. Furthermore, since some US states have legalized betting, certain European companies are getting a foothold in the market, increasing their revenue.
During the period covered by the EGBA research study, sports betting was the most popular form of online gambling. It accounted for 42.5% of gross gaming revenue, followed by casino games, with 32.4%.
Spain’s Online Gambling Market Grows 270%
Looking at national market shares in Europe, the United Kingdom took the lead, with 34.2% of the market under its dominance. Germany came in second with 11.1% while France was third with 8.8%. Italy was fourth on the list with 8.1%, Sweden fifth with 5.2% and Spain was sixth with 4.7%.
Even though Spain was not featured anywhere in the top 5, it is one of the fastest growing online gambling markets in the region. Since 2014, its market has grown by a massive 270%, at a time when Spain’s economy has been on a downtrend. A significant contributor to this is the fact that the government lowered online gambling taxes.
In 2018, the country’s regulators slashed taxes on gaming revenue from 25% all the way to 20%. Though at that time the industry was already on an uptrend, this served to provide fresh impetus.
Global Online Gambling Market to Surpass $94B by 2024
Turning to the global online gambling market, in 2017, the space was valued at $45.8 billion. This figure is expected to be more than double by 2024, reaching a valuation of $94.4 billion.
During the period between 2019 and 2025, a Grand View Research study estimates a CAGR of 11.5% for the global market. This would see the online gambling market go up from the 2017 value of $53.7 billion and reach a valuation of $102.97 billion by 2025.
The research report goes on to reveal that Europe also dominated the market in 2019, with revenue totaling $22 billion. Based on the same report, Europe is anticipated to keep on playing a dominant role during the forecast period.
At the same time, Asia-Pacific is expected to enjoy the highest growth rate due to the fact that it has a higher population of younger people. It also has a high adoption rate of smartphones and already legalized online gambling in most of its countries.
Even though the advent of smartphones has impacted the online gambling scene, desktops continue to hold the major share. After all, online gaming started on the desktop and a majority of online casinos and other platforms focus most of their attention on the desktop GUI. Furthermore, due to the fact that they have a bigger screen size, PCs are considered more convenient for gameplay than smartphones and tablets.
In keeping with this, the aforementioned EGBA report showed as well that 57% of punters used desktop as compared to 43% on mobile devices. However, it goes on to predict that by 2021, mobile will have overtaken desktop as the primary platform for online gaming.
