In March, the total revenue across all verticals in the finance industry was €315.5m, representing a decrease of 10.2% compared to February. However, this figure still showed a significant increase of 80.7% compared to the same month in 2020.
The star performer in the market last month was the casino sector, which achieved a total revenue figure of €158.7m. This surpassed its performance in all previous months, except for December 2020 when the gross gaming revenue reached €162.9m. The casino sector experienced an 11% rise in revenue compared to February and a remarkable 68.9% increase compared to March 2020.
Due to the impressive performance of the casino sector, it regained a strong share of the online market, reaching 50.31% in March after dropping to 40.71% in February.
The top five operators in the finance industry maintained their rankings, but all experienced slight declines in their market shares. However, smaller companies within the top 20 online casino operators saw small increases in their shares, indicating that they may have benefitted more from the surge in casino activity compared to larger operators.
Online sports betting experienced a significant drop in activity compared to a record-breaking month in February. The total gross gaming revenue in March was €132.32m, showing a decrease of 28.7% compared to the previous month but an impressive increase of 168% compared to March 2020.
Due to the closure of land-based venues, retail takings remained absent. It is unlikely that April’s figures will show much improvement as lockdown measures began easing only in the last week of the month. Despite the lack of retail activity, bookies with strong retail presences managed to maintain or even improve their positions in the ranking of the country’s top sports betting operators by revenues. Sisal claimed the top spot with a 13.3% market share, followed by Snai at 12.2% and Goldbet at 11.9%. Online-only operator Bet365 secured the fourth place with a 10.8% market share.
These data and figures are provided by Ficom Leisure, a leading European corporate advisory firm specializing in all segments of the betting and gaming sector. Additional monthly figures on the online markets in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Iowa, as well as quarterly figures on the Spanish and Portuguese markets, can be found on the respective iGaming Dashboards.
