Danish Q2 gaming results boosted by re-introduction of casinos

Despite a decline in the performance of online gambling channels, Denmark’s regulator has announced a positive set of Q2 results, with gross gaming revenue up seven points on last year’s like-for-like period. The key driver of this significant twelve-month uplift is the output of bricks-and-mortar casinos, who are still expressing exaggerated spikes in revenue improvements versus a COVID-ravaged 2021.

A quarterly report published by Spillemyndigheden, the organization empowered to regulate the Scandinavian nation’s native gambling sector, states that Denmark’s operators, inclusive of land-based and online enterprises, generated DKK1.68bn (£196m) in GGR throughout Q2. This figure also represented a substantial quarterly hike on the opening thirteen weeks of the financial year, which witnessed a revenue total of DKK 1.57bn (£183.2m).

Casino concessionaires presided over some stunning returns compared to the previous year, with table games in particular seeing a colossal increase in player activity. The vertical’s GGR rose 163.4% on Q2 2021, contributing DKK97m (£11.3m) to the overall revenue pot. Slots also experienced huge increases, with the DKK319m (£37.2m) accrued in the most recent three months of trade outstripping last year’s comparable number by 95.4%.

However, the impact of the pandemic has also served to skew the results aligned to the country’s online gambling endeavours. Although the impact of rolling lockdowns and social restrictions clearly undermined casinos and retail sports betting units, they also served to deflect traffic towards online platforms. Therefore, now that physical sportsbooks and casinos are back in-play, digital usage has conversely reduced against last year’s COVID-induced rush of activity. Denmark’s online sports betting operators were the biggest casualties of this trend reversal, encountering a 14.1% dip on revenue totals against the same last three months last year. Online casino GGR marginally declined by 1%, however given that iGaming sites are the chief revenue contributor to the Danish marketplace, this drop-off illustrates a sizeable cash reduction.

Within its Q2 analysis, the regulator also noted that an additional 33,648 Danes, 76% of whom were male, joined the Register of Voluntarily Excluded Players.