GGR in Denmark increased by 3.5% year-on-year in 2021 as revenue across all verticals totalled DKK6.21bn (€825.4m), according to new figures released by the Danish Gambling Authority (Spillemyndigheden).
Online casino was the country’s biggest-earning vertical during the year, generating DKK2.82bn in GGR, up 13.3% compared to 2020.
Betting was the next largest contributor, bringing in DKK2.42bn, up 5.1%, while the country’s gaming machines — Denmark’s third largest vertical by revenue — saw GGR fall 22.4% to DKK765m.
The land-based casino sector also suffered during the period, with GGR for the vertical falling 7.2% to DKK219m.
Results in Denmark’s land-based and retail sectors continued to be negatively affected by closures enforced throughout 2021 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The most recent period of closure, which began in December 2021, ended yesterday (1 February), as the Danish government removed all Covid-related restrictions for hospitality and entertainment businesses.
The impact of the closures can be seen in December’s monthly results, which showed that gaming machine revenue was down 49.0% compared to November, at DKK52m.
Land-based casinos, meanwhile, brought in just DKK14m in December, 56.3% behind November’s total.
Year-on-year, both land-based verticals performed marginally better than in December 2020, during which time Denmark also implemented forced closures.
GGR in the betting vertical was also down in December on a month-over-month basis. At DKK209m, revenue came in 17.1% lower than in November 2021.
December was however a bumper month for the online casino vertical. The sector generated an all-time record of DKK263m in revenue, 20.6% ahead of November’s GGR.
Online casino appears to be on a steady growth path in Denmark, with December 2021 revenue also representing an annual increase of 11.9%.
Betting, meanwhile, seems to be waning somewhat in the country, with December’s revenue not only coming in behind November, but also 18.4% lower than last year.
Danish gross gaming revenue (GGR) across the sports betting, gaming machine, online and land-based casino verticals for November 2021 grew by 22.8% year-on-year to DKK604m (€81.2m).
According to the latest figures from the Danish Gambling Authority (Spillemyndigheden), GGR for the first 11 months of 2021 remained lower than the same period in 2020 as a result of widespread land-based venue closures in response to the Covid-19 pandemic at the beginning of the year.
The casino vertical, both online and land-based, as well as gaming machines, saw a downturn in revenue month-over-month in November, which was offset by a sharp uptick in the GGR generated by sports betting.
Betting GGR in November totalled DKK252m, close to double the DKK131m generated in October. The figure was also up more than 50% on November 2020 (DKK166m).
This figure brought total GGR for the vertical to DKK2.63bn during the first 11 months of 2021, up 7.7% on the same period in 2020.
GGR from online casino was up 10.1% on November 2020 at DKK218m, however this represented a 9.5% decrease month-over-month when compared to October’s total of DKK241m.
Still, the first 11 months of the year saw online casino generate DKK2.99bn, up 13.0% on the DKK2.64bn generated in the same period in 2020.
It seems the pandemic will continue to impact Danish land-based GGR into 2022.
The regulator confirmed today (13 January) that a period of closure which began in December will continue for gaming halls and casinos until at least 31 January. The closures were initially scheduled to end on 16 January.
Land-based casinos followed the pattern of online casino, with an increase in GGR on a year-on-year basis of 14.3% to DKK32m in November, which represented a month-over-month decline of 15.8% compared to October’s figure.
The first 11 months of 2021 also saw land-based casino GGR take a downturn, after four months without recording any revenue at the beginning of the year. The year-to-date total came to DKK440m, down 23.4% compared to 2020.
Adding the figures together across all verticals, operators generated a total of DKK604m during the month, up 22.8% from the DKK492m generated in the same period of last year.
This brought the total GGR generated during the first 11 months of 2021 to DKK7.75bn, down from DKK7.99bn during the same period in 2020.