Portugal’s eight licensed online operators – who collectively hold 13 online licenses – reported over 103,000 new customer registrations in the second quarter, 40,000 higher than signed up in the second quarter of 2017. Of these new customers, nearly half signed up in June, in time for the first half of the World Cup tourney.
Total sports betting handle hit €89.8m in Q2, a year-on-year increase of more than €22m, although Q2’s figure marked a sequential decline from Q1’s €100.3m. To no one’s surprise, football accounted for nearly three-quarters (74.4%) of all sports wagers in Q2, with tennis (14.2% and basketball (7.2%) well back of the mark.
The online casino vertical, into which the SRIJ lumps its lone poker licensee The Stars Group, reported revenue of €16.8m, a €5.4m improvement year-on-year but only €800k higher than Q1.
Portugal imposes a variable tax rate on sports betting turnover that tops out at 16%, a punitive measure that has been blamed for the market’s inability to ‘channel’ local punters to locally licensed gambling sites.
Rather than reduce the tax rate, the government has prioritized efforts to eliminate the option of playing with international sites. As of June 30, the SRIJ has issued notices to some 302 international sites and ordered local internet service providers to block 237 of these domains. The SRIJ has forwarded the names of 11 particularly recalcitrant operators to local prosecutors “for the purpose of proceedings.”
Source: GMB / Calvin Ayre
