Portugal’s online GGR jumps 81.9% in Q2 2021

Portugal’s online gross gaming revenue (GGR) leapt 81.9% year-on-year for Q2 2021 as sports betting continues to drive growth in the market. According to the latest data from the country’s regulator, SRIJ, the market returned €125m in GGR for Q2 2021, up from €68.7m posted in Q2 2020. Sports betting GGR rocketed 224.9% to reach €69.5m in Q2 2021, up from €20.8m in Q2 2020. This exceptional rise would be related to the return of a regular sporting calendar this year after the disruption caused by Covid-19 in 2020, with a further boost from the first half of Euro 2020. Football continues to represent the lion’s share of the sports betting revenue in the country, with 77.5% of all sports bets in the reporting period placed on the game. Tennis was the second largest during Q2 2021 with a market share of 9.6%, while basketball came in third with an 8.7% slice. Elsewhere, online gaming GGR also rose YoY, jumping from €47.9m in Q2 2020 to €58.8m in Q2 2021. Despite the positive annual rises in GGR, the figures for Q2 represent a quarter-on-quarter slip. Overall Portuguese GGR dropped 2.6% from €128.3m in Q1 to €125m, while sports betting and online gaming GGR also dipped by 3% and 2.2% respectively. The downturn in overall market performance was matched by a significant decrease in new player registrations during the quarter. There were 151,900 newly registered players in Portugal for Q2 2021, a decrease of 53.9% from Q1. However, the figure of 151,900 represents an increase on the 130,300 players who registered in Q2 2020. At the conclusion of Q2 2021, there were 93,600 self-excluded players in the country, representing a continued upward curve since the end of June last year when only 56,600 players had self-excluded. Elsewhere, the ISPs of 116 operators were blocked by the regulator during the period, while 48 letters were sent by the SRIJ to illegal operators targeting Portuguese players without a licence.