Danish gross gambling yield rises slightly in 2019 YoY after tough Q4

Denmark’s regulated gambling industry generated DKK1.6bn (£180m) in gross gambling yield (GGY) across sports betting, slots games, online and land-based casinos during Q4 2019, according to the latest report by the Danish Gambling Authority.

Spillemyndigheden noted that GGY was 2.8% lower than Q4 2018, with sports betting and slots dropping off severely.

Sports betting’s GGY of DKK621m (£69m) was a significant 6.5% lower than Q4 2018, while slots GGY fell by 6.6% to DKK329m (£36.7m).

In total for 2019, the gambling industry saw DKK6.6bn (£732.6m) in GGY, which was only a slight increase on 2018’s total of DKK6.5bn (£719.9m).

Sports betting accounted for the largest proportion of GGY at 38.1%, closely followed by online casino at 35.5%. Nearly half of all sports betting was undertaken on mobile apps.

Meanwhile, Spillemyndigheden’s ‘Stop Spillet’ helpline to support players with potential gambling addictions and troubling behaviours received 722 calls in 2019, with nearly 40% of calls coming from families of at-risk players.

In every month of 2019, the number of calls the helpline received exceeded the total expected calls for the month (30).

ROFUS, the system by which Danish players can self-exclude themselves from online and land-based casinos for a range of time periods, saw over 21,000 people do so in December 2019.

Of those to self-exclude, 75.9% were male and 14,528 did so permanently. The number of players choosing to self-exclude in Denmark has consistently risen over the last 18 months.

In January 2018, 12,877 players self-excluded and that total has increased year-on-year until the total figure just released of 21,065.