Denmark Battles Turbulence While Self-Exclusion System Holds True

Denmark is a steady jurisdiction with self-exclusion being the key to sustainable regulation model growth.

Key Verticals Drop

Denmark's figures regulated market showed drops in gross gaming revenues across core verticals despite overall year-on-year growth for 2019.

Revenue Totals

Total revenue reached DKK6.57bn (£732.5m/€879.0m/$951.9m) for a 1.8% increase from 2018, with sports betting accounting for DKK2.50bn, or 38.1% of the total, for an overall decline from 2018.

Q1 Rises

Q1 opened with at a 10.4% rise, followed by three quarters of revenue decline capped off by Q4's 6.5% drop.

Land-based GGR

Land-based GGR contribution dropped to nearly a third (33.6%), with desktop betting at 16.7%.

Mobile Update

After reaching 49.7% for 2019, mobile betting is expected to exceed 50% for 2020.

Online Gains

Online casino was the only vertical in Denmark to post year-on-year gains, with an 8.1% GGR jump to DKK2.33bn.

Online casino revenue rose in each quarter of 2019, with Q2’s 18.0% jump highest.

Contributor Totals

Denmark's primary contributor take was slots (72.7%); ahead of second-placed roulette's 10.4%.

Blackjack followed with 8.3% of online casino; and recently legalised bingo accounted for DKK94.9m in its first full year 2019.

Gaming machine revenue slipped 2.2% to DKK1.38bn for the largest sequential drop of key verticals. Q2 was strongest at a 2.9% revenue increase, with declines in all other quarters.

The largest revenue generator was online casino revenue (75%).

Land-based

Machines hosted in restaurants were second at 24.1%, with average GGR per machine dropping 2.2% to DKK3.9m, with Friday the leading day for individual take (16.5%).

Self-Exclusion Update

Meanwhile, land-based revenue fell 1.7% to DKK348m, while 21,065 individuals self-excluded at ROFUS: 75.9% male, and 69.0% permanently.

Another 19.4% of players blocked access to gaming sites for six months; 8.3% for three months; and 3.3% for a month.

Call-In Line

A new StopSpillet helpline was comprised of 56.8% gamblers; relatives of gamblers 38.8%; and treatment professionals 4.4%. The majority of calls came from women (66.8%).

Outlook

The innovations of the leading self-exclusion program seem to be the most valuable contribution of Denmark to the industry, regardless of individual performance for the year.