Danish sports betting operators experienced a challenging final quarter in 2021, although other verticals had greater success. 

Publishing its trading report for Q4 2021, the Danish Gambling Authority (DGA) – Spillemyndigheden – revealed that sports betting revenues declined by 18.3% year-on-year to DKK 583 million (£67m) from DKK 726 million (£82.13m).

However, for the full year, GGR for sports wagering rose by 5.1% to DKK 2.41 billion (2020: DKK 2.29bn), attributed to a greater number of sports events taking place in comparison to the previous year when many events were cancelled or suspended due to the pandemic. 

Despite this uptick, sports betting GGR was still dwarfed by igaming both quarterly and yearly – revenue for this sector increased by 7.16% to DKK 723 million (£81.8m) in Q4.

For the full year, online casinos accounted for 45.29% of the GGR, followed by betting at 38.86%, gaming machines at 12.31% and land-based casinos at 3.53%. Igaming dominated revenue in 2021, standing at DKK 2.81 billion (£318.49m), a 13.27% rise on the 2020 figure of DKK 2.48 billion (£281.15m), 

Of individual gaming verticals, gaming machines were the most widely played throughout the year, accounting for 73.24% of revenue in this sector. Gaming machines scored a Q4 increase of just 1% to close at DKK 269 million (£30.43m). Gaming arcades was the more dominant location of usage after accounting for 76.41% and restaurants at 23.59%.

Gaming machine usage came ahead of roulette (9.68%), blackjack (7.73%), and other verticals (4.85%). Commission accounted for 4.5%, with mobile the most dominant channel after comprising 60.18% of stakes and computer coming out with 39.82%.

Meanwhile, for the entirety of 2021, roulette trailed behind gaming machines at 9.27%, followed by blackjack (7.63%), and other (4.39%) – overall 60.12% of stakes were made by mobile channels as opposed to via computers (39.88%).

Despite this dominant usage, gaming machine earnings fell by 22.43% YoY to DKK 765 million (2020: 986m), as a result of lockdown restrictions imposed during the first quarter.  Gaming arcades remained the primary venue of choice at 76.55%, ahead of restaurants’ 23.45%.

Lastly, land-based casinos also experienced the negative impacts of the pandemic, dropping by 6.79% YoY from DKK 236 million (£26.7m) to DKK 220 million (£24.89m). In the final quarter, however, revenue from this segment stood at DKK 84 million (£9.5m), a 21.94% YoY increase from Q4 2020’s DKK 69 million (£7.8m). 

Total cross-industry GGR for Q4 fell by 3.9% to DKK 1.69 billion (£192.22m) from DKK 1.73 billion (£196.52m), whilst for the full year, a positive growth rate of 3.35% was recorded to DKK 6.21 billion (£702.5m) from DKK 6 billion ($678.17bn).