The Danish Gambling Authority, Spillemyndigheden, has released its latest monthly data report revealing that in-person betting at retail bookmakers has continued to decline since the introduction of mandatory customer ID cards.
According to the report, land-based betting activity dropped from 27.27% in October — the approximate average throughout the year — to just 15.5% in the month of November.
This followed the introduction of mandatory ID cards which were first proposed and approved for the retail sports betting sector in November 2021. Despite initial hopes that the law would come into effect in July of 2022, it wasn’t until October 1st 2023 that all retail sports betting shops were required to ask customers to identify themselves when placing bets using the so-called Player ID cards.
Sports betting gross gaming revenue (GGR) for the entire sector fell considerably from DKK 184 million ($26.9 million/€24.6 million) in September to just DKK 52 million ($7.6 million/€6.9 million) in October, down by 76.29% year-on-year. However, retail sports betting operators retained a market share of about 27%. November saw GGR rebound to DKK 232 million ($34 million/€31.1 million) but this was still down by 9.65% when compared to November 2022.
The report notes that it is not yet possible to determine whether the drop in revenue and in-person activity is a direct result of the introduction of the mandatory identification policy.
For the first 11 months of 2023, online and retail sports betting operators combined to generate GGR of DKK 1.9 billion ($278.7 million/€254.7 million), down by 10.54% on the same period in 2022.
Casino Betting
November saw the online casino industry report GGR of DKK 251 million ($36.8 million/€33.6 million), down 3% on October’s figures but up by 8.06% year-on-year. Online slots accounted for 77.2% of all online GGR with roulette and blackjack accounting for approximately 6% each. This brings the year-to-date GGR total for online casino games to DKK 2.7 billion ($396.1 million/€361.9 million), an increase of 5.34% year-on-year.
Meanwhile, land-based casinos reported GGR of DKK 31 million ($4.5 million/€4.1 million), an 18.33% increase on November 2022. This brings the year-to-date total to DKK 327 million ($47.9 million/€43.8 million) and puts the industry on track to beat 2022’s total of DKK 349 million ($51.2 million/€46.7 million).
Gambling industry journalist with a background in online poker and trading. Covering the regulated U.S Sports industry and the exciting world of online poker.