Internet sports betting has moved more than four billion euros in the last five years, according to the Turismo de Portugal gambling regulation and inspection service.
This sector experienced exponential growth in 2021, when it registered a gambling volume of approximately 1,402 million euros (ME), compared to 808 ME in 2020, 543 ME in 2019 and 392 ME in 2018.
According to an official source of the Secretary of State for Youth and Sports, contacted by Lusa, this increase in betting in Portugal “reflects a post-pandemic trend on a global scale”.
Still with no data for the fourth quarter of 2022, previous reports indicated 1,023 ME in this year’s gambling volume – 369.4 ME in the first quarter, 305.5 ME in the second, and 348.2 ME in the third.
The covid-19 pandemic also affected the online sports betting sector, reflected in the drop from 149.2 ME invested in the first quarter to 90.7 ME in the second, when virtually all sports competitions were suspended.
A period of recovery followed and an increase in turnover to around 300 million euros per quarter, a bar largely overcome in the best quarter of activity, the first of 2021, when online sports betting moved up 423.8 million euros.
In the years 2018 and 2019, while significant, the amounts involved in the betting were more modest, with 391.8 ME in the first of the above years and 543.2 ME in the second – largely due to the 185.7 ME in the last months of 2019.
The total number of sports bets placed between 2018 and 2022, even without the fourth quarter report, is 4,169 million euros, which corresponds to 811.1 million euros in gross revenue in the same period — the difference between the total number of bets and the amount of prizes awarded.
Again, 2021 was the most profitable year with 251.1 ME, with the best quarter of the reporting period being the first three months of 2022, when gross sales were 77.7 ME.
According to reports from the Turismo de Portugal Gaming Regulation and Inspection Service, the gross revenue from sports betting was 78.9 ME in 2018, 107.5 ME in 2019 and 161.9 ME in 2020, lower than in 2021 and also last year, that in the first nine months , had already achieved a gross turnover of 211.7 ME.
Between 2018 and 2022, betting will bring in 245 million euros to sports federations
National federations received €245 million (ME) from sports betting between 2018 and 2022, more than half of which was done online, according to government figures.
In response to the PS group, on the evolution of the funds distributed to sports organizations, Santa Casa da Misericórdia, with the Placard game, and Tourism, with online betting, the government reported this value, which in 2022 will reach 61.7 million, an amount significantly higher than the 35.7 ME allocated annually by the Portuguese Institute for Sport and Youth (IPDJ) to all federations.
Last year and 2021, with 59.4 ME, were largely the most “profitable” years in betting for sports federations, which receive a share of the special tax on online gambling according to Decrees No. 314 and 315/2015 (37.5%) or 3 .5% of the income received, in the case of territory-based betting.
With a total of 151.7 ME, betting on sports competitions via the internet has been the main contributor to the values disseminated by sports federations over the past five years.
Internet bets experienced exponential growth in 2021 and 2022, allowing the distribution of 41.8 and 44.2 ME by the federations, years in which Placard, responsible for 93.5 ME of this ‘cake’, values around the 17.5 ME held.
This gambling system, created by Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa (SCML), never surpassed online gambling revenues, but came closer in 2019, when it brought in revenues of 22.2 ME, compared to 25.2 ME on the internet.
For every euro invested in Placard, sports entities receive 3.5% of the legal deductions, which is 0.035 euros, while internet betting attributes 37.5% of the special tax for online gambling, which is 15% under current legislation to five ME and 8% to 30 ME.
No surprise, the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) is the organization that benefits the most from sports betting, with a total of 146 million in the last five years, practically 60% of the total amount, also confirming an increase in online revenues in 2021 (25.4 million) and 2022 (23.7 ME), against Placard (11 and 10.9 respectively).
Since 2017, the FPF has never received less than 20 ME from sports betting — 1.3 in 2015, 14.3 in 2016 and 20.7 in 2017 — accounting for 22.6 in 2018, 27 in 2019 and 25.3 in 2020.
Contacted by Lusa, official FPF source admitted that these revenues represent between 25% and 30% of the federal budget for each season, adding that these amounts are invested in the promotion of football, in the activities of the national teams, in the organization of amateur leagues in soccer, futsal and soccer beach and member support.
This is followed by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP), which raised a total of 50.1 million between 2018 and 2022 — also the most profitable in the last two years, with 12.6 million each — more than double of the total revenues of tennis (21.1 ME) and basketball (18 ME) federations in the same period.
The other collective sports managed more modest amounts, such as volleyball (1.6 ME), handball (1.7 ME) and rugby (290 thousand euros), while roller hockey has the skating association as a beneficiary (184 thousand euros), all of which fall less than which is guaranteed by the winter sports federation, with a total of 4.3 million euros over five years, largely through betting on ice hockey.
Billiards, with 178,000 euros, badminton, with 105,000 euros, are other federations that benefit from the betting, between 2018 and 2022, ahead of more traditional sports such as cycling, with 6,862 euros, swimming, with 4,702, and athletics, with 112.
The approximately 60,000 euros earmarked for American football will be donated to the Portuguese Institute for Sports and Youth (IDPJ).
“There are at least two more sports that have some expression in betting that don’t have a federation. [com utilidade pública desportiva] in Portugal: rugby league and cricket. In these cases, by Regulation No. 314/2015 of September 30, with the wording given by Regulation No. 209/2022 of August 23, the funds fall back to the IPDJ,” explains an official source of the Secretariat of State to Lusa of Youth and Sports.
According to the same source, “the government is not considering changing the distribution in force”.
I Liga is the leader and has only been beaten in betting by the English league and national teams
AI Liga is the football league with the highest number of online bets in Portugal between 2018 and 2022, only being beaten in some quarters by Mundial2018, Euro2022 and the English League.
According to the Gambling Regulations and Inspection Service of Turismo de Portugal, the Portuguese First League has led in 14 of the 19 quarters of the last five years – the summary of the last three months of 2022 is not yet available.
The exceptions occurred in the second quarter of 2018, when betting on the 2018 World Cup dominated, with 20% of betting on football, ahead of the Portuguese league (7.2%), and 2021, when Euro2020 was played, with 14.3%, above the I Liga (11.7%).
Smaller was the difference in Premier League leadership in the first quarters of 2018, 2019 and 2020, at 9.6%, 10.2% and 9.8% respectively, against 9.3%, 9.2% and 9, 1% of the main national championship.
Over these five years, football was the sport with the most online betting, with a simple arithmetic average of about 76% of the market share — compared to 12% for tennis, 8% for basketball, 0.75% for ice hockey and 4% in other – and under this figure it was the First League that prevailed.
The direct position is more diversified, with some predominance of the Premier League, but with the presence of the Champions League, the League of Nations and the Spanish League, especially until 2019.
Also noteworthy is the unprecedented presence of the Bundesliga and the Belarusian League in the ‘top’ of the second quarter of 2020, a period heavily influenced by the covid-19 pandemic, especially as the German championship resumed first and the Belarusian championship was never interrupted.
Three out of four online bets are on football
Football is the Portuguese’s preferred mode of betting on the Internet, according to the reports of the “online” game over the past five years, a period in which almost 200 million euros have been provided to the organizations representing the sector.
According to the Gaming Regulation and Inspection Service (SRIJ) of Turismo de Portugal, football is invariably the sport with the most bets, with an average value of around 76% – the highest percentage was recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020 (86.72) and the lowest in the second quarter of 2022 (65.8%) .
In the 19 quarterly reports available over the past five years, which average the values presented by the SRIJ, football is usually followed by tennis (12% of bets), surpassed only by basketball (8%) at six times — in the first quarters of 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 and in the quarters of 2018 and 2020.
Tennis has a high of 20.3% of betting volume in the second quarter of 2022 and a minimum of 4.86% in the fourth of 2020, while basketball topped out at 12.36% in the first quarter of 2022, in as opposed to 2.03% in the second of 2020.
In addition to these three sports, the North American Ice Hockey League (NHL) ranked fourth in five of the quarters, averaging about 3% of bets over these periods, for a total of 0.75% over these five years .
The other modalities, not detailed in the reports, are the subject of almost 4% of bets and only once did they exceed 5% of the total volume, in the first three months of 2022 (5.38%).
These are the four modalities indicated in the sports betting data, which promoted 4,169 million euros (ME) of bets between 2018 and 2022 – 1,023 ME in 2022, still without the report of the last quarter of last year , which is still has not been released – with 2021 being the busiest year, with a total of 1,402 ME.
Out of this total amount, gross income of 811.1 ME resulted in the five years analyzed, but again, with 2021 being the most profitable year, with 251.1 ME, while 2022 was netted with a return of 211.7 ME in the first three quarters.
Source: DN
