Sportsbooks continue growing and collect 3,584 M in 1H 2019

The online sportsbooks sector mantains its growth curve, although at a lesser rythmn. In the first half of 2019, this activity reached 3,584 million euros, a 7.8% more than the previous year, and aims to exceed, for the first time, the barrier of 7 billion euros in 2019.

However, in this six months, the online sportsbooks business has shown the first signs of economic downturn, because, for the first time in the last five years, it has now grown at a double-digit rythmn.

The reason: the numbers played have fallen a 2.75% on quarter-on-quarter basis, mainly due to the Summer shutdown of the main football and basketball competitions. Even so, during that period, more transactions were made compared to 2018, when the Football Cup was played.

Direct bets, which represent two-thirds of the total of the quantities played, lead a sector which evolves at the pace marked by this type of gambling. Direct game generated 2,343.5 million euros in the first half, according to the General Gaming Administration Direction (Dgoj) and has turned sportsbooks into another part inside the user experience when watching any type of sport.
This trend has surpassed the importance of conventional betting, it means, betting before the match, and keep an invarlable fee up to the end of the match, although in the first semester of 2019 1,150.2 million euros were bet, a 10.6% increase compared to 2018.

The proliferation of 235,920 new accounts between April and June is also important. However, there are almost 40,000 less active accounts than in the previous quarter, showing how summer and the lack of top leagues and tournaments affects the business and the attraction of new players.

This fact has forced the main operators to strenghten their pesence via sponsorhips and marketing to continue having presence in the "low season" of the sports. Companies such as William Hill signed up to seven agreements with teams belonging to important SmartBank link, while others, such as Marathonbet and Bwin, have recovered their space in the Spanish football in Sevilla FC and Valencia CF shirts, respectively.

Investment in sponsorships has increased a 35% y-o-y in the first semester 2019, up to 8.7 million euros. However, advertising campaigns still have the most part of the visibilization strategy of the sportsbook houses, and, in this period of time, it was 88.6 million euros, an 8% more than in the first semester 2018.

On top of the quantities played and the number of active accounts, which are the main indicators to measure the growth of this industry, there is another factor that measures gross benefit obtained by operators after giving away the jackpots. It is the gross gaming revenue, which, in the first semester, was of 382.69 million euros, a 38% motr, of which the sportsbooks contribute with more than a half. So the business continues focusing on sports in order to break all the records.