The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) says its members handled nearly 1m online payment transactions per day over the course of 2017.
This week, the EGBA released its 2017 report into its members’ activities in 19 European Union member states’ online gambling markets. EGBA members, whose ranks include digital giants Bet365, Betsson, GVC Holdings, Kindred Group and ZEAL, collectively hold 134 different online licenses, averaging 7 licenses apiece.
EGBA members currently have offices in 14 EU countries, employing over 33k staff in digital and high-quality jobs.
EGBA companies ‘contributed’ around €325m to sports federations, leagues and clubs – through sponsorships, advertising and sports rights – last year. Around €120m of this sports contribution was spent in Italy, so this figure is likely to dip significantly in future years, as that country’s new prohibition on gambling advertising takes effect.
Some 12m Europeans – 2.4% of the continent’s total population – held an active online account with an EGBA member last year. On average, non-VIP customers placed a bet every 17 days, spending around €10 per bet (excluding pay-outs), with an average return to player/pay-out rate of over 93%.
On average, EGBA members offer their customers 31 different online payment types and these payment channels handled “at least” 354m individual online transactions (coming and going) last year. The EGBA is currently embroiled in a lawsuit against the Norwegian government’s efforts to prevent local banks from processing online gambling payments other than those by the local gambling monopolies.
EGBA companies also invested “more than €22.6m” in know your customer checks last year to prevent minors from accessing online gambling services.
EGBA secretary general Maarten Haijer said the data confirmed that EGBA members were “at the forefront of the [online gambling] sector’s development, interacting with millions of customers.”
The EGBA suffered a setback this spring when the EU’s official ombudsman dismissed a complaint the organization had filed to protest the European Commission’s 2017 decision to drop all gambling-related infringement cases against EU member states.
(For a larger version of this infographic, click here.)
