The State of Portugal’s Online Gambling Market

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Tuesday, July 4th, 2017 | Written by Charles Washington

The regulated online poker market in Portugal is one of the youngest in Europe, with new laws surrounding gambling only going into effect last spring. Portugal’s regulated online poker market was subsequently established formally in November of last year after PokerStars was granted the country’s first license by the local gambling regulator.

Sports Betting

Portugal’s online gambling market was worth €82.2 million during its first ten months following regulation, but with most of the money generated derived from online sports betting, which accounted for more than 70 percent of overall revenue. Today, there are two licensed betting operators offering their services to local customers, and those services generated around €57.6 million during the last ten months , but that said, recent figures have shown that revenue from such services has fallen over the last three quarters. In fact, betting revenue brought in around €17.4 million during 2017’s first quarter, which is a significant slide from the €18 million collected during Q4 of 2016, and the €22.2 million taken in Q3 of the same year.

Online Casinos

Casino games, which includes online poker, accounted for the remaining €25.1 million of revenue that was generated between late July 2016 and March 2017. The first three months of 2017 has been particularly successful for revenue as it has soared by more than half to around €13.9 million compared to the previous three-month period. As expected, slot games accounted for a large portion of the online casino market having contributed 34% of overall revenue, with players in Portugal also able to play blackjack, baccarat, French roulette, American roulette and poker on the country’s licensed sites.

Online Poker

Data released by local gambling regulator Serviço de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos (SRIJ) indicates that PokerStars has launched its Portuguese sites successfully, with the number of customers playing cash games on the site reaching approximately 2,000 on its first days online. Figures have somewhat gone down since then, which is what was to be expected, but it is important to note that online poker in Portugal is clearly in demand, and at any given time there are tens of thousands of people playing online. According to a recent PokerScout traffic report, there are 30,397 poker players online at PokerStars.pt, with all but 49 of them playing tournament and lottery type poker games.

Ring Fenced Market to Change

The poker market in Portugal, much like the ones in Italy, France and Spain, is ring-fenced, meaning that local players are not able to compete with players based in other countries. While having a separate poker market was a debated topic for a while, regulators eventually made it law, whilst ignoring the criticism of local players and pro gambling groups alike. Still, the online poker setting in Portugal may soon change as gaming regulator in various European countries are currently working out a way in which to share liquidity in order to boost the health of their individual markets. This step should help further promote the continued success of online poker in Portugal.

In fact, gaming regulators from France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal are due to meet in Rome on Thursday, 6 July in order to approve a framework agreement that will pave the way for their respective countries to pool their poker players across national borders. Commenting upon the upcoming meeting, French regulator ARJEL released the following statement:

“This agreement will set the basis for cooperation between the signing Authorities in this context and will be followed by further necessary steps within each of the jurisdictions involved in order to effectively allow for liquidity poker tables.”

Needless to say, this has been welcomed as a significant step in the right direction by advocacy groups, even though they might have hoped that the reality concerning separate poker markets and dwindling revenues may have been realized and acted upon sooner. In 2015, for instance French president Emmanuel Macron, who back then was the Minister for the Economy, rejected a similar proposal to open the country’s online poker market to other European markets.