Online casinos drive 3.5% rise in Denmark’s GGR for 2021

Denmark’s gross gaming revenue (GGR) for December amounted to DKK 539m ($81.8m), bringing its full-year sum to DKK 6.2bn.

For 2021, the Nordic country’s GGR from all verticals rose by 3.5%, despite Covid-19 measures negatively impacting land-based gaming.

A surge in revenue for online casinos was enough to offset major year-on-year declines for their brick-and-mortar counterparts, as well as gaming machines.

While land-based gaming made a modest comeback in the latter part of 2021, closures in the initial months of the year saw this segment’s revenue slump.

GGR for brick-and-mortar casinos was down 6.8% for the full year, while gaming machines experienced a 22.4% decline.

Due to forced closures, gaming machines posted no revenue for the first three months of 2021, and land-based casinos didn’t generate anything until May.

But when they did eventually reopen, both segments experienced a steady rise, though they did see a considerable drop off for December.

Prior to November, GGR for land-based casinos had consistently increased month-on-month, but then began to decline.

First, from DKK 38m to DKK 32m from September to November, and then to DKK 15m for December. Gaming machines saw a similar decline, falling from DKK 102m for November to DKK 52m for December.

Nevertheless, online casinos generated more than DKK 2.8bn for 2021, an over 13% rise and almost half the full year’s total revenue.

This segment’s performance was so impressive that its full-year GGR amounted to more than double that of land-based casinos and gaming machines combined.  

Sports betting, meanwhile, experienced a less considerable, but still impressive increase. GGR for this vertical was up 5.2%, amounting to DKK 2.4bn for 2021.