Danske Spil announced record profit despite gambling revenue decline

The Danish state-owned gambling operator Danske Spil has announced a record net profit for 2019 and at the same time the local gambling regulator, Spillemyndigheden, keeps on confining its international competitors.

More specifically, Danske Spil reported a total revenue of DKK5b ($745.6m) in 2019. A decline of 1.6% compared to 2018. The Danske Lotteri Spil lottery in particular announced that its sales declined 3.8% to DKK2.56b. At the same time, the Danske Licens Spil online sports betting and casino unit, reported a 1.8% rise to its sales, amounting to just about DKK2b.

It is worth noting that during the first half of 2019, the online gambling sector got a significant boost from the takeover of the online casino operations of the local slots operator Tivoli A/S by Danske Spil. Nonetheless, during the second half of 2019, online revenue dropped due to the imposition of new deposit limits.

It is also worth mentioning that Danske Spil announced a record net profit of DKK1.9b in 2019. Nevertheless, that particular figure dropped by DKK377m during last year’s sale of the firm’s 60% stake in gaming provider CEGO; which is behind the Spilnu.dk online casino.

Danske Spil is expecting that both revenue and profits will be lower in 2020 due to the following three reasons: 1) New online payment restrictions 2) High costs of launching a brand new land-based sports betting unit 3) 40% tax hike for gambling operators.

However, the Danish government is clearly supporting Danske Spil and as a matter of fact, the country’s gambling regulator, Spillemyndigheden; has recently announced that it is determined to reduce the number of international betting sites that accept Danish bettors and operate without having a local permit. More specifically, 502 websites were examined in total and 25 of them were deemed illegal and their IPs are expected to be blocked soon.