In 2024, the Belgian legal gambling market experienced its first annual contraction since the pandemic, with total revenue nearly 5% less than the previous year. Guess what? Although online gambling remains the largest segment, it only declined slightly, with the real drag being the offline physical business. According to the latest data released by the Belgian gambling regulatory authority, the total gambling revenue (GGR) for the entire year of 2024 was 1.61 billion euros, a decrease of 4.86% year-on-year. This number may sound significant, but there are actually multiple reasons behind it, including a series of stricter regulatory measures that were introduced.
Clear differentiation between online and offline, with physical channels being the most impacted
If you look closely at the performance of different channels, you will find that online and offline are like fire and ice. In 2024, online gambling revenue was 919.1 million euros, accounting for 57.1% of the total, a slight decrease of 2.7%; while the revenue from offline physical channels was 690.41 million euros, accounting for 42.9%, a year-on-year decline of 7.59%. Among them, physical sports betting was particularly hard hit, with revenue from betting sites plummeting by 17.9%. This was largely due to the number of sports betting licenses decreasing from 535 to 408 within two years.
Looking at the sub-sectors, the casino sector actually grew against the trend by 7.32%, reaching 638.45 million euros, with online casinos contributing three-quarters of the revenue. However, other sectors were not so lucky: arcade license revenue fell by 11.95% to 384.75 million euros, with online activities even plummeting by 23.8%. Low-stake game revenue dropped by 21.71%, and café bingo also shrank by 24.7%. Total sports betting revenue decreased by 6.59% to 364.3 million euros, with the offline part falling by 13.58%, while online sports betting only slightly fell by 2.11%.
New regulations are a key driver of market turning points
The Belgian gambling regulatory authority attributed the decline in 2024 to a series of new regulations implemented since 2023. These measures aim to enhance responsible gambling, but they indeed brought "growing pains" to the legal market. Specifically, these include:
Firstly, the implementation of a "cross-site ban," which prohibits operators from integrating multiple license products on the same platform, greatly affecting arcade license holders, forcing some operators to shift their business to casinos or gambling websites, causing revenue to shift between different categories. Secondly, the minimum gambling age was raised from 18 to 21, and bonus promotions were banned. Furthermore, advertising rules were tightened, and mandatory identity and "EPIS" checks were enforced. Recently, the Belgian regulatory authority also specifically investigated a high-profile promotional activity involving football star Hazard. Although these adjustments help protect players, they also clearly slow down market growth.
The future direction is uncertain, and online regulation remains to be observed
It is worth noting that since 2020, Belgian online gambling has seen four consecutive years of strong growth, with a cumulative increase of about 60%, with a single-year growth of 18% in 2023. Therefore, the decline in 2024 is particularly sudden. The regulatory authority admits that it is still uncertain whether these new rules have truly improved player protection levels and emphasizes the need for urgent research into whether players are moving to unregulated illegal channels. Additionally, due to changes in financial reporting processes and staff shortages, the release of data for 2024 was delayed. Officials indicate that market data for 2025 is expected to be released on time. If you want to delve deeper into gambling regulation dynamics and compliance trends worldwide, you might want to visit the PASA official website for more professional analysis and data interpretation.
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This article is from "PASA-Global iGaming Leaders" gambling industry news channel: https://t.me/pasa_news
Original in-depth gambling channel: https://t.me/gamblingdeep
Free data reports: @pasa_research
PASA Matrix: @pasa002_bot
PASA official website: https://www.pasa.news
