Online sites account for one third of Belgium’s total gambling revenue in 2015

rding to data posted this week by the Belgian Gaming Commission (BGC), online gambling websites accounted for one third of the country’s total gambling market revenue in 2015.

Following the 2016 annual report, which contains financial information from 2015, the regulatory body BGC claims that total online revenue was €211.3m, over one third of the total figure. Belgian-licensed gambling revenue generated €622m in 2015.

Breaking the figures down, ‘A’ licenses, which include solely casino operators, reported revenue of €102.3, down 7% year-on-year; whilst these operators posted a 41% increase in their online revenue, up to €78.6m in 2015.

The ‘B’ category, involving slot machines and arcade operators, posted €234.5m combined revenue in 2015, up 11.6% year-on-year basis. Within this category, land-based venues generated the most of this sum a€157.3m, while €71.7m came from online sites.

‘F’ licensed betting operators, or bookmakers, reported overall revenue of just over €205m, up 22.4% year-on-year. Land-based betting improved 21.7% to €145.5m while online betting gained 24% to just under €61m in 2015.

In its 2016 annual report, the BGC has added 12 more sites to its online blacklist, which is exactly the same number of unauthorised operators that they were added the previous year. Remarkably, the list included Buabook.com, the first fantasy sports operator. Additionally, the BGC issued 85 administrative fines against gambling sites as well as customers as nine players were penalised in 2016 for playing in illegal sites.