The Danish Gambling Authority (DGA), Spillemyndigheden, has released its 2017 annual report showing an increase of 3.48% in revenue totalling DKK9,220m  ($1.53bn) and an increase of 19% to its online casino market reaching over DKK 1.8bn ($299m).

Online casinos saw a very impressive increase of 15.6% to a sum of $299m. However, land-based casinos decreased their revenue by 1.3% to $62m. These figures represent the overall trend that saw online gambling cement itself as the prominent form of revenue for the DGA with 51.5% of gambling taking place online.

Sports betting grew 7.4% to DKK2,168m ($36m) from 2016 to DKK2,329m ($38.7m) in 2017 representing a total market share of 25% for the year.

In June 2017 the Danish parliament voted to liberalise online bingo and betting on horse racing, dog racing, and pigeon racing which came into effect on the 1 January 2018. The Danish Gambling Authority claims to still be ‘hard at work fine-tuning processes to take into account these new opportunities for gambling’. These liberalisations provide future room for growth within the Danish gambling market.

Another priority for the year was helping problem gamblers. The register of self-excluded players (ROFUS) expanded by 46% with now over 12,877 on the system. This was partly a result of the authorities TV commercials for ROFUS.

The Danish Gambling Authority also entered into international partnerships with counterparts from Scandinavia, Britain, and Spain to share knowledge on problem gambling within their own markets.

Commenting on the strategy for next year, Director of the Danish Gaming Authority, Birgitte Sand, said: “In my view, the best way to maintain a well-functioning market in Denmark will be having everyone involved taking responsibility – and preferably beyond what we as a minimum have to do.

"It can only be for the better, if we take on a shared responsibility to ensure gamblers have access to fair gambling products, and collaborate on implementation and compliance”.