The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) has announced that it expects aggregated European gambling revenues for 2020 to have dropped by about 23% year-on-year to approximately €75.9 billon ($92.8 billion) largely due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The trade group used an official Monday press release to detail that an investigation it conducted in partnership with London-headquartered consultancy H2 Gambling Capital has conversely forecast that operators in the 27 nations of the European Union should see their combined 2020 iGaming revenues rise by 7% year-on-year to roughly €26.3 billion ($32.1 billion).

Solid savior:

The EGBA also explained that most European nations ordered their land-based casino industry to close for at least some period in 2020 and that this is destined to see the vertical post a decline in amalgamated gambling revenues of at least 33% year-on-year to around €49.6 billion ($60.7 billion). However, the organization stated that iGaming is expected to moderate a large portion of this deterioration by growing at ‘approximately 7% yearly’ to account for some 33.6% of the continent’s total gambling receipts by 2025.

Considerable contribution:

Maarten Haijer, Secretary General for the EGBA, used the press release to furthermore relate that his organization’s membership, which includes European giants such as Kindred Group, Entain and William Hill, are expected to see their own combined gross online gaming revenues for 2020 hit at least €5.6 billion ($6.8 billion) thanks to a customer pool featuring in the region of 16 million people. He additionally pronounced that these firms are to have invested in the region of €340 million ($415.7 million) into local sports by the end of the year courtesy of sponsorship deals worth €107 million ($130.8 million) as well as €233 million ($284.8 million) in streaming rights.

Read a statement from Haijer…

“We commend our members efforts in support of safer gambling and their significant investments in European sports. Like many other sectors, Europe’s gambling sector has taken a hit from coronavirus this year but the growth trend of online continues to be strong. There is also still lots of room for growth in markets like France, Germany, Italy and Spain where the online penetration of the total gambling market is still relatively low compared to other European countries.”