Dutch market “levelling off” despite growth over the last six months
KSA says online market is “developing as expected” with GGR at €1.33bn but players gambling on active accounts down to 826,000
The Netherlands Gambling Authority (KSA) has said the market is “levelling off” despite still growing again over the last six months.
In its fifth monitoring on online gambling report published today, 5 October, the KSA said that gross gaming revenue (GGR) for the period between August 2022 and July 2023 stood at €1.33bn.
From August 2022 to January 2023, GGR grew by 33% but from January to August it only grew by 8%.
The KSA added this meant a total annual growth rate of 17%, which is above its expectations of between 13% and 15% per year.
Estimates from H2 Gambling Capital put the average annual growth rate in the Netherlands at 11% over the next five years.
Casino accounted for 74% of total GGR, while the KSA noted GGR derived from those between 18 and 23 amounted to €130m, or 9.8% of total GGR.
Elsewhere, the number of players that gamble on active accounts has decreased, from 859,000 in January to 826,000 as of July.
However, the KSA says that the figure “does not directly indicate the number of players” due to players having more than one account.
The report adds that 4.7% of the Dutch adult population have gambled online in the past six months, with an average of 417,00 people gambling per month.
In terms of player losses, the KSA also changed the way it calculates the metric.
Previously, the figure was based on the months of actual play, with the previous report stating players lost an average of €310 per month. The KSA said this “did not provide a clear picture of the long-term loss of a player”.
Per the new calculations, looking at the loss over the last six months in this example, players lost on average €1,017 between January 2023 and July 2023, equating to €170 per month. For young players, this figure fell to €59.
Channelisation has increased by 1% over the last six months, now standing at 93%, and new players who did not gamble prior to the online market opening in October 2021 stands at 98% channelisation.
The KSA set a channelisation target of 80% when the market opened in October 2021.
The number of players registering with the self-exclusion register Cruks has increased from 48,000 in August to over 50,000 in September.
René Jansen, KSA chairman, commented that the market is where he expected it to be and that while it is still growing following its online regulation, it has started to level off.
Jansen said: “This fifth monitoring report shows that the gaming market continues to grow, even if it is levelling off.
“This means that the market is developing as expected. The continued growth ensures increasing responsibility among providers.
“The KSA continues to strictly monitor that Dutch players can gamble in a safe market, with sufficient attention to addiction prevention and insight into possible problematic gaming behaviour.
“Duty of care and addiction prevention are a crucial part of our supervision,” he added.
The Dutch online market was regulated on 1 October 2021 and has currently granted 27 licences to operators.