Dutch slots market negatively impacted by Covid-19 pandemic
After years of positive growth, 2019 and 2020 saw the slot machine sector and Holland Casino particularly suffering the effects of Covid-19.
Overall, the land-based gaming market took a financial hit; however, it was noted that lotteries did not experience the same concerns.
Following a market scan by the Dutch Gaming Authority (KSA) that looked at trends and developments, results in the report have been based on the most recent figures available.
Within the market scan, it was highlighted that the total gross gaming revenue of the country-specific games of chance decreased by over €700m ($800m) in 2020 compared to 2019.
In addition, revenue totalled €1.94bn in 2020 compared to €2.7bn in 2019.
The KSA looked at four distinguishing sectors; lottery, sports betting, casino games and slot machines.
In total, they were considered respectively responsible for 56.6%, 4.3%, 6.4% and 32.7% of total revenue in 2020. Comparatively, 2019 saw the market share of slot machines and lotteries lining at virtually the same level.
The report shows that the casino sector also suffered, with 2019 results indicating it was previously responsible for 10.7% of the Dutch gaming market.
Yet there was very little change in the lottery sector in 2020 compared to 2019, with the National Postcode Lottery and State Lottery remaining the two largest lotteries by far in the Netherlands.
Online gaming has seen better fortunes in recent months, with the long-awaited launch of the Netherlands' regulated iGaming market – though it has not been without its bumps in the road.