"The coronavirus will lead to fewer online bets, not more"

 The EGBA Secretary General signs an interesting and illuminating article on the association's blog. A genuine call to contrast the reality of online gaming during these days of confinement by the Coronavirus, highlighting that "now more than ever, operators are putting into practice their most important responsible gaming measures, which is the essential objective every day of the year, but more if possible at this time. "

In addition, the many tools available to help players manage their online bets responsibly are cited and explained. Also highlighting that it is the online gambling companies that, aware of their social responsibilities during these difficult times, also have a large part of the responsibility in which Responsible Gaming tools such as the following are being implemented:

• Self-exclusion is one of those tools and allows customers to ban (permanently or temporarily) access to a specific gambling website. It is, of course, a vital safety net for those experiencing gaming issues and / or wanting to stop playing. Responsible companies (including EGBA members) already provide self-exclusion tools to their clients, and it is a legal requirement in at least 23 EU countries.
• National self-exclusion registers. These records allow customers to ban access to all licensed gambling websites in a country. 14 EU countries have already established these registries, and we believe that all countries should have one. It is important that these records are easy to use and not easy to avoid. Unfortunately, self-exclusion records do not apply to black market (non-EU-based) gambling websites that operate outside the control of national gambling regulators and their laws. These websites can therefore avoid compliance with self-exclusion records and ignore many other essential social responsibilities. In the context of safer gaming, national gaming regulators must step up their efforts to tackle these operators.
• Measures for the control and emission of responsible advertising: commercial communications certainly help to point out the operators that belong to the different European regulated markets, being these responsible. In this regard, advertising plays a vital role in signaling to customers of licensed / regulated online gambling companies that comply with your country's consumer protection standards and whose activity falls under the control of the national regulator of gambling.

That said, Haijer encourages licensed companies "to consider their own activities in these difficult times and to step up their own safer gambling efforts. That is why we recently published a guide on how companies can promote more gambling. Insurance and Responsible Advertising We urge all online gambling companies to apply these essential measures.

The coronavirus will lead to fewer online bets, not more

While it is extremely important for online gaming companies to be vigilant in protecting their customers during this blockade, the well-intentioned concerns of an "online gaming explosion" are unfounded.

 

The cancellation of major sporting events and the consequent loss of sports betting revenue negatively impacts online bookmakers - website traffic and revenue will drop. This is because sports betting accounts for almost half of Europe's online gaming activity. In the absence of sports betting events, some sports betting customers may switch to other gaming verticals, but most will simply stop betting entirely until sports have resumed. This is reflected in the latest market updates.

In Belgium for example, the government confirmed last week that traffic to licensed gaming websites had decreased by 38% (from pre-COVID19 levels). A significant drop that the government attributes to the decrease in sports betting.

This reality is also reflected in H2 Gambling Capital's recent forecasts predicting a 12.5% ??drop in global gaming revenue in 2020 (compared to 2019). While the share of online gambling in the declining gaming market is expected to increase by 3% from 13% to 16%, online gambling in real terms will actually decrease due to the general market decline.

This is contrary to what many predicted and refutes concerns about dramatic increases in online gambling, which have supported the recent introduction of severe advertising restrictions in some European countries.

Read the full article here.