Jose Sanchez
Research expert covering society, economy, & politics for Latin America
Gambling in Europe - statistics & facts
Games of luck in Europe can be traced back to pre-Biblical times. Starting in Ancient Greece with bets on chariot races and Ancient Rome with games of knucklebones, the contemporary European gambling sector has evolved to encompass everything from casinos and lotteries to sports betting and iGaming. In fact, despite European gambling hubs such as Monte Carlo being overshadowed by the behemoths of Las Vegas and Macau, Europe is the global region with the largest number of gambling properties by a significant margin. In 2024, gambling properties in Europe numbered close to 130,000, which was more than all the other global regions combined. Indeed, the industry has grown to such an extent that the gross gaming revenue (GGR) of the European gambling market has hovered around the 120 billion euros mark in recent years.Â
What are Europe’s leading gambling markets?
The majority of GGR generated in the European gambling industry comes from a handful of leading European gambling markets. These include Italy and Great Britain, both of which have consistently recorded GGRs of over 15 billion U.S. dollars annually since 2015. Indeed, in 2024, Italy had the fourth highest average spend on gambling in Europe, with adults spending around 479 U.S. dollars each on gambling that year. In comparison, British adults spent on average 413 U.S. dollars on gambling activities, while Cypriots adults ranked first for spending, with almost 600 U.S. dollars each. Meanwhile, online gambling has grown rapidly in recent years, with the market size of the European online gambling industry reaching over 47 billion euros in 2024. The two largest segments of online industry that year were online casinos and online sports betting, having recorded 21.5 billion and 13.7 billion U.S. dollars in GGR, respectively.Â
How big is sports betting in Europe?
Although online casinos generated more GGR than online sports betting in Europe in 2024, Europe came second only to Asia in terms of continents with the most money wagered on sports that year. In total, the handle from sports betting in Europe stood at close to 260 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. Home to the Big Five – the top divisions of soccer in England, Germany, Spain, Italy, and France – soccer dominates the sports betting market in Europe, with soccer bets making up a 51 percent share of total sports betting handle in 2024. The relationship between betting companies and soccer in Europe is thrown into even more relief when looking at the average annual value of betting company sponsorships to soccer organizations. In 2023, the value of these sponsorships for European soccer organizations totaled nearly 250 million U.S. dollars. This was higher than the aggregate value of betting company sponsorships to all sports organizations in North America, South America, Oceania, and Africa. While growing awareness around problem gambling has pushed leagues such as the Premier League to reassess its relationship with betting sponsors, it remains to be seen if widespread change can come without external regulation.
