AUSTRIAN BETTING ON THE INCREASE

12 September 2008

Research firm says overall revenues have increased 10 percent

Market research firm Kreutzer Fischer & Partner has completed a study on Austrian gambling that shows 2007 gross gaming revenues have risen 12.4 percent over the previous year, rising to Euro 15.4 billion, and that Austrians are increasingly turning to the Internet for their gambling entertainment.

Austrians spend an average of Euro 240 per person a year on gambling, increasingly at online gaming sites, the study found, and net gaming revenues for the FY 2007 added up to Euro 2 billion - an increase of 10 percent over 2006.

Online sports betting gross gaming revenues have achieved outstanding growth rates of around 50 percent every year, according to the researchers, who reported the achievement of GGR in 2007 of Euro 4.2 billion, overshadowing comparable growth rates in the land sector. Internet casino and poker gambling came in at Euro 1.5 billion GGR, half of that contributed by win2day.at, which is owned by exclusive state license holder Casinos Austria and Austrian Lotteries.

However the research firm cautions that Internet gambling growth is likely to ease gpoing forward, with 13 percent predicted for 2008 and only 8 percent forecast for 2009.

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