The Netherlands sees gambling market grow in 2023

The regulated Dutch gambling market continues to post in solid results with the market in 2023 outstripping the size of the market in 2022, the Kansspelautoriteit shared in a statement on its official website.

Although there has been a steady influx of new brands, including suppliers and operators throughout the year, the overall pace of the market has slowed noticeably, not least in comparative terms to other countries.

Meanwhile, the regulator notes that with a gambling revenue of $1.39bn at the end of 2023, the market is ahead of the gambling revenue collected at the end of 2022 which stood at $1.08bn. The number of players has remained fairly intact, the regulator noted, although the number of accounts increased.

As of the end of 2023, there were 1.1m active players, an increase from the 970,000 reported a year earlier. In the second half of the year, the Kansspelautoriteit estimates that 726,000 out of these accounts were active. The regulator is also interested in other metrics, such as channelization into the regulated market, the average amount spent by consumers, and not least, how young people are interacting with the sector.

The good news is that the overwhelming majority of gamblers are spending their money in the regulated gambling market, with 90% of the players heading into regulated gambling sites, pointing to very strong channelization and one of the best markets in Europe.

As to how much people spend and lose, according to the watchdog, €958 was lost on average in the last six months of the surveyed year, which was still slightly down from the results in 2022. Meanwhile, the watchdog also took a closer look at how people and specifically young adults engage with the sector.

Young people tend to have a fairly big proportion of all online gambling accounts. By young people, the regulator means the group between 18 and 23, who currently hold 22% of all accounts, when they represent less than 10% of the population. This indicates that gambling has been more successful with young people.

However, the positive trend here is that young players tend to lose more than players aged 24 and older. Meanwhile, advertisements throughout 2023 have not led to a dip in the size of the market.

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