Europe’s gambling revenue by country: Market size, online share and regulation

Operators rank markets by gambling revenue first, but size and maturity are not the same measurement. 

A mature market is already well-established, but experiences slower rates of growth, higher competition, and more established customer preferences.

The European online gambling market with the highest gross gaming revenue (GGR) is not always the most attractive opportunity for all operators.

This European online gambling market analysis compares market size, online penetration, and regulation across leading markets.

Key findings

• Europe’s gambling market reached €123.4 billion in GGR in 2024, with online at 39%, up from 37% in 2023.
• The UK is Europe’s largest online gambling market at €11.1 billion, more than double Italy’s €4.6 billion.
• UK gambling industry revenue hit €19.8 billion in 2023, second only to Italy’s €21.0 billion.
• Online gambling revenue by country tracks regulation, not demand. France, Germany and Spain all sit below 30% online share.
• Sweden has Europe’s highest online share at 68.3% despite the smallest market analysed, at €2.44 billion.

Europe online gambling market size, by country

The United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France, and Spain are among the largest gambling markets in Europe, while Sweden has the continent’s highest online share.

But which markets are best suited to online and land-based operators?

The table below sets out online gambling revenue by country alongside total GGR, online share and the responsible regulator. 

In an interview to European Gaming, Giorgi Tsutskiridze, chief commercial officer at SPRIBE, said: 

‘Mature regulated markets naturally remain important, but some of the most interesting growth is happening in markets where regulation and digital adoption are developing rapidly.’

UK gambling industry revenue: Europe’s largest online market  

Land-based gambling dominates most major European markets, but the United Kingdom is an exception, generating €11.1 billion in online revenue in 2023, more than any other European market and well ahead of Italy (€4.6 billion) and France (€3.8 billion) 

Given the United Kingdom’s GGR of €19.8 billion, it has the second-largest online share of any European nation, with 56.1%.

The UK’s regulatory framework has historically supported a large licensed online sector, but taxation is becoming a more important consideration. Remote Gaming Duty increased from 21% to 40% on 1 April 2026.

Meanwhile, a new 25% rate for remote betting under General Betting Duty is due from April 2027.

The UK remains a large, highly digital market, but operators now face a materially different cost environment.

Italy gambling revenue: Europe’s largest market, low online share 

Italy is the largest national market in EGBA’s dataset, generating €21.0 billion in GGR in 2023.

However, Italy’s online share was 21.7%, with €4.6 billion in online GGR, and is significantly lower than the UK’s figure, despite having a larger overall market.

The contrast is central to understanding the European market: Italy’s size does not translate into equivalent online maturity.

Italy’s online market also operates under significant advertising restrictions. Since 2019, gambling and betting advertising and sponsorship have been broadly prohibited across television, radio, print, the internet and other media, limiting how licensed operators can promote their products.

This is one factor that may help explain why Italy’s large gambling economy has a relatively low online share.

Italy’s large consumer base provides considerable scale, but the country’s predominantly land-based market means that online opportunity is narrower than its GGR suggests. 

Germany gambling revenue: Third-largest market, restrictive online regime 

Behind the UK and Italy, Germany is Europe’s third-largest national market, generating €14.4 billion in GGR in EGBA’s 2023 comparison.

However, like Italy, Germany generated a reasonably low online GGR of €3.3 billion, giving the national market an online share of 22.6%.

In part, the reasonably low online share can be explained by Germany’s regulatory model.

Licensed operators face several restrictions, including monthly deposit limits of €1,000, a maximum stake of €1 on virtual slots, and a minimum five-second interval between games.

Such restrictions are designed to improve customer protection, but they also make Germany more restrictive than other European online markets.

France gambling revenue: Fourth-largest market, no licensed online casino 

France does not permit online casino games such as slots, roulette, or blackjack, but what impact does that have on the nation’s overall market?

In EGBA’s dataset, France’s GGR was €14.0 billion, making it the fourth-biggest gambling market in Europe, trailing Germany by €400 million.

As with several other large European markets, France’s online GGR of €3.8 billion, giving it an online share of 27.1%, is relatively low.

While France has a larger online share than Italy, Germany, and Spain, it’s significantly lower than the figures reported in the UK and Sweden.

French law authorises only three online verticals: sports betting, horse-race betting and poker. Online casino games cannot be licensed at all, which puts a ceiling on how much of the market regulated operators can reach.

ANJ has issued blocking and delisting orders against offshore casino sites serving French players, and EGBA notes that the online figures it reports for France reflect that offshore activity. The demand exists; it is simply not captured by licensed operators.

PwC’s study for ANJ put illegal online gambling at between €748 million and €1.5 billion in GGR, or 5% to 11% of the French market, a range ANJ restated in October 2024. The regulator has issued 506 blocking orders covering 2,365 URLs since March 2022, but mirror sites keep the offer available.

France demonstrated why a country’s online share cannot be interpreted without its regulatory context. Major product-level restrictions limit the growth of regulated digital markets, rather than necessarily reflecting a lack of consumer demand.

Spain gambling revenue: €8.1 billion, Europe’s lowest online share 

Of the six markets analysed, Spain has the lowest online share of 14.2%, with €1.2 billion of its €8.1 billion GGR generated digitally.

Spain’s low online share may partly be explained by its regulations, with several restrictions placed on gambling advertising, limiting the circumstances in which operators can promote their products.

As such, Spain has a large consumer gambling market where online has not displaced retail gambling to the same degree as elsewhere in Europe, particularly in the UK and among Nordic nations.

Future growth will depend on changes in consumer behaviour as well as the regulatory environment.

In 2024, the Spanish government’s Behavioural Addictions Report identified that 52.9% of residents aged 15–64 had participated in in-person gambling during the previous 12 months, compared with just 5.5% online.

Sweden gambling revenue: €2.44 billion, Europe’s highest online share 

Sweden’s population is approximately 10.6 million, significantly lower than each of the other analysed markets.

The Scandinavian nation’s GGR of €2.44 billion is also the lowest of the markets analysed.

However, despite a smaller overall market, Sweden generates more online GGR (€1.67 billion) than Spain, and has the highest online share in Europe (68.3%).

On 1 January 2019, Sweden opened online gambling and betting to licensed competition, while keeping lotteries and bingo reserved for public-benefit organisations and casinos and gaming machines reserved for the state. 

This move created a regulated environment in which private operators can compete for online customers, helping create a larger regulated online gambling market.

However, Sweden’s high online share can make it appear a more attractive market to digital-first operators than its market size suggests.

A smaller total gambling economy can contain a relatively large digital market when online penetration is high.

Online gambling market share by country: Where online has taken over

EGBA’s report identified 13 European countries where online gambling accounted for more than half of the total revenue.

• Sweden led at 68.3% 
• Followed by fellow Nordic nations Denmark and Finland at 68.1% 
• The UK’s online gambling share of 56.1% is also significantly higher than several nations

For example, Spain’s online share of 14.2% is the lowest of any market analysed, while Germany and Italy’s were also below 25%, at 21.7% and 22.6% respectively.

The figures point to a broad geographical divide. Markets in Northern and parts of Eastern Europe generally have higher online penetration, while several Southern European markets remain more heavily land-based.

The distinction is particularly important when comparing operator opportunities with the locations of Europe’s gambling cities and iGaming hubs.

Europe online gambling market trends to watch

Three developments will change the online gambling market in Europe over the next two years: UK tax rises, Finland’s market opening, and France’s continued casino prohibition. 

The UK’s tax changes are among the most significant near-term developments. Remote Gaming Duty rose from 21% to 40% in April 2026, while remote betting will face a new 25% General Betting Duty rate from April 2027.

Meanwhile, Finland is opening its gambling market to competition. Parliament approved the new Gambling Act in January 2026, licence applications opened in March 2026, while the new licensing framework is scheduled to enter into force on 1 July 2027.

The reform ends Finland’s long-standing online gambling monopoly and creates a new regulated market for licensed private operators.

France continues to prohibit licensed online casino games, including slots, roulette and blackjack. However, illegal gambling remains significant, with illegal online gambling generating between an estimated €748 million and €1.54 billion in GGR in 2023.

Channelisation, a measurement that calculates how much gambling activity is captured by licensed operators compared to unlicensed alternatives, is typically higher in nations with stricter gambling restrictions.

What GGR does not tell you

GGR is amounts wagered minus winnings paid to players, before operating costs and taxes. Two markets with identical GGR can therefore involve very different volumes of play, depending on RTP rates, product mix and how often players recycle winnings.

Online share has its own blind spot. EGBA’s online figures cover both licensed and grey-market activity unless stated otherwise, so a high online share does not always mean a large addressable licensed market. 

France is the clearest case: online casino cannot be licensed there, and the online revenue recorded for the market is offshore activity.

Methodology

The primary source used is EGBA and H2 Gambling Capital’s European Gambling – Key Figures 2025 Edition, published on 25 March 2025. 

National regulator sources, including the UKGC, ANJ, and GGL, were used to cross-check recent developments and provide regulatory context.

FAQs

How big is Europe’s online gambling market?

Online gambling generated €47.9 billion in gross gaming revenue across the EU-27 and UK in 2024, or 39% of the region’s total €123.4 billion. EGBA expected online to cross 40% share in 2025 on projected revenue of €51.1 billion.

Which is the biggest online gambling market in Europe?

The United Kingdom, with €11.1 billion in online GGR in 2023, more than double Italy’s €4.6 billion, the next largest in EGBA’s comparison. Italy is the biggest gambling market overall at €21.0 billion, but the majority of that is land-based.

Which European country has the highest online gambling market share?

Sweden, where online accounted for 68.3% of total gambling revenue in 2023, followed by Finland and Denmark on 68.1%. Spain has the lowest share of the major markets at 14.2%.

Is online gambling legal across Europe?

Online gambling is legal in most European countries, but each member state sets its own licensing regime, tax rates and permitted products. Some markets exclude specific verticals — France, for example, licenses online sports betting, horse-race betting and poker, but not online casino games.

Is online gambling legal in Germany?

Yes. Online casino, poker and sports betting have been licensed nationally since the Interstate Treaty on Gambling took effect on 1 July 2021, with the GGL as sole regulator since January 2023. Licensed operators work within strict limits, including a €1,000 monthly cross-provider deposit cap and a €1 maximum stake on virtual slots.

The post Europe’s gambling revenue by country: Market size, online share and regulation appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.