Belgian Gaming Industry in 2022:  Impressive Growth of Offline Gambling

The Belgian Gaming Commission recently published its annual report for 2022, showing an overall positive development for the Belgian gaming industry. There was a remarkable recovery of land-based casinos to pre-coronavirus figures and a slight growth in online casinos.

Impressive Revenue 

In 2022, the Belgian gaming industry generated a gross revenue of more than €1.45 billion. This sum is divided between the online sector, accounting for 54.87%, and the land-based and retail sector, contributing 45.13%. This confirms that the online sector has overtaken the offline sector as the main pillar.

The land-based sector experienced an explosive growth of 65.74% compared to 2021, clearly indicating a strong comeback after the Covid-19 restrictions. This recovery is particularly significant as the GGR of the offline sector more than doubled compared to the previous year, returning to a level comparable to that before the pandemic. However, the growth of the online sector was limited to 2.59%, with the figure actually remaining stable.

Casinos and Gaming Halls Regain Their Players

The report emphasizes that casinos, gaming halls, and cafes have regained their pre-pandemic income levels. However, growth was more modest for betting offices and bookstores. Nearly a third of the offline GGR was generated by bingo machines and low-stakes gambling games in cafes, followed by gaming halls and betting.

Dynamics of the iGaming Sector

Online, casinos dominate with 47.31% of the online GGR, followed by gaming halls and online betting. A distribution similar to that seen in recent years.

Online gambling remains extremely popular in Belgium, despite the recovery of the offline sector after the pandemic. Belgians wagered a total of €18.2 billion online in 2022.

Despite all the commotion in recent years, there has been a strong recovery in the land-based sector combined with stable online revenue. This could be a good indicator of the impact and efficiency of all the restrictions the sector faced in 2023.