Revenue generated from gambling in 2023 exceeded €1 billion, marking a 79 per cent jump compared to 2020 the National Betting Authority said on Tuesday.

Presenting an overview of the industry between 2020 and 2023, the authority underlined that as part of its efforts to regulate and oversee the sector, there have been developments and a broader modernisation of the industry.

“This development highlighted the sector as a stable pillar of the economy, creating new prospects and challenges for all involved parties, as well as the conditions to attract foreign investments.”

The four-year period was characterised by significant growth in the betting market, with revenues showing a 79 per cent increase over the period, and accounting for 3.72 per cent of GDP in 2023.

Football held the lead in the value of bets both on-the-ground and online, followed by basketball and tennis. There was an increase observed in e-sports betting during the period.

In total, betting revenues amounted to €620,809,894 in 2020, €783,494,421 in 2021, €959,557,906 in 2022 and €1,109,209,082in 2023.

Betting revenues for the year 2023 recorded an increase of 10 per cent and 44 per cent compared to 2022 and 2021 respectively. The authority’s betting tax revenue in 2020 was €8,938,512, while in 2023 it amounted to €12,366,896.

According to the authority, indicative of the growth of the industry is the increase in the number of employees hired for premises which went from 1,223 in 2020 to 1,476 in 2023.

In percentage terms, this amounts to almost 21 per cent while the industry at large employs a total of over 1,700 people.

During the four-year period, more than 22,000 inspections were carried out on the supervised entities and fines of €288,100 were imposed, the authority said.