Key Points
- The overall gambling GGR in Denmark has grown by 23.6% compared to June 2025 amounting to €96.7 million. Online casinos alone account for €51.6 million.
- The 68.6% growth is in large part a consequence of the fall in June 2025 by 53.5%, which happened because there was no Euro 2024.
- The Danish Gambling Authority has initiated the application period for new licenses of land-based casinos even though the sector only takes up 3% of market GGR in 2025.
A 68.6% Spike That Needs Context
In Denmark, the betting industry’s gambling revenues hit the most pronounced year-on-year increase in recent times in June 2026. Gross gaming revenues from bets came to €28.5 million, registering a growth of 68.6%, compared to €16.8 million in June 2025, reported by the Danish Gambling Authority (DGA). The figure is accurate; however, the period used as the base is anything but neutral.
For Denmark, June 2025 was one of the “collapse” months in the country’s betting sector. The revenue registered a 53.5% decrease in the year, solely because of the absence of Euro 2024 that caused an artificial boost in bets in the previous year. Gambling Insider’s analysis of the June 2025 report indicated that the revenue in the area of sports betting amounted to DKK 126 million, while the European Football Championship served as the main reason for the drop.
Overall total GGR of all five liberalised categories amounted to €96.7 million in June 2026, compared to €78.3 million in June 2025, an increase of 23.6%. According to Gaming Intelligence, the second quarter of 2026 in Denmark saw a record-breaking amount of DKK 2.23 billion in terms of total revenue, with June belonging to this growth cycle.
Online Casino Commands the Market
Betting drew the headlines, but online casinos remain the segment that actually defines Denmark’s gambling economy. In June 2026, online casinos generated €51.6 million in GGR, more than the combined revenue of every other liberalised category. The DGA confirmed online casinos were the most popular liberalised gambling type in June 2026 by gross gaming revenue.
That position has been years in the making. According to iGaming Business, online casinos produced DKK 4.31 billion across 2025 and held 38% of Denmark’s total gambling market, up 12.1% year-on-year and more than double the share recorded in 2012. The DGA’s own annual report frames it plainly: the growth “which characterises the development in the Danish gambling market, is therefore driven by the rise in online gambling.”
Player preference for mobile continues to shape the numbers. The DGA’s June 2026 data shows that when bettors have access to both computer and mobile, the majority stake through mobile. Data from July 2025, published by Gambling Insider, showed mobile accounting for 70.75% of all online casino deposits and 71.86% of sports betting spend, a pattern the DGA’s monthly figures have tracked consistently through 2025 and into 2026.
The gaming machine category was worth €12 million in June 2026 but had a little bit of decline from the year before by 2%. The land-based casinos had a value of €4.3 million and the land-based bingo category was valued at €267,000 just like in June 2025.
Self-Exclusion Register Reaches 71,733
The DGA’s June 2026 report also updated figures for ROFUS, the national Register of Self-Excluded Players, which covers all online gambling with Danish-licensed operators. As of June 2026, 71,733 people were registered, with 66.59% permanently enrolled. The proportion choosing permanent exclusion over a temporary block has remained consistently above two-thirds.
The ROFUS count stood at approximately 62,577 in July 2025, per Gambling Insider’s coverage of that month’s statistics. The increase of roughly 9,000 registrants in under a year reflects both the DGA’s ongoing responsible gambling campaigns and a growing base of players actively opting out of the market. In April 2026, the DGA also began publishing age distribution data for ROFUS registrants, with men under 30 accounting for 40.7% of those enrolled.
The DGA Opens Land-Based Casino Applications
Set against a market where online GGR has grown every year since 2012, bar one exception, the DGA’s decision to open a new round of land-based casino licence applications carries some weight. SiGMA reported that all interested parties must submit applications by 3 November 2026, with licences issued for up to 10 years under Danish gambling law.
At present, Denmark possesses seven active licences for land-based casinos, with casinos located in Copenhagen, Helsingør, Odense, Vejle, Aarhus, and Aalborg. Every licence application has to be accompanied by a mandatory consultation procedure with the local municipality, the Chief of Police, the Ministry of Taxation, the Ministry of Business, and where relevant, the Danish Maritime Authority. The DGA is especially interested in the ability of the applicant to run a casino in “a fully professionally and financially responsible manner,” referring to such criteria as financial stability, experience in the industry, and liquidity.
The land-based sector exhibited an annual GGR of DKK 378 million in 2025, accounting for 3% of the total gambling sector in Denmark, based on an iGaming Business report. During January-May of 2026, Land-based casinos generated an income of DKK 154 million in comparison to DKK 145 million in the corresponding period of 2025. Minimal growth in a shrinking market segment for over ten years.
Why Is the Regulator Pushing Land-Based?
The DGA’s licence call is not straightforwardly explained by market momentum. One interpretation is procedural: 10-year licences expire on a cycle, and any existing holder approaching renewal would require this process regardless of broader market trends. A second interpretation is that the DGA views modest land-based GGR growth in early 2026 as worth supporting through expanded competition, particularly given that the physical casino network is geographically concentrated in a handful of cities.
Denmark’s channelisation rate reached 91.5% in 2024, placing it fifth in Europe for the proportion of gambling conducted through licensed operators. With that level of market compliance established online, the DGA may be attempting to apply the same principle to land-based formats before the segment contracts to a point where sustaining it becomes harder to justify.
Expert Analysis
June 2026’s numbers are, in the end, a market behaving as expected. Online casino holds the commanding position, betting recovered from an artificially weak prior year, and land-based segments sat flat. The DGA’s statistics confirm a market that has already made its structural choice: digital and mobile.
What complicates that picture is the land-based licensing move. Opening applications for physical casinos, when that sector commands 3% of GGR and has been losing ground since 2012, points to a regulator that is not simply following the market. Whether the November deadline draws serious applicants, or passes quietly, will be more informative than any single month’s GGR figures. Denmark’s gambling market is not in flux; it is settled. The question now is whether the DGA intends to let the land-based segment fade on its own terms, or actively defend a place for it.
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