H2 launches COVID-19 recovery tracker as 74% of global gambling markets reopen

H2 Gambling Capital, a data consultancy for the global gambling industry, has added a new quantitative tracker to its range of data products that details the closures and re-openings of land-based gambling markets due to COVID-19.

With lockdowns across the world gradually easing, the H2 COVID19 Recovery Tracker provides additional analysis to the H2 COVID19 matrix by highlighting the impact of regional and by-product closures and re-openings of land-based gambling markets worldwide, from the onset of the first lockdown to present day.

And of course COVID19 Impact Tracker-Week 19. Gambling has been hit hard: share of global GDP set to fall from 0.50% 2019 to c0.38% this year. This compares with 0.60-0.65% mid-2000s and a high of 0.54% in 2016.https://t.co/v5LxnMiEKC#gambling #COVID19 #sportsbetting #casino pic.twitter.com/9dC361a15M

— H2 Gambling Capital (@H2Gamble) June 19, 2020

Currently 73.5% of land-based gambling markets have reopened open across the globe which, between them, represent 83.7% of the total market value. The matrix, which is updated daily, tracks the closure and reopening dates of every land-based gambling market covered by H2 across gaming, betting and lottery verticals as well as general market restrictions and the impact on major sports events due to COVID19.

H2 has backdated this analysis to reflect the aggregation of every change since the onset of the first COVID19 restrictions and provide a week by week timeline of the impact of the crisis on a regional and by-product basis.

The intelligence generated by the H2 COVID19 Impact Matrix has been used to inform all of H2’s forecast revisions throughout the crisis. At the time of writing, H2’s full-year 2020 Global Gambling Gross Win forecast stands at $359bn, a drop of 24.1% on our forecasts prior to the crisis.

The global market was at its lowest during the week commencing 06 April 2020, when 68.0% of land-based gambling markets worldwide, representing 63.4% of market value, were closed. 

At present, Europe, Asia, and North America are the closest regions to full capacity, with markets representing 88%, 87.3% and 85.1% of the total value of each region open respectively. However, Latin America and Africa continue to remain flat for the foreseeable future with only 11.4% and 13.7% of their markets by value open, and the majority still facing periods of indefinite closure.

Lotteries have been the least affected by the lockdowns, with the majority of nations permitting them to continue to operate as normal, at its lowest point only 22.0% of the global lottery market value was closed and currently only 8.8% are yet to resume. Conversely, gaming operations (including casinos, gaming machines, and bingo halls) were the worst affected with over 83.4% of the value of the market closed at the peak of the global shutdowns. At the time of writing, 20% of global gaming markets by value are still yet to reopen.

With over 20 weeks passed since the first closure and most countries now opening up, it is clear the ascent back to full capacity will not be as rapid as the fall. Analysis of the current rate of recovery and reopening proposals of the markets still closed means H2 do not expect the full return to 100% of markets open to occur until late Q3.