Yes, sports betting might be booming in South Africa but casinos remain the biggest game in town.
According to a PwC report, the country’s gaming industry is set to enjoy 6% compound annual growth between now and 2020. Meanwhile, annual revenue is set to grown from $1.94 billion in 2015 to $2.6 billion.
PricewaterhouseCoopers further pointed up that SA’s casino revue grew 6.7% in 2015 and that the market could be worth in excess of $1.68 billion by 2020.
PwC keenly aware of casinos’ shortcomings
All of which said, casinos no longer command the interest they once did. Indeed, casinos accounted for 70% of 2015’s overall gambling revenue, down from 73% in 2014 and a staggering 81% in 2011.
As mentioned earlier, casinos are now facing opposition from both sports wagering and betting and limited payout machine operators, aka LPM. The latter, which offer low-price gambling, enjoyed a 13.7% year-on-year growth and PwC expect another digit rise in 2016. That said, the accountants believe that growth will slow later in the decade.
Sports betting set to dominate the scene in South Africa
As for sports betting, it rose 28.5% in 2015. And with the size of the market having grown fivefold over the past half-decade, PwC expects sports’ share to hit two-thirds by the end of the 2010s.
Of course, it helps that sports betting is the country’s only legally permissible form of online gambling. And while things looks good right now, PwC expects betting’s rise will slow to 10.7% compound annual growth over the next five years.
