Portugal’s regulated online gambling market generated €323.7m ($373m) for gross gaming revenue (GGR) during the first quarter of 2026, marking a 13.7% increase compared to the same period last year, according to data published by the Serviço de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos (SRIJ).
Q1 Comparison
While revenue remained historically strong, the quarter represented a slight slowdown from the record €337.6m reported in Q4 2025, with total GGR falling 4.1% sequentially.
Online casino products continued to account for the majority of activity, generating €204.2m and representing 63.1% of total market revenue. Sports betting contributed the remaining €119.5m.
The strongest growth came from online casino products, where revenue increased 20.3% year-on-year. Sports betting revenue also grew, albeit at a more modest pace, rising 4% compared to Q1 2025.
Betting activity remained robust across both verticals. Sports betting turnover reached €587m during the quarter, up 17% year-on-year, while online casino wagering volume climbed 20.7% to €5.63bn.
Football remained Portugal’s dominant betting sport, accounting for 73% of all sports betting stakes. Tennis followed with 15.4%, while basketball represented 8.4%. Within football, the Portuguese Primeira Liga attracted the largest share of betting activity, ahead of the Premier League and UEFA Champions League.
Volumes of betting in sports activities
On the casino side, slot-style machine games continued to dominate the market, representing 80.4% of all online casino wagers. French Roulette, Blackjack and French Bank each held relatively small shares by comparison.
Portugal’s player base also continued to expand. The country recorded 4.9 million registered online gambling accounts by the end of March, an increase of 2.5% year-on-year.
New registrations rose 10% to 285,300 during the quarter, while the number of active player accounts increased 5.7% to 1.27 million.
At the same time, self-exclusion figures continued to climb. The number of self-excluded accounts reached 380,500, representing growth of 23.1% compared to Q1 2025 and a 5.3% increase from the previous quarter. Self-excluded accounts now represent 7.7% of all registered player accounts in the market.
Regulators also maintained pressure on illegal operators. During the quarter, the SRIJ issued 106 shutdown notifications, ordered the blocking of 183 websites and referred 14 cases to public prosecutors.
Since Portugal’s online gambling framework came into force in 2015, authorities have issued 1,739 closure notices and blocked 2,930 illegal gambling websites.
The online figures contrast with Portugal’s land-based sector, where casino revenue rose only 0.8% year-on-year to €65m and bingo revenue declined 0.7% to €6.8m during the same period.
Recently, Portuguese Minister of Economy Manuel Castro Almeida announced that the Government will introduce new legislation on online gambling this summer.
Portugal’s online gambling market reached €337.6m in GGR in Q4 2025, while land-based activity declined for a second consecutive quarter
