Online sports bettors not only spent less money wagering during the COVID-19 pandemic, they also decreased their online casino spending, upending a prevailing narrative of this period.

A new study of an unspecified “large European online gambling operator” with customers in Finland, Germany, Norway and Sweden concluded that “the frequency of wagering upon online casino games by online sports bettors before COVID-19-related lockdown significantly decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic period.”

The unnamed operator’s customer data, which covered online sports betting and casino activity between January 1 to April 30, was analyzed by Michael Auer of German data science firm Neccton, Doris Malischnig of the Office of Addiction and Drug Policy of Vienna, and Mark D. Griffiths of University of Nottingham’s International Gaming Research Unit.  

The data involved 5,396 bettors, around 70% of whom also played online casino games, then the data on these hybrid gamblers was split into two sets: the year through March 7 – roughly corresponding to the start of social isolation measures – and the subsequent period through April 20.