Russia’s sports betting operators managed to sustain their 2018 World Cup momentum in 2019, although COVID-19 has long since derailed that speeding train.

Federal Tax Service data showed Liga Stavok leading all Russian-licensed bookmakers with sales of nearly RUB49.5b (US$720.5m) last year, up from just RUB36.1b in 2018. The gains are all the more impressive given that 2018’s figures got a significant boost from Russia hosting the quadrennial FIFA athletic shindig.

Fonbet was a distant second with RUB38b, a 58% improvement over 2018, while Winline saw its revenue jump an astounding 270% to RUB29.6b, knocking previous third-place finisher Bingo Boom down a notch with RUB20.1b (-0.2%). Betcity completed the top-five with RUB15.8b, down 8.7% year-on-year, its second straight year of negative growth.

Only five of Russia’s 19 licensed bookmakers were in negative territory last year, with two of them (Mostbet and Zenit) posting double-digit declines. Bwin.ru, the struggling local joint venture involving UK-listed GVC Holdings, was up 49% year-on-year, albeit to a still anemic RUB647m.