How much will Russian bookmakers earn in 2021?

Publication date: 1 October 2021

Projected Revenue of Russian Bookmakers in 2021

Russian bookmakers’ profits in 2021 will increase by 25% (to 295 billion roubles) relative to 2020, and by 40% relative to 2019. The high rates are explained by the return of major sporting events and the past Euro 2020. Such data is provided by the Bookmakers’ Rating forecast.

• BetBoom representatives said that the bookmaker exceeded revenue for the same period in 2020 by 107% and the first half of 2019 by 40.7%.
• Liga Stavok also stated that they had already beaten pre-crisis revenue levels for the first half of the year. The bookmaker’s revenue rose 2.7 times in June-July compared to the same period last year and by 36.4% compared to June-July 2019.
• Alexander Paramonov, CEO of Fonbet, said that “it is still too early to talk about a full recovery”: he expects revenue growth of 10-15% at year-end and doesn’t expect the figure to reach the level of 2019.

Hargreaves Lansdown analysts have stated that bookmakers’ revenues have risen on the back of last year’s lockdowns – the Bookmakers’ Rating has estimated that shares in international betting companies are up by 25-50% compared to pre-crisis levels.

It should be recalled that from October 1, 2021 Russia will have a Unified Gambling Regulator. From now on, bookmakers will make contributions not to the leagues, but directly to it, and they will have to pay more to the betting shops, which will have a significant impact on the companies’ revenues.

Nikolai Oganezov, the president of the First SRO of bookmakers, predicts that there will be 15% less betting companies operating. The bookmakers’ target contributions to sports support will come close to 10 billion roubles by the end of the year, while last year they amounted to 2.2 billion roubles. Moreover, according to Oganezov, bookmakers have started spending more money on advertising and buying broadcasting rights – these expenses may reach up to 8 billion roubles at the end of the year.