Casinos are king in South Africa, but sports betting grows fastest

South Africa’s casino industry remains the biggest player in the country’s gambling market, but sports betting is coming on fast.

On Thursday, PwC published the fifth edition of its Gambling Outlook for South Africa, which covers actual data up the end of 2015 and forecasts as far out as 2020. PwC believes South Africa’s gaming industry will enjoy 6% compound annual growth from now until 2020, pushing annual revenue to R34.8b ($2.6b) from just R26b ($1.94b) in 2015.

According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, casino revenue grew 6.7% to R18.2b in 2015 and PwC expects the casino market to be worth R22.4b by 2020. But the vertical’s share of the overall pie is shrinking. Casinos accounted for 70% of 2015’s overall gambling revenue, down from 73% in 2014 and from 81% in 2011.

Casino’s porridge is being eaten by South Africa’s betting and limited payout machines (LPM) operators. LPM, which are based outside casinos and offer low-price gambling, reported revenue of R2.4b in 2015, up 13.7% year-on-year. PwC expect another double-digit rise for LPM in 2016, but believe growth will slow in the coming years, leading to an LPM market worth R3.4b by 2020.