Europe Reveals Its Potential to the Online Gambling Industry

More than 38 million internet users live in Eastern Europe. In the following years, between 10% and 20% (approximately 5 million potential players) are going to visit online casinos and bet on betting sites. Together with local investors market analysts from Mentor Gaming, an international provider of online gambling software, find that it is very likely that a player from Eastern Europe will gamble on the Internet an amount of approximately 70 Euros per month.

Mr. Alon Peled, CEO Mentor Gaming states that, in the next two years, the company intends to put approximately 14 million Euros into the development of this region's online gambling market. "One can hardly call our decision a gamble as the online gambling industry has grown from 3 billion USD in 2001 to 12 billion USD at the end of last year. And it is still expected to grow. By 2010, the industry global revenues may amount to 24 billion USD, and we believe a good part of it will come from Eastern Europe." says Peled.

The increase of visitors numbers to online gambling sites in Europe 2005-2006:

There is, however, at least one more reason for investor enthusiasm, and it regards the industry as a whole. Online gambling sites allow for a fast ROI of the set-up costs: one to two years which is a lot faster than real estate, another booming business in the region. "At the moment, Mentor Gaming is very close to striking a deal with local investors interested in launching online casinos powered by Mentor Gaming.", told Peled to a leading regional business daily.

According to company assessment there is no major difference between the Eastern European gambler and the other gamblers: male, between 25 and 45 who is fond of the Internet, loves poker, sports betting and lottery. Globally speaking, there is no proven connection between the sum of money people earn and the sums they will gamble. "This is also true for the Eastern European market where poker and lottery are expected to be the most popular online gambling games." acknowledged Peled.