Romanian sports betting worth an annual €120 mln

Eleven years after the first auction for a betting establishment, the market is dominated by Astra Sport Bets, a company owned by two companies in Luxembourg and Hungary, whose Romanian clients purchase some 25 million betting slips annually, at a €1.2-1.5 in average wagers. Astra Sport Bets is expecting turnover this year worth some €45 mln, and claims some 50 percent of the market. It has some 330 agencies throughout the country. Second place goes to Stanleybets, a company controlled by the NCH investment company and Stanley International, with over 130 agencies.

Astra Sport Bets pays an annual €1 mln for publicity campaigns, more than any other company, and recently introduced a novel betting method for Romania in the form of SMSs.

The first betting license was granted in 1996 to Soccer International SA, which started out at the time with 16 agencies, 80 percent of which were authorized agents.