Across The Border | China’s sports lottery business to see continued high growth in 2016
After explosive growth in 2014, regulators are now adopting a cautious but open attitude towards online lottery sales on the mainland
China’s sports lottery business is expected to see continued explosive growth in 2016 thanks to event-driven catalysts and the possible restarting of online lottery sales, market watchers said.
Quadrennial major sporting events including the UEFA European Football Championship, Copa America Centenario and the 2016 Rio Olympics are all rolling out in the three months from June to August.
“We expect sports lotteries to deliver sustained high growth driven by frequent sporting events in the near term and the prosperity of China’s sports industry over the longer term,” said Yan Peng, an analyst from Citic Securities.
Match betting, a major category in the sports lottery business, is likely to see domestic sales enjoy “a multiple yearly increase” in June 2016 over the same month last year, said Jiang Hao, an analyst from Everbright Securities. Match betting lottery sales in March and April this year jumped 71 per cent and 49 per cent year on year to 5.9 billion yuan and 6.42 billion yuan respectively.
“I think the all-star teams in the European Championship and Copa America make these two sporting events more attractive for Chinese sports fans than the Brazil World Cup,” added Jiang.
However, the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil proved how a major sports event can boost China’s sports lottery business. In June of that year, China’s match-betting lottery sales soared 384.3 per cent year on year to 9.62 billion yuan.
