Argentina Market Report
a blind eye
It has been said that Argentina is an economy that “never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” Facing its worst economic crisis in history, could revenue opportunities provided by provincial online gambling help alleviate the situation?
Argentina is the world’s eighth largest country and stretching 4,000km from the sub-tropical north to the sub-Antarctic south it is also the longest country. It is surrounded by Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay and shares a 4,700km coastline with the Atlantic Ocean. One third of the population lives in Buenos Aires and there are 23 provinces and one autonomous city. Te country declared independence from Spain in 1816 and during the first few decades of the 20th century it was one of the ten wealthiest countries in the world primarily exporting leather, grain, and meat. But its historical boom and bust cycle meant its rise to the top gave way to a series of coups, recessions and military up- risings whilst the 1930s saw the Great Depression hit and agricultural exports dry up. Te biggest change of all came when Juan Perón took
over as President in 1946. Tis heralded the start of the country’s most powerful political movement Peronism and the nation has never really been the same since. Inspired by Mussolini, Perón fought for a strong state and in doing so nationalised large parts of the economy. He embraced economic isolation and the country shut itself off from international trade. By boosting wages, introducing more social programmes and investing in infrastructure he became a hero amongst the working class – however much of this was financed by the frantic printing of money and inevitably, inflation. Perón was overthrown in 1955 by a military coup but
Argentina is still dominated by his legacy today and Peronists have been in power over half the time since. In 1983 democracy returned to Argentina but despite endless
140 u
The Argentina gambling market is estimated to reach a value of US$4.7bn by 2026 which is a growth of 5.4 per cent between 2020 and 2026.
u
Online gambling in Argentina is projected to see revenues of US$1.39bn in 2024.
u
Online sports betting is expected to see a market volume of US$0.59bn whilst online casinos US$54bn and online lottery US$26bn in 2024.
u
By 2028 online gambling revenues is expected to top US$1.93bn.
u
Average revenue per player was US$734.7m in total in 2023.
u
A TGM Research survey shows 39 per cent of Argentines bet monthly on sports betting and 20 per cent weekly.
promises to fix the economy no one has managed to stamp out the inflation problem long term. Te country is “consistently economically mis-managed” and it has stumbled through various periods of market stagnation and recession. Argentina saw some stability in the 1990s but the collapse of the Mexican and Brazilian economies had a ripple effect and the country defaulted on its debt. By 2019 inflation was considered the highest in 28
years at almost 54 per cent and Argentina was ranked 113th in the world in terms of ease of doing business alongside countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia. Meanwhile, the consequences of Covid were considerable. GDP in 2020 fell from US$448bn to US$386bn. Te IMF estimates the GDP this year will be US$632bn with a real growth rate of 2.8 per cent whilst unemployment rose from 9.8 per cent in 2019 to 11.5 per cent a year later. Exports have shrunk whilst the governments have over-
spent on price subsidies. Te average European spends $40 a month on electric. Argentinians spend $5. Tis cost the government $12.5bn (around two per cent of GDP) in 2022. Today, the country is facing its worst economic crisis in some two decades. Last year Argentina’s inflation rate was more than 200 per cent (only Venezuela and Le- banon have higher rates), whilst more than 40 per cent of the 46 million population are living below the poverty line. Te country has been in fiscal deficit for the last 13 years and is US$44bn in debt to the IMF. It was hardly surprising the country was ready for a radical change and that has arrived in the form of political outsider Javier Milei who won the presidential run-off in November 2023 defeating his rival Sergio Massa with 55.7 per cent of the
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172
