Tele2, the Russian mobile operator, recorded a decrease in total traffic in four legal gambling zones by 21% in January-June 2022 compared to the same period last year.
The company's research included casinos in the Kaliningrad region, Altai, Krasnodar and Primorsky regions. In general, in these regions the number of tourists decreased by 14% year-on-year. At the same time, according to the results of June, the traffic of betting services decreased by 20% compared to the beginning of the year.
As part of the study, the operator's analysts studied the data activity of customers in the Sochi and Boomerang casinos in the Krasnodar Territory, Sobranie in the Kaliningrad Region, Tiger de Crystal in the Primorsky Territory, Altai Palace in the Altai Territory.
The largest decrease in total traffic in gaming zones compared to last year was in March and April - minus 29% and 30%, respectively. Traditionally, a turning point in terms of the growth of tourist activity, May showed an increase of 17% compared to April 2022. Nevertheless, the volume of data traffic spent on the territory of the casino in May is 25% lower than last year. In June, traffic continued to grow, but was still 14% lower than last year.
The largest decrease in data activity for six months was recorded in gambling establishments Boomerang and Altai Palace - by 37% and 45%, respectively. For the same period in 2021, the operator's customers downloaded 68% of the total traffic there in all five locations. At the same time, traffic increased in the Krasnodar Territory and Primorye: in the Sobranie and Sochi casinos - by 15% and 17%, in Tiger de Crystal - by 11%. However, this growth did not compensate for more than a 20% decrease in traffic in all legal gaming areas.
According to the geoanalytical platform Tele2, during the reporting period, regions with legal gambling zones were visited by 14% less tourists than a year earlier. In March and April, the tourist flow to the regions decreased by 16% year-on-year, in May - by 26% compared to the results of the previous year. At the same time, the influx of tourists was recorded in Primorsky Krai, where it amounted to 23% year-on-year, and in Altai Krai - 18%.
Tele2 also analyzed traffic in betting services. In June, it decreased by 20% compared to the beginning of the year, with the first wave of traffic decline (-10%) recorded in March 2022.
Since March, betting services have also begun to lose in the number of players among Tele2 customers. By May, the main decline was in 1xstavka and Fonbet, which lost about 50% of their daily users compared to the beginning of the year. However, in June the withdrawal of clients of these platforms among Tele2 subscribers stopped - they began to increase in shares, while the number of Winline players continued to decrease in absolute terms. Nevertheless, the platform is still the leader in terms of the number of users: the share of Winline is about 40% of betting services clients. In second place is 1xstavka (25%), the third position is occupied by Fonbet (15%). In total, they hold a share of about 80%.
