The UK online gambling market generates around £3b in annual revenue, according to statistics compiled under the country’s new regulatory regime.
On Thursday, the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) released statistics covering market activity between April 2014 and March 2015, the first report to include data after Nov. 1, 2014, the date by which all UK-facing online gambling operators were required to to obtain a UKGC license.
The data marks the first opportunity to measure the true scope of the UK’s online gambling market. The 12-month period includes only five months of the new regime, and precise full-year figures won’t be known until the UKGC’s next report in June 2016, but extrapolation of the five-month period reveals some interesting numbers.
Total gross gaming yield (GGY) from online operations during the five-month period came to £1.45b, eclipsing the £1.1b generated by UK-licensed operators in the 12 months prior to Nov. 1, 2014. Total betting turnover over these five months came to £13.8b. Extrapolating these figures to cover a 12-month period, the UK online market GGY is worth over £3b, with turnover of more than £33b.
Online casino claimed the lion’s share (£834m) of GGY in this five-month period, followed by betting (£528m, of which £55.6m came via betting exchanges). Bingo reported revenue of £82.6m and pool betting added £6.3m.
Football was the largest online betting sport with revenue of £168m, followed by horseracing (£128m), tennis (£25.3m), dog racing (£9.2m), cricket (£4.8m), golf (£3.6m) and spread betting (£3.1m). Slots earned the bulk (£532.5m) of online casino revenue, followed by table games (£140.3m) and card games (£67.7m), while poker added £36.7m.
As for offline gambling, the UKGC says it generated a total £5.4b in GGY during the period, up 2% from the previous 12-month period. The gains mostly came from the betting sector, which rose just under £80m to £3.25b, and casinos, which rose £50m to £1.16b. Arcades fell £6m to £372m while bingo fell £10m to £662m. The National Lottery improved 4% to £3.23b while other lotteries rose 18% to £362m.
