UK Gross Gambling Yield for Online Betting on the Rise
The UK's online betting industry is going from strength to strength. The UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) recently published a report showing GGY (gross gambling yield) growth.
Online casinos and betting operators provide UK consumers with an extensive range of markets and games to explore. The competitive market also encourages competition and helps to ensure operators maintain high standards. Customers can shop around for competitive odds, state-of-the-art technology, and great sign-up offers and deals.
The UK's Online Betting Industry
The UK's online betting industry was worth over £6.6 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow significantly from 2024 to 2032.A projected 4.6% compound annual growth rate could see its value exceed £10 billion by 2032.
The main betting markets that have impacted the industry are the sports betting market and casino betting.
The sports betting market includes all types of sports, with football being the most popular. Horse racing, dog racing, and E-Sports are also included.
Casino betting offers a variety of traditional table games including blackjack, poker, and baccarat, as well as slot machines that account for the highest revenue. The online betting in the industry sees most of its customers access accounts via mobile devices or desktop/laptop computers.
Online Betting Gross Gambling Yield
The UKGC announced that the GGY for the fourth quarter of financial year 23/24 shows a 5% year-on-year increase and totalled £1.4 billion. The gross gambling yield that covers from January 2024 to March 2024 showed significant growth in slots gaming.
The Biggest Markets
The casino and sports betting markets make up the largest betting markets in the UK. Privately owned and run operators compete against one another in buoyant markets, providing great value for money for consumers. This has helped to drive the markets to record-breaking revenues and improving technology should help this continue.
Active online betting accounts in the UK rose by 2% as the total number of bets placed (including spins on slot machines) rose by 10% to 24 billion.
Slots
Online casinos saw their largest earner increase its GGY by 11% to £614 million. Online slots offer users a fun, exciting, and immersive gaming experience and their success has seen the number of spins rise by 12% and the number of active casino accounts increase to 4.2 million, a 7% rise on the previous year's figures.
Sports Betting
Despite sports bets decreasing by 6% for the period in question, the GGY shows an increase of 2% on last year's figures, posting a total of £565 million. A small rise of active betting accounts was also noted with 1% more in operation.
Factors That Could Affect Online Betting Markets
There are many factors that will affect the success of online betting markets in the UK. Rising inflation and interest rates can limit the amount of spare money people have to spend on recreational activities like betting.
However, big sporting events can help to boost the industry with bettors wagering throughout tournaments.
Euro 2024
Football is the largest sports betting market in the UK. The industry typically slumps during the summer as the season ends.
However, the UEFA Euro 2024 tournament being held in Germany will significantly increase football betting revenue between Friday the 14th of June when the tournament kicks off (with hosts Germany playing Scotland), and Sunday, July 14th when the final will be held. 51 matches in total will be played over the month with Scotland and favourites England taking part.
If England can reach their potential and make it to the final, the country could see record betting figures as fans back the team.
New UKGC Regulations
Online slots are a huge earner for online casinos, but news that the UKGC is set to impose new regulations could impact revenues. From January 15th, a ban on autoplay and speed-up features will be implemented on UK-licensed online casinos. Players will no longer be able to play more than one game at once and spin speeds under 5 seconds will also be stopped.
Online operators will also be forced to display the time customers have spent on site and their net spend at all times.
These new measures are being implemented to improve customer knowledge of their potential losses and how the game works. This could drive customers who enjoy autoplay features and the ability to speed up spins to explore offshore, non-Gamstop casinos as a way to avoid the regulations.
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