The statistical data gathered by the Gambling Commission entails every field of the gambling economy, be it online casinos or bingo. And the numbers look more than promising, at least on paper the online casino industry seems to be prospering. It couldn’t have been otherwise, the quality and quantity of internet casinos are conducive to a booming industry.
On account of the steady growth over the past months, the UK online gambling industry has reached a total gross gaming yield (GGY) of £14.3bn. Revenue from the remote casino sector is currently taking the first place with £2.9 bn, while sports betting comes at a close second with over £1.6 bn.
The total remote sector yield is £5.3bn, the better half of which, as we mentioned, comes from online casinos, but what’s more important is the resurgence of sports betting, scooping a £2.1 bn (38%) share. On the same note, bingo accounts for £164.8m and exchange betting – 160m (3%).
It comes as no surprise that the backbone of online casino GGY is slots (£2bn). By all appearances the interest in table games and the rest of the variety of games is, to say the least, meager, jointly accounting for a mere £900m.
By the numbers, £1bn worth of wagers were placed on football games contrasting to a horse racing betting activity of 610m. Although football betting remains peerless in the field of sports wagering for the Island, greyhound racing, rugby, and even darts don’t let up on their popularity with the fans.
Land-Based Betting Follows a Decreasing Trend
Brick and mortar betting shops slowly lose ground with punters as indicated by the 4.1% GGY decline. It’s widely believed that online sports betting was long overdue and it’s hard to imagine that the tendency could be reversed. Nearly £3.1bn of the reported £3.3bn, come from designated betting facilities.
However, that number is bound to change in the light of FOBIT (short for fixed odds betting terminal) maximum stakes cap. The maximum stake for fixed-odds betting terminals is now set at £2, which will invariably affect the revenue from betting machines. This year, gaming terminals accounted for 1.8bn GGY.
William Hill stays at the forefront of land-based betting with 27.1% of all UK betting shops, while Ladbrokes is slowly leapfrogging towards the top spot with 22%. Betfred and Gala Coral are honorable mentions holding respectively 19.6% and an 18.3% share.
Not to be depreciated is the National Lottery’s contribution towards the UK’s GGY grossing an increase to £3bn over the last year. Over £3.9bn paid in cash prizes, and another £1.5bn dedicated to good causes. When it comes to land-based casinos, the statistic shows a GGY climb of 2.4%. All 152 casinos on the territory of the United Kingdom were taken into account. As expected, Rank Group and Genting UK managing 70% of the venues.
