Brick-and-mortar casinos slowly give way to online venues, people spin the reels more often, addiction issues are on the rise, and the whole gambling industry is turning upside-down.
If you’re interested in getting more than just this glimpse of the current gambling landscape, join us as we analyse gambling stats for the UK and the latest trends and trajectories in this multibillion industry.
(UK Gambling Commission)
Stuck at home during the pandemic, most Brits who used to place their bets at brick-and-mortar bookmakers have switched to online gambling. With new betting sites popping up like mushrooms after rain, the online gaming industry has hit an all-time high in the UK. Online gambling statistics collected by the UKGC tell us that the number of active players who bet virtually rose to 225,983 in July 2021, which is 4% higher than in June 2021.
(Statista)
As the trajectory of the online gambling industry is on the rise and an increase in digits for gambling sites becomes obvious, popular online bookmakers are reorganising. Sports gambling statistics in the UK gathered by Statista show that betfred.com is the leader of the list as of Q2 2021. With a 3.12% share of voice - defined as search visibility of a particular bookmaker website - Betfred dominates the virtual sportsbook realm. Paddypower.com and betway.com ranked second and third, with 3.01% and 2.52%, respectively.
(UK Gambling Commission)
Even though the newest results are yet to be released in November, according to UK gambling industry statistics, the total gambling revenue reached £5.9 billion in the reporting period from April to September 2020. Out of that sum, online gambling accounts for 52.3% of the overall market or £3.1 billion. The biggest number of gamblers opted for online casino games, mostly slots, which had a total GGY of £1.9 billion.
(UK Gambling Commission)
The sector of online sports betting has flourished, too, generating a total of £1 billion in gross gambling revenue in the period from April to September 2020. Gambling stats in the UK reveal that the largest number of sports bettors decided to try their luck with football and horse betting. Sports betting is expected to earn more revenue in the following months, with lots of high-level sporting events scheduled and more opportunities for placing bets on various sports.
(UK Gambling Commission)
Looking at the most recent gambling facts and stats, we’ve noticed a drop of 7% when it comes to the total number of bets on real events. Namely, recently published gambling statistics in the UK show that 252,139,097 bets were placed online in July, whereas June figures stood at 272,566,779. March was the most intensive month for gambling on real events, with 375,179,182 placed bets. The number of active players engaged in this type of betting has decreased, too, as figures show a slight month-on-month drop of 2% from June to July.
(Gambling Commission UK)
As online slots activity increased, the GGY of this segment climbed 4% to over £187 million during the observed period from June to July 2021. Statistics for gambling on slots also show that the number of sessions lasting longer than an hour jumped 8% in March 2021 (totalling 2,728,438). At the same time, the average session length was 21 minutes in March and May and shortened to 19 minutes in June and July.
(UK Government)
National Lottery duty is a duty paid on lottery tickets by the promoter of the National Lottery. It is the most significant contributor to betting and gaming total receipts in 2021, according to the statistics about gambling in the UK, with a contribution of 34% or £979.8 million, which represents a slight growth of 1.3% compared to the previous financial year. The lottery duty rate of 12% has not changed since it was introduced in 1994.
(Statista)
When looking at gambling statistics regarding horse betting in the UK, we can see a significant decline of 82% in the observed period from April 2008 to March 2020. The results published in September 2021 by Statista show that in 2008, the total gross revenue of off-course race betting was £5.74 billion. The figures had been in a steady decline for over a decade, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the sector, causing a sharp drop to £1.04 billion in the period from April to September 2020. A similar trend to off-course horse racing can be seen in gambling statistics on off-course dog race betting.
(LeanBackPlayer)
The taxation of gambling revenue suffered a dip along with the gambling industry. In the observed period from April 2020 to March 2021, tax revenues generated from casinos fell 6%. Taxes on brick-and-mortar casinos plunged 62%, while in-person machine gaming duties fell 44% over the same period. Despite the sharp decline of figures, the industry managed to scoop up £2.83 billion in tax revenue, mostly thanks to online casinos and remote venues. Gambling stats for the UK reveal that tax levies from remote and online venues grew 25% and contributed over £885 million in revenue, which takes up 31% of all duties collected by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.
(Statista)
The issue of problem gambling has been raising concerns in recent years, especially when it comes to young adults and teenagers who get addicted to gambling. According to a March 2021 survey conducted by Statista, the largest portion of problem gamblers falls under the age group of 35 to 44. Figures that raise eyebrows are those showing that 0.4% of individuals who stated they had difficulties controlling their gambling were 16-24 years old. UK problem gambling statistics derived from this survey with 4,009 participants indicate that none of the respondents aged 65 and older reported any gambling issues.
(UK Gambling Commission)
Findings from the UKGC quarterly telephone survey show that the overall problem gambling rate fell to 0.4% from 0.6% from June 2020 to June 2021. At the same time, the percentage of moderate-risk gamblers decreased from 1.5% to 0.6%, whereas the percentage of low-risk gamblers fell to 1.9% from 2.7%.
(UK Gambling Commission)
Online gambling addiction statistics for 2021 indicate that exposure to gambling at an early age has an influence on children and increases the risk of problem gambling. Thirty-two per cent of respondents aged 16 to 30 classified as moderate-risk to problem gamblers stated their parents were actively encouraging them to gamble, while only 9% of low-risk gamblers had a similar experience. Also, 32% of problem gamblers had parents who gambled more than most people, compared to only 8% of non-problem and low-risk gamblers. The results of the study indicate the need for positive examples and avoiding engaging with gambling early in life to beat the worrisome statistics on gambling addiction among young adults.
(The National Lottery)
The National Lottery has been assigning funds to good causes ever since its launch in 1994. The money has so far been used to support 635,000 projects in sports, arts and heritage, health, education, and the environment. In the financial year 2020/21, there was an increase of 2.4% in total funds to £1.83 billion, compared to last years’ £1.79 billion, according to gambling statistics for the UK.
(UK Gambling Commission)
Released on July 30 this year, new UKGC research into consumer engagement with safer gambling opportunities brings us some interesting findings. Namely, the online survey of roughly 8,000 respondents shows that only 14% of respondents read the terms and conditions section provided by the operator, whereas 65% don’t, even though they are aware of it. Twenty-one per cent of gamblers weren’t even aware of this document’s existence.
Internet gambling statistics further inform us that, out of those who did read the terms and conditions, 70% found them easy to understand, whereas 31% thought they were unfair. Roughly a third of individuals older than 65 belongs to the group of those unaware of the terms and conditions section.
(UK Gambling Commission)
UK operators provide various gambling management tools that ensure a safer gambling experience and reduce the risk of problem gambling. These include self-exclusion and cooling-off periods, setting time or money limits, reality checks, AI-powered software that tracks and analyses an individual gambler’s behaviour, and more. The aforementioned UKGC’s research on player engagement with safer gambling opportunities revealed that 6% of gamblers had used the self-exclusion option. Gambling Commission industry statistics further tell us that setting financial limits was the most used tool (8%), while the least used were multioperator self-exclusion, gambling blocking software, and payment card blocking (2%).
(UK Gambling Commission)
Even though only a minority of consumers take advantage of gambling management tools, the research published on the UKGC website shows that in the age group of 18 to 24, 26% of players use one of the offerings for safer gambling. Gambling addiction statistics in the UK further reveal that the most popular tool among this population are financial limits, which account for 13% of all tools used. For 9% of users, the time-out tool is the next in line, and reality checks ranked third, with 7% of gamblers using them.
Even though the exact figures are not known, it’s estimated that there are over 25 million adult gamblers in the UK. Out of that number, 10.5 million place their bets online and a total of 45% of Brits gamble each month.
Facts about gambling and statistics regarding it inform us that the UK gambling industry was worth about £14.4 billion in 2018. Gambling is one of the favourite pastimes for many Brits, with the National Lottery being the most popular form of it.
A 2020 survey commissioned by GambleAware with 16,000 respondents found that up to 2.7% of adults in the UK - or 1.4 million - were problem gamblers. This number is much higher than the official UKGC estimates of 0.7%.
Gambling stats for the UK market show that the company with the highest revenue (£2.14 billion) is Flutter. Flutter operates popular sports betting sites Betfair and Paddy Power.
