Could iGaming Provide the Ideal Side Hustle
Posted by Harry Kane on Tuesday, January 4, 2022
If you’re new to the world of online gambling, you may be a little naive to the size and nature of this pastime. This is perfectly understandable, with the marketplace having evolved at a marked rate since the introduction of the Gaming Act in the UK back in 2005.
After all, this sector’s GGY peaked at more than £5.9 billion in the year ending September 2021, while online gambling now accounts for more than 38% of the UK’s gambling industry as a whole. Further exponential growth is forecast for the near-term, creating a scenario where the UK iGaming marketplace could account for 50% of the total gambling GGY by 2030.
At the same time, the so-called “gig economy” is thriving in the UK, as people seek out increasingly flexible and ideally passive income streams to supplement their main income and boost their earnings’ potential on these shores.
In this post, we’ll explore the gig economy and its importance in the UK’s current macroeconomic climate, while asking whether online gambling provides a viable side hustle in 2020 and how you can optimise your chances of success in the iGaming marketplace. Let’s get into it!
A Look at the UK Economy and the Rise of the Gig Economy
Before we delve into the viability of online gambling as a viable side hustle, it’s important to take a look at the current macroeconomic climate and how this has inspired the gig economy and the adoption of flexible income streams nationwide.
In terms of the current macroeconomic climate, the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose by 10.7% in the 12 months to November 2022, with this having fallen slightly from 11.1% in October. The CPI also increased by 0.4% over the course of the previous four weeks, compared to the appreciation of 0.7% recorded in November 2021.
However, an inflation rate of 10.7% remains disproportionately high when compared with the Bank of England’s (BoE’s) target of 2%, while economists have predicted that it won’t ultimately fall to this level until some point in 2024. This is driving a significant cost-of-living crisis in the UK, with rising energy bills (which has been precipitated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and wholesale gas price hikes) and supply chain issues that are lifting the cost of food items.
The central bank has subsequently moved to increase the base rate of interest, which has been lowered to just 0.10% in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Since December 2021, however, the BoE has initiated several incremental hikes that have lifted the base rate of 3%, increasing the cost of borrowing markedly in the process. While this may prove effective over by helping to reduce inflation over time, it will exacerbate macroeconomic issues in the meantime while making it far more expensive for households and businesses to borrow money and fund significant or high-ticket purchases.
As Brits are subsequently struggling to fund everyday living costs and generally don’t have the disposable income to save, many have turned to the gig economy to instead focus on boosting their earnings. The gig economy describes a flexible labour market that’s characterised by the deployment of short-term contracts and freelance positions that can be leveraged alongside full-time work in many instances. To this end, almost half (48%) of gig workers in the UK also retain a full-time job while working on a short-term contract or freelance basis, with this number having increased markedly throughout the digital age and in line with increasingly challenging socioeconomic conditions.
So, while 71.5% of gig workers claim that such freelance roles comprise less than half of their total income, it continues to provide a much-needed boost during a period where the cost-of-living is growing at an exponential and disproportionate rate to earnings.
Currently, gig workers also contribute an impressive £20 billion per annum on average to the UK economy, with this equating to the total value of the aerospace industry. This number will also increase in the future too, especially as some 7.25 million are expected to work regularly in the gig economy by the end of 2022 alone.
Unsurprisingly, this trend is particularly prevalent among young people, with approximately one-third of individuals aged between 18 and 34 in the UK having returned to work by entering the gig economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. This is helping to make younger individuals key drivers of economic growth in the current climate, while establishing a growing generation of people who are able to earn flexibility and become more economically prosperous and independent.
Understanding the Intrinsic Link Between Gambling and Investing
Clearly, the current macroeconomic climate and emergence of the tech-led gig economy have combined to create an entire generation of people who want to create additional income streams, and this trend shows no sign of abating any time soon.
When considering the viability of online gambling as a side hustle, however, you first need to understand the intrinsic link that exists between betting and investing.
Even on a fundamental level, both investing and gambling involve risking capital in the hopes of making a profit, while certain financial markets require you to speculate on the performance of a specific asset class or instrument without assuming ownership of the underlying financial instrument.
You’ll also find that gamblers and investors tend to share the same basic objective; to minimise risk while maximising reward and affording their endeavours every possible chance of success. This is a fundamental tenant of both practices, and one that underpins every decision that both gamblers and investors make as part of their wider strategies. In these simple respects, gambling and investing are incredibly similar, which is why it remains possible for some individuals to carve out lucrative careers and professional gamblers. It’s also interesting to note that different investment vehicles and casino games
boast variable risk profiles, so there’s an opportunity to tailor your activity to suit your outlook and underlying philosophy. So, although it’s a stretch to describe your preferred gambling verticals as part of a wagering portfolio, but developing this type of mindset is key to monetising online betting in any kind of sustainable way.
Of course, the risks facing gamblers are more pronounced over time, primarily because they have fewer ways to mitigate and contain losses than investors do. It’s also arguable that investors have more relevant and informed data sources that can help them to achieve success, whereas gamblers remain vulnerable to games of chance of opportunism.
Regardless, these similarities underpin the selection of online gambling as a potential side hustle, while potentially inspiring individuals to monetise one of their favourite pastimes over time.
How Can Your Turn Gambling into a Side Hustle?
If you’re keen on embracing online gambling as a viable side hustle, there are several steps that you can follow to optimise your chances of success. We’ve outlined a couple of these in more detail below, so that you can ultimately achieve your objectives within an incredibly risky and challenging marketplace!
#1. Choose the Most Suitable Verticals and Understand the Importance of RTP Rates
To begin with, you’ll need to prioritise games that suit your skillset and optimise your potential returns. This can be a delicate balance to strike, as your favourite games or verticals may not be among the most rewarding.
Similarly, some verticals with the highest rates of return on average may also be categorised as games of chance where you have minimal control as a player, whereas others that are less generative over time do allow for the deployment of specific skills and knowledge.
In terms of the return-to-player (RTP) rate, operators are required to publish this for every game that they list, with this describing the average amount you can recoup for every £1 wagered through a particular title. For example, medium to high variance slots tend to offer incredibly generous return-to-player rates (RTPs) in excess of 96%, so you can recoup more than £0.96 for every £1 staked. However, slots are complete games of chance, so you’ll have little or no control over determining outcomes or optimising your chances of winning.
Conversely, classic blackjack has a theoretical RTP of 99.41% and a minimal house edge of just 0.59% and while this varies depending on the precise iteration that you play and the number of decks in play, the game also enables you to deploy strategy and numerical ability to increase your chances of winning further.
So, by focusing on games of this nature and factoring in any existing skills or experience that you may have rather than being attracted by immersive and often themed slot titles, you can increase your chances of winning and commit your bankroll as effectively as possible.
This is challenging, of course, as slots are heavily promoted and account for 70% of total GGY in the iGaming market, while certain iterations of blackjack and roulette only make game weighting contributions of 10% (making it harder and more expensive to full specific wagering requirements in some instances). However, if your focus is on optimising returns and maximising potential winnings over time, then you should focus on specific iterations of skilled table games or poker while always paying attention to the published RTP rate.
#2. Create a Viable Betting Strategy
On a similar note, you can increase your fundamental chances of success simply by creating a viable betting strategy, as one of several detailed bankroll management techniques. Ultimately, your bankroll sets the amount that you’ll wager over a predetermined period of time, and this should be set in line with your cash holdings, appetite for risk and the precise games or verticals that you intend to leverage.
As a starting point, the fundamental principle of bankroll management is that you never wager more than you can comfortably afford to lose over a specified period of time, while adhering to this rule by utilising the deposit limits now made available by online casinos and sportsbooks in the UK marketplace.
What’s more, you can tailor daily, weekly and monthly deposit limits according to your precise activity and how frequently you wager online, as this creates a safeguard that negates the temptation to potentially bet more than you can afford across your chosen range of verticals and betting markets.
The benefits of this are obvious; as they create a type of investor-mindset that encourages you to spend your capital wisely and simultaneously spread risk across different games and wagers. It’s from here that can create a workable betting strategy, which starts with the creating of a single wagering unit that should have a nominal value based on the size of your bankroll.
You can then tailor this to suit each wager and outcome. For example, if you’re sports betting and your want to back a short-price favourite with an inflated probability of winning, you can scale your betting unit and stake in a bid to safely optimise returns. Conversely, you may want to wager a single betting unit when backing longer price players or teams with less chance of winning, as this minimises your potential losses without overly compromising on returns.
This type of strategic mindset is key to capping losses in real-time and boosting your returns, while it’s also indicative of a professional gambling mindset that can transform a risky and casual pastime into a viable side hustle.
However, it’s important to approach this with considerable caution, not least because of the risk involved and the inevitably of incurring losses at one time or another. You’ll also need to approach every conceivable aspect of your iGaming side hustle from a strategic and well-considered point of view, with this requiring patience and discipline in addition to a strong understanding online gambling and its various verticals.