The State of Play – UK Gambling Insights

Posted by Harry Kane on Friday, April 29, 2022

Not only is the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) working tirelessly to help protect vulnerable gamblers and create far greater transparency within the industry, but they also continue to collate data pertaining to players’ behaviour and spending habits.

Most recently, the regulator unveiled its long-awaited ‘Path to Play’ studies, which delved into the spending habits of players in the UK and how these have evolved over time. We’ll explore some of the most interesting findings in more detail below, while appraising precisely what they tell us about the industry and its future course.

The Average Brit Spend Approximately £70 per Week on Gambling

One of the most interesting findings was that the average Brit wagers approximately £70 per week across all gambling verticals, with this amount noticeably higher than recorded in previous UKGC studies from 2019.

Back then, it was estimated that the average players wagered £2.57 per week, equating to an annual spend of £133. This was the average amount staked across all 24 million adult gamblers located in the UK, while it suggested that betting was little more than a casual pastime for the overwhelming majority of players on these shores.

According to the most recent study, the average weekly and annual spend has increased to £70 and £3,640 respectively, with these totals applying to both on and offline verticals and highlighting a significant hike in activity. This increase may have something to do with the fact that gamblers are now betting more frequently than before.

More specifically, close to 55% of British players engage in a form of gambling twice a week, while many now prefer to set their own betting limits as they have the opportunity across a broader range of channels.

Interestingly, the majority of respondents to the survey suggested that an average weekly spend of £192 would be too much. This is quite a high threshold, while it suggests that gamblers would be willing to spend considerably more than they do now in the pursuit of potentially lucrative returns.

Of course, there’s also a disparity in spending between different regions. The capital city of London is home to the biggest spenders in the gambling market, for example, with citizens here wagering a weekly average of £99. Then comes Yorkshire with an average weekly spend of £74, while the West Midlands is ranked third with a value of £71.

This increase in weekly and annual spending is largely being driven by men too, who continue to wager considerably more on average than their female counterparts. This is an unsurprising statistic in many ways, especially when you consider that men are approximately seven-and-a-half times more likely than women to become problem gamblers.

The Rise of Mobile and In-App Gambling

Back in 2018, it was also estimated that more than 50% of British gamblers wagered frequently online, while an even larger majority of respondents to the most recent survey preferred wagering through native mobile apps and online casinos.

Conversely, just 2% of all respondents preferred to gamble in-house at a brick-and-mortar casino or betting shop, with this mood reflected by the fact iGaming now accounts for more than 40% of the total gambling GGY in the UK. Interestingly, offline gambling in land-based establishments is the least popular gambling vertical across all age ranges and demographics too.

Overall, a whopping 85% of UK gamblers now have at least one gambling app installed on their smartphones. This affords punters with seamless and more instant access to their favourite casino brands and iGaming verticals, with this also arguably contributing to the increased weekly and annual spend on these shores.

But what verticals are players accessing when they click through a mobile browser or native casino app? Well, the recent study highlighted that sports betting and online casino gameplay accounted for a combined 78% of all gambling revenue generated in the UK, with both claiming an equal 39% share of this marketplace.

Within the sports betting niche, football remains the single most dominant discipline in the eyes of punters. In fact, the England’s national sport accounted for a staggering 47% of all sports bets placed both on and offline, with horse racing the only other sport to reach double figures in this respect (27%).

Even tennis (which is an incredibly popular sport and sees the iconic Wimbledon Championships hosted ever single year in the UK) only holds a 5.9% share of all sports betting activity, while this trend shows no sign of changing any time soon. But what about the online casino marketplace? Well, online slots continue to dominate here, while also increase their overall share of the online GGY in the iGaming market.

In total, it’s estimated that online and video slots account for around 70% of all revenue generated at online casinos, while this vertical has also continued to diversify in terms of the volume and type of games available to players.

It’s interesting to note that slots are also incredibly popular among casual and mobile players, with the development of HTML5 technology helping to create games that adapt intuitively to mobile display dimensions and allowing for an optimal gambling experience while on the move.

The Last Word

There are several takeaways here, but one of the most obvious is the increased amounts of cash that players are willing to wager across multiple sports betting and casino verticals. Of course, this has also coincided with the rapid rise of online and (more specifically) mobile gambling, as more players have installed native casino apps on their devices and sought to access their favourite games on a more frequent basis.

At the same time, the popularity of brick-and-mortar casinos or bookmakers has continued to depreciate, with players clearly opting to wager flexibly or from the convenience of their homes rather than venture out to their local establishments. This will probably see the average amount wagered each week in the UK increase incrementally over time, as virtual gambling inches closer to becoming the dominant medium in the industry as a whole.