Will Women Eventually Become the Dominant iGaming Demographic?

Posted by Harry Kane on Thursday, January 9, 2020

A large number of industries are subject to age-old and often inaccurate stereotypes, and the iGaming space is no exception to this rule.

More specifically, many believe that online gambling is driven primarily by male consumers, and whilst there may be some truth to this, the market is far more diverse and complex than initially meets the eye.

We’ll explore this further in the post below, whilst asking whether female players will ever become the dominant iGaming demographic.

The State of the Market – Do Women or Men Wager More?

For now, there’s no doubt that men are more prolific gamblers than women, both online and in brick-and-mortar establishments.

However, it’s also apparent that women are becoming increasingly active in the iGaming space, with female gamblers accounting for an estimated 43.8% of the total audience at the end of 2017.

So, whilst men may account for the remaining 56.2% of avid online gamblers, the market is deceptively diverse and continues to evolve with every passing year.

For example, women were thought to have claimed a 41% market share during the previous 12-month period, as female participation continues to increase incrementally and at a far faster rate than men.

Of course, we’ve seen this trend before, with the global gaming audience having featured a rising number of women since the turn of the century. This sector has also historically been defined by misconceptions and stereotypes, with the typical gamer seen as an adolescent boy with considerable amounts of leisure time but minimal disposable income.

Despite this seemingly entrenched perception, women accounted for an estimated 49% of the total gaming audience in 2012, whilst a report published three years later suggested that this number had increased to 52%.

Whilst this may be part of a wider demographic shift within the gaming market, there can be no doubt that a similar pattern is becoming visible in the lucrative iGaming space.

Will Men Continue to Dominate the iGaming Spend?

With these points in mind, there’s little doubt that female gamblers could ultimately outnumber their male counterparts in the coming decade. The question that remains, however, is will this demographic ever outspend men or wager as prolifically as men?

After all, the latest figures reaffirm the importance of male consumers in the iGaming marketplace, with men accounting for a considerable majority of the total amount wagered each and every year online.

Whilst 51.8% of female gamblers spend between £1 and £10 per week online, for example, just 19% wager an amount between £11 and £20. Conversely, a meagre 35.9% of men bet £10 or less a week, with 25.4% staking anywhere between £11 and £20.

This trend continues as the stake amounts increase, with men always inclined to spend noticeably more than their female counterparts.

An estimated 3.56% of men find themselves in the £101 to £250 per week demographic, for example, compared with just 2.2% of all female gamblers. Incredibly, more than twice as many men spend more than £500 each week online, as women continue to operate at the lower end of the market and target specific verticals such as virtual bingo.

When it comes to frequency, the statistics also show that men are six-times more likely to gamble than women on average. Whilst this figure fluctuates across different verticals, of course, it’s clear that male gamblers spend considerably more than women and also wager on a far more regular basis.

Where Do Women Wager Their Hard-earned Cash?

Realistically, it will take considerably longer for this trend to reverse, as female gamblers are unlikely to change their behaviour significantly even as they become increasingly dominant in the marketplace.

But how exactly do female gamblers wager their hard-earned cash? Well, the truth is that women are active across a wider range of verticals than ever before, with online bingo, sports betting and virtual slots amongst the most popular.

Of these, online bingo continues to lead the way, with just under 60% of female gamblers playing this regularly. Interestingly, sports betting is enjoyed by just over 40% of this demographic, whilst 34% of women frequently play online slots.

Conversely, a whopping 73% of men said that sports betting was their preferred vertical, compared with 29.18% who frequently played online poker. Just 26.5% of men played online slots regularly, however, which is interesting given that this remains iGaming’s most lucrative niche and accounts for nearly two-thirds of the total casino GGY.

Despite this, it’s generally accepted that male gamblers spend the vast majority of their cash on the iGaming market’s most generative verticals. Between them, casino products (including online poker) and sports betting account for 93.1% of the iGaming GGY, with latter alone responsible for 37.1% of the total yield.

Conversely, bingo accounts for a little over 3.5% of all iGaming yields, and in this respect it can be argued that male consumers remain slightly more important to the profitability of the industry than their female counterparts.

The Last Word – Appraising the Role of Female Gamblers in the iGaming Realm

Ultimately, it cannot be denied that women are becoming increasingly active in the iGaming market, whilst their participation continues to grow at a faster rate than men across a number of different verticals.

It’s also fair to surmise that women are increasingly inclined to wager their money on high yield products such as sports betting and slot gaming, creating a scenario where their influence on operators continues to grow.

However, male gamblers continue to dominate the sports betting and online casino sectors for the time being, both in terms of participation rates and the amounts wagered on a regular basis.

This also betrays the fact that men gamble far more frequently than women, which in turn means that they’re far more likely to capitalise on lucrative bonus offers and drive long-term growth within the industry.

So, over the course of their lifespan, male gamblers are considerably more valuable than their female counterparts, and this trend is unlikely to reverse any time soon.

However, this doesn’t mean that women can’t outnumber men in the iGaming market during the next decade, especially if they remain a target for slot game developers throughout the UK.