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UK Online Gambling Yield Declines for the First Time Ever

  • Gross gambling yield of the British gambling industry declined 0.3% year-on-year
  • Online gambling yield accounts for 37.1% of the total industry yield
  • The main source of revenue for online gambling is online casino games
  • Soccer is still the most popular sport to bet on, followed by horse racing
Andrew O’Malley

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Figures released in the UK Gambling Commission’s annual industry statistics report confirm that the British online gambling yield has declined for the first time. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Interesting figures

The UK gambling industry’s gross gambling yield fell by 0.3% year-on-year, according to figures released in the UK Gambling Commission’s annual statistic report.

online gambling revenues fell by 0.6%, down to ￡5.3bn ($6.84bn)

The yield was ￡14.36bn ($18.56bn) for the year ending March 2019. The UKGC’s report also states that online gambling revenues fell by 0.6%, down to ￡5.3bn ($6.84bn). This year-on-year online gambling yield decline is the first that the sector has ever experienced.

Mixed online gambling results

A total of 37.1% of the entire gross gambling yield was generated by online gambling companies, which reported a handle of ￡118.74bn ($153.29bn). This means that the win rate for the online sector increased in the period by 7.1%. 

According to the UKGC’s report, the main source of revenue within the online gambling sector came from online casino games.

Online casino games had a yield of ￡3.11bn ($4bn). This represents an increase of 6%, having accepted bets totaling ￡89.68bn ($115.77bn). Online slots had a ￡2.12bn ($2.74bn) yield. There was a lot of growth in online roulette, with its yield rising to ￡448.2m ($578.6m).

While there was an increase of 2.7% in total stakes for online gambling, the betting yield still fell by 10% in total. 

Soccer is still the most popular sport for online sportsbooks, with its yield standing at ￡991.2m ($1.28bn). Horse racing was next in the rankings with a yield of ￡552.1m ($712.6m), which represents a year-on-year decline of 15%.

Retail gambling breakdown

Retail betting operators produced a gross gaming yield of ￡3.25bn ($4.2bn), which is very similar to the previous year’s yield. The National Lottery experienced a 2.4% increase in its yield, up to ￡3.08bn ($4m). The yield for land-based casinos dropped to ￡1.06bn ($1.37bn), which represents a 10.3% decline.

In terms of those providing gambling software to gambling operators, revenues of ￡823m ($1.06bn) represent a 7% increase.

Employment stats

Other interesting statistics mentioned in the report include the fact that there are 102,782 people employed in the UK’s gambling sector. This is a decline of 3.2% year-on-year.

Almost half (49%) of those employed in the industry work in retail sports betting. Only 10% of the workforce works in the online gambling sector.

there are 102,782 people employed in the UK’s gambling sector

A significant driver for further decreases in the number of people employed in the sector is the closure of more than 1,000 betting shops across the UK.

These closures are mainly due to dropping betting shop revenues. These drops stem from the curtailing of the stakes of fixed-odds betting terminals (FOBTs) down to ￡2 ($2.58) from a previous maximum of ￡100 ($129).

Another 1,000 shops are expected to also follow suit in the coming years.

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