SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
The latest UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) data shows that the British betting and gaming space remains a high-growth industry despite the challenges of regulatory changes and market saturation.
UKGC operator data for January-March 2025, covering 80% of licensed operators, revealed a 7% year-over-year increase in online gross gambling yield (GGY) to £1.45bn (2024: £1.3bn). Online gaming continues to make gains, but at the expense of the retail sector.
As usual, the Cheltenham Festival stood as a key engagement driver for the sports betting space, with the Commission directly citing the ‘bookmaker friendly results’ as positively impacting online betting GGY during the January-March time period.
“Obviously, for bookmakers, it was a Cheltenham to remember. It’s very rare that so many well fancied shots get beaten, so there was definitely no moaning from our side,” Chad Yeomans, Betway’s Head of Global Comms and PR, told ABC News shortly after the festival.
The timing of some of UK betting’s biggest annual events helped push GGY from real event betting up 5% to €6.5m, despite the number of bets falling by 1% and the number of average monthly accounts dropping 2%.
In contrast to online betting, the offline sector had a slightly harder time of things. Offline betting GGY fell 3% to £554m with the total number of bets and spins falling by 5% to 3.1 billion.
Perhaps a sign of the times with more and more customers migrating to online betting and abandoning the traditional retail vertical entirely over the counter betting also fell 6% although GGY remained consistent at £152m (2024: £154m) and SSBT bets fell 1% to £125m (£126.4m).
Total GGY for all segments reached £1.45 billion, a decrease from £1.53bn in Q4 2024. The highest recorded GGY remains Q4 2020, at £1.66bn, driven by the unique circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Betting makes big gains but slots stand out
Cheltenham may have had a big impact on betting, but the biggest growth driver for UK GGY in general during the fourth quarter of the 2024 financial year was the slots sector.
The online slots segment recorded an 11% year-on-year increase in GGY, reaching £689m.
The number of spins rose by 6% to 23.4 billion , while the average number of monthly active accounts in Q4 grew by 6% to 4.5 million — the highest average on record for this dataset.
Despite this peak in account activity, Slot GGY for Q1 2025 remained below the previous quarter’s total of £710m. On the retail side of gaming, the number of machine sessions remained steady at 130 spins but GGY decreased 5% to £276m.
The UKGC reminds audiences that “It is important to note that historical data has been corrected to take account for the correct categorisation of a game, with the product moving from the casino vertical to the slots vertical.”
The data shows that the British betting market, particularly the online side of the industry, remains resilient. The industry is going through a period of substantial change, with the UKGC engaged in several consultations with operators on a range of topics.
During the January-Match period, this change included the implementation of new rules around cross-selling promotions, something which prompted debate around whether or not this would spell the end of cross-selling between betting, gaming and lottery products.
The UK’s next round of data around the UK betting and gaming market’s dynamics may provide some initial clarity into whether or not these fears had any basis…
