UKGC data: Record quarter for gambling activity in Britain

Players in Britain placed 24.5 billion bets and spins in Q2 (April to June), representing an increase of 11% on last year and a new quarterly record since the UKGC began publishing player data in 2019.

Breaking down the UKGC data, online slots were the primary source of GGY at £642m, noting a rise of 10% from last year. May proved the busiest month for online slots gaming with GGY hitting £217.9m.

Consumers placed a total of 22.4 billion spins during the quarter, which is up 12% on last year. However, slot session length was marginally shorter at 17 minutes, compared to just under 18 minutes in the previous year. 

As for how many people were playing online slots, total active players in this segment hit 13.3 million for the period. This represents a year-on-year increase of 10.8%.

Euro 2024 drives real event betting GGY

Turning to real event betting, where GGY grew more than in any other sector. For Q2, GGY amounted to £625m, a rise of 16% year-on-year. The Commission said major sports events, including football’s Euro 2024, contributed to this increase.

This could be seen in monthly activity, with June – the month in which Euro 2024 kicked off in Germany – seeing the most GGY at £228.9m. 

However, overall bets for Q2 were down 7.4% year-on-year to 921 million. April saw the most bets placed, with the total number of wagers in the month reaching 340.4 million.

Active players for real event betting amounted to 19.4 million, up 10.9% from last year.

More growth for online casino

As for other market segments, online casino table games (excluding slots) saw GGY rise 9.3% to £159.6m in Q2. This was accompanied by a 9.6% rise in total bets to 1.02 billion and 6.7% increase in active players to 8 million.

Poker GGY fell 14.0% to £14.1m and virtual betting GGY was 2.9% lower at £10.2m. 

Esports betting GGY, however, climbed 30.5% to £4.3m for the quarter, while online gambling GGY for non-listed verticals increased 5.3% to £2m.

Retail betting takes a hit

Turning to land-based gambling, with data covering approximately 85.0% of the retail betting market in Britain.

Over-the-counter GGY slipped 7.0% to £168.4m but self-service betting terminals GGY was up 7.3% to £123.9m. The Commission also noted a small drop in machines GGY to £290.1m during Q2.

Activity-wise, the number of total bets and spins across retail dropped 1.0% to 3.2 billion. In addition, the overall number of machine sessions in Q2 slipped 1.3% to 23.7 million.