British online gambling revenue up 5% in Q1
The Gambling Commission has published its breakdown of numbers for the British market.
UK.- The British Gambling Commission has reported that online gross gambling yield (GGY) from the licensed market reached £1.3bn for the first quarter of the new financial year. That’s a rise of 5 per cent year-on-year.
The growth was driven by a 12 per cent rise in real-event betting revenue, which reached £538m, likely aided at least in part by the Grand National in April. Online slot GGY rose 3 per cent to £583m.
The Gambling Commission reported that the number of bets and spins rose 6 per cent while the number of average monthly active accounts rose by 5 per cent. The number of spins increased 7 per cent in the quarter to 20 billion, while the number of average monthly active accounts increased 12 per cent to 4 million.
On a monthly basis, online revenue fell by 15.8 per cent in June, which may be due to seasonal factors. Offline GGY for the quarter rose just 0.7 per cent year-on-year to £588m. The number of bets and spins decreased 2 per cent to 3.3bn.
The figures are based on reports from the UK’s largest operators, estimated to account for approximately 80 per cent of the gambling market.
The Gambling Commission noted that the number of online slots sessions lasting longer than an hour decreased by 0.2 per cent year-on-year for Q1 to 8.4 million. The number of total sessions increased by 5.8 per cent, with 6.3 per cent of all sessions lasting in excess of one hour. The average session length decreased slightly to 16 minutes for the first time in the dataset.
The total number of customer interactions in Q1 decreased by 13 per cent to 2.9 million, with the majority remaining automated in nature. The number of direct interactions undertaken by operators increased by 35 per cent year-on-year.
Gambling Commission white paper consultations
This month, the Gambling Commission has opened a series of consultations seeking responses from gambling stakeholders, the treatment sector and consumers on a series of proposals resulting from the UK government’s gambling white paper. The 12-week consultations will take input on six areas.
The main proposals cover financial risk and vulnerability, game design in online gambling, consumer choice in direct marketing and age verification at land-based gaming venues. They also cover personal management licences and regulatory panels.
