British online gambling yield reaches £560m in April
The British Gambling Commission has reported that online gross gambling yield rose 3 per cent month-on-month.
UK.- The Gambling Commission has reported that operators representing 80 per cent of the British generated £560.2m in April, up 2.6 per cent from March.
The figure is the second-highest monthly total for online gross gambling yield (GGY) since the Gambling Commission began publishing monthly data at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic last year. The month with the highest revenue reported to date was December 2020.
The Gambling Commission monthly figures
The Grand National contributed to the strong performance in April, with GGY from real-event betting up 7 per cent at £267.4m as operator margins increased.
Real-event betting was also the only vertical to see an increase in the number of active players, up 12 per cent month-on-month to 6.7 million, although the number of bets fell to 344.3m
GGR for slots and other casino games fell very slightly after a record high in March, down by less than 0.5 per cent to £202.0m and £71m.
Virtual betting revenue fell 8.9 per cent to £7.6m and poker revenue fell 9.1 per cent to £8.4m. Esports betting revenue rose again, up 2.7 per cent to £1.9m.
The number of active players for slots and other casino games fell 1 per cent to to 3.2 million and 2.2 million. Virtual betting players dropped 5 per cent to 256,233, and the number of poker players fell 11 per cent to 300,520.
The number of bets fell in all sectors, with slot spins down 1 per cent to 6.1 billion, bets on other casino games down 3.3 per cent to 265 million and virtual bets down 7.2 per cent to 17.1 million. Poker wagers fell the most, down 19.1 per cent to 94.7 million.
The length of the average slot session length fell to 20 minutes. The number of sessions of longer than an hour dropped 4 per cent to 2.6 million.
The Gambling Commission said: “Unlike the first lockdown announced in March 2020, the continuation of tier-1 sport in the most recent lockdown meant there were many more real-event betting opportunities available to consumers.
“For the first time ever, on 11th April the Grand National was held behind closed doors, with no spectators and online being the only betting opportunities available.
“Operators still need to be mindful about the potential of some consumers to be increasing their spend on some of the more intensive products whilst at the same time still engaging in real event betting activity, which was not meaningfully available during the initial lockdown.”
See also: Gambling Commission warns over rise in suspicious activity
Overall gaming revenue in the UK
Last week, the Gambling Commission published full revenue figures for British gaming licensees for the six months from April to September 2020, and the numbers suggest a marked fall in revenue.
There was no direct comparison available because the Gambling Commission previously produced annual figures rather than a six-month breakdown. However, comparison of the six-month figures against numbers published for the full year April 2019 – September 2020 suggested a significant fall in revenue.
The Gambling Commission reported gross gambling yield (GGY) for the six months to September 2020 at £5.89bn, while GGY for April 2019 – September 2020 was £14.12bn.
The online gaming sector as a whole accounted for £3.08bn in the six months reported, up 9.6 per cent year-on-year from £2.81bn during the same six months in 2019.
See also: UK retailers concerned over future of National Lottery
