The growth of the UK gambling market
Gambling has been an important part of UK culture for hundreds of years. Today's gambling industry is not the one your father or grandfather knew.
The UK gambling and betting industry decreased by £84.1m between April 2018 and March 2020. Remote or online gambling increased by 4% and 15.5% between 2018-2020. There are now hundreds of different online casinos and gambling platforms for users to choose from. Online casinos offer gamblers extensive games libraries, competitive registration bonuses and state-of-the-art digital platform technology.
Sports betting is one of the biggest categories of online gambling and is growing at an exponential rate year on year. Football dominates the market with 48.4% of sports betting marketshare. After football, horse racing and steeplechase events make up about 28% and tennis 5%. After tennis, dog-related events and races make about 3.1% and golf provides another 0.7%. Virtual sports and events are also growing in popularity.
The United States is about to liberalise regulations of online and in-person gambling. The introduction of better, more reliable mobile technology and infrastructure has played a role in the increasing acceptance of both online gambling and sports betting. UK companies with well-developed online platforms will be looking to take on this new challenge.