The Gambling Commission has released its latest market impact data, covering the first quarter of the 2024-2025 financial year.
The data reveals significant growth in online gambling, with total Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) reaching £1.46bn ($1.87bn) in Q1, marking a 12% increase from the previous year.
The number of bets and spins also rose by 11%, hitting a new peak of 24.5 billion, while monthly active accounts increased by 9%.
Real-event betting saw substantial growth, with GGY rising 16% year-on-year to £625m, despite a 7% decrease in the number of bets. This growth was likely influenced by major sporting events such as UEFA Euro 2024.
The slots sector also experienced growth, with GGY increasing by 10% to £642m, spins up 12% to 22.4 billion and monthly active accounts rising 11% to 4.4 million per month – all record highs for the slots vertical in this dataset.
Interestingly, online slot sessions lasting over an hour increased by 8% to 9.6 million, though the average session length remained stable at 17 minutes. Only 6% of all sessions exceeded one hour, the lowest percentage recorded in the dataset.
In contrast to online growth, Licensed Betting Operators (LBOs) on Britain's high streets experienced a slight decline, with GGY decreasing 1% to £582m and the number of bets and spins also down 1% to 3.2 billion.
The Commission notes that this data may include free bets and bonuses and does not cover all operators, cautioning against direct comparisons with the industry statistics dataset. It also mentions an ongoing investigation into product categorisation, which may result in some data adjustments between verticals.
