The UK’s online gambling market has shown remarkable resilience and growth over the past few years, making it an attractive prospect for potential investors and entrepreneurs. This comprehensive analysis, conducted by the dedicated team of experts at SlotsUp, delves into the key growth drivers and restrictions shaping the market from 2022 to 2024. As a trusted resource that showcases over 5,000 verified online slots, SlotsUp is committed to providing valuable insights into the dynamic world of online gambling.

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With that in mind, let’s dive into our research, which provides a detailed analysis of the UK online gambling market’s revenue trends and projections for the coming years.

Research Methodology

For our research, we selected several reliable analytical online sources:

• Statista;

• Gambling Industry News;

• Euronews;

• Spherical Insights;

• Gambling Commission.

We also decided to trust the opinions of leading experts in the UK’s online gambling industry (each of them regularly gives interviews to the media, reporting on the current state of affairs of the local gambling industry in the UK.), such as:

• Derek Webb, founder of the Campaign for Fairer Gambling;

• Gary Follis, Executive Director at Betting and Gaming Council.

Please note that our research combines quantitative and qualitative analysis, taking into account the macro overview of the overall market size to the micro details of market segments by type. Thanks to this, you will receive a comprehensive understanding of its key trends for the 2022-2024 period and later.

Revenue Trends (2022-2024) 

First, let’s outline the legal status of online gambling in the United Kingdom.

In particular, the activities of online operators are regulated by the UK Gambling Commission. This body also issues licenses to operators (they are available to both residents of the country and foreigners). In 2005, UK legislators adopted an updated Gambling Act to regulate the activities of online operators. It covers the security measures of gambling platforms, their methods of protecting users from fraud, rules for obtaining a license, prohibiting minors from accessing platforms, prevention of money laundering, and acceptable ways of promoting the services of these platforms. Actually, this Act had a significant impact on the formation of the market position of local gambling businesses, significantly affecting their revenues.

Another significant factor of influence was the popularization of mobile devices and technologies that allowed gambling operators to offer their audiences an exciting gaming experience anywhere there is an Internet connection.

Finally, despite local downturns, the UK as a whole has a strong economy that makes the vast majority of its population solvent and willing to spend their money on bets.

But what can be said about individual areas of the UK’s online gambling industry? Will each of them prosper or, on the contrary, experience a decrease during the upcoming years? Let’s find out right now.

Sports Betting

First, let’s assess the revenue growth in the UK’s online sports betting market over the 2022-2024 period:

As we can see, the dynamics are clearly positive and will remain the same until 2029 according to Statista’s forecasts – an annual growth rate (CAGR) will hold the 4.53% mark during the forecast period. There is a transparent explanation for this: football (soccer), being a national game, attracts gambling fans who regularly place online bets. In particular, the colossal share of bets on football in comparison with other sports can be confirmed by Statista’s data. If we add to this the fact that people in the UK perceive sports betting as something traditional, it becomes clear that this industry will continue to strengthen (of course, in the absence of strong restraining factors such as an economic crisis and negative changes in the current legislation in relation to the gambling industry).

Online Casinos

Again, let’s check the dynamics of the UK’s online casino market during the last three years:

With a projected CAGR of 1.88%, this market is expected to reach a record US$7.10bn by 2029. Overall, the factors driving the positive trend in online casino capitalization in the UK are the same as those for online sports betting: casinos are also considered something of a national pastime in the region, and, in general, local operators do not face any complex restrictions on promoting their services. If we add to this the increased accessibility of this type of gambling due to the emergence of platforms where you can play via smartphone, as well as the expanded user experience that modern digital technologies provide, it would be logical to conclude that this niche has good potential for prosperity. 

Online Poker

Unfortunately, we were unable to find any verified data describing the dynamics of the development of the online poker market in the UK, but we can still draw some conclusions based on the data from the report for European countries.

In particular, the online poker segment has a modest 4% here and has maintained a revenue level of 1.4 billion euros for the last three years. This stability will be observed until 2027 and, in general, this segment will not experience strong fluctuations. It is also worth noting that in 2021, the European online poker market captured about 5%, which was reflected in higher revenue figures reaching 1.5 billion euros. Such a decline can be explained by the strengthening of current EU legislation. Thus, we conclude that the UK market will be stable in the last decade. 

Other Segments

Here, we decided to turn to the same report for European countries to analyze the prospects for other segments of online gambling in the UK, such as bingo, lotteries, and skill gaming. Below, we shared a table describing the revenue figures for these segments over the past three years (note that the estimates are made for all European countries):

This positive trend will be maintained until 2027 (due to the development of the online lottery segment). And this is understandable: lotteries have long been popular in the UK. For example, The National Lottery has become an integral part of the country’s culture, so the transfer of this tradition to the digital space has reduced the entry threshold (in particular, today, people can use online scratch cards). In addition, lotteries such as EuroMillions or the National Lottery offer large cash prizes, attracting more and more participants to try their hand.

Revenue Projections for 2025

If we talk about the online gambling market in the UK as a whole, then given the expected CAGR of 4.4% over the next decade, it will develop and strengthen. This can be explained thanks to such contributing aspects as:

• obtaining a rich and radically new gaming experience through the implementation of digital solutions based on augmented reality, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence, as well as the popularization of online casinos with live dealers;

• increasing the overall solvency of the local population, which largely depends on the growth rates of gross domestic product (GDP);

• implementation of responsible gambling measures by each online operator (specifically, people with gambling addictions may be eligible for treatment at specialized medical centers);

• the absence of negative changes in the Gambling Commission license, whose owners have the right to advertise their services.

Source

At the same time, you have to be informed about the fact that Ministers are going to introduce higher taxes on operators, as the report claims that they have a negative impact on the UK economy. And this could become a braking factor, which could lead the online gambling industry in the UK to crowding out weak operators and raising the entry threshold for newcomers.

A comprehensive report prepared by the economic consultancy National Economic Research Associates (Nera) claims that the development of online gambling businesses is slowing down the development of more profitable sectors of the UK economy since it diverts potential budget investments from them. This is confirmed by specific figures: revenues in this industry in the UK have grown from £4.2 billion (2015-2016 financial year) to £6.5 billion (2022-2023 financial year).

Thus, a favorable future for this industry will be ensured only under the condition of either no changes in current taxation or the introduction of a multi-tiered tax rate that will affect only large operators with colossal annual financial turnover and stable market positions.

Conclusion

In the next ten years, the online gambling market in the UK is expected to grow only, which can be explained by several factors at once:

• development of digital technologies to provide a new gaming experience;

• the positive increase in gross domestic product;

• development of self-control programs;

• new, personalized methods of promoting online gambling platforms.

Based on this, we can conclude that the UK in the coming years will be one of the most promising locations for investing in gambling and starting a business in this niche.