The UK online gambling market is booming with licensed operators reporting combined revenue of £1.06 billion ($1.82 billion USD) between September, 2012 and September, 2013. That billion pound mark represents a pretty sweet 16% gain over the previous year.
One of the biggest winners in the British boom were sports betting operators, who are benefiting from the punter’s love of mobile betting. According figures released by the UK Gambling Commission, and reported on by CalvinAyre.com, sports wagering bumped up by a full 17% and accounted for £879 million of the total revenue figure.
One data point from the Commission that should be particularly interesting to affiliates is that fact over 5 million Brits signed up for gambling accounts during that period. That’s the highest number of new online gamblers in more than five years.
While online gambling is clearly a massive market in the UK, it’s actually a pretty small piece of a much larger pie. Calvin Ayre reporter Steven Stradbrooke points out that igaming accounts for just 15% of the total market and doesn’t include big name brands that are currently located offshore.
As a whole, the UK gambling market generates around £6.7 billion ($11.4 billion USD), which is up slightly from the previous reporting period.While the normally reliable UK bingo market suffered a slight dip, land-based play rose by 12%, with nearly a fifth of that spike coming from Punto banco baccarat. (Is that the Phil Ivey Effect?)
Unfortunately, the news out of the news out of jolly old England wasn’t all that jolly. Beginning next November, UK operators will be subject to a 15% point-of-consumption tax (COPT) that’s aimed at choking off offshore tax havens.
When the new tax kicks in, all those offshore operations we mentioned earlier will be subject to taxation and will definitely be included in future revenue reports – so expect these number to take a leap next year.