At the end of 2019, a global report covering global online gambling valued the overall market at £50 million with the UK sports betting market contributing a huge £2.1 billion towards that figure. These figures show that 4.2% of the world’s online gambling is UK sports betting – that’s 4.2% of the world’s total expenditure towards online gambling.
4.2% may not sound like an influential figure but if you add on the UK’s online casino market worth £3.2 billion to this figure, that’s 6.4% of the world’s total online gambling, and that doesn’t include online lottery and betting. Therefore, 10.6% of the world’s overall online gambling (one-tenth) is UK online gambling.
UK Sports Betting Market Set to Increase but Will Shrink Versus World Figures
Analysts forecast that the UK sports betting industry in the UK will rise by 4.5%. One key reason for this rise is the increasing number of Trusted Online Bookmakers in UK now operating under proper online gambling licenses. Yet despite this welcomed rise, UK figures will shrink versus world figures.
The cause of this market fluctuation is because online sports betting in the USA is coming back online thanks to new regulations and gambling laws.
Online gambling has been illegal in the USA has been illegal for the best part of a decade now after the country shut down what was then an unregulated market swamped with overseas online casinos offering US citizens sports betting services. A new federal law swept across the country forbidding citizens from using US dollars to fund online gambling activities and US financial institutions from allowing players to fund any form of online gambling.
All that is changing rapidly with multiple states now coming online with brand new online sports betting websites. Major UK sports betting brands are already in the US market, including William Hill and Kindred (Unibet).
New Regulations Opening Online Sports Betting To 250 Million+
However, recently major states are now allowing online sports betting to come back online. Ohio, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Indiana are fresh sports betting markets in the USA while Nevada and Delaware have allowed sports betting for almost half a decade and a couple of years ago New Jersey saw the return of sports betting.
Once the US sports betting market comes back online across all 50 states, the country will return to its pre-Black Friday status as the largest sports betting market in the world. However, this time the market will be fully regulated with 250 million+ joining 2021’s global sports betting stats.
Add the fact that developing countries globally are coming online with new internet connections and high-speed mobile networks, such as Africa which is increasingly coming online, and the world online sports betting figures will increase, and while UK’s sports betting may grow 4.5% per year, the world market as a whole is likely to grow 10% to 15%.
Consumer Confidence Contributing to Rising UK Betting Market
The UK Gambling Commission has kept the UK sports betting industry under check, ensuring that operators act responsibly. Since the regulator’s 2007 inauguration, the UKGC has evolved creating safer and more trustworthy online sports betting conditions for UK punters, and the results speak for themselves.
Now all sports betting website must pass several criteria to satisfy the UKGC’s licensing criteria. Companies providing the website sports betting operations must also prove that they can follow certain rules. For example, each firm must keep player funds and pending bets in separate bank accounts that are not part of the sports betting website’s day-to-day operations. Therefore, if the firm behind the website hits financial difficulties, the players’ investments are safely returned and not swallowed up by operating costs or debts.
Security is another key focus with strict consumer rights and privacy laws enforced by the UKGC. Plus, the UKGC also makes sure that anyone joining a betting website has access to information about problem gambling.
UK consumers are now not only bombarded with sports betting bonuses, but the sports betting websites also advertise safety, integrity, and security to gain consumer confidence. Adding these variables together, UK citizens are now more likely to join an online sports betting website, which is a key factor why the UK sports betting market will continue to flourish.
