Part 1 – The UK market - November 2014 - September 2015
some quarters is that UK revenues outpaced its
performance elsewhere. The market leader’s net
gaming revenues topped £1.55bn in the year to
March 2016 while operating profit hit £448.3m. We
made the point in our Market Monitor from June that
bet365 can lay claim to being the only true transEuropean operator in the market, and indeed, given
the numbers in these latest results, it suggests the
company is the only truly global operator.
UK betting turnover Nov 2015-Sept 2015
Golf
1%
Others
12%
Financials
1%
Dogs
2%
Cricket
4%
Horses
35%
How this translates into the UK is abundantly clear;
the company can outspend the opposition in terms
of marketing (see the section on the marketing battle
Tennis
10%
later in this report) and can maintain its leadership,
particularly in sports, through constant re-investment
in the product. Never mind the gambling sector, bet365
remains the true unicorn of the UK internet scene.
The UK Gambling Commission
statistics November 2014 –
September 2015
Football
35%
Source: UK Gambling Commission
32% share. This is quite some gap but there are some
caveats. The betting GGY figure includes pool betting,
but it excludes the figures for betting exchange, which
has total GGY of £124.7m and we know a majority of
The sports split
Due to the nature of the reporting from the
the revenues will be from horseracing.
Even so, the GGY figures indicate more clearly
Commission, where there is a split between proprietary
how the shape of the UK betting market has shifted
and revenue share in the GGY figures, the best picture
significantly and this will have ramifications for all
of the revenue splits for each sport comes though the
involved in both the betting and racing industries.
staking numbers.
Football’s primacy in GGY terms – in a summer as
The total staking figures of £12.9bn show that, in
turnover terms at least, horseracing maintains its
leadership – just – at £4.55bn. This marks something
mentioned without a major football tournament – is
clear and growing.
It leaves racing’s administrators in the unfortunate
of a turnaround for the figures for the first five
position of asking for a racing levy even as the product’s
months, where horseracing trailed behind football
importance to the bookies is fading. How it negotiates
by £1.62bn to £2.11bn and it gives proof for why
this situation will be interesting to observe, but it should
the exercise in extrapolation from just the first five
be added that, coincidentally, the figures for the 11
months was fraught with danger. By its very nature,
months represent the period just before the introduction
sport is seasonal and once the full horseracing flat
of the British Horseracing Authority’s Approved Betting
season is taken into account in the figures, it gives us
Partner (ABP) scheme in October 2015.
perhaps a truer reflection of horseracing’s worth to
the bookmakers.
Still, the picture painted by the 11-month
Casino and bingo
In our previous market monitor in the summer where
numbers does pose questions regarding the long-
we looked at the developing markets of Italy and
term relationship between the bookmakers and
Spain, we noted that it could be argued that the sign
horseracing. The figures for GGY in the 11 months –
of a fully open and mature online gambling market
where the Commission strips out £395.1m of revenue
was the primacy of the casino and gaming market in
share – show that football is now the dominant
revenue terms. This argument was partly driven by
betting medium, by 45% compared with horseracing’s
what we saw in the five month figures from the UK,
iGaming Business Market Monitor – UK, Australia and Spain • September 2016
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