“ The 13 % quarter-on-quarter drop between the £ 638.1m in October to December and the £ 554.9m in January to March is almost certainly due to the pandemic effect ”
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Market Monitor The UK
fixtures in the fourth quarter . We can assume that the betting GGY of £ 554.9m for the fourth quarter is too low for what would in the normal course of events be a very busy sporting period . While the Cheltenham Festival got away ( just ), the betting market would have lost a small chunk of the Premier League season and an element of European competitions .
Hence , the 13 % quarter-onquarter drop between the £ 638.1m in October to December and the £ 554.9m in January to March is almost certainly due to the pandemic effect . As we shall see in the following analysis , betting would not have dropped to zero in those initial weeks of lockdown but it would have been severely impacted , certainly enough to cause an unseasonal drop in the quarter ’ s total .
In gaming , it is also likely that the initial shock of the lockdown – and the uncertainty around economic prospects that came with it – impacted the end of the quarter . The overall quarter-on-quarter drop from October to December and January to March of 1.8 % is small , but we can conjecture with some degree of certainty that the quarter would have otherwise seen a quarter-on-quarter rise .
“ The 13 % quarter-on-quarter drop between the £ 638.1m in October to December and the £ 554.9m in January to March is almost certainly due to the pandemic effect ”
Chart 12 : UK betting GGY 2019 / 20 by quarter (£ m )
660
620
580
540
500 Apr-Jun 19 Jul-Sep 19 Oct-Dec 19 Jan-Mar 20
Chart 13 : UK casino 2019 / 20 by quarter GGY (£ m )
860
850
840
830
THE UK GAMBLING SECTOR DURING LOCKDOWN
As part of its efforts to answer fears about an explosion of problem
820
810 Apr-Jun 19 Jul-Sep 19 Oct-Dec 19 Jan-Mar 20
Source : UK Gambling Commission iGB Market Monitor