August saw a significant drop in gross gaming yield (GGY) for sports betting in Great Britain, declining 21.4% from the previous month to £164.4 million (€182.3 million/$214.5 million). This decrease was attributed to the limited number of major sporting events during the European football league's summer break, alongside a downward trend across nearly all gambling sectors as consumers had more discretionary spending options due to relaxed lockdown measures.
Slots were the only vertical to report a sequential decline in yield, with revenue increasing slightly by 0.8% to £164.1 million. Other casino games experienced a decrease, with GGY sliding 9.9% to £59.5 million.
Poker continued its downward trajectory with a GGY drop of 7.5%, totaling £8.3 million, marking a staggering 58.4% decline from its peak of £20.1 million in April during the height of the pandemic in Britain. Virtual sports also followed this trend, posting a £6.7 million total for August, down 16.1% from July and down 47.9% from its April peak of £12.8 million.
Esports betting struggled as well, with August's GGY totaling £1.8 million, representing a 29.5% decrease. Other legal forms of real-money gambling saw GGY fall 8.8% month-over-month to £1.2 million.
Active player numbers also waned across all online sectors. Online betting experienced a 9.7% drop in active players to 3.8 million, though it remained the largest segment. Slots showed a smaller decrease of 2.1%, landing at 2.4 million players. Meanwhile, the average online gambling session duration remained stable at 21 minutes since June, despite sessions lasting over one hour decreasing to 2.0 million.
In the British betting shop market, data from operators covering around 85% of the sector indicated that gaming machine yield fell 2.1% month-over-month; however, its contribution of £79.9 million still exceeded that of sports betting.
Over-the-counter GGY rose 13.9% as more betting shops reopened, reaching £71.2 million, although self-service betting terminal revenue took a significant hit, dropping 29.3% to £16.4 million.
Player behavior showed little change post-lockdown, with the majority—70%—of those surveyed noting that their gambling habits did not shift. An 18% portion reported a decrease in gambling expenditure, while just 8% acknowledged an increase. The post-lockdown findings also revealed a decline in players increasing their spending during lockdown (from 12%), while those maintaining the same spending levels rose sharply, from 59%. The proportion of players reducing their spend also fell, from 25% during lockdown.
