UKGC Publishes GGY Report, Highlights Improvements

The UK Gambling Commission has published a report outlining the changes in gambling behavior in response to the current environmental factors in the country. As it turns out, gross gaming yield (GGY) experienced a slight increase in spite of the economic challenges.

The data was sourced from operators during the period March 2022 – March 2023. In addition, the data includes both online and in-person gambling operated by licensed betting operators.

Furthermore, the UKGC warned that the current data should not be compared with the industry statistics dataset, as this data set may include free bets and bonuses and does not include information from all operators.

Finally, the UKGC noted that the current release compares the final quarter of FY 2021/22 and 2022/23, demonstrating how the industry changed during that period.

GGY Increased Across the Board

The commission reported that the total online GGY in Q4 2022/23 (the period from January to March) was £1.3 billion ($1.63 billion), representing a 5% year-on-year increase. The number of total bets, meanwhile, increased by 9% year-on-year. Finally, the number of average monthly active accounts increased by 11%.

Unsurprisingly, the Cheltenham festival drove higher activity with real event betting GGY increasing by 13% year-on-year to £552 million ($696 million). The UKGC noted that total bets and actives increase by 19% and 9% respectively.

Meanwhile, slots GGT increased by 2% to £552 million ($692 million), with the number of total spins increasing by 9%. The average monthly active accounts at the end of the period were 3.9 million, which translates to an increase of 15%.

Speaking of slots, the number of online slots sessions lasting longer than an hour skyrocketed to 8.8 million. This is notably an impressive 10% year-on-year increase. Despite that, the average online slots session remained at 17 minutes, with just 6.4% of all sessions lasting more than an hour.

Finally, the UKGC reported that the LBO GGY increased by 6% to £585 million ($734 million) year-on-year. The commission concluded that the number of total bets and spins increased by 2% to 3.3 billion.

The UKGC just published another report, highlighting the effect of the recent changes to online slots. As it turns out, the intensity of play declined, while no harmful unintended consequences were observed.

In May, the UKGC promised that the industry will soon hear the results of some of the white paper consultations.