Smartphones were the most popular way to access online gambling in 2020
As a result of the pandemic, the gambling scene has seen a massive increase in revenue, with research showing that online gambling is now the largest industry sector. The team at Mr Gamble has analysed the most recent Gambling Commission UK reports from 2019 to 2021 to find out which sports people bet on the most in the country. The results found were:
- Football and Horse Racing were the sports which UK punters bet on more significantly
- Almost 63% of people use their mobiles to bet on Football
- Remote betting totalled up to £2.6bn over two years
| Sport | GGY (%) |
| Football | 46.1 |
| Horse Racing | 32.4 |
| Other | 10.2 |
| Tennis | 2.5 |
| Cricket | 1.2 |
| Golf | 0.8 |
The Research took into account the Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) generated by the most popular sporting bets, as well as the percentage of the most common devices used for online sports betting. The GGY for remote betting totalled £2.6bn, led by football (£1.2bn) and horse betting (£0.9bn)
From 2019 to 2020 the over gambling industry GGY was 14.1m with online betting taking 16.5% of the pie. Between 2019 to 2021 online betting has increased by 13.5% with a current GGY of £2.6m.
By category, football has the highest GGY overall with 46.1%, followed closely by Horse racing with 32.4%. The categories with the most increase compared to the previous year were horse racing (30.8%) and golf (30.3%), although other events (23.6%) and football (7.9%) also showed an increase.
There was a £50.6m decrease for tennis as well as an £11.7m decrease for cricket. Overall, between 2020 to 2021 online betting GGY increased by 35.5% from £2.0bn to £2.6bn.
Smartphone was the most popular way to access online gambling in 2020
Research showed that in 2020 the majority of online gamblers used their phones as a means to place bets. The sport with the highest bets placed in the UK was none other than football with a whopping 62.83% of people using their mobile devices to place their bets. Tennis followed closely behind with 53.16%.
| Device | Betting on football | Betting on tennis | Betting on horse races | Betting in other events |
| PC | 21.49% | 23.12% | 24.65% | 28.50% |
| Laptop | 35.93% | 41.94% | 43.00% | 49.96% |
| Mobile | 62.83% | 53.16% | 49.51% | 50.10% |
| Smart TV | 4.03% | 6.14% | 4.62% | 11.27% |
| Tablet | 13.61% | 13.46% | 14.48% | 12.36% |
Laptops were the second most common means of accessing online gambling with four in ten people utilising this device. Although using laptops as a way to gamble was gradually decreasing, it began to stabilise in 2020. It is also the most preferred route for those 55 and over who according to data place the most bets on other sporting events (49.96%) on their laptops. Horse racing came second with 43.00% which was then followed by tennis with 41.94%.
PC users came in third place overall though they also preferred to place their bets on other sporting events (28.50%) whilst horse racing (24.65%) and tennis (23.12%) took second and third place. Interestingly, football betting (21.49%) was less popular among PC users compared to mobile users.
Online gambling is now the largest industry sector
According to research, online gambling generates a GGY of £5.7bn which translates to around 40% of the overall market. Moreover, there has been a yearly increase in revenue for online gambling. Statistics for 2020 show that almost one in four adults (24%) gambled online in the last every four weeks compared to around one in six (17%) five years ago.
