Britishgambler.co.uk – a sports betting and casino affiliate aggregator – analysed 526 new accounts created via affiliate links to UK gambling websites. The aim was to learn more about the average British gambler’s behaviour, draw conclusions about their practices and assess their needs.
We looked in fine detail at the average sum of new deposits, losses/wins and patterns of behaviour. This included patterns like which days people tend to bet and play at online casinos, which devices they use to log in and from which areas across the United Kingdom.
We used our own affiliate accounts and Google analytics data between January 1- July 31 2022 (30 weeks) to determine these findings. This is while taking into consideration the UK government’s discussions concerning gambling reform (White Paper), which could be published as early as October.
Questions we wanted answered:
- How much does the average British Gambler bet?
- How much do they win/lose betting?
- How much does the average British Gambler spend in a casino?
- How much do they win/lose at the casino?
- What day of the week is most popular among bettors?
- Is British Gambler on mobile or desktop?
- Best UK areas for casino search interest?
Findings: When and how UK online gamblers play
- UK players win on sports bets, lose on casino games
- Fridays big for casinos, Saturdays for sports bets
- UK players gamble using Apple phones and Samsung
- Online Casino is TOP interest v. sports betting
Win or Lose: UK players win on sports bets, lose on casino games
In general if a new depositing UK gambler bets on sports it is a win, if a person plays at an online casino it is a loss.
So, out of an average stake of 47 GBP a new depositing British sports bettor wins 47% (22 GBP) and loses 30% (14 GBP) on casino games.
Nearly 71% of all sports bettors are man, while around 78% of all online bingo players are women.
Gambling Days: Fridays big for casinos, Saturdays for sports bets.
The favorite day to play casino games online in the UK are Saturdays (21% of all new deposits), Fridays (16%), while Sundays and Mondays are the days with the least gambling activity (12%).
Of all casino sections (when people actually play) 35% is on Fridays, it is also on Fridays they lose the most.
Interesting that slots and bingo games are the most popular types of gambling on Wednesdays. UK gamblers play casinos usually between 18 and 23 in the evening.
For sports bets Saturday is the day (38% of all new players bet on Saturdays) and win the most on Saturdays as well. On Thursdays sports bettors often lose the most.
Mobile v. Desktop: UK players gamble using Apple phones and Samsung
The mobile is by far the most popular choice for British gamblers with 86% completing the sign up process on mobile and 91% making their deposits on mobile devices (Apple is the most used phone followed by Samsung S10 and S21).
Sports Betting v. Online Casinos Search Intent: Online Casino is TOP interest
Based on Google Trends and Google Analytics data (Jan 1 2022 – 31 July 2022) the proportion between online casino search terms and online betting search terms looks like 70% v. 20% on avg. across the UK. However, in Northern Ireland and Scotland people looking for online sports betting related keywords slightly more, the search proportion in these 2 territories is: 60% (casino) v. 30% (sports).
UK gambling reform discussion
“With existing AI-based technologies helping gambling companies detect and prevent problem gambling behavior on their platforms by analyzing for instance online slot sessions lasting more than an hour or amounts lost within a certain period of time – in general creating a safe customer journey, it could be smarter to make it mandatory to implement extra vigilance via new technology rather than sanctioning the industry as a whole and imposing a “ban” on the vast majority of recreational gamblers.
In my opinion it is smarter for societies to move towards being guided and assisted (like your smart watch telling you how many steps you should do daily to stay healthy) rather than being imposed bans on, in a long run it does not solve the problem”, – Alexander Kostin, founder of BritishGambler.co.uk
