Football and horse racing make up 75 percent of the U.K. sports betting market. Both are sidelined in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. That’s clearly not good for bookmakers.
“Levels of gambling have plummeted not just because of betting shop closures but because of the absence of sport, which is fundamental to online betting,” said Michael Dugher, CEO of the Betting and Gaming Council.
Sports betting in the United Kingdom earned bookmakers £1.4 billion (US$1.7 billion) in the year that ended in March 2019. Several sportsbooks warn that this year’s profits will be decimated by the outbreak. There are about 50,000 people employed in U.K. betting outlets, with another 10,000 involved online.
As a result, the government has extended the offer of a “business rates holiday” to the betting and gaming industry, which is usually excluded from such schemes.
Meanwhile, virtual sporting events still offer chances to wager. The Grand National was replaced on television by a sophisticated CGI version of the race, and was watched by 4.8 million people, about half the usual audience for the event. According to Casino.org, the race at one point trended second worldwide on Twitter. But it didn’t make a pile for bookmakers; they agreed to donate all their profits from the event—£2.6 million (US$3.2 million)—to the National Health Service (NHS) to help fight the spread of the pandemic.
Virtual events, along with lottery games, comprised about 13 percent of U.K. bookmakers’ betting profits last year.
In the U.S., meanwhile, the senior vice president of the American Gaming Association believes that the coronavirus pandemic may accelerate rather than hamper the growth of the sports betting industry in the U.S.
“Given the budget shortfalls we’re going to see from the existing gaming industry essentially shutting down here in the United States, I think that there might be even more appetite to look for opportunities to bring sports betting to Americans,” Casey Clark told BBC Sport. “There is a revenue loss that states are going to have to try to balance when we get past this.”
