U.K. sports bettors love a good flutter. In the past five years, they have placed almost $20 billion in wagers on their favorite teams, according to new data reported by SportsLens.com.
According to the site, this year gross gambling revenues (GGR) in the online sports betting industry are expected to reach $43.5 billion, with about 10 percent of the total coming from the United Kingdom. SportsLens described the U.K. as “the oldest and largest sports betting market in Europe and the third largest globally, behind Australia and the United States.
Canada and Australia were the fastest-growing markets in the segment.
In recent years, millions of sports fans in the country have abandoned high-street betting shops for betting sites and apps. Statista Market Insights reports that Britons spent more than $2.5 billion on sports betting sites and apps in 2018 and $3.11 billion in 2020, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2022, GGR hit a grand total of $3.84 billion, and Statista projects that the figure will reach $4.21 billion in 2023, for a 83 percent increase over five years. The average spend per user grew 43 percent for the period, from $216 to $310.
Not surprisingly, football is the most betted sport in the country, with Brits laying out more than $5.6 billion on online football betting. Boxing and MMA were next in popularity, with $2.36 billion in bets.
The data show that around 11.6 million U.K. sports fans bet online in 2018. Since then, their ranks have swelled by 1.8 million, for 13.6 total users in 2023. Statista expects the number of Britons placing bets online to reach 14.8 million by 2027.
