Taking a more in-depth look at online gambling

 Take a deeper look at online gambling

Introduction

These last few years have witnessed a drastic shift in the way people gamble. Our Industry Statistics, April 2019-March 2020, show that remote gambling (or online gambling) is now the largest sector. This industry generates a Gross Gaming Yield of PS5.7bn and comprises c.40% overall market. Official statistics from our quarterly telephone poll show a steady increase in online gambling participation. One in four adults (24%) gambled online during the past four week, compared with around one-in-six (17%) five year ago.

Covid-19's arrival has brought a tremendous boost to the gambling industry and all aspects of our lives. We have seen a series of changes in our daily lives, and land-based gambling options have been greatly reduced. We publish regular updates, based upon operator and research data, to help understand the effects of Covid-19 on consumers and the gambling market.

These sources are only part of the evidence puzzle. Our quarterly online survey adds another piece to the puzzle. The online survey is conducted on a quarterly basis like the telephone survey. It does not provide statistics on participation or prevalence. Instead, it provides an opportunity for more detailed investigation of online gambling behaviour, as well as other topics, including marketing and advertising and safer gaming issues.

We can't predict what online gambling behaviour trends would be if Covid-19 wasn't there, but we believe we can detect the impact of Covid-19 in our online survey data from 2020. We will be looking at the online survey data over the past year, from 2020, to get a better understanding of the main trends. This release also reveals the impact that Covid-19 has on the way people gamble. We plan to publish additional releases in the next weeks that will include data on safer gambling as well as gambling advertising.

For younger people, online gambling is still the most popular method of accessing it in 2020.

Half of all online gamblers use their smartphone to do so, but there is an obvious age skew. 34% of 18-34-year olds gamble on smartphones, while 14% of 65-year-olds use them to do so. Online gamblers between the ages of 18-34 use 1.7 more gambling devices than the average 1.4.

Although mobile phones still remain the preferred device for online gambling (four out of ten gamblers now use them), laptops, computers, and tablets have halted the declines in recent years. Although their use of online gambling has declined in recent years, it stabilized in 2020. Tablets are now the most preferred method for accessing online gambling for 55-year-olds. One in four online gamblers uses a PC while only one in five use tablets. After years of decline in tablet and laptop usage, the PC and tablet market has stabilized in 2020. These findings correspond with 11% growth in PC shipments in 2020 compared to 2019,1 as more people turn to technology durables when they are confined to their homes.

For now, smart TVs are a rare way to access online gambling. Only 3% of online gamblers use them to access their accounts. However, smart TV usage has seen significant growth among younger consumers. It was used to access gambling by 5% to 10% for those between 18-24 and 25-34, and 4% to 8% for those between ages 4-6. Ofcom data indicates that more than half (57%) of UK homes now have smart TVs (up from 42% for 2018). Smart TVs offer gambling companies untapped opportunities to offer online gaming. Once Upon a Time in Online Gambling