The online gambling market is booming like never before, and for operators who haven’t yet cashed in on the growth of the industry, now is the time! Let’s analyse how the online gambling industry has been affected by the current global pandemic in 2020, and - most importantly - how they can leverage their business strategies to get in on that action!

What’s changed in 2020?
In March 2020, people’s day to day habits and behaviours changed dramatically. With lockdown restrictions in place forcing people all over the world to stay at home, many of the common daily actions have become digitised. In a mere few months, people’s lives were completely overturned. As a global community, we were forced to go digital in nearly every aspect of our lives, including work, shopping, and hobbies.

Although this was a major nuisance for consumers, many businesses could grasp the opportunity to grow their revenue by coming up with new and innovative ways to connect with their customers, meet new demand with more supply, and grow brand loyalty through fantastic user experiences.

Nowhere has this been more apparent than in the online gambling industry. 

Good times for online gambling operators 
The global pandemic opened up immense opportunities for online gambling businesses as the market became flooded with people with much, much more time on their hands. Whether this was loyal customers, newbies to online gambling, or returning users, the increased amount of free time because of lockdown restrictions has given a massive boost to the industry.

The global online gambling market is expected to grow from its valuation of $58.9 billion in 2019 to $66.7 billion in 2020 at a staggering growth rate of 13.2%.

This growth has been largely attributed by industry experts and forecasters to the coronavirus pandemic, during which populations have been largely confined to home during the lockdown.

The online gambling market comprises of revenue generated by remote gaming activities by means of the internet using desktop and mobile devices and includes gambling establishments who offer to their customer bases games such as online sports betting, online casinos, bingo, lotteries, and poker games, among others.

In addition to the growth in the amount of time spent at home, accelerating technologies are having a large impact on bringing the excitement of the casino floor to people’s homes. Technologies such as Blockchain, IoT, and VR are changing the game helping the world of online gambling in creating an exciting and immersive user experience.

Now let’s talk some GGR numbers:

The UK

The UK online gambling market has seen a number of components swell in size this year compared with last year. In March 2020 the total number of bets placed on online slots increased by 25%, virtual betting increased by 40% and online poker increased by 38%.

Gambling revenues from esports saw probably the most significant jump, according to a UK Gambling Commission report; UK betting operators made £50k from esports betting in March 2019. In May 2020, that figure was £4.6m - approx 4% of all sports betting revenues from the UK gambling industry as a whole!

France

French gross gaming revenue grew 22% year-on-year for Q1 2020 to reach €435m, despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the country’s gambling industry. According to data released by French regulator ARJEL, GGR across online sports betting, horseracing and online poker all increased year-on-year during the first quarter.

Italy

In Italy, year-on-year online gambling revenues for March 2020 are up for online poker (increase of 8.9 million euros) and online casinos (increase of 21.4 million euros). Conversely, gambling revenues are down in sports betting (decrease of 35.7 million euros) compared with March 2019 thanks to the cessation of sporting events due to the pandemic.

Overall, Italian online gambling revenue grew by 25.3% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2020, reaching €537m

Spain

Compared with the week of January 13th - 19th 2020, visits to online gambling platforms in Spain rose by 44% when compared with the week of April 6th - 12th 2020. Spanish gambling revenue grew 12.5% year-on-year in Q1 2020 according to European Gaming.

Germany

Compared with the week of January 13th - 19th 2020, visits to online gambling platforms in Germany rose by 19% when compared with the week of April 6th - 12th 2020, according to Comscore.

The below chart shows the growth in visits to online gambling sites and apps during the first stages of the pandemic: