The UK Gambling Commission has reported a five per cent year-on-year GGY increase through January to March as the region’s ecosystem reached the £1.3bn mark.
This latest data set, which is said to have been sourced from operators and covers approximately 80 percent of the online gambling market, suggests that the increase was driven by the real event betting, aided by the Cheltenham festival, and slots, which rose 13 per cent and two per cent, respectively.
Online slots GGY reached £551.7m, up the aforementioned percentage points from £540.16m, while the total number of spins increased nine per cent through the quarter to 19.5 billion to reach a new peak.
In addition, the number of average monthly active accounts reached 3.9 million, up 15 per cent, with a high of 4.23 million hit during March. As a result of the increase in actives, the number of spins per session decreased 7 percent between Quarter 4 2021 to 2022 and Quarter 4 2022 to 2023.
The number of spins increased 9 percent in the quarter to 19.5 billion, while the total number of sessions through the three month period reached 137.86 million (2022: 117.38 million).
The average session length stood at 17 minutes (2022: 18 minutes) through each of January, February and March, and sessions lasting over one hour increased 10.45 per cent to 8.79 million (2022: 7.96 million). This means that 6.4 percent of all sessions lasted more than one hour during the quarter.
Elsewhere, GGY across the other gaming (including casino) segment dropped 3.49 per cent to £153.11m (2022: £158.66m). Poker reached £17.97m, down 7.17 per cent YoY from £19.36m.
Machines GGY increased five per cent YoY to £292m, while the average spend per session increased slightly to £12.26 and average number of spins per machine session rose to 131.
The total number of customer interactions during the quarter decreased 12 per cent to 2.9 million compared to the same period one year earlier, with the majority remaining automated in nature. The number of direct interactions undertaken by operators increased by 31 percent year-on-year.
