UK Betting Celebrates Revenue From the Summer Of Sports

The press and the betting industry quickly hyped it “Summer of Sports”. Everyone had great expectations. And actually it all happened as expected. The sporting events of summer 2012 were the main contributors to revenues for companies that allow players to bet on sports in UK online, such as Betfair.

Betfair did especially well with the bets on the Euro 2012, and to a smaller extent the London summer Olympics. Here are the numbers. Betfair’s core revenue grew with 13 percent from GBP 80.8 million to from GBP 91.6 million compared to the similar period a year ago (Q1 of 2013 compared to Q1 of 2012).

Betfair sports revenue have risen 21 percent to GBP 72.3 million. UK revenues rose 23 percent. Average revenue per user remained stable at GBP 188 (GBP 186 in the same period last year). Number of active customers increased by 13 percent from 430,000 to 485,000

Betfair is a serious player on the British mobile gambling. That’s why the company was happy to see mobile betting volume growing an amazing 114 percent to GBP 15.8 million, with revenues up 98 percent.

Risk sports activity rose a staggering 952 percent, bringing in GBP 3.4 million in revenues. Sports revenues represented an increase of 21 percent to GBP 72.3 million. However, games revenues were down 7 percent to GBP 13.7 million, and poker revenues dropped 4 percent to GBP 91.6 million

“Change in the regulatory environment in which we operate has brought challenges in the form of product restrictions and higher levels of taxation” Morana commented on the difference between European and British gambling laws.

“This has recently been illustrated in Spain and Cyprus, which have sought to restrict the products that operators can offer, and in Germany, where a turnover tax has been implemented that purports to cover all sports betting” the industry expert added.