Virtual betting the surprise star in UK Gambling Commission stats

Virtual betting is punching above its weight class, according to new UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) statistics.

On Thursday, the UKGC released its latest report on the nation’s gaming industry, covering the period from October 2016 to September 2017. On the whole, the report doesn’t reveal significant deviations from the previous data set released last December.

The UK market generated overall gross gambling yield (GGY) of £13.9b during the period, up only 0.7% from the April 2016 – March 2017 figure. Online gambling accounted for £4.9b of the total, a 3.7% improvement, bringing the online market share up one point to 35%.

The number of new online account registrations jumped nearly 6m to 36.6m and online active accounts were up over 7m to 30.9m. These accounts held a total of £849m, up from just £562m in the previous report.