Global information giant Nielsen Media Research recently published a study that showed that despite the global economic downturn, online gambling traffic in the United Kingdom was up 40% year over year.
While online poker has without a doubt been popular, it is actually online lottery sales that have been driving the growth. Topping Nielsen’s list of online gambling sites in the UK was national lottery operator Camelot, which saw its number of unique visitors explode from 4.4 million to 9.4 million between July 2009 and July 2010, an increase of 114%. According to the Camelot website, national lottery sales were £5.149 billion during the 2008/2009 fiscal year, which ended on March 31, 2009. This represented an increase of 3.6% over the previous year.
Party Gaming sits in the eighth spot on Nielsen’s list. PartyPoker, the company’s renowned poker arm, drew 870,000 more unique visitors than the previous year, an increase of 174%. PartyCasino saw a similar growth rate, 186%, which translated to 1.2 million new visitors.
Despite these positive figures, having more visitors doesn’t necessarily mean more players. PartyPoker reported a 12% increase in new real money player signups in 2009 (496,100), but a decrease of 12% in active player days. The average number of players each day also fell 12%, while the yield per active player day dropped 18%. The combined dip in active players and yield per player resulted in PartyPoker’s average daily net revenue sinking 28%.
PartyCasino’s figures were better, with active player days and daily average number of players dropping just 6%. But with the average yield per player climbing by 20%, the average daily net revenue for the casino was up 12%. PartyCasino turned a much smaller percent of its new visitors into real money customers than PartyPoker, with 103,000 testing their luck with real money.
PartyPoker currently ranks as the third largest online poker room/network in terms of cash game traffic, according to PokerScout.com. With a seven-day average of 3,750 players, PartyPoker is just ahead of the iPoker Network, which has a seven-day average of 3,500 cash game players. Neither site accepts customers from the United States.
Some of the more interesting facts that Nielsen uncovered were about the demographics of the UK’s online gambling population. Almost half of online gamblers make a good living, earning at least £30,000 ($49,717) per year. Women also make up almost half – 46% – of the online gambling population and many sites are taking greater strides in catering to the fairer sex.
Despite the strong female presence, they are not the ones fueling the gambling sites. Nielsen’s Neil Beston said, “While the phenomenal growth in gambling sites over the last two years has been driven by men and women of all ages, it appears to be powered particularly by middle-aged men, the well-educated, and high-earning households.” Beston added that this is a change from historical norms, which had senior citizens and lower income households contributing more to the online gambling economy.
While the gambling firms are likely happy about Nielsen’s findings, not everyone is jumping for joy. Problem gambling support charity GamCare still has the same concerns that critics of online gambling have always had. Adrian Scarfe, GamCare’s Clinical Training Director, told Australia’s Herald Sun newspaper, “The internet is readily available, it’s 24/7 and it’s right in the heart of a home. The vulnerable groups are those who are less risk-averse – young people and women, and no one knows if you’re drunk.”
Many online poker rooms, including PartyPoker and PokerStars, have links to GamCare on their websites.
