National Lottery aside, sports betting is the most common way UK punters enjoy gambling. This is true despite the sports betting industry declining in 2023 as more gamblers opted for online casinos than sportsbooks.
Facing challenging circumstances, as the option to win cash prizes when you play attracts customers away from placing wagers, many factors keep punters placing bets. Among these is the fact that sports betting allows gamblers to improve their odds through tips, tricks, predictions, and data analysis.
Horse racing is the second most popular sport UK residents bet on. Beating this British staple by a considerable amount is football. Spurred on by the UK's ever-present football culture, football is responsible for over 45% of all wagers placed with sportsbooks in the country.
How does this compare to other regions of the world? Read on as we unpack the football betting culture of Brits and other countries.
Football Culture
The primary driving force behind the significant number of punts placed on football in the UK is the culture of the sport in the country. Despite cricket being the national sport, football has an incredible fan base comprising millions of residents who love tuning into upcoming games.
The prominence of the Premier League has much to do with this. Arguably the largest soccer tournament apart from FIFA World Cup competitions, the Premier League attracts more than 3.2 billion viewers annually, many of whom reside in England.
Football's presence in the country is also evident in the industry's size. Regarding domestic broadcasting rights, the UK generates more than £1.63 billion annually. Spain is the country closest to this and only generates £850 million.
This strong culture can also be found in numerous other countries internationally. Germany, Brazil, Italy, Argentina, Mexico, and South Africa are all home to sports cultures in which football is deeply ingrained. Because of this, you'd expect these countries to all have similarly large football betting markets.
Football Market Size
As mentioned above, the football industry contributes billions of pounds to the British economy. Including the value of broadcasting deals, the total sector contributes almost £7.6 billion to the country annually. It is also responsible for the employment of nearly 100,000 people.
Incredibly, although the UK is often thought of as the largest football-loving country on the planet, it doesn't have the largest industry in terms of revenue. The sector generates almost £15.7 billion annually in Spain, accounting for nearly 1.44% of the country's GDP.
Massive betting revenues can also be seen in the other countries already mentioned. In Brazil, football brings in around £1.15 billion yearly, Germany has an industry value of around £4.36 billion, Mexico's football industry is worth an estimated £2.48 billion, and South Africa clocks in at around £132 million.
Football Market Size
While the sums above show the popularity of football in various countries, the real difference between the UK and others can be seen in the value of their sports betting industries. In the UK, sports betting is worth an estimated £4.32 billion annually, the vast majority being bets placed on football.
Although football is similarly popular in other regions, their sports betting industries fall far behind. In Spain, which has an immensely valuable football industry, sports betting is only worth around £756 million—a far cry from that found in the UK.
Other regions like Germany (£1.7 billion), Brazil (£442 million), Argentina (£1.18 billion), South Africa (£991 million), and Mexico (£997 billion) also don't come close to reaching that of the UK. This may seem strange, considering some of these countries also boast football sectors worth eye-watering amounts. However, there is a good reason for this.
Betting Culture
The activity of placing bets on sporting events is ingrained in British culture. Legal sports betting began in the region in 1960 when the first betting shops opened. These quickly gained popularity and spread throughout the country. Brands like William Hill became household names, and millions went to their local bookie ahead of upcoming events.
With local culture already having a positive outlook toward sports betting, the advent of online bookmakers added fuel to the fire. Because of the convenience of placing bets remotely and securely, the industry skyrocketed, and more Brits identified the thrill of online gambling.
This occurred on a much smaller and slower scale in other parts of the world. In Germany, for instance, online sports betting was only legalised in 2020, giving residents a much shorter time frame to grow the industry.
Countries like Spain, Mexico, and South Africa have had laws allowing sports betting for a much longer time, but because the cultures of these nations weren't so permeated with sports betting and gambling, the industries have taken longer to launch.
Information
One of the final ways in which British football betting stands out is in terms of consumer information. All of the countries mentioned above have access to the internet in most of the areas they occupy. However, in some, this is only a recent development.
A prime example of this is Brazil. Despite 84% of the population being connected in 2023, the figure was less than 55% in 2014. As such, sports fans or those who want to place bets on events couldn't access the wealth of information regarding team line-ups, statistics, and predictions available online.
By contrast, the UK has an internet penetration rate of almost 98%. In 2014, when Brazil had less than 42%, 91.6% of UK residents were already connected. While this sounds immaterial, it makes a significant difference in the reach of the betting industry.
Such internet penetration in the UK has allowed the continuous growth of football and betting culture in the nation. With fans able to access updated statistics and opinions about large tournaments, numerous predictions to help boost their chances of winning and multiple online operators, it may be years before other football-loving countries can compete with the UK.
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