Gambling has been an essential part of London culture as far back as the founding of the Roman Londinium, and the city remains the central point for the betting world in England. While every city and major town in the country contains some form of bookie shop, many of the major names in the industry are headquartered in the capital.
For the past 10 years, the biggest new name in gambling has been iGaming, which represents every part of online casinos and mobile betting, with a global value ranging into the high billions. London has not been left behind in this massive growth.
What makes up the iGaming industry?
Essentially, all forms of online betting companies fall under iGaming, from online casinos, known as operators, to betting game developers and all their associated businesses. These companies now make up a major part of global gambling, and you can find more traditional names like Paddy Power and other household names offering some of the top casino bonuses and offers that you can find online. In fact, those more established companies can usually offer bigger rewards and bonuses just on account of their bigger backing.
Within the UK, these companies are almost exclusively London-based, whether they are British businesses or European or global businesses with a UK base of operations. This means that London city has become one of the premier locations worldwide for setting up shop in iGaming, no matter which sector of the industry a company belongs to.
How big is online gambling in the UK?
By the official statistics from the UK government, ‘remote gambling duty’ currently accounts for around £250 million per quarter, or £1 billion yearly. This would put the overall value of the industry at somewhere about £14 to £15 billion per year. While this isn’t a massive number in general terms, this is impressive considering that it reached this point via a yearly growth rate of over 10%.
As a nation, the British have a significant interest in gambling. The most recent statistics on the UK from March 2022 put that rate between both males and females at 43%, although this is inclusive of all gambling forms, including the lottery or scratchcards. Still, the ever-rising prevalence of smartphones and other mobile devices across the population means that online casinos, through mobile betting and their own proprietary apps, are taking up a larger and larger wedge of that number each year.
Is the London iGaming industry set to grow further?
Each year, dozens more iGaming companies set up shop with London as a base, simply thanks to the incredible potential revenue possible from operating within the UK. The businesses that are already established within London are set to see substantial growth themselves, with both revenue and recruitment rising year-on-year.
With no signs of anything soon that would act as a roadblock to the industry, as well as other technology industries such as the cryptocurrency industry growing parallel and physically nearby, there are plenty of avenues for new developments. As such, growth is more of a question of ‘how much’ rather than ‘if’ in iGaming.
