Remember the days not that long ago when we were locked up inside, not allowed to go outside? Even if we were, there was nothing to do as everything was shut down. It’s crazy to think back to the Covid days and truth be told, I think many of us have already managed to forget about it. I guess we should see it as a good sign, no matter how bad it was.
There are milestones in our lives that can be used for a before and after comparison and Covid is definitely one of those. Plenty of industries have used it as a reference and the gaming industry is no different.
Global Betting
In a report released earlier this summer, the Global Betting & Gaming Consultants (GBGC), presented exclusive data. The interesting data covered Global Betting before and after the pandemic.
Online Gross Gambling Takes A Bigger Piece of the Market
The line represents the online Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) percentage of the total market GGY between years 2007 and 2025. As you can see, it is a continuous increase in percentage although it has flattened out slightly for the past couple of years.
Clearly the biggest boost takes place between 2019 and 202, when online gambling grew from 13% to 19%. This should come as no surprise, considering the pandemic led to restrictions that forced land-based casinos to shut down in a lot of jurisdictions.
Personally I believe that the numbers would have kept growing anyway but of course the percentage was a result of the restrictions.
What are the Top 5 Betting Markets?
Most of us have an idea of what the biggest markets are, or at least we think we do. The above graph shows the Top 5 Betting Markets by GGY for 2021 in terms of billions of US Dollars.
I was honestly a little surprised when I saw that Japan was the winner. Then again, it’s easy to forget about the Japanese people’s massive interest in racing.
The US has to settle for second place and far, far behind. However, considering more states are legalizing sports betting, it’s projected that the US numbers will increase going forward.
As far as the entire global GGY for 2021, the above seen 5 markets makes up for 48%.
What About the Lottery?
When people think gambling, it’s most often that casino and sports betting that comes to mind. The lottery is easy to forget about but it is massive all around the world.
Looking at the graph above, it will give you an overview of the globally lottery GGY distribution in 2021, based on percentages.
As you can see, the Asian market has the biggest share, with the lottery taking up 46.5%. The gap down to Europe isn’t very big though as the lottery has 43.4% of the European market.
We know the lottery is also mighty popular in North America (38.8%) but not at all as influential in smaller markets. For example, Oceania, South/Central America and Africa took only a 7% share of total lottery GGY in 2021. The biggest reasons are the market size, the overall population and wealth of its players.
What Is the Most Popular Way to Gamble?
I find it interesting to see what type of gambling is the most popular among the people. I mean we all have our preferences and I would guess that most of you that follows BCK prefer either casino or sports betting. But what does it look like from a satellite perspective?
You might think it’s a bit of a surprise that the lottery stands for more than 33% of the overall gambling market share. However, I know a ton of people, especially on the older side, that love playing the lottery but would never get involved in any other type of gambling.
Sports betting and casinos come in second and third place. This does have to be taken with a grain of salt though. Why? Because if the pandemic hadn’t hit us and shut down land-based casinos, I think the numbers would be different. This is because lottery outlets were actually allowed to operate in most countries, despite whatever the restrictions may have been.
The Global Casino Revenue
What does the global casino market look like in terms of money (GGY)? Well, looking at the graph above will give you the answer. As you can see, it covers the global casino market from 2018 to 2025, showing the data in billions of US dollars.
Covid Caused a $57 Billion Drop
Yes, the revenue does take a drastic drop in 2020 but it is simply because of Covid. By a drastic drop I’m referring to the fact that the casino industry lost around $57 billion during the pandemic. Ouch!
As you can see, despite taking a huge hit, it has been on a steady climb ever since.
The forecast is that this year (2023), it will be back to “normal” and higher than before the pandemic at $175 billion.
The Future Is Bright
I think gambling of any kind is more popular and socially accepted than ever before. Step by step, the US states are letting go of the restrictions, which will only lead to even bigger numbers.
With more and more players preferring to use crypto doesn’t hurt the industry. If you are looking for the best and safest crypto casinos to play at, just click here to see my full list and my reviews of them all.
Good luck!
Leave a Reply