Insight
UK SPORTS BETTING Third Bridge
“We have a Chancellor who will be desperate to protect tax incomes for some time to come. He will know that further tightening of regulation will only curtail those revenues when they are needed most. This means the industry may have a window of between 18 and 36 months before further regulatory changes come into view.”
P24 NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE / MARKET DATA
bookie are cash-based and trading is often driven by impromptu decision-making. Combined, these factors restrict the offline to online cross-sell opportunity. Another thing to consider is the demographic of the retail customer, who are typically older than the online customer and may not have a digital presence at all.
Despite these challenges, online sports betting and igaming has seen a boom in trading due to lockdowns, with operators posting double digit gains on a year- on-year basis. An expert I spoke with noted that each month of closure translates to a years' worth of channel shift. Pure-play online bookies like Bet365 and
888.com are best placed to capitalise on this shift given their premium functionality and ease of use.
So what will the high street bookies look like after COVID?
Tree big issues will shape high street bookies after Covid; regulation, tax, and the overall health of the economy. Collectively these mean less retail units,
but not a total eradication of the retail landscape.
Firstly, let's examine regulation. Betting shops took a real hit with the changes made to fixed-odds betting terminals. Another change of that scale and many shops would disappear taking their tax-generating capacity with them. Not to mention the money paid for horse and greyhound media rights. Te government know this and given the large stimulus packages associated with Covid, they will be keen to ensure taxable revenue doesn't fall off a cliff due to tighter regulations. Tat leaves online sports betting and igaming a more likely target.
Tere is already a lot of pressure on online operators to act responsibly and we'll see how this translates into regulation. But realistically we have a Chancellor who will be desperate to protect tax incomes for some time to come. He will know that further tightening of regulation will only curtail those revenues when they are needed most. Tis means the industry may have a window of between 18 and 36 months before further regulatory changes come into view. In the medium
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