Esports betting in the UK down by 26% in Q1 2025
17 September 2025
Esports have been around for a while by now and in their wake, esports betting has been growing steadily as well over the past years. That is why it was all the more surprising when the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) recently revealed a significant downturn for betting on esports in the UK in the first quarter (Q1) of this year. To be more precise, the UK gambling regulator’s latest publication showed a sharp drop of the Gross Gambling Yield (GGY) related to esports betting in the first quarter of 2025.
26% drop in Q1 2025
The Gross Gambling Yield is an important metric in the gambling industry, whether it be esports or other types of gambling. It represents the difference between the total amount of wagers over a determined period of time and the amount of money players win back. It is a good indicator of the revenue that operators retain from the bets placed at their casino or bookmaking operation, before deduction of costs and taxes. The higher the GGY, the more revenue (before costs and taxes) for the operators.
In recent years, the GGY has generally been increasing for operators as betting becomes more popular in the United Kingdom. According to the UK Gambling Commission’s recent data though, the revenue from esports betting has dropped by 26% for operators in Q1 of 2025. Over the months of January 2025, February 2025 and March 2025, the number landed at £ 3,2 million, compared to just over £ 4,3 million over those same months a year earlier.
Esports betting compared
As we wrote earlier, the Gross Gaming Yield for betting in the United Kingdom generally displays an upward trend. This can be seen, for example, when looking at the GGY for online slots and the GGY for real event betting in the UK in the first quarter of this year. The former grew by 11% compared to the same period of time last year, while the latter increased by about 5%. This makes the notable downturn in revenue from esports betting an outlier and one for which the potential reasons are open to interpretation.
Evolving market
It is hard to say why the Gross Gambling Yield for esports betting in the United Kingdom dropped by 26% in a year time. While becoming more and more mainstream, the esports industry is still relatively niche and one that is still very much developing. Volatility in financial results and numbers can be a result of that.
There can be plenty of other reasons for the development as well. It would be interesting, for example, to see additional data on things like the development of player preferences, potential competition from other betting products and changes in terms of general market conditions. It will therefore be interesting how the data looks for the other three quarters of this year, compared to those quarters from last year, once the UK Gambling Commission releases that data.