UK operators fight back in black-market debate with new statistics report
William Hill highlights findings of PwC study to counter UKGC claim that offshore threat is being exaggerated by licensees
William Hill has described the black market as a “growing problem that must be confronted” after accountancy firm PwC published a new report on offshore illegal gambling activity in the UK.
The PwC study suggests the proportion of UK online consumers gambling with an unlicensed operator has increased from 2.2% (210,000 players) in 2018-19 to 4.5% in 2020 (460,000 players).
It also found that consumer spend with unlicensed operators rose from £1.4bn in 2018-19 to £2.8bn in November 2020, despite black-market awareness remaining stable at around 45%.
The number of illegal operators discovered in Google search results for gambling key terms has more than halved however, from 12% in 2018-19 to 5% in 2020, due to search engine algorithm changes.
PwC highlighted 98 offshore gambling sites in the first 10 pages of Google search results, although only 14 of these allowed customers to sign up and create accounts with a UK IP address.
“Overall, our analyses have found that usage of and spend with unlicensed online gambling operators in the UK has grown over the last one to two years,” the PwC report concluded.
“This has occurred despite awareness of unlicensed operators remaining broadly stable and consumers’ exposure to unlicensed operators within Google search results declining.”
In January, Gambling Commission (UKGC) CEO Neil McArthur suggested the threat of the black market was being exaggerated by UK-licensed operators ahead of the government’s review of the 2005 Gambling Act, which has pledged to investigate the issue further.
“We know that licensed operators and their trade bodies are concerned about the impact of the illegal market, but our own evidence suggests that the impact may be being exaggerated,” said McArthur.
Despite this, William Hill has suggested the growth of the black market is evident in the UKGC’s own enforcement statistics.
The FTSE 250 operator pointed out that the UKGC carried out 59 enforcement actions against unlicensed operators in 2019-20, while that number has already risen to 74 for 2020-21 to date.
“This is not a new problem,” said William Hill CEO Ulrik Bengtsson. “Sadly, there have always been illegal bookmakers, in Britain and elsewhere.
“What makes the current black-market threat so pernicious is its ability to exploit technology in order to make itself more available to gamblers.
“Now, a person on a legal betting site is only a few clicks away from a black-market option,” he added.
The Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) pointed to the part of the PwC report that suggests the black market is more prevalent in countries with more restrictive gambling legislation.
BGC CEO Michael Dugher said: “I know this evidence is inconvenient to those who seek to dismiss and play down the threat of the black market, but there is a real danger of complacency.
“The UK risks sleep walking into changes where the main beneficiary is the unlicensed black market.
“We all have an interest in getting future changes right, so must take heed of this latest evidence and look at what is happening elsewhere around the world,” he added.
The full PwC report can be read here.