July 2013 was one of the warmest months of July in the recorded history of the United Kingdom — the third highest average temperatures since records were first kept in the year 1910. Now, whether the heat had anything to do with it, or whether it had something to do with the publicity over the UK government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s recent proposed changes to the licensing and taxation of internet gambling operators, or for some other reason, Brits seemed to be less interested than usual in online gambling in July of 2013. The latest report from independent digital marketing firm Greenlight — “Gaming Sector Report, Issue 11” — reflects a sharp decline in consumer online search volumes relating to online gaming, casinos, sports betting, poker and bingo in the month of July.
The twelve-month retrospective report reveals consumers’ most used search terms, total search volumes and most popular and visited sites. Greenlight’s findings show consumer searches on Google UK pertaining to gaming related inquiries allotted 995,830 — which is 34 percent less than in the month of June 2013, and the most extreme drop in over a year.
By subject matter, casino inquiries made up the largest percentage of July’s queries, followed by sports betting, bingo and poker. The ten most popular gaming related search terms were: “bingo”, “online casino”, “casino”, “poker”, “no deposit casino”, “bet”, “poker hands”, “bingo sites”, and “betting calculator”.
Maybe the warm July days enticed the Englishmen outdoors to play sports instead of wagering on them, but one very safe wager is this: With UK punters spending £2.3 billion annually on online gambling (according to research from Deloitte), you can bet there are more than a few bookmakers and online casino companies scrambling to determine the reasons behind the sharp July decline, and how to avoid a continuing trend!