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About Smugglers Cove
Sponsorships and advertising with sports teams was also flagged as according to the report, voluntary efforts had failed to reduce the industry’s exposure.
With int he report Dr Matt Gaskell MBE observed that “overall exposure (including shirts, hoardings, logos, sponsorship and related marketing) during live sports programmes does not show that self-regulation has reduced exposure meaningfully”.
Voluntary efforts have included Premier League football opting to ban front-of-shirt gambling sponsorships, as of the beginning of this current season. Although, branding remains on training kits, shirt sleeves and across stadium advertisements.
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Online casino stood at £5.7 billion for the 12-month period, of which £4.8 billion was derived from slots. Remote betting came in at £2.4 billion, led by football (£1.2 billion) and horse racing (£769.3 million). Remote bingo GGY was at £147.8 million.
Quarterly data from January to March 2026 reinforced this trend, with online verticals generating £2.2 billion, and remote casino alone accounting for 68.3% (£1.5 billion) of that total.
The first quarter of 2026 saw a total industry GGY of £4.4 billion including lotteries, or £3.4 billion excluding lotteries.
About Smugglers Cove
The problem is that legalisation has not happened as quickly as expected, while taxes and competition have increased. “Online gaming has been affected by the broader re-rating of growth-oriented internet and software stocks,” says Chad Beynon, managing director and head of US research at Macquarie Capital. “But there has also been a genuine deterioration in expectations for parts of the sector.”
Beynon says sports betting companies have suffered particularly badly because the market is questioning both future earnings and the size of the eventual opportunity. More iGaming-focused companies such as Rush Street Interactive and Super Group have generally performed better operationally, helped by stronger earnings growth and profitability.
The lesson is simple: gambling still attracts capital when the money is visible. It is less attractive when the payoff lies far in the distance.
