Liverpool's Jordan Henderson celebrates with the Premier League trophy after the Premier League match at Anfield, Liverpool.

Successful summer leaves Leadstar positive over industry’s recovery

Figures coming out of both the UK and Germany have shown positive signs of recovery for the sports betting industry, while the return of top level football in both of these countries produced an immediate upturn in betting-based traffic across the world.

That’s according to betting affiliate Leadstar Media, which oversees several products across a variety of global markets including the UK, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, US and Brazil.

A study completed by YouGov for the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) revealed a significant increase in revenue for the UK gambling sector over the course of May and into June.

For example, it found that sports betting participation fell to 1% around 6-7 May but climbed back to 5% by 17-18 June. The upturn corresponded with the return of more elite-level sports, including Premier League football.

Just last week, the UKGC released further market data showing that gross gambling yield (GGY) for real event wagering rose by 115% between May and June, up from £1.01 million to £217.5 million. The regulator noted that GGY for June was higher than ‘average pre-lockdown levels’.

Meanwhile, despite predictions in the early spring for the German and Austrian betting markets forecasting a bleak outlook for the summer, Leadstar was already seeing significantly positive recovery trends in May, much more in line with the UK figures. 

Leadstar Media’s German sites recorded a 100% increase in business from the start of lockdown to the return of the Bundesliga in May, concurrently resulting in betting related searches occurring over two times higher than in the preceding weeks. 

Bookiesbonuses.com is similarly geared to comparing betting sites and providing general advice to players, albeit to a worldwide English speaking audience, and has seen similar patterns over the course of the late spring and into the early summer. 

Eskil Kvarnström, CEO at Leadstar Media, explained: “A great barometer for our business and for the industry as the whole, can be singled out through Bookiesbonuses. 

“Originally intended to be targeted toward the UK market, where it still commands significant traffic, we have branched out the site to have a more worldwide focus. We have visitors from a wide variety of countries and have done for some time now.

“What we have been seeing with our flagship site, mirrors what has been happening in the UK and Germany, and the return to football across Europe has brought a significant boost in traffic that bodes well for the industry as a whole.”

Leadstar Media is also currently pioneering products in both North and South America. Kvarnström believes the successful return of European sports has boosted traffic across the board.

“If we take our Brazilian betting comparison site Sitedeapostas.com, we saw an upturn in traffic by the middle of the summer, even before full scale football even returned to Brazil,” he said.

“If you consider this fact and that many North American and US sports recently made a return to action, it really shows the potential of the industry to fully recover from recent setbacks.”

Kvarnström, Leadstar Media, and the betting industry as a whole have a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks and months should these tentative predictions come to fruition. 

With European sports mounting a successful comeback, combined with the return of their US counterparts on the horizon, positive trends look set to continue well into the final quarter of the year and hopefully even further.

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