Online betting by sport UK data from the Gambling Commission shows £24,965.6m staked with British-licensed remote betting operators in 2025-26. Football took 40.6% of that turnover and horse racing 31.4%, while operators kept £2,447.6m as gross gambling yield (GGY), 6.6% less than a year earlier. This guide compares turnover, GGY and margins sport by sport, using the provisional 2025-26 figures published in September 2026.
Online betting by sport UK: the 2025-26 table
The Commission splits remote betting by event type. Turnover is the total staked, GGY is what operators keep after paying winnings, and the margin is GGY as a share of turnover (our calculation).
| Sport | Turnover | GGY | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Football | £10,147.7m | £1,165.2m | 11.5% |
| Horse racing | £7,849.2m | £769.3m | 9.8% |
| Other sports | £2,930.2m | £233.1m | 8.0% |
| Tennis | £1,681.1m | £83.5m | 5.0% |
| Cricket | £1,132.8m | £70.2m | 6.2% |
| Greyhounds | £583.6m | £71.5m | 12.2% |
| Virtual events | £426.6m | £40.6m | 9.5% |
| Golf | £214.4m | £14.3m | 6.7% |
| Total | £24,965.6m | £2,447.6m | 9.8% |
Football and horse racing together produced 79.0% of remote betting GGY in 2025-26 (our calculation). Land-based and online betting are compared in our UK sports betting statistics report.
The totals include fixed-odds betting, pool betting and commission earned by betting exchanges. Betting on financial markets is recorded as zero in every year since 2018-19.
Year-on-year change by sport
Comparing 2025-26 with 2024-25 shows that the fall in remote betting GGY was concentrated in football. Most other sports moved by only a few million pounds either way.
| Sport | GGY 2024-25 | GGY 2025-26 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Football | £1,329.6m | £1,165.2m | -12.4% |
| Horse racing | £762.6m | £769.3m | +0.9% |
| Other sports | £255.2m | £233.1m | -8.7% |
| Tennis | £82.6m | £83.5m | +1.1% |
| Greyhounds | £74.1m | £71.5m | -3.5% |
| Cricket | £61.1m | £70.2m | +14.8% |
| Virtual events | £43.0m | £40.6m | -5.5% |
| Golf | £12.7m | £14.3m | +12.6% |
Football alone lost £164.5m of GGY, which is almost the whole of the £173.4m fall in total remote betting GGY (our calculation). Cricket and golf grew, but from small bases.
Turnover tells a different story, because total stakes rose 4.5% in the same year. Punters bet more, and operators kept a smaller share of it.
Comparisons with other markets need care. The Commission does not publish stakes placed with European online casinos or bookmakers licensed abroad, so these figures describe the British-licensed market only.
Football: more stakes, less GGY
Football betting turnover rose 2.0% to £10,147.7m in 2025-26, but football GGY fell 12.4% to £1,165.2m. The margin dropped from 13.4% in 2024-25 to 11.5%, which points to results that went better for punters than the year before.
Football’s margin moves with match outcomes rather than with any change in rules, so a single season says little about the long-run trend. Turnover is still below the £11,012.8m staked in 2018-19.
Football is also the sport where the gap between stakes and GGY is easiest to see. A 1.9-point fall in margin on a turnover base of over £10bn is enough to move total remote betting GGY into decline.
Key point: football produced 47.6% of remote betting GGY from 40.6% of turnover in 2025-26, because its average margin is higher than that of horse racing or tennis.
The football decline explains most of the fall in total remote betting GGY. Online betting now earns less than the £2,696.9m taken by gaming machines UK venues in the same year.
Horse racing betting UK: a shrinking turnover base
Horse racing betting UK operators took £7,849.2m in online stakes in 2025-26, 0.4% less than in 2024-25. GGY edged up 0.9% to £769.3m, giving a margin of 9.8%.
The longer view is weaker. Online racing turnover peaked at £10,005.9m in 2021-22 and has fallen 21.6% since then (our calculation), while GGY has stayed between £729.1m and £769.3m since 2022-23.
Bets on British racing also fund the sport through the levy on bookmakers, explained in our guide to the horserace betting levy.
Tennis betting statistics and other sports
Tennis was the fastest-growing major sport by turnover. Stakes rose 44.7% to £1,681.1m in 2025-26, yet tennis GGY grew only 1.1% to £83.5m, so the margin fell to 5.0%.
Those tennis betting statistics show how thin margins can be on a sport with heavy in-play trading. Tennis turnover is also still below its 2017-18 level of £2,341.1m.
Cricket turnover rose 28.3% to £1,132.8m, its highest in the series, and GGY 14.8% to £70.2m. Golf took £214.4m of stakes and £14.3m of GGY.
The “other sports” line groups every sport that does not have its own column in the operator returns. Together they took £2,930.2m of stakes, more than tennis and cricket combined.
The Commission’s figures cover licensed operators in Great Britain only. Stakes placed with betting sites outside the GamStop scheme are not in the data.
Greyhounds, virtual sports and betting exchanges
Greyhounds had the highest margin of any category in 2025-26 at 12.2%. Online greyhound turnover was £583.6m, down 2.9%, and GGY was £71.5m.
Virtual events, computer-generated races and matches, took £426.6m in stakes, less than half the £1,007.4m recorded in 2020-21 when live sport was suspended.
Betting exchanges report commission rather than turnover. Betting exchange GGY was £92.7m in 2025-26, down 8.6% on 2024-25 and 39.0% below the £151.9m of 2015-16 (our calculation).
Exchange commission is not comparable with bookmaker GGY, because the exchange takes a cut of winning bets between customers rather than taking the other side of each bet. That is why exchanges report no turnover in the Commission tables.
Pool betting is smaller still, with £109.0m of turnover and £24.7m of GGY in 2025-26.
How remote betting has changed since 2018-19
Total online betting turnover was £27,748.9m in 2018-19 and is now 10.0% lower. Stakes have fallen while operators kept a larger share, so GGY has moved within a narrow band, from £2,020.9m in 2018-19 to a high of £2,639.5m in 2020-21.
The 2025-26 result is the third highest remote betting GGY since 2018-19, despite the drop from 2024-25. Margins, rather than the amount staked, drove most of the change in recent years.
Remote betting is now much smaller than remote casino, which earned £5,699.4m in 2025-26. Our UK gambling industry statistics overview puts both in context.
Activity at offshore casinos is also outside the Commission’s returns.
FAQ: online betting by sport
Quick answers from official data.
Which sport has the most online betting in the UK?
Football, with £10,147.7m of remote turnover in 2025-26 (provisional), followed by horse racing with £7,849.2m.
How much do bookmakers keep from online football bets?
About 11.5% of stakes in 2025-26 on our calculation, down from 13.4% in 2024-25.
Is online horse racing betting growing?
No. Turnover was £7,849.2m in 2025-26, 21.6% below the 2021-22 peak, although GGY was broadly stable.
How do betting exchanges appear in the data?
Only as commission (GGY): £92.7m in 2025-26. Exchange turnover is not reported.
All figures are Gambling Commission data for remote betting operators licensed in Great Britain; 2025-26 is provisional. Turnover is the amount staked, not deposits. Margins, shares and percentage changes are our calculations from the published £m figures.
- Gambling Commission, Industry statistics, April 2025 to March 2026 (xlsx), sheets 4, 10, 10a and 10b.
- Gambling Commission, Industry statistics annual report, April 2025 to March 2026 (release page).
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