August 19th, 2021, Bhawna Singh
YouGov’s Global Gambling Profiles gives a view of the attitudes and behaviours of gaming consumers in 24 international markets
The gambling industry witnessed a shift during the course of the pandemic. As offline gaming and live sport were limited by lockdowns and restrictions, more gamblers turned their attention to legal online channels. With the rapid progression of the nationwide vaccination drive, conventional formats of gambling are accessible once more.
June data from YouGov’s newly launched tool- Global Gambling Profiles shows lottery games constitute the biggest form of gambling, with three in ten Singaporean gamblers (30%) saying they are likely to play a lottery game in the next 30 days. Both men and women were almost equally likely to say this.
Global Gambling Profiles is the first tool of its kind that gives an unparalleled intelligence on gambling audiences – from bets to brands. It is built upon more than 500,000 interviews per year, with new data collected and updated monthly. It provides an instant view of the size, make-up, attitudes and behaviours of gambling consumers in 24 key markets including Singapore.
Amidst lockdowns and restricted mobility, online lottery remained a major source of entertainment and more than a third of gamblers in Singapore who gamble once a month or more (36%) claimed to have played authorised online lottery games in the past one month. And many look forward to play lottery games in the near future.
Apart from lottery games, nearly a fifth of gamblers in Singapore are likely to play skill games offline (20%), casino slot games (19%) or offline bingo or keno (18%), with women appearing nearly equally or more keen than men to play these games.
Among gamblers, men are more interested than women in playing casino table or other card games offline (20% vs 13%) or playing poker offline (18% vs 13%).
Sports betting is another favourite among gamblers in Singapore. Online sports gambling using the Singapore Pools website or app accounts for the interest of a quarter of gamblers in Singapore (26%) who’ve placed a bet in the past 30 days. Just over a fifth (22%) have placed a bet on horse racing using the website or app. In comparison to this only one in seven (14%) placed a bet on a sport in-person and fewer (10%) placed a bet on horse riding in person at a Singapore Pools outlet.
As gaming centres and authorized outlets have resumed operations, punters are now looking forward to stepping out and placing bets offline. One in six gamblers in Singapore (17%) are likely to place a bet in-person on a sport such as football or motor racing at a Singapore Pools outlet in the next 30 days, with a higher number of men than women saying this (19% vs 15%). Some (22%) are likely to bet on horse racing at the Singapore Pools outlet or Singapore Turf Club for horse racing during this period.
Among gamblers surveyed, only one in seven (14%) said they are not likely to play any game for money in the coming 30 days, with a higher number of women saying this.
Methodology: YouGov Global Gambling Profiles, which includes data from 24 countries, is based on continuously collected data from several sources, rather than from a single limited questionnaire. Data referenced was collected in June 2021, based on a sample size of between 1,626 to 1,991 adults in Singapore.