August 1st, 2022, Kineree Shah
To understand what makes gamblers choose a particular online sports betting provider, we asked them which factors they considered most crucial. For this piece, YouGov defines gamblers as consumers who have placed a sports bet online in the past month.
Data from YouGov’s Global Gambling Profiles – a multi-market tool that captures attitudinal and behavioral data from the world’s gambling population - shows that more than half of online sports bettors in the United Kingdom (55%) choose a gambling service based on an easy-to-use website or app. In comparison, fewer Americans (two in five - 40%) consider this factor important – but it still remains the primary factor.
For Americans, betting services that have the best odds (32%), the best selection of slots/games to play (32%), or the best selection of matches/events/sports to bet on (31%) are the next most important factors. A quarter of US online sports bettors also consider the different types of gambling offered by the company vs only 10% of those in the UK. Britons are more likely to consider the odds on offer important than Americans (44% vs 32%) and the best promotions (33% vs 20%).
This data set tells us a fifth of online sports bettors in the US and UK pick a betting service as a matter of habit or because they know it best (18% and 22%). About the same number (24% and 20%) do so because they consider the brand to be fun.
UK online sports bettors are notably less likely to say customer wellbeing (7%), or live dealings (3%) is factored into their decision to choose a service, but American gamblers care much more about these factors (17% and 14%).
Both markets say the range of community or chat features is the least important factor (2% and 7%) when picking an online gambling company.
The data also shows differences by brand used. In the US we see that regular sports bettors that use DraftKings are far less likely to be interested in the selection of slots/games to play than online sports bettors that use BetMGM, at 32% vs 45% respectively.
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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 is based on a sample size of between 1367 to 8008 adults. Online interviews were conducted in June 2022. Learn more about Profiles.