Examining the cricket betting landscape in the UK
As we approach the end of the cricket season in the UK, we’re looking at an overview of the cricket betting landscape in the UK. To begin with, cricket is only the joint sixth-most popular summer sport for betting on in the UK, with 7% of bettors overall. Looking specifically at online sports bettors, 11% say they bet on England’s national sport – This puts it well behind the likes of soccer (75%), horse racing (58%), although it finds itself in the same league as the likes of golf (16%), boxing (14%), tennis (13) and rugby (11%).
Cricket’s relatively low popularity as a betting sport comes as a slight surprise given that it is the joint-second most popular sport to follow among online sports bettors in the UK – a third of the members of this cohort say they follow England’s national sport (33%), putting it behind only soccer. For marketers this could be the sign of a market waiting to be tapped into more incisively.
Who are the cricket bettors?
An overwhelming majority of online cricket bettors are men, with only one in ten being women (89% vs 11%). While horse racing leads the way in terms of female share in the online betting pie (27%), even other sports like football (18%), rugby union (17%) and tennis (19%) fare markedly better than cricket in this regard.
Looking at age demos, a fifth of online sports bettors who bet on cricket are aged 18-34. The middle-aged group (35-54) makes up nearly half of online cricket bettors – 48% - while the representation of over 55s stands at just under a third of the overall pie (31%). By contrast, rugby (26%), boxing (34%) and tennis (31%) feature a much bigger share of online bettors in the youngest age category.
Cricket bettors are slightly likelier than bettors of most of the other sports to come from higher income households.
Three in ten online cricket bettors come from this tier, with that demographic featuring as strongly only among rugby bettors (31%).
But how much do they stake relative to other major sports?
Online cricket bettors are among the most likely to stake upwards of 100 quid on sports bets each month, with a fourth of them indicating as much (25%). The share of football bettors who spend as much is less than half that (11%), and it isn’t much higher among horse racing bettors either (14%). Rugby bettors also trail in this regard (20%), while tennis bettors are just as likely to wager upwards of £100 on sports betting each month.
For sportsbooks, this stat should serve as further motivation to target a cricket audience and expand the base of cricket bettors.
Which are their top sites for placing bets?
Among cricket bettors, Sky Bet dominates the scene, with over half of online cricket bettors saying they use it to place sports bets (52%). While Sky Bet tends to be the top sportsbook among bettors of most sports, it ranks particularly high among online cricket bettors, surpassing usage rates among bettors of horse racing (45%), football (48%), rugby (46%) and tennis (48%).
This could be due to the strong link that Sky that has likely developed among cricket followers, given that Sky Sports has had exclusive access to broadcast rights of all major cricket in the UK since 2006. Bet365 (46%), William Hill (40%), Paddy Power (37%) and Ladbrokes (36%) also command a sizeable share among cricket bettors.