Record-breaking year ahead as Euros and Ascot combine to add 124k new betting app users

London, UK; 1st July 2024: A new analysis of sports betting apps on the Google Play Store by app growth solutions company, SplitMetrics, has revealed UK betting apps saw one of their strongest-ever weeks with a 96% week-on-week increase, adding an estimated 124k new Android users.

The gambling industry as a whole has seen a strong start to the year with downloads up by approximately 30% compared to 2023. New users for the UK’s top 17 betting apps in 2024 currently stands at 2 million with 20 million total lifetime downloads. With 66.7 million adults in the UK it means that nearly one in three people now bet on Android apps.

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If these trends continue the sector could add 4 million for 2024 compared to the estimated 3 million in both 2023 and 2022. This would be a record-breaking year for the industry helped by major sporting and horse racing events. The Grand National and Cheltenham led to download numbers increasing by an average of 64% in the week leading to the races. On average new download numbers in 2024 for the UK’s top 17 gambling apps on Android are 82k per week, however, the Grand National saw 124k and Cheltenham 143k – the highest download weeks of the year by a considerable margin.

The top 17 sports gambling apps analysed through the App Radar by SplitMetrics platform, experienced an approximate 30% increase in Android downloads in the two weeks running up to the start of Euro 2024 (3-16 June 2024) when compared to the same period in 2023 (126k vs 96k downloads).

The apps that added the most Android downloads in those two weeks are bet365, Paddy Power, Sky Bet, Coral and Betfair.

The top five apps in terms of lifetime downloads are bet365, Sky Bet, Paddy Power, William Hill and Ladbrokes.

Thomas Kriebernegg, General Manager, SplitMetrics Agency, said: “The UK’s betting app market is growing at an astonishing rate from what was already a very high base. One in three adults in the UK now bet using Android apps – it underlines how the sector has transformed in a relatively short period of time.

“Each download represents a new user for these businesses which, if converted to long-term customers, would have a huge impact on their bottom line. An accessible and seamless user experience will be a big factor in whether these apps will be able to retain the new users and convert them into loyal customers.

“Big global events bring a lot of potential new customers to different parts of the app market but they also bring a lot of competition. Businesses that invest in smart, targeted marketing can differentiate themselves from their competitors. It’s also an opportunity for smaller businesses to punch above their weight and supercharge their growth.”