The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship was a "landmark event, not only for football fans but also for the gambling industry," say two UK Gambling Commission experts.
UK Gambling Commission research and statistics analyst Robyn Brummitt and research and impact manager Caleb Adegbola reported: "This tournament provided us with a unique opportunity to explore the impact of the Euros on consumer behaviour, particularly following England’s impressive run to the final.
"Given that major football tournaments featuring the home nations occur only every two years, we partnered with our Consumer Voice research provider, Yonder, to explore betting behaviours, motivations and the impact of promotional offers and advertising during this year’s Euros tournament.
"This research builds on our previous studies into gambling attitudes during major football events like the World Cup. Using Yonder’s omnibus survey, we employed cross-sectional tracking to ask a series of questions to a total of 6,237 people across three waves, with just over 2,000 respondents participating in each.
"The first wave was conducted a week before the tournament started, wave two fieldwork was conducted between the group stage and the knockout stages and wave three was a week after the tournament had concluded.
"Participants shared their insights on various topics, including their betting activity and intentions, awareness of advertising, use of promotional offers, gambling motivations and even how England’s run to the final influenced their behaviour.
"Interestingly, our findings revealed a notable increase in the proportion of female respondents who reported betting on the Euros, which significantly outpaced the rate of increase among male respondents."
Pre-tournament (20.8 per cent male, 6.6 per cent female) and mid-tournament (27.0 per cent male, 9.6 per cent female) ratios were similar, with males approximately three times more likely to report participation - but that was closer to two times (27.3 per cent, 13.3 per cent) more likely in the post-tournament wave.
When considering age, there was a marked increase in the proportion of those aged 18 to 24 who reported betting on the Euros in wave three (14 per cent at wave one, 36 per cent at wave three) compared to older groups, for whom the increase in participation was far more modest.
