Some UK online sports betting operators dealing with new tax better than others

Some online sports betting operators in the UK appear to have weathered the introduction of the new online gambling point of consumption tax (POCT) better than others, at least in terms of online traffic.

London-based information technology firm SimilarWeb recently released its Sports Betting UK White Paper, which details how UK online operators fared last year in terms of site traffic, search terms, player engagement and desktop to mobile ratio.

SimilarWeb’s data shows that four brands – Bet365, Coral, Paddy Power and William Hill – increased their month-on-month online desktop traffic during the first half of 2015.

SimilarWeb suggested that these four operators were poaching traffic from operators that exited the UK market following the late-2014 introduction of the UK’s new licensing regime, and also from operators who chose to stay but reduced marketing expenses to offset the impact of the POCT.