The UK’s online gambling market suffered its first ever revenue decline, with race betting fingered for dragging down the numbers.

New figures released by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) show the UK gambling market generated gross gambling yield (GGY) of £14.4b in the 12 months ending March 31, 2019, a modest 0.3% decline from the 12 months ending March 2018. The decline is slightly greater compared to the 12 months ending September 2018, which saw GGY of £14.5b. The UKGC’s next market report will come in May 2019.

The headline takeaway from the UKGC’s latest report is the first recorded decline in online GGY. Online remains the biggest single chunk of the UK gambling market at £5.3b, or 37.1% of the total pie. However, that sum represented a 0.6% year-on-year decline, thanks to sports betting falling nearly 11% to £1.83b despite a 2.7% rise in turnover.

Most of the betting decline came courtesy of the horseracing segment, which saw GGY fall 15% to £522m. Football GGY was down a comparatively modest 4.4% to £991m while virtual sports GGY slid 12.5% to £68.6m. Exchange betting, which isn’t included in the overall betting stat, saw GGY slip 1.4% to £166.4m.