Yesterday, the bosses of the leading UK bookmakers revealed that big-spending customers described as VIP players account for up to 38% of the deposits received by their companies.
The gambling operators are known to grant VIP status to their highest-spending users, with that status usually being associated with special enticements such as free cash bonuses or even free tickets for sporting events in order to make these customers bet even more.
Yesterday, the bosses of the five largest gambling operators in the UK – PaddyPower Betfair, bet365, William Hill, Ladbrokes Coral and SkyBet – openly shared how much money they derive from so-called VIPs. Never before have they admitted that a large part of their revenues is generated by large-spending customers.
GVC Holdings, which currently owns Ladbrokes Coral, has shared that it receives 38% of its deposits from its VIP customers, who constitute only 1.4% of the firm’s customer base. Another large British gambling operator, William Hill, has shared that one-fifth of its overall deposits are derived from VIP players, who make up only 0.6% of the total number of customers.
The figures cited by the gambling operators can possibly represent hundreds of millions of pounds. The overall gambling revenue announced by GVC Holdings in 2019 amounted to £2.49 billion, while the one generated by William Hill was worth £1.6 billion.
Gambling Operators Blamed for Targetting Customers by Using Their Vulnerabilities
The three other gambling companies that lifted the curtain on the matter – PaddyPower Betfair’s owner Flutter Entertainment, bet365 and SkyBet – unveiled that an amount of between 1% and 2% of their customer deposits are generated by so-called VIPs.
The revelations have brought more light to the trend just to reveal the great dependence of the gambling sector on high-spending VIP customers. According to data gathered throughout research of the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), such players are 11 times more likely to get addicted to gambling than others.
In the last few years, gambling operators have been blamed for luring more people into gambling by offering them incentives to make them gamble more and more money. Yesterday, the five largest gambling companies’ bosses were once again criticised about the predatory VIP bonus schemes that take advantage of customers’ vulnerabilities. According to Baroness Thornhill, a Liberal Democrat peer, there has been evidence that a big part of the gambling operators’ deposits is actually generated by a pretty small percentage of their users.
According to opponents of VIP schemes, the aforementioned incentives for highest-spending customers are predatory as they use people’s vulnerability and this is something to be concerned about. VIP schemes have become quite controversial in the last few years, with the major gambling regulatory body of the country, the UKGC, taking disciplinary action against companies. At the time when the revelations regarding the deposits were made yesterday, the chief executive officer of GVC Holdings, Kenny Alexander, admitted that the gambling sector sometimes targetted large spenders too aggressively.
- Author
Olivia Cole
