The UK Gambling Commission has published further data showing how the evolving Covid-19 lockdown measures have impacted online gambling behaviour in Great Britain.

The operator data reflects the period between March 2020 and March 2021, inclusive, and covers both online and, where relevant, some offline gambling operator data, noting that all land-based premises have been closed since December.

It is not advisable to make year-on-year comparisons between March 2020 and March 2021, due to differing operating circumstances of the two months.

This update contains March operator data, as well as an update to February data following an operator re-submission, and consumer research data covering the period from January to March.

The latest online operator data for March 2021 shows:Activity in the online market increased in what is a traditionally busy period due to the Cheltenham festival, with an increase on February of 17% in active accounts and 12% in bets placed, while gross gambling yield (GGY), increased by 4%.

Slots GGY increased by 15% to nearly £203m during the period from February to March. The number of bets (12% to near 6.2bn) and active players (10% to over 3.2m) also increased.

The number of online slots sessions lasting longer than an hour increased by 8% (to 2.7m). The average session length decreased to 20.8 minutes, with 8% of all sessions lasting more than one hour.