Online sportsbetting searches on the up

Independent specialist search engine optimisation and pay-per-click consulting and technology firm Greenlight has announced that the sportsbetting sector’s share of the UK’s iGaming market increased from 18 percent in March to 23 percent by June.

The findings were revealed in the social marketing agency’s recently released Gaming Sector Report: June 2010, which reported that UK consumer searches for sportsbetting-related terms totaled 550,779.

“Going by the search trend, it would seem June was a significant month for the sportsbetting industry while the casino, bingo and poker sectors have seen the reverse,” said Simon Hollingsworth, a researcher for Greenlight.

“The popularity of sportsbetting-related searches can be explained by the various sporting events that took place in June such as Wimbledon and the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It will be interesting to see how this evolves over the next quarter with the forthcoming domestic football season.”

However, Greenlight stated that poker-related search terms were still the most popular in June at over 773,000, which represented 32 percent of the total, while casino at 20 percent and bingo with 24 percent fared less well when compared to March when their percentages stood at 24 percent and 26 percent respectively.

Overall, Greenlight reported that UK consumer searches for gaming-related terms fell to 2.3 million in June compared to 2.6 million the previous month with April seeing 2.7 million and March three million.

The firm also revealed that 888.com saw its share of the search market increase by two percent since March with the Gibraltar-licensed site achieving a 34 percent segment after 13 keywords were analysed including the high-volume ‘casino’, which was hunted for 165,000 times over June. However, the site was replaced at top spot in Greenlight’s top 60 league table charting the most visible websites by Wikipedia.com.