UK sweepstakes sites are sticky but not popular

Netimperative reports on growth in online gambling, much as we did previously. However, the data as presented by Netimperative needs some clarification, mainly that in February, below the top three gambling the websites, the rest "do not meet minimum sample size standards ... projected and average measures for these sites may exhibit large changes month-to-month as a result", according to Nielsen//NetRatings. Not only that, but in the three months of November 2004 - January 2005, no gambling site other than than the National Lottery met the "minimum sample size standards". So any suggestion that the UK online gambling market is booming must be taken with a pinch of salt.

For the category as a whole, I do not quite understand what the 45% UK growth refers to - in March 2004, the gambling category attracted 3.8 million visitors, and in February 2005... 3.8 million visitors.

What the UK online gambling sector needs is more sweepstakes sites. Our previous comments already described the success of sweepstakes sites in Europe, and the lack of a good supply in the UK. A case in point is TheDailyDraw. TheDailyDraw has not appeared in the rankings for the past few months, and like other sites in a sparse category, has a history of appearing and disappearing. In October 2004, the last time that TheDailyDraw met the minimum sample size, it ranked third in the category (with another sweepstake site, ChooseaPrize, in second place). It had more page views than any site other than the National Lottery, and more monthly sessions per person (i.e. repeat visits) than any other sites. Any month TheDailyDraw shows up, the pattern is similar - the website is first (or pretty close) for total web page views and monthly sessions per person. The websites with the most monthly sessions per person are invariably sweepstake sites, with on average twice as many repeat visits per month as betting websites.

A comprehensive historical analysis would over-extend the point, given the lack of consistency for these websites, but the point remains - sweepstakes sites perform best in page views and monthly sessions per visitor. They are by far the stickiest type of gambling website.

My suggestion that there is untapped demand for sweepstakes websites begs the question, why do these sites not attract higher visitor numbers? In part this is due to the small size of the gambling audience more generally, but I suspect there is more to it. Suggestions for why this is would be most welcome...

Comments

[Richard Kurtzrock]

Hi:

I'm looking for information on mail in sweepstakes in the UK.

Can you recommand any websites or newsletters