This summer’s Women’s Euros promises to be more popular with sports bettors than the Six Nations, Super Bowl and the Ashes, a new survey shows.

A new OLBG survey conducted by YouGov shows how bettors are likely to behave in 2025, including the most popular events to bet on, which regions of the country are most likely to gamble and how having kids affects betting behaviour.

The quarterly study asked 2,054 adults in the UK how they planned to bet this year.

Of people who said they were likely to gamble in 2025, 16% said they would bet on the Women’s Euros, which will take place in Switzerland in July, with England and Wales among the 16 teams in action.

That compares with only 9% who said they would bet on the Super Bowl, 10% who would bet on Rugby Union’s Six Nations and 6% who said they would bet on cricket’s Ashes series.

The data shows that 18% of men expect to bet on the Women’s Euros, compared with 11% of women.

Among the events specified, racing’s Grand National (48%) is the event of 2025 that most respondents said they would bet on, ahead of the FA Cup Final (33%), Champions League Final (29%) and Cheltenham Festival (22%).

OLBG CEO Richard Moffat said: “The surge in popularity of women’s football is well documented and it seems that betting patterns are starting to follow suit. Undoubtedly, the fact there’s a major tournament this summer including England and Wales will drive interest among bettors.

“It’s interesting to see that more people intend to bet on the Euros than some big, established, showpiece events in 2025 such as The Ashes, the Superbowl and the Six Nations.”

North West is the UK betting capital

Data shows 26% of people in the North West plan to place a bet on a sporting event during 2025 – the highest percentage region in the country.

The region with the next highest percentage of people planning to gamble this year is Yorkshire and the Humber, with 24%. Third is London (22%) ahead of Northern Ireland (21%).

According to the results, the region with the lowest appetite for betting is the South West, with just 13% of people saying they plan to gamble this year.

In the North West, the listed sporting event people are most likely to bet on this year is the FA Cup final (39%), ahead of the Champions League final (36%), followed by the Grand National (35%).

The picture is quite different in Yorkshire and the Humber, where 55% of potential bettors expect to bet on the Grand National, 25% on the FA Cup final and just 12% expect to bet on the Champions League final.

Interestingly, London is the region with the lowest percentage of people intending to bet on the Grand National, with just 31% but the highest percentage of people expecting to bet on the FA Cup final at 55%.

OLBG’s CEO Richard Moffat said: “It looks like the North will be the sports betting capital of the UK this year, with northern regions such as the North West and Yorkshire leading the way in terms of percentage of people planning to bet.

“The breakdown of events people plan to bet on is fascinating and it’s interesting that the two big football finals – the FA Cup final and Champions League final – are the most popular events in the North West. This is perhaps driven by fans of big clubs like Liverpool and Man City optimistically planning to back their teams in those showpiece events.”

Q: Gaming Corps has just released its latest slot game called Gates of Hellfire. Tell us how it works and what its standout features are.

The Gaming Corps team prides itself on our innovative approach to slot development, which is exactly what we’ve delivered with Gates of Hellfire.

It’s a slot that’s unlike any other. I say that because it uses a unique payment system, requiring players to battle various demon enemies on the reels to secure wins, for a maximum prize of 5,000x the player’s stake.

We have prizes that can only be collected if the player gathers specific weapons that eliminate the enemies – and in doing so, they collect their prizes.

The objective is to land an enemy on the grid, while simultaneously landing a weapon to destroy that enemy. For example, shotguns are the weakest weapon but will kill the lowest-valued enemy.

Then, as the game progresses, players will see different weapons with different attributes that will cause various types of damage and have different radii of destruction that will affect the grid.

Gates of Hellfire offers a thrilling and groundbreaking way for players to collect prizes. To put it another way, there’s simply nothing quite like it on the market.

Q: Where did the name Gates of Hellfire come from, and what is the thinking behind giving this slot the feel of a video game? Why will this appeal to the market?

Gates of Hellfire is a battle of Good vs Evil played out across a slot-machine grid, a sort of demonic fantasy sci-fi epic that’s a battle between Good and Evil.

We decided to have this as the theme and then the name came quickly after that.

And yes, the game is heavily influenced by shoot ’em-up video games. We took established mechanics for the millennial generation and merged them with an innovative version of a classic mechanic and themes that will induce nostalgia among our players.

We think the results will appeal to both traditional players who played video games in their youth, as well as delight a millennial generation looking for the latest and best features in their slot entertainment experiences.

Q: Are you focusing on gamification with this slot, rather than just trying to deliver a traditional slot experience?

Collection mechanics have become immensely popular with slot players in recent years, and with Gates of Hellfire we have reimagined these mechanics to offer players something unique.

People want more nowadays, the simplicity of traditional slots doesn’t deliver enough entertainment any more. Players want to be reminded of video games or the social games they play on their phones.

Gates of Hellfire is an example of how modern slots are now influenced by video games.

It’s got a lot of action but it’s still recognizably a slot machine, with the same functionality but different reward mechanisms that will remind the player of a video game.

Q: Does Gaming Corps believe mixing slots and video gaming will appeal to players?

We aim to give players captivating gameplay experiences they can’t find anywhere else.

You must offer features that connect with players if you want to attract them and then keep them coming back. There’s a lot of choice out there so you need something special to retain their loyalty and interest.

That’s why we mixed things up and offer elements of more than one type of entertainment experience.

We see animations as extremely important because they build suspense and are another way of capturing the player’s attention.

Sound is an important component too, which is why we design the music and sound effects early on so they create an appropriate atmosphere.

All these elements are used to make the slower parts of the game more exciting, and the exciting parts become truly memorable.

Q: What factors will determine whether this release is a success for Gaming Corps, and what do you aim for when you release a game onto the market?

With Gates of Hellfire and all our other slots, we’ll start gauging its impact by paying attention to the standard statistics for slots, such as player retention rate and what LTV and ROI the game offers operators.

But those aren’t the only metrics we follow. Feedback is really important to us, both from players and operators, and we’ll take that on board when we come to launch our next release.

The best thing you can do when you release any game is to have people talking about it, generating a buzz about an exciting new release.

It’s hard to achieve all the time, but we think we’ve done just that with Gates of Hellfire.

We’re already working on sequels and further iterations for it, so things are hotting up very nicely for our latest slot game right now.

Playing with hellfire has never looked so good.

The Gambling Commission has launched a new consultation aimed at making gambling in Britain safer and fairer.

This is the Commission’s third consultation to implement proposals from the 2023 Gambling Act Review White Paper High stakes: gambling reform for the digital age.

The consultation, which will run for 16 weeks (from 29 January 2025 to 20 May 2025), is focussed on the gaming machine technical standards and the related testing strategy. It includes proposals to:

• introduce five new standards, a licence condition and a social responsibility code provision designed to support and empower consumers to use gaming machines safely at every stage of the customer journey – this includes proposals on time and monetary limit setting functionality and information provision such as safer gambling messaging and the display of net position and session time

• amend three existing standards having considered industry proposals to improve customer enjoyment and gameplay

• consolidate the existing 12 gaming machine technical standards into a single standard, whilst amending the format to be more consistent with our Remote gambling and software technical standards for greater clarity

• update the gaming machine technical standards and the related testing strategy to remove obsolete material.

Tim Miller, Gambling Commission Executive Director for research and policy, said: “The White Paper sets out that a top priority is ensuring that gambling happens safely. We share this commitment and today’s consultation proposes how we could implement gaming machine changes in the land-based sector.

“We recognise that regulatory changes that impact the design of machines can come with considerable costs. We are encouraging consumers, gambling businesses and other interested groups to share evidence that will assist us in measuring both the likely regulatory impacts of the proposed changes and the likely costs of implementing them. This evidence will be invaluable to helping make a robust assessment on whether the benefits to consumers are proportionate to the costs involved.”