higher hold, lower turnover Games are built with a fixed edge per stake. Each stake carries a designed retention, so the hold is stable per product and the turnover depends on how often customers stake. A pound deposited can be staked many times.
Hold Desk / The product mix
Figure 09
One reported hold is several businesses averaged together
A casino and a sports book in the same group produce very different amounts of turnover for the same gross win, and a single reported hold is the weighted average of both. The mix is therefore one of the five things that moves a hold, and the one that moves it without a single customer behaving differently.
Figure stub
- Sheet
- HD-58-10
- Subject
- The product mix
- Turnover in sample
- £100,000,000
- Gross win in sample
- £4,000,000
gross winWhat was kept: everything staked minus everything returned to players
the holdThe gross win divided by turnover, measured over a period and a whole book of play
net revenueWhat survives the bonus line, and the definition a reader should check first
Direct answerA hold reported by an operator is the gross win of every product divided by the turnover of every product. Games usually produce more gross win per pound staked than a sports book does, and a sports book usually produces more turnover per pound deposited. Move the mix and the reported hold changes with nothing else about the games changed.
Several products, one figureGames hold more per stakeSports turn over moreMix moves the average
Worked example - the sample operator's mix (illustrative)
Product Turnover Hold Gross win Share of turnover
Games 40,000,000.00 3.50% 1,400,000.00 40.0%
Table and live 10,000,000.00 1.60% 160,000.00 10.0%
Sports book 47,000,000.00 5.00% 2,350,000.00 47.0%
Bingo and poker 3,000,000.00 3.00% 90,000.00 3.0%
TOTAL 100,000,000.00 4.00% 4,000,000.00 100.0%
Every row is its own division, and the total hold is the total gross win over the total turnover - not
the average of the four holds (that would be 3.28% and would be wrong).
Why the products differ
games
sports
lower hold, higher turnover A sports book prices margins rather than edges. Its retention comes from the margin built into its prices, and its turnover is dominated by customers who stake, win and re-stake a balance repeatedly through a season.
table
lowest hold, and the reason is structural A low-edge game produces a low hold per stake and a slow turnover. Table and live play contributes little to a reported hold because both halves of the ratio are modest.
poker
not a stake at all, in the ordinary sense Poker contributes a commission, not a staked amount. Its gross win is taken from pots rather than from stakes against the house, which is why a poker product can sit inside a turnover figure only when the definition is stretched.
What the mix explains
- Why two operators with the same customers report different holds. A group that is mostly sports will report a lower hold on a higher turnover than a group that is mostly games.
- Why a hold can move without any game changing. Growing the sports share dilutes the average; growing the games share raises it. Neither needs a single game to be altered.
- Why a per-customer figure can be misleading. Revenue per customer across a mixed book is an average over products whose customers are not the same people.
- Why the definition of turnover matters most here. A product like poker is not staked against the house, so including it in turnover changes what the ratio means. The checklist asks about the base before the number.
Games: high hold, many stakes
A designed edge per stake and a fast turnover of balance. In the sample, 40% of turnover and 35% of the gross win.
Sports: lower hold, more turnover
A margin in the price rather than an edge per stake. In the sample, 47% of turnover and 59% of the gross win.
Table and live: low both ways
A modest edge and slow turnover. In the sample, 10% of turnover and 4% of the gross win.
Bingo and poker: a different base
A commission rather than a stake against the house, which is why it is the row whose definition most needs checking.
The honest version of the claim. Every figure in the sample mix is illustrative and no real operator's mix is quoted. Real mixes differ in product, in market and in how each product's turnover is defined - and a reported hold for a whole group can therefore be compared with another only after both definitions have been read. The mechanics, though, do not change: a total hold is a total gross win over a total turnover, never an average of the parts.