what was staked £100.00 staked. The base line. It counts stakes, not deposits, so the same customer money can appear here more than once in a month. Everything below is a slice of it.
Hold Desk / A pound of stakes
Figure 07
One pound of stakes reaches four pence of gross win, and six tenths of a penny of profit
A hold of 4% and a profit margin of 4% are different claims, and the difference between them is a short list of lines. This page follows a precise quantity of stakes through the whole sequence, so the share that reaches profit can be seen rather than estimated.
Figure stub
- Sheet
- HD-58-08
- Subject
- The sequence of lines
- Scale used
- £100 of stakes
- Reaching profit
- £0.60
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 answerOf every £100 staked with the sample operator, £96.00 is returned to players and £4.00 is kept as the gross win. Bonus cost, marketing, duties and running costs then take £3.40 of that £4.00, so £0.60 of the original £100 reaches operating profit: 0.6% of stakes and 15% of what was kept.
£96.00 of £100 returned£4.00 kept as gross win£3.40 of it is spent£0.60 reaches profit
Worked example - the whole sequence on a £100 scale (illustrative)
Staked: 100.00
Returned to players as winnings: -96.00
GROSS WIN (the hold): 4.00 <- 4.0% of what was staked
less bonus and free play realised: -0.60 <- 15.0% of the gross win
NET REVENUE: 3.40 <- 3.4% of what was staked
less marketing and acquisition: -1.10 <- 27.5% of the gross win
less duties on the gross win: -0.80 <- 20.0% of the gross win
less platform, staff, payments, licence: -0.90 <- 22.5% of the gross win
OPERATING PROFIT: 0.60 <- 0.6% of stakes, 15.0% of the gross win
Every percentage above is one division: the line divided by the gross win, or by the 100.00 staked.
The five deductions sum to 3.40, and 3.40 + 0.60 = 4.00, which is the whole of what was kept.
The six lines, one at a time
line 1
line 2
returned to players £96.00 returned as winnings. Set by the games and the results. Its complement is the hold, and the two are the same statement read from opposite ends.
line 3
the gross win £4.00 kept, before any cost. This is the figure most duties are levied on and the base for every ratio on this desk. It is not profit: nothing has been deducted yet.
line 4
the bonus line £0.60 of bonus cost. Only the realised, withdrawable share of what was granted. Deducting it gives £3.40 of net revenue, which is where a reader should check which definition a headline is using.
line 5
the cost lines £1.10 marketing, £0.80 duties, £0.90 running. Three different kinds of cost that all sit between the revenue and the profit: one buys customers now, one is levied by a government, and one pays for the platform, the staff, the payment fees and the licence.
line 6
the remainder £0.60 of operating profit. What is left of the £100.00 after every line above it. In this sample it is 0.6% of stakes and 15% of the gross win, and it is the only line that is not a cost or a return.
The same lines, drawn to scale
The bars below are the six lines with widths proportional to their shares of the gross win - which is the only scale on which the small lines are visible at all.
Bonus
Marketing
Duties
Platform and running
Operating profit
the five deductions and the remainder, each as a share of the £4.00 gross win
Draw the same six lines to a scale of £100 staked instead and the entire set collapses into a sliver beside the returned-winnings bar - which is the point of splitting the two scales apart on the overview.
Why the duties line is where it is. Most gambling duties are levied on the gross win rather than on turnover, so the tax is calculated on the same £4.00 rather than on the £100.00. That is why a change in the rate moves a small share of a large number, and why the base of the tax - not only its rate - is the thing to check. The tax a customer owes on a win is a different question, and this desk does not answer it.