gross Gross win. Turnover less winnings. The purest retention figure, and the one the hold is calculated from. Nothing has been deducted for the cost of acquiring the customer.
Hold Desk / Two numbers
Figure 01
Turnover is what was staked; gross win is what was kept
Every revenue figure in a gambling operator’s report is built from two counts: the total amount staked and the total amount returned as winnings. The difference between them is the gross win, which the industry also calls gross gaming revenue. A deposit is neither of those numbers - it is the player’s own money, held as a balance until it is used.
Figure stub
- Sheet
- HD-58-02
- Subject
- Turnover and gross win
- Turnover
- everything staked
- Gross win
- turnover less winnings
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 answerTurnover is the total amount staked over a period, counting stakes re-staked out of winnings. Gross win is turnover minus everything returned to players, and the hold is gross win divided by turnover. A deposit is not turnover and is not revenue: it is the player's money held as a balance until it is staked.
Stakes are counted, not depositsA balance can be replayedThe hold divides the twoDefinitions differ between reporters
Three words that are used as if they were one
A "record revenue" headline, a "money staked" figure in a regulator's report and a "customer deposits" figure from a payment provider are three different measurements, and the reason the first is usually the biggest is that it counts the same money more than once.
turnover The activity count
Stakes placed, added up. It can be many times the money customers put in, because a balance won on one hand can be staked on another. It says how much play happened, not how much money the business received.
gross win The retention count
Turnover minus winnings returned to players. It is the only figure that behaves like revenue in the ordinary sense, and it is what the hold and the customer-revenue measures are built on.
deposits Neither of them
A deposit adds to a player's balance. It becomes turnover only if and when it is staked, and it never becomes revenue on its own; it can be withdrawn again. A figure built on deposits is a cashflow measure, not a revenue measure.
Worked example - why turnover is not deposits (illustrative)
Customer deposits 100.00 and is staked in full at 96% return:
stake 100.00, winnings returned 96.00, gross win 4.00
Balance after the round: 96.00, which is staked again:
stake 96.00, winnings returned 92.16, gross win 3.84
Balance after the second round: 92.16, staked again:
stake 92.16, winnings returned 88.47, gross win 3.69
After three rounds: turnover 288.16 gross win 11.53 balance 88.47
Same money, three passes through the till. The turnover is nearly three times the deposit and the
gross win is 11.5% of the deposit, on a game whose return never moved from 96%.
How a balance turns into turnover
- A deposit is a transfer. Money moves from a payment method into a player's balance. Nothing about it is revenue; it is the player's money, and it is withdrawable subject to the operator's conditions.
- A stake converts balance into turnover. Each stake placed is added to turnover and removed from the balance. A stake lost is retained by the operator; a stake won is returned to the balance.
- Winnings are deducted from turnover to give the gross win. This is why the gross win is an aggregate: it is the net of every result, including the large ones, over the whole period.
- What is kept is reported, and what is granted back is deducted separately. Bonuses and free-play value are recorded on their own line, which is where the third definition of revenue comes from.
The third definition: net revenue
Reporters differ on where they stop. Some publish the gross win and nothing else. Some publish "net revenue" after deducting the cost of bonuses and free play. Some go further and report after duties as well. The effect is that two companies with identical play can report different revenue, and a comparison between them can be wrong without either figure being wrong.
one
two
net of bonus Net revenue. Gross win less bonus and free-play cost actually realised. Closer to a top line, and the definition where the bonus page matters most.
three
net of duty Revenue after duties. Deducts a cost that is levied on the same gross-win base. Useful, but it mixes a tax with an operating figure, and the two should be read separately.
The three figures, in one picture
Turnover
Everything staked, including money that is re-staked. Measures play, is the denominator of the hold, and is the largest of the three.
Gross win
Turnover less winnings. What the operator kept before any cost is paid. The base for the hold, for customer revenue and for most gambling duties.
Net revenue
Gross win less the bonus cost realised. The figure that behaves most like a top line, and the one whose definition a reader should check first.
What to check in any headline. Which of the three figures is being quoted, over what period, in what currency, and for how many brands. A turnover figure in a market with a high volume of low-margin sports betting is a very different statement from a gross-win figure in a market dominated by games - and neither becomes a profit figure until the lines on the pound-of-stakes page have been deducted from it.