definition Gross win, net revenue, or cash handled? The same period can produce three different revenue figures. Neither is wrong, and they are not comparable with each other.
Hold Desk / Where figures come from
Figure 10
The figures exist, and they are built to different specifications
Almost every number in a headline about the gambling industry comes from one of three places: a company’s own financial reporting, a regulator’s aggregate returns, or a market study that assembled both. Each has a specification, and the specification - not the arithmetic - decides whether two figures can be set beside each other.
Figure stub
- Sheet
- HD-58-11
- Subject
- Sources and caveats
- Sources used
- three kinds
- Figures quoted here
- none, by design
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 answerOperator figures come from company financial reporting, from regulator returns and from market studies built on both. Before two figures are compared, five things have to match: the definition of the base, the period, the legal entity, the currency, and whether the figure is gross or net of bonus and duty. This desk quotes no real company's numbers and shows only how they are built.
Company reportingRegulator returnsMarket studiesFive caveats before any comparison
The three sources
- A company's own financial reporting. Annual reports, interim results and investor presentations, published because the company is listed or because a parent is. These carry the most detail, are audited as financial statements, and are written to a reporting standard rather than to a common industry specification.
- A regulator's aggregate returns. Some regulators publish market-level totals collected from licensed operators under a statutory return. The advantage is a single definition applied to everyone in that market; the limit is that the return may not be published for every market, and the definition is that regulator's.
- A market study. A consultancy or trade body gathers and adjusts both, then publishes a total. Useful for scale, and the most exposed to definitional drift, because the adjustment is somebody's judgement.
The five caveats, in the order they bite
caveat 1
caveat 2
period A month, a quarter, a year, or a rolling twelve months? A hold measured over a month and a hold measured over a year are different numbers even when the underlying play is identical - the reason is on the edge page.
caveat 3
entity Which company is being described? A brand is not usually a legal entity, a group contains many brands, and a licensee may operate a brand it does not own. A figure attributed to a brand name may describe a company with a different name entirely.
caveat 4
currency Converted at what rate, and on which day? A group reporting in one currency translates every market it operates in. A comparison across years can move on the exchange rate without any customer behaving differently.
caveat 5
base What is in the denominator? Whether poker is in turnover, whether bonus funds are staked turnover, and whether the customer count is a login or a deposit decide the ratio before the ratio is calculated.
Most detailed
A listed operator's annual report: revenue definitions, customer counts, product splits, marketing spend and the duty lines, all with comparatives.
Most consistent
A regulator's market return: one definition applied to every licensee in a market, which is exactly what a company report cannot offer.
Least comparable
A market study: broad reach across markets and the most judgement in the adjustment, so the specification should be read before the total.
note
why this desk quotes nothing No real figures appear anywhere on this site. Quoting a real company's revenue, hold or customer count would mean reproducing a number whose definition this page has just explained is easy to move, and would make the desk's own arithmetic untestable. The sample operator used throughout is internal to the site, which is why every figure here can be re-derived from the others.
How to use a published figure. Read the definition first, then the period, then the entity: three reads that take a minute and decide whether any comparison afterwards is worth making. Where the definition is not stated, treat the figure as describing its own source and nothing else - which is the same rule this desk applies to its own illustrative numbers.