Jaw-Dropping Stats Showing How Fast Virtual Sports Betting Is Growing

Sports betting is at its peak with millions of individuals worldwide engaging in this pastime every single day. Punters usually wager on the biggest competitions of the most popular sports. However, thanks to the technological advancements in recent years, things started to shift in a different direction.

More and more bettors are now beginning to show interest in virtual sports betting. It involves gambling on the outcomes of virtual matches from various sports. Unlike real sports events, these matches are available 24/7 and are much shorter. Let's see the stats behind this rising form of sports betting.

Virtual Sports Betting Market Growth and Projection

In 2023, the global virtual sports betting market reached a value of £8.1 billion. The next year, its total value went up to £9.5 billion, which is a massive growth for just 12 months.

Now, experts expect the entire market to continue to grow in the coming years. The current compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for virtual sports betting is around 17.31%. If this betting form manages to grow at the same rate, then we can expect it to reach £34.1 billion by 2032.

Europe is the largest continental market when it comes to virtual sports betting. In 2025, the market size reached £2.6 billion, with the leading countries being the UK, Italy, and Spain. By 2030, the European virtual sports betting market could grow up to £5.5 billion.

Asia and the Pacific are in second place with a market share of £2.4 billion in 2025. With the same CAGR of 17.31%, we can expect the featured market to grow up to £5.2 billion by 2030.

The third biggest market in terms of virtual sports betting is North America. In 2025, its total market share reached £2.2 billion, and by 2030, it should grow to £4.9 billion.

Such a massive expansion in this gambling form wouldn't be possible without the widespread availability of virtual sports betting websites. There are currently several thousand of them around the world, and they accommodate millions of punters every single day.

A report notes the growth of mobile-based virtual sports betting and the dominance of RNG (random-number-generator) based events in 2024. Another study highlighted that virtual sports betting allows users to place wagers 24/7 on simulated events (football, basketball, horse-racing etc) produced algorithmically, thus decoupling from live-sport timing. The overall growth figures, which you can track through reputable sources for global financial analysis, reinforce the significant market potential.

Content diversification driving value

Virtual sports betting’s success is partly down to how it fits into broader trends in sports and betting content:

The virtual sports market report found that football (soccer) accounted for more than 28 % of the market in 2022. Younger demographics are more engaged: one report states that the sub-21 age bracket is expected to grow at around 17 % CAGR in virtual sports from 2023 to 2030.

Hence, not only is the market growing, but it is growing with newer audiences, new formats and more content types - all favourable signs for long-term value creation.

Main Reasons for the Massive Growth of Virtual Sports Betting

There are several crucial reasons for the incredible rise of virtual sports betting in recent years. The most obvious one is the super-advanced technological development in the gambling industry.

Nowadays, almost every individual has some sort of device that lets them engage with virtual sports betting. The main ones here are smartphones, as they allow bettors to wager on such events on the go. The technical advancements also enhanced the overall quality of the virtual sports and their UI.

Next, we have the increasing popularity of online sports betting on a worldwide scale. The growth of betting on traditional sports helped the market of virtual sports betting to grow as well.

We must also mention the 24/7 availability of virtual sports, which isn’t the case with traditional sports. This feature allows punters to wager on their favourite sports whenever they like.

Lastly, virtual sports events are much shorter than real-life sports matches. They usually last between one and 5 minutes, depending on the type of virtual sport. This gives punters a chance to place and potentially win multiple bets in a short period of time.

The Most Popular Virtual Sports for Online Betting

Today, punters have an opportunity to wager on a wide range of virtual sports. The biggest variety of virtual sports events is usually available at reputable online sportsbooks. They make sure to expand their offerings so they can please as many types of bettors as possible.

Among the most popular virtual sports at the moment are football, horse/greyhound racing, basketball, tennis, and car racing. As you can see, most of them are also big among real-life sports. Now, a good number of punters also wager on virtual cricket, baseball, ice hockey, boxing, and table tennis.

We should also note that leading software providers continue to develop more virtual sports for online sportsbooks. They also make sure to increase the overall product quality.

As such, we can expect a more diverse virtual sports section at online bookmakers with more advanced technical and visual qualities. Such developments can also have a positive impact on the overall virtual sports betting market growth.