Do opportunities still exist to acquire customers through affiliate marketing? How important are search and email marketing to gambling websites? What is the demographic make-up of gambling websites and how does this differ for different types of gambling?

The recently released Hitwise UK Online Gambling Report contains the answers to all of these questions and many more. To request your complimentary copy of the report, click here.

Some key insights from the report include:

• There is a clear skew toward international sites for poker and casinos. Fewer than 1 in 5 visits to poker websites and 1 in 15 visits to casino websites are to domestic sites. By contrast, nearly 19 in every 20 visits to sport betting sites are to domestic sites. This is likely a result of the tendency for punters to bet on local teams and events.

• Online gambling is a highly competitive market with gamblers moving among casino, poker and sport betting sites. For example, more potential gamblers reach casino sites from poker sites than from other casino sites.

• Gambling sites receive a smaller share of visits from search than average for the internet. Among gambling sites, lotteries receive the largest share of visits from search, with about one quarter of visits coming from search engines. However, these sites receive 13% fewer visits from search than average for the internet.

• Bingo, casinos, and lotteries receive about 9% of visits from web-based email services, such as MSN Mail and Yahoo! Mail. This is about 70% more visits from email than average for the internet.

• Among the top five casino sites, there was an average 77% gap in the sites sending visits to each site in the month of May 2005. A gap is defined as a site that sends one site visits but not another. On average fewer than 1 in 4 sites sending visits to casino sites overlap. Gambling sites rely heavily on affiliates for traffic and so this gap is an important indication of the opportunities that exist to grow market share.

• Similarly, there is a large gap in the search terms sending visits to lottery sites. In the twelve weeks ending 18 June 2005, there was an average 95% gap in the search terms sending visits to lottery sites. This means that either these lottery sites were not bidding on or optimised to receive visits from 95% of terms that were sending visits to their competitor's site.

• Gambling sites on average appeal more to men than to women. Compared with the profile of visits to all internet sites, the Hitwise Gambling category attracts 8% fewer visits from female users. Sport betting holds particular appeal to men, with 3 in 5 visits from men. By contrast, bingo sites attract more visits from female users, with nearly 3 in 5 visits coming from women.

According to the latest Hitwise Search Terms data, 'big brother' has become the third most searched-for term amongst all UK Internet searches - ahead of both 'easyjet' and 'amazon'.

This latest data flies in the face of predictions that Big Brother's sixth series may be sounding the death knell for the reality TV format. With even more controversial characters and big personalities in the house this season, Big Brother has continued to dominate the world of reality TV in the UK.


Search terms for 'All Categories', based on data for the 4 weeks ending July 23rd, 2005

News In Brief

Surge in visits to news sites following terrorist attacks

Following the terrorist attacks across London on July 7, Hitwise data revealed a surge in visits to news sites in the UK as people sought details on the bomb blasts that rocked the capital. On Thursday 7th July, visits to news sites increased to 5.56% share of all online visits (up from 3.81% market share on Wednesday) - an increase of 46% in visits.

BBC News was the top news destination and was also the 6th most visited site in the UK on the day of the attack - up from an overall rank of #15 on Wednesday 6th July. Both Sky News (www.sky.com/skynews) and Google News UK (news.google.co.uk) also saw a dramatic rise in traffic. The Sky News website rocketed up from an overall rank of #367 to become the 62nd most visited site on Thursday 7th July, whilst Google News UK increased from #132 to #58.

Commuters also sought updates on transport disruptions and the Transport for London website (www.transportforlondon.gov.uk) increased from an overall rank of #500 to become the 70th most visited site in the UK.

Fast Mover - Bloomsbury

www.bloomsbury.com


Position on July 1: 5,604
Position on July 14: 969
Positions jumped: 4,635

The website of Harry Potter's publisher, Bloomsbury, experienced a surge in traffic this month when the latest instalment in the series, 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' was released on Saturday July 15. Bloomsbury.com increased its market share four-fold to become the third most-visited website in the Hitwise Business & Finance - Book Publishers category on Thursday July 14 with more than 8% market share, just behind the high-traffic websites belonging to Lonely Planet (www.lonelyplanet.com) and Which? Online (www.which.net). Bloomsbury had planned an initial printing of 10.8 million copies of the new Potter book, said to be the largest first printing of any book in the history of publishing.

According to Hitwise Search Terms data, Harry Potter was also the most searched-for book title for the four-week period ending Saturday July 9, as well as being the 210th most popular term amongst all online searches in the UK. Harry Potter-related websites continue to dominate the Entertainment - Books & Writing category, with four of the top 10 Book sites dedicated to the Potter phenomenon.

Category Spotlight: Travel - Agencies

This category features travel agencies and businesses which provide planning and organisational services for holiday and travel. The data below is based on All sites » Weekly rankings for the week ending 23/07/2005 » Ranks by 'Visits'.

Local Competitiveness Index 88.4% of traffic to this category was directed at domestic sites.	Traffic Distribution The chart above illustrates the distribution of this category's traffic for the week among sites in various rank ranges.
Top 10 Upstream Categories 1. Travel 45.8% 2. Computers and Internet 39.1% 3. Computers and Internet - Search Engines and Directories 32.8% 4. Travel - Agencies 28.4% 5. Travel - Destinations and Accommodation 9.3% 6. Travel - Transport 7.0% 7. Aviation 5.4% 8. Aviation - Commercial Airlines 4.8% 9. Shopping and Classifieds 3.8% 10. Travel - Maps 3.5%	Top 10 Downstream Categories 1. Travel 64.3% 2. Travel - Agencies 43.3% 3. Travel - Destinations and Accommodation 15.1% 4. Computers and Internet 13.8% 5. Travel - Transport 11.7% 6. Aviation 8.9% 7. Aviation - Commercial Airlines 8.4% 8. Computers and Internet - Search Engines and Directories 8.0% 9. Shopping and Classifieds 4.3% 10. Business and Finance 3.6%

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Copyright Hitwise Pty Ltd, July 2005