Flutter Entertainment, the owner of Paddy Power and Betfair; Entain, which runs Ladbrokes, Coral and Sportingbet; and William Hill owner 888 Holdings are likely to have benefitted from a recovery in UK gambling spend during a wet July, according to Deutsche Bank data.
After the hottest ever June came the sixth wettest July on record, or the third wettest in 80 years.
The cooler and wetter weather drove a return to growth in gambling spend after a poor performance in June, where 6.6% year on year decline was the first negative print since December.
"We had suggested that this was most likely the impact of unseasonably hot/dry weather in June, encouraging a shift in spend towards outdoor leisure," said Deutsche analyst Simon Davies.
"This now looks to be the case, with July offering near record rainfall, and our data pointing to a UK betting/gaming market up by 6.4% in the month."
According to the latest monthly data from the bank's Data Innovation Group (dbDIG), there was a recovery in average spend across all gambling products, both on a QonQ and YoY basis.
Betting spend was seen rising 4.2% in July, which the analyst noted a relatively quiet month for sporting activity. There was an 8.4% increase
in slot games, and a 7.5% uplift in other iGaming products.
There was a mixed result on dbDIG's measure of consumers' intention to spend more or less on gambling products over the next six months, but a strong recovery in intention to spend on retail betting and lottery tickets, while retail slots were modestly lower.
For online, consumers indicated a recovery in betting and online lotteries, but declines in online slots and other iGaming product.
"The data is consistent with the commentary from the UK Online Gaming sector during the H1 results season, with suggestions that there has been a strong underlying recovery in the UK market, partially held back by ongoing increases in regulatory costs (tighter affordability checks etc)," said Davies.
"Overall, it looks set to be a relatively strong year in the UK, albeit up against a FY22 which had seen a double-digit decline in betting/gaming spend."