Five market-research firms published 2025 device-split estimates for global online gambling revenue, and every one of them puts mobile and tablet ahead of desktop. The figures range from 53.65% to 61.0%, with the cluster of better-known firms converging near 57%. The working number in this piece — “over 53%” — is the conservative end of that range, not an invented round figure, and it comes from a Mordor Intelligence estimate that the firm itself later revised upward.
Key takeaways
- Five independent research firms estimate mobile and tablet devices generated between 53.65% and 61.0% of global online gambling revenue in 2025; most cluster around 57%.
- In the United States specifically, mobile’s share runs far higher: one estimate puts it at 68.7% of device access, another at 80.13% of state-regulated online gambling revenue.
- The UK Gambling Commission does not publish an official mobile-vs-desktop revenue split; private researchers fill that gap with estimates in the mid-50s percent.
- The spread between forecasters is a methodology story as much as a market one: different firms define “mobile,” scope regions, and treat tablets differently.
- Growth, not just current share, favors mobile further: projected CAGRs for the mobile/tablet segment outpace desktop in every report we reviewed.
Table of contents
The range of estimates: 53% to 61%
No single regulator publishes a global, cross-jurisdiction device split for online gambling revenue, so the “mobile took over 50%” claim rests entirely on private market-research estimates. We pulled the most recent 2025 figures from five firms that publish repeatable, dated methodology notes rather than one-off blog posts.
The earliest of these to appear in trade coverage was a Mordor Intelligence estimate reported in February 2026:
mobile and tablet devices captured 53.65% of revenue share in 2025 and are projected to post the fastest 13.65% CAGR through 2031
. Mordor’s own live report has since been refreshed, and the current version states that
mobile and tablet platforms accounted for 57.14% of the global online gambling market in 2025, underscoring the growing popularity of smartphone-based gaming and betting
, with that segment
expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.65% through 2031, driven by increasing smartphone usage, improved mobile internet connectivity, and the rising adoption of mobile-first gambling apps
. The 3.5-point revision between the two versions of the same report is itself a useful data point: even a single research house moves its own number by several points between publication cycles.
Other firms land close to Mordor’s revised figure. Future Market Insights states that
mobile & tablets are expected to contribute 57.0% of total online gambling market revenues in 2025, positioning them as the leading device type, a dominance being driven by increased smartphone penetration, availability of high-speed internet, and the popularity of app-based gaming experiences
. Coherent Market Insights similarly reports that
in 2025, the mobile segment accounted for over 57% of the online gambling market revenue
, calling it
a fundamental change in how consumers engage with gambling services, with the convenience of placing bets anytime and anywhere attracting a broader demographic
.
Polaris Market Research sits at the top of the range, reporting that
the mobile & tablets segment held the largest revenue share in the market in 2025 at 61.0%, attributed to improved connectivity via mobile internet and the adoption of smartphone devices
. The table below summarizes the comparable figures.
| Research firm | 2025 mobile/tablet revenue share | Projected CAGR (segment) |
|---|---|---|
| Mordor Intelligence (Jan. 2026 release, via trade press) | 53.65% | 13.65% through 2031 |
| Mordor Intelligence (current live report) | 57.14% | 14.65% through 2031 |
| Future Market Insights | 57.0% | Not separately disclosed |
| Coherent Market Insights | over 57% | 58.3% forecast for 2026 |
| Polaris Market Research | 61.0% | Not separately disclosed |
Taken together, the evidence supports a confident statement that mobile and tablet devices passed the halfway mark of global online gambling revenue in 2025, and most likely sit in the high-50s percentage range. Readers who want the full growth context for the wider market can see our $255 billion forecast for 2026-2035, which this device shift feeds directly into.
Why the numbers disagree
A six-to-eight-point spread between research firms covering the same calendar year is not noise; it reflects real differences in scope. Mordor Intelligence’s own documentation for adjacent reports is explicit about this. Its North America report notes that
the table shows a spread around the 2025 value because some sources count handle-based activity or include offshore and unregulated play, which changes the total quickly, whereas Mordor’s model is tied to regulated online gambling activity
. The same report states plainly that
desk research was used to anchor the model on market signals that can be checked year after year
, which is a different starting point than a survey-based or handle-based estimate.
Definitions of “mobile” also vary. Some firms bundle tablets with smartphones as a single “mobile & tablets” category (as Mordor, Future Market Insights, and Polaris all do), while others report a separate “apps” segment independent of device. Emergen Research, for instance, segments the market into
desktop, mobile, apps, and browser-based
categories rather than a single mobile bucket, and reports a far lower 2025 mobile figure as a result, because app-based revenue is counted separately rather than folded into “mobile.” That single definitional choice can shift a headline number by ten points or more without any underlying change in player behavior.
Regional weighting compounds the gap further. A global estimate blends markets where regulated online gambling barely exists with markets like the UK and parts of the Nordics where it is mature, and the mobile share in each differs substantially. Our regional deep dives hub covers how GGR composition shifts by jurisdiction, which is the same underlying issue driving disagreement on device share.
The US outlier: mobile above 68%
Whatever the global range, the United States consistently shows a higher mobile concentration than the worldwide average, for two structural reasons: it is sports-betting-heavy, and sports betting is overwhelmingly placed in-app during live events. One 2025 US-focused report finds that
sports betting leads at 49.3% game type share, and mobile dominates device access at 68.7%
, adding that
casino games at 42.6% are driven by legal availability in only 8 states, limiting their addressable market relative to sports betting’s state coverage, while mobile at 68.7% continues to dominate and grow, reinforcing the market’s mobile-first architecture through 2034
. The same report notes a role that persists for the larger screen:
desktop at 24.5% serves serious bettors and iGaming players who prefer larger screens for multi-tabling poker, complex parlay building
and similar tasks.
A separate Mordor Intelligence report on the US market alone reports an even higher figure, stating that
mobile commanded 80.13% share of the United States online gambling market in 2025 and is set to grow at a 12.44% CAGR through 2031, a shift that has pushed desktop platforms to secondary roles, primarily for account management rather than active wagering
. The 12-point gap between these two US estimates (68.7% vs. 80.13%) mirrors the same methodology problem described above: one counts “device access” broadly, the other measures regulated wagering revenue specifically. Either way, the US is clearly ahead of the global average, consistent with its sports-betting-led mix. Our breakdown of how a casino’s GGR is actually composed is a useful companion piece for readers who want to see how device share interacts with hold percentage and game mix.
What the UK regulator actually measures
It is worth being precise about what a primary regulator discloses versus what private forecasters infer. The UK Gambling Commission’s annual industry statistics for the financial year April 2024 to March 2025 report that
Remote Casino, Betting and Bingo (RCBB) accrued £7.8 billion GGY
, broken down into
online casino games dominating the sector at £5.0 billion in GGY, of which £4.2 billion came from slots; remote betting GGY of £2.6 billion, led by football at £1.3 billion and horse racing at £766.7 million; and remote bingo GGY of £165.6 million
. A follow-up report on the Commission’s figures confirms that
Remote casino, betting and bingo (RCBB) accounted for 46 per cent of the market in terms of GGY
, with that remote total up
13.1 per cent to £7.8bn
year on year.
What the Commission’s official releases do not publish is a granular revenue split between mobile and desktop within that remote total. That gap is where private market-research firms step in, with estimates that should be read as industry modeling rather than regulatory fact. One such firm states that
the online platform segment was the largest in the United Kingdom gambling market and occupied a 55.1% share in 2025
, a figure broadly consistent with the global cluster around the high-50s percent described above, though it measures “online vs. land-based” rather than “mobile vs. desktop” specifically, and the two are not interchangeable metrics.
What is driving the shift
The device shift sits on top of a broader connectivity story. GSMA Intelligence data compiled by DataReportal shows that, as of October 2025,
there were 5.78 billion unique mobile users around the world, equating to 70.1 percent of the global population, with the worldwide unique subscriber figure increasing by 108 million over the past 12 months
. Device quality is shifting in parallel:
smartphones now account for roughly 86.9 percent of the mobile phone handsets in use, and 83.7 percent of total cellular mobile connections
, which matters for gambling specifically because modern operator apps lean on biometric authentication, push notifications, and live-odds streaming that older feature phones simply cannot support.
On the content side, mobile-native segments of the gambling market are growing fastest. One mobile-specific market report finds that
sports betting represents the dominant mobile gambling segment, commanding $39.2 billion in 2025 revenues at 38.5% market share, driven by global sports entertainment popularity and integration of in-play wagering features that enhance real-time engagement
. In-play, live betting is inherently a mobile use case: it requires the bettor to be watching an event in real time, which desktop sessions at a fixed location cannot replicate as naturally as a phone in hand.
Regulators’ own participation surveys echo the same pattern from the demand side. The UK Gambling Commission’s most recent participation wave reports that
the most popular online gambling activities in the past 4 weeks were buying tickets for a National Lottery draw online (25 percent), buying tickets for other charity lottery draws online (15 percent) and betting on sports and racing online or via an app (10 percent)
— all activities that skew toward quick, mobile-first sessions rather than extended desktop play. Readers interested in who is actually driving this shift by age and region can see our demographics hub and our regional deep dives.
Implications for operators and players
For operators, a 57%-plus mobile revenue share is no longer a forward-looking trend to plan for; it is the current majority channel, and the gap is forecast to widen. Every firm we reviewed projects mobile/tablet CAGR above the overall market CAGR through at least 2031, meaning the device split will likely be more lopsided, not less, by the time of our next review. Operators still investing primarily in desktop UX, rather than app performance, loading speed, and mobile payment flows, are optimizing for a shrinking share of their own revenue base. Our technology and payments hub covers how mobile wallets and one-tap deposit methods interact with this shift.
For players, the practical takeaway is more mundane but worth stating: the device you use affects your exposure to gambling’s frictionless design features. Push notifications, biometric one-tap deposits, and in-play betting interfaces are mobile-native tools, and they are specifically engineered to reduce the pause between impulse and bet. None of this is a reason to avoid mobile play, but it is a reason to actively use the deposit limits, time-out, and self-exclusion tools that regulated operators are required to provide, since those tools are the main counterweight to a mobile interface built for speed.
Frequently asked questions
Is “over 53%” an accurate figure for mobile’s 2025 revenue share?
It is the conservative, verifiable floor. One Mordor Intelligence release put the figure at 53.65% for 2025; the firm’s subsequently refreshed report raised that to 57.14%, and three other research firms independently report figures at or above 57%. “Over 53%” is defensible as a minimum; the likely true figure is closer to the high-50s.
Why do mobile revenue share estimates vary so much between firms?
Differences come from scope (regulated revenue vs. broader device access), region weighting, whether tablets are bundled with smartphones or counted separately, and whether “apps” are reported as their own category outside “mobile.” Each choice can shift the headline number by several percentage points.
Does the UK Gambling Commission publish a mobile-vs-desktop split?
No. The Commission’s official statistics report remote (online) gambling GGY as a whole, which stood at £7.8 billion and 46% of total British gambling GGY in the year to March 2025, but it does not break that figure down by device. Device-level estimates for the UK come from private market-research firms, not the regulator.
Is the US mobile share higher than the global average?
Yes. US-focused estimates range from 68.7% to 80.13% for 2025, both well above the global cluster around 57%. This is largely explained by the US market’s heavy weighting toward mobile-native sports betting and in-play wagering, compared with markets that have a larger regulated desktop poker or casino presence.
Our data signals
GamblScout.com’s scoring algorithm does not publish its own global revenue-share estimate; instead, for this topic we weigh signals including operator app-store rankings and review volume, responsive-design and mobile load-time benchmarks captured during our own site scrapes, and the published device-split methodology notes of the research firms cited above, cross-checked against primary regulator releases such as the UK Gambling Commission’s annual statistics wherever a jurisdiction publishes them. Readers can see the broader framework on our data scraping and technical engine page and our scoring system and algorithmic weights page.
Gambling involves risk. Only play with money you can afford to lose and use the deposit limits and self-exclusion tools available in your jurisdiction.
