Visits to unlicensed betting websites used in Britain have increased substantially since 2021, according to research by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA). The study examined 301 websites: 74 licensed operators and 227 unlicensed sites.
During the first seven months of 2026, unlicensed sites recorded 19.4 visits for every 100 visits to licensed sites, compared with roughly one per 100 in late 2021. Monthly unique visits to the sampled illegal sites rose from 1.8 million in 2022 to more than 25 million in 2025. The report also found longer visits and more pages viewed on illegal sites, while licensed-site traffic fell over the period.
Implications for acquisition and compliance
The findings sharpen the debate over whether tighter rules and higher operating costs could push customers towards offshore alternatives. Affiliates should treat the figures as a market-level warning, not as evidence that any individual unlicensed brand is gaining traffic. The IFHA also noted that enforcement activity has increased, including thousands of disruption notices and hundreds of thousands of URLs removed or referred to search engines.
The analysis is available from the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.