NGR, or net gaming revenue, is the amount a gambling operator retains after subtracting bonuses, payment processing fees, and applicable taxes from its gross gaming revenue. Where GGR (gross gaming revenue) tells you how much a casino took in before costs, NGR tells you what actually stayed. It's the figure operators care about most when measuring the health of a business.
The formula behind NGR
The calculation is straightforward in principle, even if the inputs vary by jurisdiction and operator:
NGR = GGR - bonuses - payment fees - gaming taxes (and any other direct deductions)
Bonuses are usually the largest deduction. Online casinos run welcome offers, free spins, and cashback deals constantly, and the cost of those promotions comes straight off the top. Payment processing fees follow: card processors, e-wallets like PayPal, and bank transfer services all take a cut of every transaction. Gaming taxes differ by country; the UK, for instance, levies a 21% Remote Gaming Duty on GGR, while Malta applies a tiered rate under its Gaming Tax Regulations. Those costs reduce what an operator actually pockets.
After all of those deductions, what's left is NGR. It's a real profit figure, not a headline turnover number.
Why NGR matters more than GGR in practice
GGR gets used in regulatory filings and market-size reports because it's consistent and easy to compare across operators. NGR is messier. Bonus spend varies wildly between operators: a new market entrant running heavy acquisition promotions might have an NGR that's 40% below its GGR, while a mature operator with a loyal player base might see a gap of only 10–15%.
That gap is exactly why analysts and investors reach for NGR first. It strips out the spending decisions that inflate GGR and shows the actual return. A casino posting strong GGR but thin NGR is burning cash on promotions that aren't converting into sustainable revenue. NGR exposes that problem. GGR hides it.
Understanding RTP (return to player) adds further context here. RTP determines how much of each bet gets returned to players on average, which directly shapes GGR. NGR then takes that GGR figure and removes the operator's own costs on top. The two metrics work at different levels of the same chain.
How operators use NGR internally
Inside a gambling business, NGR drives three decisions in particular. First, it anchors affiliate payments. Most affiliate deals pay a percentage of NGR rather than GGR, typically between 25% and 45%, because paying on raw GGR would ignore the bonus costs tied to players the affiliate sent. Second, NGR feeds customer lifetime value models. An operator can segment players by their individual NGR contribution to decide how much to spend retaining them. Third, NGR is the denominator in return-on-marketing calculations: if a campaign costs £50,000 and generates £120,000 in NGR, the math is clean.
Some operators also track NGR per product vertical: slots, live casino, sports betting. A product line that delivers high GGR but thin NGR, perhaps because it attracts bonus abusers or carries higher payment costs, may get deprioritised even if it looks healthy on the surface.
NGR vs GGR: a quick comparison
- GGR: total player wagers minus total player winnings. No further deductions.
- NGR: GGR minus bonuses, payment processing fees, and applicable gaming taxes.
Neither figure is net profit in the accounting sense. NGR still sits above operational costs like staff, technology, and licensing. To get to actual profit, an operator subtracts those too. But NGR is the closest the industry has to a standard "clean revenue" figure, and it's the one most commonly used in affiliate contracts, investor decks, and revenue-share discussions.
Regulatory context
Regulators in most jurisdictions base their tax calculations on GGR, not NGR. The UK Gambling Commission publishes industry statistics using GGR as the headline number, partly because it's harder for operators to manipulate: bonuses and fees are variable, but total wagers minus total payouts is fixed. NGR remains largely an internal and commercial metric rather than a regulatory one, though it does appear in some licensing frameworks that cap bonus contributions as a percentage of GGR.
For anyone reading a gambling company's annual report, the revenue line is nearly always GGR. NGR, if it appears at all, tends to sit in management commentary or supplementary data. Knowing the difference stops a reader from mistaking one for the other.