diff --git a/lib/manager/gradle/build-gradle.ts b/lib/manager/gradle/build-gradle.ts
index a0eed7183420323bf52e221e54c7623cd5110109..7fdc8dd3d112184731ad16bcf76cd15bbe39e7b1 100644
--- a/lib/manager/gradle/build-gradle.ts
+++ b/lib/manager/gradle/build-gradle.ts
@@ -115,7 +115,8 @@ function moduleStringVariableExpressionVersionFormatMatch(
   dependency: GradleDependency
 ): RegExp {
   return new RegExp(
-    `${groovyQuotes}${dependency.group}:${dependency.name}:\\$\{([^{].*?)}${groovyQuotes}`
+    `${groovyQuotes}${dependency.group}:${dependency.name}:\\$` +
+      `{([^{].*?)}${groovyQuotes}`
   );
 }