PWA: A New Trend On The Digital Casino Market
Progressive web apps make even more buzz in the modern tech community. With the increase in gadgets practice, customers are slowly moving to the “mobile-only” phase. And here, PWA reflects big advances in online casino features. It allows focusing on performance, experience, and intelligence, representing a perfect solution all while combining native and web technology.
Entrepreneurs find wide applications for this innovative approach in different fields of activity. Online casino owners are no exception in their willingness to enhance user experience (UX) and improve iGaming business efficiency.
This article will describe the main goals of PWA usage in the gambling market, highlight some development basics, and show the best implementation practices.
What is a PWA online casino?
As many successful gambling sites have boasted native applications, they didn’t surprise sophisticated users as much as in the first few years of their appearance (mind you, this happened in 2008). Since the “ancient” Adobe Java or Flash-based products, technological approaches have changed drastically.
If the native casino app owners were oriented on the limited part of the target audience, like those who used Android or iOS devices, PWA development established a new era of applications free from operational systems (OS) boundaries.
Thus, PWA casinos run on Android, Apple, Windows, and other smartphones, PCs, and tablets. Here we mean a single gambling program clients can run on their different gadgets or a computer without the data and quality loss.
Once you’ve integrated a new online casino app into your digital platform, it becomes available from the browser for every player. The same gambling account can be accessed via a phone home screen icon or a desktop computer. That allows clients to stay in touch with an entertaining site at the workspace, home, or during the trip.
PWA casino versatility solves one of the major iGaming business issues - traffic growth. Suppose, you already have an app on Google Store. Then an advanced tool will help to add other devices customers to your Android ones.
But that’s not the only benefit of progressive online casino app development. The other advantages of PWA investments, contributing to a first-class user experience, include:
- no need for downloading;
- saving devices memory space;
- secure CSS data encryption;
- fast page uploading.
Along with lower costs for progressive app creation, they benefit iGaming business owners in other ways. Here are the PWA factors that impact the casino operators significantly:
- gaming applications are visible on Google search engines;
- they represent an excellent way to promote the online gambling business;
- allow interaction with customers via push notifications;
- progressive apps are linked from the official casino website;
- they are easy to update and enhance;
- desktop icons attract players' attention and increase attendance.
As gambling statistics in the United States show an increase in digital casino attractiveness, following the trend for improvement may help establish the leading positions among innovative and leads-generating online establishments.
The basic principles of PWA game
Due to the newest approaches, progressive web app casino games can now be accessible offline. In addition, most native software functions are now available from the web source. The PWA work can be described with Google’s acronym FIRE, which stands for:
1. Fast. A program has a quick response to users’ motions. For example, once they click a desktop button or press the item in the app, it takes a split second for the tool to react.
Integrated. The casino app is built into a client's browser, so it saves gadgets space and doesn’t need to be manually updated from the marketplaces.
2. Reliable. Progressive software works without fail when it faces Internet disconnection. Cached files allow users to continue enjoying digital entertainment, not losing their progress.
3. Engaging. Mobile PWA game design is the same as in native applications. Users feel free to interact with a tool and understand what features they can use in the casino, as it is as simple as possible.
A progressive app should have the basic minimum for successful web launching. With some skills in JavaScript and HTML, it can be written by yourself. But if you don’t want to risk and miss vital nuances, a professional team will take over your PWA development tasks, ensuring stable digital casino work. Below we’ll describe the main steps necessary to create a hybrid tool.
First, an application needs an HTTPS host to guarantee its secure functioning. If you want your platform's financial operations to be saved in a reliable environment, then avoid HTTP. Customers will more likely subscribe to a gambling site being sure fraudsters won’t steal their account data, progress, and deposits.
Next, you should create a JSON web manifest. It contains all the basic information about your app required for browser integration: name, description, background and theme colors, icons, display format, and start URL.
And now, it's essential to prescribe a service worker in the project root for offline work. This file will allow you to run Javascript off the main thread, send notifications and create cache files for work without an Internet connection. In the first stage, you should check whether the browser supports the service worker and can register it. Then you should add a variable responsible for cashing offline files. Finally, to test the work, follow Devtools and select the Offline checkbox. It will show whether everything was coded right and the PWA works offline.
The final step in PWA development is to check its productivity. A Lighthouse tool will examine the overall application performance regarding reliability, speed, and optimization methods. If something goes wrong, an auditing tool will show tips on fixing mistakes and improving your casino app performance to 100%.
Features and weaknesses of PWA in gambling industry
Developing an online gambling business strategy that includes progressive approaches, it’s crucial to get familiar with all the challenges that casino providers may face. Every technology has its pros and cons, and PWA is no exception. So let’s first figure out valuable features which can greatly benefit the digital casino platform:
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Work for all the customers, regardless of the browser they use to play online gambling games.
- Are responsive to any existing screen size or dimensions which can appear.
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Behave like a native app, which makes their navigation recognizable to players.
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Contain up-to-date content, ensured by the service worker functioning.
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Allows re-engaging players by sending messages to their devices home screen.
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Work with reliable HTTPS protocol, decreasing the fraud risks.
There are no boundaries for perfection, so PWA still has some weak sides every casino operator should be aware of:
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Drain users' device battery faster, although it’s worth it.
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Have limited frames for offline support.
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Don’t attract traffic from app marketplaces because PWAs are absent in stores.
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Not all the OS versions fully reflect online casino features (like iOS 11.3 and lower).
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Are not moderated with 3rd party specialists like in stores. Therefore, an pwa audit is recommended.
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Doesn’t allow providing loyalty programs in full size.
Despite some shortcomings in the progressive apps' work, there are iGaming operators who could extract the maximum advantage from the PWA implementation. Let’s have a closer look at them in the next chapter.
Examples and performance of PWA casinos
Although PWA game boilerplates for digital casinos are only beginning to gain popularity, some providers have already caught the idea of how to stay out of the crowd in the competitive iGaming market. For example, progressive apps are now used as a powerful tool for improving UX because they allow customers to access the entire games variety from their phones, compared to the limited assortment of native software. PWA in modern casinos also solves the problems of banking options and live dealer tables limitations, recommending itself as an expanded and improved mobile product.
Relatively new sites use cutting-edge technologies to differentiate themselves in a saturated market and become preferable for players even in comparison with more established providers.
CasinoSinners
An establishment announced the final stage of progressive app development in 2020. Since that, their loyal and new clients can access the PWA games variety by clicking an app icon on their gadget's desktop. The casino IT team successfully built a bridge between native software and a website at a reduced cost. They use React, a JavaScript library for designing a dynamic and modern customer interface.
Stake
This gaming platform is an example of a turnkey solution for entrepreneurs who want to start a hassle-free gambling business. Along with the other attractive features, like online PWA games assortment, well–known providers, and affiliate programs set up, it supports progressive web app technology allowing one to access the casino with a mobile browser. Customers who install the Stake icon on their home screens tend to visit the platform more often.
Winludu
The entertaining website also has PWA game developments. With progressive technology, clients can make the first app load within 5 seconds, and all the repeated accesses take only an incredible one second. Despite its performance speed, the gaming platform has a colorful and user-friendly design and hundreds of high-quality games. So your future PWA can be as light and functional as Winludu and cheaper than creating a native app.
Conclusion
When deciding how to improve your casino website, the mobile game development issue is one of the priorities. And here, providers may think about what is better: a native app or PWA. The first one has several inherent shortcomings. They require time, storage, and gadgets memory space to be installed. But what is the most crucial - they are not searchable for Google engine. Best progressive online casino apps instantly address these disadvantages. Thus, they become a powerful tool for generating new leads and improving the loyalty of old ones.
Fast processing, delay absence, and offline work - are the main characteristics that make the UX better and can keep your digital casino competitive even along the well-known iGaming names.