The iGaming Industry: The Past Simple, the Present Continuous, and the Future Perfect?
Long gone and almost forgotten are the times when playing games meant gathering around a table with the Monopoly board on it or moving chess pieces with your hands. Modern technologies have ousted this idealistic but archaic picture with an image of a person at the desktop or poring over a smartphone in the hand absorbed in the events on the screen.
Equally sweeping are the changes that occurred to gambling. In the epoch of the Internet of Things and other IT advancements, you don’t have to leave the premises to put your money at stake in the hope to hit the jackpot. You just virtually visit one of the online iGaming platforms and feel the thrill of risking a certain sum for a greater gain. The depredations that the global pandemic wreaked all over the globe contributed much to the rapid rise of the online gaming industry, making people prefer the safety of their COVID-proof homes to enjoy the services of a professional casino.
Being aware of this digital drift in the entertainment realm, astute entrepreneurs and callow startupers launch iGaming companies, jostling for their share of iGaming business profits that can be made nothing but spectacular by leveraging
gambling affiliate programs
. With so much effort invested in the iGaming industry, it is no wonder that its value is expected to
top $560 billion within the next three years
. However, success in the niche isn’t that easy so you must know the brass tacks of this domain to go big-time in it.
What is iGaming?
Having a more familiar moniker of online gaming, iGaming boils down to playing any kind of virtual game via the internet that involves betting or gambling. Thus, the iGaming industry effectively covers not only such core ventures as iGaming casinos or real money slot games but also sports betting and horse race betting. As a seasoned igaming software provider, Multi-Programming Solutions knows that the biggest hit among contemporary iGaming solutions is all kinds of iGaming poker sites.
With online gambling getting considerable traction nowadays, the industry gains a firm foothold in many regions and countries. Yet, the greatest hubs of iGaming providers are located in Malta and the overseas territory of the UK – Gibraltar. As legislative foundations of this activity are being shaped by an ever-increasing number of countries, iGaming is likely to spread to all corners of the world not in ripples but in waves.
iGaming History
The history of iGaming spans over a quarter of a century. It all started in 1994 when the first iGaming site was developed by Microgaming. Four years later, the same company launched a jackpot slot while PlanetPoker pioneered in developing an online poker site. Seeing the success of these trailblazers, over 700 casinos kicked off their online versions in 1999 alone, introducing unique advanced features (like multiplayer option). Some online casinos eclipsed their brick-and-mortar counterparts becoming world-famous blue-chip ventures, notably 888.com that dates back to 2003.
While the iGaming industry was developing at a neck-breaking speed, national and provincial governments tried to come to grips with the problem of online gambling legality. The first attempt at legislative regulation in the field was made in 1996 by dint of establishing the Kahnawake Gaming Commission that was responsible for issuing iGaming licenses. By the turn of the millennium, a number of countries officially recognized online gambling which resulted in the involvement of approximately 8 million punters in iGaming activities.
Since then, the scope of online gambling has been rising exponentially, and in 20 years iGaming market volume
almost reached $60 billion
, opening broad vistas for entrepreneurs and software developers involved in it.
The Present Situation in iGaming
It is obvious that the lucrative prospects and the ease of gaming software development have brought about the over-saturation of the market. Today, online casinos are reckoned by hundreds if not thousands, which puts tremendous competitive pressure upon companies involved in providing such services.
The abundance of operators on the market has triggered an avalanche of customization endeavors that are especially evident in slots where the assortment of themes, pictures, soundtracks, and stories is amazing. Online card games don’t lag much behind, featuring a whole gamut of Blackjack, Poker, and Baccarat variations.
Another tendency that is symptomatic of the current iGaming is the gradual but relentless decline of console and desktop gaming in favor of mobile experience. This shift became conspicuous about ten years ago when the amount of money wagered by gamblers via mobile platforms exceeded $10 million.
Since then, the popularity of this gambling channel has been on a steady if not dramatic rise together with the surge of the global number of smartphone users and enhancement of technologies leveraged in the niche. Modern mobile know-how enables gamers to receive an awesome UX with high-quality graphics and audio available wherever they are, which is the reason why an average person today spends twice as much time on their phone (about 24 hours a week) as it was ten years ago. And mobile iGaming activities are a considerable portion of this span.
Also read: How to Find and Hire a Perfect Poker Dev
The Future Prediction for the Industry
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The Growing Latitude of Regulation and Licensing
Yet, the global tables have largely turned with many governments adopting a more lenient course concerning iGaming practices. Even when restricted by quite stringent limitations (as in the UK, for instance), online gambling is expected to expand its presence to various areas involving fresh audiences and conquering new markets.
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The Advent of Millennials
iGaming providers are struggling to mitigate this adverse trend, resorting to a plethora of methods and techniques. They go all lengths to win and keep clients – from trying to reach out to a greater number of potential customers through enlisting the help of iGaming affiliates to shifting emphasis to sports betting that millennials find more appealing.
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The Waxing of Cryptocurrency
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Technological Sophistication