As online gambling and sports betting trends unfold, we will continually explore the changing online gambling and sports betting markets. Not only will we cover major updates as they occur, but we will also identify new trends that our readers and newsletter subscribers need to know about.
The online gambling and sports betting markets are different from the traditional retail and land-based casino gaming markets, as online gaming is in a constant state of evolution. To fully understand how the market has evolved, we need to step back and look at how the industry has grown over the past decade.
The evolution of online casino and sports betting
For those of you unfamiliar with the history of online gambling and sports betting, you may not be aware of how the gambling industry saw exponential growth in just a few short years. When online gambling and sports betting were just coming into existence, the typical gambler would select a physical location to gamble at and enter the casino with a $10 bill.
With an initial $10 bet, the gambler would lose $8 and receive $4 in free play. With this, the gambler could spend more money on casino games, slots, and table games. The same $10 bill that would have cost the gambler $8 to win would now cost him or her $12, and the bettor would collect $4 in free play on top of his or her $12 lost.
The full house would be no more profitable than a flush for a gambler. The solution for many gamblers was to wait until the next day and spend the $10 winnings.
Even though this is not the most profitable way to play the casino, it did have some advantages. First, you could still play casino games, and casino games were not necessarily fixed-cost games. You were still able to make money on the action of play without paying for play. Second, you didn’t have to wait until the next day to play, which could be significant for the early online gambling and sports betting market.
What was on the side of the gamblers
However, gamblers had one particular advantage over the casinos. If you lost your $10 winnings, you could not call the casino to collect on the bet. Therefore, you were forced to place your bets in person. The people at the casino would not trust you if you deposited your winnings through online bookmakers.
By introducing customers to online casino games at brick-and-mortar locations, brick-and-mortar casinos could attract new players and create additional revenue through the online gambling and sports betting market.
Past financial rewards from online casinos
The financial rewards from the early online gambling and sports betting markets were not quite as strong as some people believed. However, financial incentives did not dissipate completely.
In order to maximize profits, the leading online casinos would increase the fixed costs associated with each online slot machine or online table game. This allowed them to capture the full $4 play in the days leading up to the payout date. The leading online casinos would be paid a fee of $3.50 per online slot machine and $3.00 per online table game in return for the increased fixed costs.
As a result of the fees, online casinos could pay players more than their winnings alone would allow. This was important to the gambling industry, especially the early online gambling and sports betting markets. The high fixed costs made the losses from gambling online lower than the fixed costs of playing in person.
However, the fees were not the only reason online casinos could capture a greater share of online gambling and sports betting revenues.
Online casinos were able to capture additional revenues through the use of online real money poker and online slots games. Again, these game types made online casinos valuable because of their enormous fixed costs.
The fixed costs of real money poker and online slots games meant that players had a much larger return from their $10 winnings than they would have from playing casino games. Thus, online real money poker and online slots games offered an additional revenue source for online casinos.
The Players in 2021
The online gambling and sports betting market remained relatively small compared to the land-based gambling and sports betting markets for years. For the first two decades, online gambling and sports betting were mostly an alternative to the typical casino experience, but not the online experience’s main attraction. What is rapidly changing, and thus gamblers can bet on cricket betting, football, basketball, horse racing and baseball from anywhere.
There will be more demand for mobile casino in 2021
The appetite for mobile casinos is not slowing down anytime soon. According to a recent report, the mobile casino’s share will increase to 53% of revenue in 2021, higher than the 36% predicted by the ACG Research and Consulting in their May 2017 report. The average amount that customers will spend will also increase over the same period, rising from $23.64 per $1 to $25.76, a 30% increase.
Gambling has a long history with mobile devices than many other forms of entertainment, with gaming first coming to mobile devices in bingo games. Those games have since evolved into more sophisticated ones, with online casino games also starting to hit the market around the same time. The most popular are currently slots and poker.
No deposit bonuses available in 2021
Each online portal experiences intense rivalry to obtain a larger market share in the face of too much supply and entry of new casinos. Also, most of them raise their fees periodically. On the other hand, only the casinos with satisfied players, like 1xbet Kuwait, can become the most preferred casino resources.
New rules or improvements in gaming regulations
The regulatory modifications that could come prior to new rules or similar regulations would be another factor that will define 2021 for the gaming industry.
It was speculated several times in 2020 that perhaps the Governments of major European countries will take steps relevant to the gaming market. But specifically, what sort of measurements they would be is not yet understood and if they are beneficial or averse to the business.
The gambling industry is globally much more alive than ever, in any event, and it seems like it still has years of space for expansion to come. Did you ever gamble?