Appraising the Impact of Technology on the iGaming Market

Posted by Harry Kane on Friday, November 29, 2019

In a previous post, we spoke about the rise of regulated crypto-gambling across the globe, with iGaming leaders such as the UK, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Greece and the Netherlands having already embraced Bitcoin and Ethereum as viable casino payment methods online.

Whilst this is a seismic development by itself, it’s also one of many significant changes that have been driven by technology and continue to alter the landscape of the global iGaming marketplace.

In this article, we’ll review the precise impact that technology has had on the online gambling sector in the UK and beyond, whilst asking what’s next in the evolution of this marketplace?

Breaking down the Impact of Technology – What You Need to Know

When appraising the impact of technology in the iGaming market, it’s important to note that innovation and advancement has influenced various aspects of gameplay, accessibility and the overall player experience.

We’ve broken this down in greater detail below, in a bid to understand the integral role that technology plays in every aspect of the iGaming market:

1. Casino Gameplay and Online Sports Betting – Introducing VR, AR and In-Play Wagering

When we talk about iGaming in the UK, we see a marketplace that continues to experience double-digit growth year-on-year, with the sector now having peaked at an impressive £5.6 billion.

At the same time, it has also grown to account for an estimated 39.1% of the overall gambling industry in Britain, whilst many commentators believe that iGaming will drive more than 50% of the marketplace by the year 2030.

The iGaming space is dominated by the online casino and virtual sports betting niches, which combine to account for more than 93% of the online GGY in the UK. Make no mistake; technology has impacted on these individual sectors in various different ways, creating a cumulative effect that has transformed the gambling industry.

If we start with casino gameplay, for example, we’ve seen the gradual emergence of Flash Player and HTML5 technology over the course of the last few years.

On a fundamental level, these technologies have combined to make modern casino games available seamlessly across a number of different platforms. Most importantly, they’ve also negated the need to download additional software in order to access casino games, which is ideal in an age where players like to play on the move and in an array of different circumstances (we’ll explore this further a little later in the piece).

Additionally, we’ve also reached the point where virtual and augmented reality technology (AR and VR) is beginning to revolutionise online casino gameplay

This should come as no surprise, with these connected technologies having matured over a number of years and underpinned a marketplace that’s currently growing at a CAGR of 33.47%. This market is expected to peak at an impressive $44.7 billion by the end of 2024, with the online casino market expected to play a key role in this growth.

In many ways, VR has found a natural application in the world of online casino gaming, with the world’s first virtual reality slot having been launched at the ICE Totally Gaming Expo in London 2016.

Essentially an updated iteration of the popular Gonzo’s Quest slot game, this title added a new dimension to online casino gameplay and helped developers to target a brand new audience.

This has laid the foundation for full-scale, VR-inspired casinos to open their virtual doors to the betting public, with the Slotsmillion platform the first to hit the consumer mainstream.

This niche casino presents iconic slot games such as Starburst in a unique, three-dimensional form, creating a more immersive gambling experience and one that fully replicates the features of corporeal casino gaming in a virtual setting.

One of the key elements of this experience revolves around the authentic pacing of specific casino games and the capacity for real-time communication, which enables players to interact with fellow competitors and dealers in a thrilling live setting.

In many ways, bridging the remaining gap between virtual and corporeal gambling represents the final frontier for the iGaming marketplace, and VR is playing an increasingly pivotal role in achieving this objective.

On a similar note and the associated topic of online sports betting, technology has also ushered in the age of in-play wagering. This just happens to be the fastest-growing betting medium in the country, and it refers to the ability to place wagers (either back or lay) after events have started and before their conclusion.

This is the opposite of ante-post betting, which has a distinctly long-term focus and encourages punters to place wagers way ahead of a particular event at increased risk.

In simple terms, in-play betting has created access to a far larger array of betting markets, whilst developing opportunities for punters to profit for unique events that occur during games, races and individual contests.

In addition to revolutionising sports betting and enhancing the typical live viewing experience for fans of multiple disciplines, in-play wagering has also had a dramatic impact on the amounts gambled at online sportsbooks year-on-year.

This type of wagering was first introduced by the Betfair exchange in the UK in 2001, and by the mid-noughties Bet365 had popularised this practiced and propelled it into the consumer mainstream.

This drove an initial increase in the amount of cash wagered online on sporting events in the UK, with this peaking at £643 million in the year ending 2009.

As in-play wagering became increasingly popular in the subsequent years, however, there was an exponential hike in the online sports betting GGY in the UK. More specifically, the amount spent online by punters nearly doubled in just four years, hitting a staggering £1,138 million by the end of 2013.

Overall, the market increased by a whopping 79.5% during this high-growth period, with the accessibility and popularity of in-play betting undoubtedly the dominant driving force behind this trend.

The status quo has remained largely unchanged throughout the subsequent six years, particularly given the rise of mobile sports betting and the growing prevalence of in-play markets.

In fact, with a growing number of people now wagering on the move and through their smartphone or tablet, in-play betting is likely to become even more seminal and generating in the longer-term.

Introducing 5G and Mobile Gambling – How the iGaming Market Became Accessible Anytime, Anywhere

This brings us neatly onto the subject of mobile gambling, which is becoming increasingly popular and driven by advancements in the design of contemporary smartphone and tablet devices.

These advancements have been augmented by the recent introduction of 5G connectivity, which represents the fifth generation of cellular network technology and has provided a significant upgrade on previous iterations.

The introduction of 5G technology has certainly enabled far greater accessibility to online casinos, whilst enabling developers to improve their iterations of live games such as roulette, blackjack and video poker.

Make no mistake; 5G technology offers significant benefits to both online casino platforms and their users, not least because it offers far higher data rates and enables customers to access virtual content quicker.

More importantly, 5G technology provides much lower levels of latency (1 ms), which prevents the type of buffering and data request delays that can undermine real-time gambling experience.

This type of advanced technology can certainly support the type of immersive and 3D experience now provided by online casino platforms, whilst making visually realistic gameplay viable across all available devices.

These advancements have come at the ideal time for the iGaming industry, which is becoming increasingly reliant on the money wagered through smartphones and tablet devices.

Recent studies have suggested that the number of gamblers who regularly wager through their smartphone or tablet peaked at 51% last year in the UK, with this number having increased significantly since 2016 (when the corresponding figure was estimated at 10%).

There’s no doubt that mobile gaming is expected to become even more prevalent in the years ahead, particularly as smartphones are now being designed to be compatible with VR headsets and advanced HTML5 technology.

These technological developments have had a seismic impact on the popularity of iGaming in the UK, creating a scenario where younger and casual players can access the casino platforms licensed nationwide.

They’ve certainly made it possible for casual gamblers and fans of themed slot games to play low-variance titles during the daily commute to and from work, allowing developers to target a broader audience and drive more sustainable revenues.

This development is integral to the long-term growth of the iGaming market, as it looks to optimise the amount of revenue generated through casual players and the increasingly lucrative online slot niche.

3. Heralding the Age of Responsible Gambling – Technology’s Most Important Achievement in the iGaming Space

We touched earlier on the rise of crypto-gambling, with this having followed on from the emergence of electronic payment platforms such as Skrill, Neteller and the market-leading entity PayPal.

These fintech innovations have undoubtedly revolutionised the way in which players credit and make withdrawals from their iGaming accounts, whilst a growing number of e-wallet solutions negate the need for processing fees and commissions.

As fintech has had its own unique impact on the iGaming market in the UK and around the world, we’ve also seen a significant rise in the number of online features available to help players manage their bankroll.

These tools are becoming increasingly sophisticated and intuitive too, with the combination of big data and artificial intelligence (AI) enabling operators to identify key trends amongst problem gamblers and empowering players to take full control of their own activity.

The best iterations of these technologies exists in the form of time-outs and self-exclusion platforms, which enable players to remove themselves from their iGaming accounts for defined periods of time.

In the case of a time-out, you’re able to block yourself from playing for a set amount of time, usually between 24 hours and a maximum of six weeks.

If you’re struggling to manage your bankroll or believe you’re spending too much time gambling online, you could also consider entering into a self-exclusion program. In this instance, you’ll ask a specific operator to stop you from gambling for a period of at least six months, whilst also blocking any marketing messages pertaining to promotions.

You can even sign-up to the national GamStop initiative, as whilst a BBC report exposed significant flaws in this program it remains an excellent way of regulating problem behaviour in the iGaming space.

On a slightly more evolved level, we’ve seen the Swedish operator ComeOn collaborate closely with the data science specialist neccton. The aim of this partnership was simple; to launch a new and AI-inspired responsible gambling tool that could help players to identify, recognise and eventually avoid problem gambling behaviours.

Interestingly, this type of advanced tool offers an insight into the future of responsible gambling, having been developed in collaboration with qualified psychology academics. The tool intuitively tracks player data and leverages this information to detect clear risk patterns, whilst also highlighting any concerning changes in behaviour.

These changes may serve as red flags and potential signs of problem gambling, creating a scenario where both players and operators are able to work in tandem to safeguard those who are particularly vulnerable.

This tool has also set a new standard by offering personalised feedback and tailored communications to players, in a bid to encourage responsible gambling behaviours and practices over a prolonged period of time.

This way, players who have the potential to become problem gamblers will hopefully be able to address these behaviours before they become consumed by addiction, whilst operators can play a key role in helping the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) to achieve its core strategic objectives through 2021.

The Last Word

As we can see, technology has had a dramatic impact on every stage of the iGaming experience, from the rise of mobile gaming and VR-inspired titles to the development of intuitive responsible gambling tools.

For the large part, these advancements have delivered significant improvements on behalf of players, by balancing the increased accessibility of online gambling platforms with the development of enhanced and more intuitive responsible gambling tools.

This is an important balance to strike in the future, with continued innovation likely to play a pivotal role in the protection of vulnerable gamblers and those who struggle to manage their activity levels.