Every iGaming Vertical Explored – The Key Considerations

Posted by Harry Kane on Tuesday, March 29, 2022

Let’s face facts; most of us like a cheeky bet or wager once in a while, whether we chance our arm on the spin of a roulette wheel or use the knowledge of our favourite sporting teams to place remote bets. In the vast and fast-growing world of online gambling, you’re spoiled for choice when choosing how to wager your hard-earned cash.

In fact, there are numerous verticals available through this segment, including slots, table games, sports betting and even live casino wagering. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at the best and most popular iGaming verticals, while offering some tips on how you can profit from each segment.

#1. Slots

We’ll start with online (or video) slots, which currently comprise around 70% of the total online gross gaming yield (GGY) and offer a rich diversity of titles that appeal to both male and female players alike. To create some context, you’ll typically find around 700 slot titles in an online casino games’ library that boasts 1000 games, creating a dominant and diverse vertical that’s undoubtedly the most popular in the online casino marketplace.

Slots are essentially games of chance, which often use lavish and multi-layered bonus features to augment the base gameplay and incentivise players to either increase their bet level or spend more of their bankroll over time. They’re also categorised as being either high, medium or low variance, which affords you an insight into how often you’re likely to land winning combinations and the potential size of these payouts.

For example, let’s say that you’re playing a high variance slot. In this instance, you’re unlikely to trigger many winning combinations (especially during the base game), but those that you do land will boast a relatively high average payout. Conversely, low variance slots trigger a high frequency of wins that typically boast nominal payouts, arguably making them a little more appealing to casual players or those of you with smaller bankrolls.

As you can imagine, medium variance slots tread the narrow line between these two extremes, potentially offering the best of both worlds for players who want to strike a balance between the rate and the value of their wins. Thanks to the diverse nature of slots and these distinct variance categories, the online slot vertical also boasts variable return-to-player (RTP) rates.

This describes the average amount of cash you can expect to recoup for every $1 wagered, and is an excellent metric when choosing the right slot for you. Broadly speaking, slots can have variable RTP rates of between 90% and 97%, depending on their variance, jackpot structure and maximum win value. Slots with an RTP rate of 97% or above are classed as ‘certified’ titles, as they’ll see you recoup at least $0.97 for every $1 wagered over time.

Of course, choosing the right variance slot with a viable RTP rate is crucial to your chances of banking a return when engaging with this vertical. This certainly enables you to select titles with the type of gameplay that suits your taste and experience level, while it also plays a pivotal role in helping you to minimise losses over time.

This is a key factor when playing games of chance, as it’s impossible to create effective strategies that increase your chances of winning. Instead, you’ll have to take steps to minimise loss and optimise your bankroll, and choosing a title with a high RTP should be your first port of call. We’d also recommend being vary when deploying the so-called “Max Bet” option.

While this will optimise any potential payouts in relation to your stake, it can also exhaust your bankroll and either curtail your gaming session or encourage you to spend outside your means. So, refrain from deploying the Max Bet option unless you’re engaging in a highly rewarding bonus round, or want to capitalise in the aftermath of a sizable win.

#2. Online Blackjack and Roulette

Roulette and blackjack are among the most popular casino games in the world, with a rich heritage and history that traces its roots back through Europe to the 12th and 13th centuries. These table games also combine to account for 15% of the total online GGY in the UK, with this reflecting their iconic nature and the fact that there are so many creative and enjoyable iterations of roulette and blackjack available online.

If we start with roulette, we can see that this is another game of chance where it’s simply impossible to identify sequences in results or create a strategy that efficiently increases your chances of winning over time. Once again, this means that the key is to ensure that you minimise the risk of losing with every spin of the roulette wheel, ideally by covering as many betting options as possible with your stake and attempting to bridge both ‘inside’ and ‘outside’ bets.

Inside bets refers to the highest paying bets that have the longest odds of coming in, such as wagers placed on single numbers. Conversely, outside bets describe even-money and short price wagers like red, black, odd or even, which have a much better chance of being successful but only deliver a nominal return on your investment.

Ultimately, you’ll need a clearly defined betting strategy and betting unit, the latter of which should be spread across as much of the roulette wheel as possible. For example, it’s wise to cover at least one even-money outcome (such as odd, even, red or black), while also incorporating a single money bet or similar inside wager like ‘split’ or ‘street’ to introduce the prospect of higher returns.

These bets cover two or three numbers respectively, and also pay out at competitive odds of 17/1 and 11/1. A viable betting strategy and minimum bet level is also important when playing blackjack, although it should be noted that this similarly iconic table game is actually considered to be a game of skill.

There are a couple of reasons for this, starting with the fundamental nature of blackjack and the fact that you can build your hand incrementally and in real-time. Because of this, it’s possible to strategise as your hand progresses and make informed decisions based on the rules of your chosen iteration and the actions of the dealer.

Secondly, there’s a basic level of numeracy required to excel at blackjack, which is a difficult to master skill in itself and shouldn’t be discounted whether you’re playing online or at a local, brick-and-mortar casino. With blackjack, you’ll be drawn a two-card hand and play directly against the dealer. The goal is to build a hand as close to the value of 21 as possible, with a coveted ‘Blackjack’ comprising an Ace (which adopt a value of one or 11 depending on your hand) and a 10 or picture card.

After the initial, two-card draw, can choose to either ‘hit’ or ‘stand’, with the former seeing another card added to your hand and the latter effectively asking to see the dealer’s hand and compare. If you continue to ‘hit’ and your hand exceeds the value of 21, you’ll go ‘bust’ and be immediately disqualified from the game.

If not, you’ll eventually stand and compare hands with the dealer, hopefully resulting in a win and nominal payout! Because there are so many iterations of blackjack available and a number of potential rules in play, the choice of title is also key if you’re to optimise your chances of winning.

Some iterations enable you auto-split your hand in some instances, effectively creating two hands that can be built and increasing your chances of winning. Others enable you to ‘double down’, which can be used to increase your bet in exchange for a single card and potentially increase the value of your win.

You should also note that some iterations of blackjack use minimal decks and boast an RTP rate that’s as high as 99.5%, minimising the house edge to just 0.5% and allowing you to make the most of your bankroll over time!

#3. Remote Sports Betting

We’ll close with remote sports betting, which isn’t technically categorised as a game of chance or skill. This is because it isn’t a game at all, of course, but you can undoubtedly use skill, knowledge and strategy to make a success of sports betting online. There’s no need to introduce sports betting, of course, while there’s also a huge range of ante-post and in-play markets to target across a number of disciplines.

This creates both choice and opportunity, enabling you to deploy your bankroll as effectively and profitably as possible. But how can you succeed as a sports bettor? Well, the first (and most obvious) step is to target sports and events of which you have comprehensive and in-depth knowledge.

Make no mistake; you can leverage this type of insight to increase your chances of placing successful bets, by identifying or creating value in odds and selecting the right markets. A good example here is the strategic use of handicap betting. For example, let’s say that you’re betting on Manchester City to beat newly-promoted Fulham in the Premier League at home.

In this instance, the Citizens are likely to be odds-on favourites to prevail, creating minimal value and making it hard to pursue sizable returns. However, handicap betting offers the ideal solution, as it enables you to apply a virtual disadvantage to overwhelming favourites like City and lengthen the odds accordingly.

Of course, match selection is key when using handicap betting, while you’ll have to set the handicap carefully in order to strike the ideal balance between risk and reward. In this case, you could apply a –1.5 goals handicap to Manchester City, meaning that they’ll have to win by two clear goals or more for the bet to come in.

This will increase the price and potential returns on offer, without necessarily compromising on the chances of your bet coming in. As a general rule, we’d also recommend maintaining a basic betting strategy that enables you to make the most of the money at your disposal. For example, let’s say that you’re backing a short price favourite without applying a handicap.

In this case, you should look the leverage, the short odds and the implied probability of success with an increased stake, allowing you to pursue increased gains through a wager or market that’s highly likely to prove fruitful. Conversely, backing outsiders or outcomes with extended odds increases the risk of loss considerably, meaning that you should arguably limit your stake and bet at the minimal level that you may have set previously.

On a final note, it’s important to be wary of in-play betting. After all, while this has unlocked a huge range of intriguing, real-time markets and introduced the prospect of so-called “micro betting”, it can also encourage punters to place a higher volume of wagers and potentially spend outside of their means.

Ultimately, it’s a universal rule of online gambling that you should set a predetermined bankroll that reflects both your budget, betting frequency and chosen iGaming verticals. This should never exceed an amount that you can afford to lose, and once this sum is exhausted, you should refrain from wagering until your bankroll can be refreshed.

This rule must apply to in-play betting too, so be sure to approach this market with caution and only place selective bets that reflect good value odds and your knowledge of a particular sport or discipline.

The Bottom Line

So, there you have it; our comprehensive guide of the three main iGaming verticals and an insight into how you can leverage them to your advantage. Of course, there are myriad other online gambling verticals and markets available in the digital age, so, you’ll need to ensure that you do your research thoroughly and select those that are most relevant to you.