The Great Disruptor – But Have Smartphones Benefitted the iGaming Market?

Posted by Harry Kane on Thursday, December 10, 2020

We’ve undoubtedly seen the exponential growth of mobile and smartphone gambling in the UK of late, with the revenue generated through this vertical having increased from an 18% share in 2012 to an impressive 51% as recently as 2018.

In the UK market, more than 51% of players now regularly access their favourite online casinos through their mobile site, whether this is a smartphone or a tablet. This number is continuing to grow year-on-year while iGaming itself accounts for more than 38% of the overall gambling industry.

With this in mind, it’s clear that smartphones in particular have become a significantly disruptive industry force over the course of the last few years. But has it been a force for good and will this trend continue into the future?

The Market Now and Before the Age of the Smartphones

The age of the smartphone is commonly traced back to 2007, when Apple launched its iconic and ground-breaking iPhone model.

Prior to this date, mobile phones were relatively clunky and limited devices, which often provided an unreliable and unsecure Internet connection (and in many cases, failed to provide a connection of any description).

The best handsets of the time typically ran a version of the Windows Mobile operating system, and either required some form of stylus or an advanced Blackberry OS when navigating the mobile Internet. The majority of these devices also utilised physical keyboards, and as a result of these factors they were largely unsuited to the demands of the burgeoning gaming and gambling markets.

However, the advent of the iPhone and iOS platform (which blazed a trail for similarly advanced Android handsets and software in the subsequent years) triggered a seismic and ongoing shift in the landscape, as this created an opportunity for new software to be developed and packaged through the native App Store.

Such advances were initially borne out by relatively primitive games such as Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja, paving the way for mobile gaming to evolve and new genres and verticals to enter the marketplace.

This development coincided with the rise of the iGaming market in the UK, which had previously been empowered by the advent of the 2005 Gaming Act which deregulated the space and incentivised operators to establish profitable ventures.

Interestingly, iGaming development teams such as Playtech and Microgaming were initially unable to leverage this market growth and the expansion of the global mobile app industry (which is set to achieve a cumulative market value of $407.31 billion by the year 2026).

The reason for this was simple; as both the iOS App Store and the Google Play Store initially prohibited the promotion of real money gambling apps, with this stance lasting for several years before any significant change was reported.

Ultimately, Google was the first to break cover in August 2017, when it began accepting applications for the widespread distribution of gambling apps within the Play Store and the boundaries of the UK, France and the Republic of Ireland.

Apple followed suit shortly after, and since then the market has been engulfed with native casino apps on both iOS and Android platforms. As a result, both operators and developers within the iGaming marketplace have made hay, while adopting their strategic approach in line with rapidly advancing rates of mobile penetration.

The End of Flash and the Dawn of HTML5

As mobile gambling has become increasingly empowered, one of the most significant changes has seen the gradual eradication of Adobe Flash technology.

Adobe Flash was once ubiquitous on all websites and online casino platforms that included interactive elements, with live casino and table games offering a relevant case in point.

However, this often required users to download and run additional software when playing online casino games either through a desktop device or whilst on the move, creating a significant inconvenience and security issues.

The issues pertaining to security and stability forced Apple to refuse support for this technology, forcing developers and software houses nationwide to reconsider their approach.

The result of this is that both web designers and game developers were compelled to adopt advanced HTML5, which is a universal mark-up language that’s commonly used for structuring and presenting online content.

This secure and innovative language supports many of the interactive features natively on your chosen browser, including the Safari and Google Chrome options typically available on contemporary iOS and Android handsets.

This negated the need to complete any third-party downloads, guaranteeing a more secure online gambling experience and enabling mobile players to enjoy seamless gameplay across a host of different devices.

Consequently, we’ve also seen online and mobile casinos typically eschew the use of proprietary software, which would require customers to complete a download before running the relevant casino games and platforms on their chosen device.

The issue with this approach is that’s increasingly restrictive and prohibitive in the modern age, particularly with the majority of operators now featuring interactive games that can run seamlessly on any device with universal support.

Even for casino brands that don’t currently operate native apps (and there are quite a few trading in the existing marketplace), they’ve moved quickly to integrate HTML5 language into a responsive mobile site that can adapt to raft of different devices and operating systems.

With these points firmly in mind, Apple’s decision to eschew Flash technology has proved to be a seminal one from the perspective of mobile gambling growth, particularly from the perspective of making the marketplace more accessible and creating a more seamless gameplay experience while wagering on the move.

The Advent of In-Play Betting

While sports betting isn’t as generative as remote casino gameplay, it still accounted for a total GGY of £2.1 billion in the year ending September 2019.

Additionally, this vertical grew by 4.3% when compared to the period between April 2018 and March 2019, while it also accounts for an estimated 37% of the total revenue generated by the iGaming industry within the UK.

Just like remote casino gameplay, virtual sports betting has also been revolutionised by the advent of mobile technology and the sophistication of smartphones. This is arguably best embodied by the rise of in-play betting, which has proved to be an incredibly disruptive force from the perspective of sports wagering volumes and overall engagement.

We’ve certainly seen a noticeable increase in the percentage of sports’ audiences that wager on their preferred disciplines as a result of in-play and mobile betting, especially in horse racing (97.4%), boxing (86.4%) and tennis (81.1%).

The reason for this is relatively simple; as punters can wager freely on a host of live and in-play markets while also watching the action as it unfolds.

This undoubtedly lends itself to a more enriching and engaging iGaming experience, and one that has dramatically changed both how people wager and (in many instances) the amount that people bet on sports on a weekly and monthly basis.

Is the Advent of Mobile Gambling Truly a Force for Good?

We’ve already touched on some of the benefits that mobile technology has bought to the iGaming marketplace, while we’ll cover a few more of these in greater detail a little later on in the piece.

However, the proliferation of mobile casino and sports betting as a result of this innovation has also brought significant challenges, especially when it comes to perception and problem gambling in the UK.

In terms of the former, some studies have found that those who regularly bet in-play (which equated to 45.4% of the total number of bettors surveyed) were on average 2.2-times more likely to believe that they’d made a profit that those who wagered through more traditional markets.

This rule even applied in instances where players had barely broken even or actually made a loss, creating a significant chasm between perception and reality and encouraging some to wager more despite the damage being done to their bankrolls.

Beyond this, a further collaborative study between Nottingham Trent and the Bilbao University examined the various motivations behind the consumption of sport by fans. More specifically, it touched on the emotional involvement related to sports betting and how in-play gambling opportunities has impacted on the desire to gamble more frequently.

Ultimately, this found that people who regularly engaged in live sports betting displayed increased alcohol consumption and a higher incidence of problem gambling behaviours overall, along with a far stronger desire to eat junk food and sugary beverages.

This is a significant issue in the modern age, especially with in-play betting now making up at least 59% of all money wagered in countries such as the UK and Spain. According to operators such as Bet365, in-play and live betting contributes as much as 80% of its total sportsbook revenues, so there’s clearly a higher number of punters being exposed to potentially problem behaviour on a daily basis.

The same principle could easily be applied to remote casino gambling, where mobile players are arguably at an even greater risk due to the omnipotent and perpetual nature of casino games and platforms.

This level of accessibility is compounded by the portable and handheld nature of mobile phones, which are constantly by our sides and capable of connecting players to their favourite games at any time of the day or night.

On a fundamental level, it’s also fair to observe that the responsible gambling measures imposed by the regulator and individual operators have failed to keep pace with the rate of technological advancement in the iGaming marketplace. This issue has been touched on previously by a number of politicians and anti-gambling lobbyists, with former Labour Deputy Leader Tom Watson describing the underlying Gaming Act of 2005 as “analogue legislation for the digital age”.

This view was shared and even echoed by the Conservative Party, which continues to crackdown on iGaming alongside various cross-party measures and proposals within the House of Commons.

One example of this can be provided by the so-called GamStop initiative, which has sought to allow for widespread self-exclusion across the full range of operators trading within the UK’s iGaming marketplace.

Despite the fact that well in-excess of 50,000 people have signed up to the GamStop initiative in the UK, some players have reported being able to navigate the system simply by changing their username and email account.

Of course, the UKGC has strived to negate this by imposing tougher ID verification measurers on operators and making participation with GamStop a mandatory inclusion within the licensing criteria, but many players have already fallen through the cracks as they’ve struggled to manage their compulsive behaviour.

Conversely, the acceleration of mobile growth and the subsequent market accessibility has made it easier than ever for problem gamblers to indulge their passion, and this is a gap that’s causing regulators to swim against their tide as they look to keep online and mobile players inherently safe at all times.

Ultimately, these represent significant challenges, which continue to undermine the appeal of mobile gambling and its capacity for boosting operator revenues exponentially across the length and breadth of the UK.

The question that remains, of course, is whether the positives created by mobile gameplay outweigh these challenges and the potential for gambling-related harm?

There can be no doubt that mobile technology and the advent of smartphones have combined to improve market accessibility, while enabling players to seek out a wider array of markets and potential wagers.

Most importantly, however, the rise of online and mobile gambling has encourage both regulators and operators to create a host of increasingly effective and varied responsible gambling tools, which make it easier for players to set deposit limits, manage their activity in real-time and (as we’ve already mentioned) take breaks away from their accounts.

These measures simply didn’t exist before the advent of smartphones, either for desktop gamblers or those who used to frequent brick-and-mortar casinos and bingo halls throughout the UK.

In this respect, we can surmise that while the advent of smartphones may have increased the risk of problem gambling, it has also ushered in a range of tools and measures that can help to protect punters across the board.