The iGaming industry is predicted to grow by more than 10 percent and become an industry worth almost $100 billion by 2024. That’s the word from Transparency Market Research (TMR), a company that specializes in trend research studies.
After reviewing the past year and its plethora of developments, TMR compiled a report on the state of the market for 2016. According to its projections, online gambling should achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.4 percent by 2024.
Heading Towards $100 Billion
If that prediction comes to fruition, online betting will be worth $96.89 billion within the next seven years. Part of the reason for this level of growth is the recent culture of acquisitions and mergers that have categorized the last two years of internet operations.
From Paddy Power and Betfair to Ladbrokes and Gala, the iGaming industry saw a number of powerful coalitions formed in recent years that impacted revenues in 2016. These deals sparked a series of spikes in the industry’s value, according to TMR, but it’s also restricting potential growth.
As outlined in the report, TMR believes that the current nature of the market “leaves very little scope for service differentiation.” The upshot of this is that new player numbers may be set to fall, as they struggle to find any difference between competing operators.
Moreover, the ever-present struggle between operators and lawmakers around the world could also cause the industry to grow less rapidly than it otherwise would in coming years. Although the exact impact of regulation is tough to determine, the report does suggest that taxation and regulatory laws may leave “little scope for growth for new entrants.”
Innovation is Crucial
Looking forward at ways the iGaming industry could evolve and expand in the coming years, analysts behind the report point to mobile gaming, live streaming and “gamification” as ways of encouraging new players to sign up. As it stands, mobile betting and live streams are already in place across many of the major operators. It’s now simply a case of refining and enhancing these offerings to attract more consumers.
Gamification, however, appears to be an area that, so far, operators are missing. In technical terms, gamification is the addition of gaming features (i.e. rules of engagement, points scoring, leaderboards, etc.) to other areas of activity. In this sense, online operators need to find more ways to make betting more like a video game.
Naturally, poker is already “gamified,” but there could be scope for more. Ideas like the Global Poker League have added various eSports elements to the production and execution of tournament poker, but this could be just the tip of the iceberg.
With operators now hoping to tap into social gaming markets, we could see even more new forms of play and innovations that will appeal to casual gamers as we head towards 2024.
