Online casino games are one of e-commerce’s biggest success stories. Since the late 90s when the number of casino websites jumped from merely 15 to hundreds, the sector has skyrocketed, displaying an extraordinary year-on-year growth. Now, it’s estimated to be worth around $50 billion with that figure tipped to reach almost $60 billion by the end of 2020.
From sportsbook to poker, slots and lotteries, there is no casino game that has not made a smooth transition to the digital world. One of the crucial factors for this success is the effective and quick adaption of the industry in order to meet the demand of consumers. Also, the online space has given a room for the creative ways of product marketing, with no deposit bonus offers to be one of the best online deals. Providers compete on these combinations in order to create the perfect no deposit offer for its players. Another obvious case here is mobile gaming. From having a 7% market share in 2011, mobile is predicted to reach almost 90% of the bets made online by 2025.
Casino gaming is a sector that has been massively rewarded for embracing technological advances. Gaming operators who knew how to read the data and follow the trends have been the ones who predicted the change and player’s behaviour.
The question now is: what’s next? Which innovations in consumer technology will influence the most over the coming years? And most importantly, how will they affect the way people play games online?
Realistic odds and accurate predictions
The global data market is expected to reach over $200 billion by 2022. As of November 2018, 45% of professionals in the business market research industry used big data analytics as a research method. The constantly increasing volume of consumer data that generates from device to device is driving every industry towards deeper personalisation, optimised services and more expansive social insight.
Given the fact that this industry runs on statistics and mathematics, it is no surprise to see casino companies keen to utilise big data to their advantage. All industry leaders now employ teams of big data engineers and technicians who shift the dynamics of the sector in numerous ways. For a bookmaker, data analytics presents the possibility of calculating sportsbook odds with even more scientific accuracy. By comparing the numbers behind the previous matches, they can deep dive into things like score patterns in order to provide more realistic odds to their players.
Big data showed to be equally disruptive in the sportsbook scene. At the World Cup back in 2018, Google made news by utilising data analytics to predict the winners of several matches, getting 90% of the results correct. While this ratio might sound lucrative, some bookmakers strongly point out that these predictions can’t be taken for granted. So, though data analytics is important for the future of online casino games, debates exist about the relevance of all its applications.
Marketing potential
While big data analytics changed the game, it also changed the approach to it. Big data allows a company to personalise its service to the consumer with an exquisite level of preciseness. It clearly illustrates not just the players’ gaming behaviour, but also their other interests and preferences which might not be related to betting. This allows operators to create specifically targeted and tailored marketing campaigns.
And this precision is welcomed by the consumer community. We have chosen the UK Gaming regulations as they continuously aim to improve the authority of this industry. A recent survey found that 70% of the players in the UK would be more loyal to a bookmaker that offered a higher level of personalised service. More than half of them said they do not feel providers are doing enough to offer a more personalised experience. This feeling and impression is typical among the millennial generation. They demand customised products and services and have high expectations of how they will be delivered. According to this, there is a big opportunity for progressive operators to claim this space of potential. They can do this by creating personalised offers and target push notifications to individual players.
Conclusion
Millennials, meaning those who reached adulthood in the late 90s and around the year 2000 now make up 50% off the global workforce. They are entirely comfortable with all forms of consumer technology and are an obvious target for online gaming companies. With the UKGC recently estimating that the number of 20-34-year olds participating in gaming at around 18%, the millennial interest in the sector is growing. Millennials prefer immersive experiences over products. They would rather choose games of skill rather than luck and are curious about new technologies. All of this suggests that if virtual casinos become more accessible, it will be because of the millennial players. Furthermore, virtual casinos can be the novelty that satisfies millennial enthusiasm for online casino games.
