The term ‘online gambling’ involves all types of games of chance, which are based on any risk, including sports betting, poker, and lottery. Every year the gaming and sports betting industry is growing rapidly. Nowadays, the majority of leaders in this sphere try to make online gambling websites more universal and provide a large variety of games to the clients: from sports betting to poker and bingo. In most cases, they make a network of sites on different subjects, not only the marketplace sites, where all kinds are present on a page.
Some types of entertainment in the online gambling market:
- Poker, where you can play against each other or against computer programs, take part in the competitions
- Casino - all the main games that you can play in any gaming institution are available for players
- Sports betting - money bets on the outcome of sports events, which are made on the bookmaker’s website
- Bingo
- Lotteries - but they are strictly controlled in many countries by local governments because they are a significant source of income for funds.
How Big is the iGaming Industry?
Owing to such factors as the development of existing technologies (for example, apps and smartphones) and the growth of the digitalization sphere in the world, the industry of online gambling is growing rapidly in several countries. That’s why the iGaming market has been rising for years. According to research by Ivan Montik, founder of SoftSwiss, the online gambling market is increasing by 20% every year. Many businessmen think that gambling is a really profitable affair, which will bring them billions without any difficulty or investment. But the business of iGaming requires sizable sums of investment and carries a lot of risks. The main thing is to research the online gambling market and its rules. And be ready not only to put money into launching and developing the brand but also to be ready for large payments. This is especially evident when buying the license.
How Big is the Legal Gambling Industry?
Currently, there are a lot of large suppliers of software for online gambling sites around the world. Although gambling is considered illegal in the countries of the CIS, that does not prevent Russia from creating software for it to export to countries in Europe and the USA. And thereby, they make a lot of money.
In all major online gambling markets, strict rules for the coordination of such types of business are established. One of the leaders in the USA’s market is controlled in each state individually. The same situation is in Europe. Therefore, it’s almost impossible to get into it illegally. These days, online gambling licenses for businesses are issued on a local level: for countries where the company operates. It is no longer possible to process legal documents on the islands. For example, if you want to move forward in the UK, you have to get a British license.
Talking about the online gambling market in the USA and Europe and its size, it’s an affordable investment. If you have enough cash for the input and are ready to wait until the business pays off (from 3 to 5 years), the income will surprise you. Online gambling is a multi-billion-dollar recess, where there is enough cash for everyone.
What About Sports Betting?
It is known that sports betting is a type of online gambling because it includes all games of chance in general. The customers of bookmaker firms have the opportunity to place bets on different events. Online gambling is forbidden in many countries, for example, in the CIS countries and in Asia. But sports betting is most frequently an exception and is a completely legal field of activity. Sometimes, it’s really expensive to get a license in some countries, which is why the owners of sports betting companies buy licenses from Curacao. Bookmakers with permits from offshore zones face more lucrative tax requirements and propose players a large variety of bonuses and the most optimal rates.
Every year, the gaming and sports betting industry is growing rapidly. Especially in the wake of the COVID-19 impact, people are taking part in this type of entertainment and trying to take their share of the cake. In Europe, Gross Gambling Revenues (GGR) are the highest in Italy, Spain, the UK, France, and Germany. And Europe takes 53% of the world’s online gambling market.
Forecasts for 2022
As mentioned, Europe takes 53% of the world’s online gambling market. For example, in 2019, 41% of GGR in Europe came from online sports betting. It was predicted to amount to 24.7 billion Euros, not only from sports betting but also online casinos and lotteries. In the European Business Review report, the online gambling industry was forecasted to be valued at 27 billion Euros by 2022, with significant market growth.
As for the USA, the record revenue of the gambling industry is $387 million and was predicted to be worth $7 billion by 2025. As stated by an article by Technavio, the sports betting industry and online gambling market size are forecasted to grow by $36.4 billion by 2022.
Active gaming and tech companies in the markets today include:
- Esports Entertainment Group
- Skilz
- Golden Nugget Online Gaming, Inc.
- FansUnite Entertainment Inc.
