The global Gaming Industry is going through radical changes, primarily driven by consumers. The explosive adoption of Smartphone and Tablets and new emerging markets in developing countries have pushed the number of players, social casinos and online gambling websites. According to SuperData Research the estimated value of social casino sector across all platforms remains $1.7 billion in 2013, driven by 173 million players worldwide. The industry will record nearly 50% growth in next 2 years, consequently, the projected value of social casino sector will touch $2.5 billion by 2015.
The global online gaming market is largely dominated by ASIA-PACIFIC and North America, enjoying 34% of total market share each. Europe, Middle East and Africa combined take 28% of total market. Social Casino and Online Gambling market has helped the industry to grow by leaps and bounds in last few years. European companies are trying to attract more number of players by offering various Promo Codes and Bonus points, likes of William Hill bonus. Infact, developers’ rapid adoption of mobile devices has allowed companies to reach higher number of players on any platform, with innovative and unique games.
Social Casino and Online Gambling operators focus on the uniqueness of their product, with a heavy emphasis on technological development; Chief technology officers of such operators are often founders or board-level executives. This helps the operators to focus more on high-level metrics such as return on investment and revenues, whereas social casino businesses use in-depth analysis, looking at players’ behavior patterns, in order to determine how best to improve the user experience of their games.
However, this is resulting in crowded online social casino industry and operators have started focusing on mobile devices being lucrative channels to generate more revenue. Apple’s iPhone and iPad have emerged as key devices, generating highest revenue for operators compare to other smart phones and Tablet devices.
As a future road map there are five key trends that are shaping and defining the future if Social Casio market; More number of devices, Free games, Services, Business Model balancing act and Global market place. Eventually, the future is heavily dependent on whether there is likely to be any form of regulation introduced. It remains very unlikely that it will be considered to be a sub-section of real-money gambling.
