Or how online casino operators used technology to go ahead last year in 2018 and some future insight for 2019. James Tweddle is working on gaming-focused marketing agency. He shares his views of the year of 2018, which was also a stellar year for the online casino operators.
Online casino operators are saying that time never stands still, and innovation in online gambling is no different. In 2017 the reports from the Gambling Commission saw that the Gross Gambling Yield had a leap in UK with 1,8% and showed no signs of slow down in 2018. This leap is because of largely increase of advances in customer technology and betting technology. The year 2018 was a promising year for the casino industry.
Although there is no doubt in abundance of breakthroughs, like VR-related casino games, the casino operators still believe that the main technology advances are put into three factors: mobile technology, software improvements and shared liquidity.
The Mobile Gaming Technology
Once upon a time, there were desktops, and desktops were kings towards casino and sports betting. However, a shift of technology happened and it came and the people’s habits changed worldwide. The rise of mobile gaming has been fast and significant. The casino industry noticed that in 2018, 164 million of people in the world gambled on mobile devices. The millennials or people aged between 25-34 are the biggest adopters of mobile technology.
The most popular platform will go towards mobile version casino games, because the use of mobile platform is rising fast. The use of traditional web casino is still big, but the numbers are going down. The loading times is quicker on mobile, the internet data is reasonable and the competition gets more fierce, but the only way is going up, for the people and for the casino operators.
The biggest shift that happened in 2018 was the expansion of gaming apps in mobile app stores. At the end of 2017, Apple and Google allowed the casino apps to add their games in the app stores. The uptake was swift, because last year the numbers of casino games ascended. Mobile technology is the future in everything. The year of 2018, was the year where those that were ahead of the curve will pull away and a large part of them will be down to technology and software improvements.
The Software Improvements of Casinos
This area is often overlooked, however it is crucial. The software improvements are essential, because they allow the casinos to keep up in the ever-increasing race to offer players the latest and greatest casino games.
Improvements are not just about increasing the library of slots and table games. It’s also about how they look, and how fast they play and load. There are too many old casino sites that load slow and are putting the players off as the time goes by. Marketing agencies are often asked to help improve the sites and they are often asked to discuss the technology needed to keep the casinos at cutting edge.
Aside from such improvements, which are constantly needed to add upgrades for online casinos, there isn’t a known modern casino software. The only improvements that are seen in online casino websites are the servers being upgraded, coding, such as javascript updated and newer platforms added.
One of the biggest upgrade in 2018 is the platform of supporting cryptocurrencies. More and more operators embrace the benefits of cryptocurrency, blockchain and tailored virtual currency of Bitcoin and others. Several online casinos and bookmakers have already updated to support and accept the cryptocurrency.
About Shared Liquidity
There is a lot of hype for new technologies, but perhaps for the casino industry the biggest revolution in 2018 is the stem of an older idea, updated for the 21st century, the shared liquidity.
On 6th July, 2017, the online gambling regulators from France, Italy, Spain and Portugal came together in Rome and signed an historic agreement, allowing shared liquidity between the countries for the very first time.
This means that these countries will be able to share online poker player tools. This sharing is happening instantly, opening up some of the biggest nations in Europe to play against each other. Such an agreement has been in talks ever since first online poker was launched. Unfortunately, in order for shared liquidity to happen, years had passed and technology had to catch up too, in order to make it possible. As an example, Portugal agreed for a shared technicality framework in January, 2017, just to be sure that the whole process was technologically possible.
The first breakthrough was in USA, where the states of Nevada and Delaware signed a pact in March, 2015 for shared liquidity. They began sharing player pools in the same year. The success of this endeavour has been headed after three years on a much wider, four-country scale. Perhaps one day, we will see this image worldwide.
Since technology is the engine of online casinos, many online casinos from UK and other parts of the world are pushing forward many advances every year across different online gambling sectors. Each online casino has a different way to approach players, as we seen in 2018. Only time will tell if 2018 will remain the year to remember for the casino industry.