A New Year for Online/Mobile Gambling Innovation

We are just reaching the new year, a time of year when industrial experts like to make predictions on how the market will grow in the year to come.  This comes, of course, along with looking back at a year of rapid growth and ingenious innovation.  This is particularly true in the fast-moving online and mobile gambling sector, which is being fuelled by the surge in smartphones and internet use.

We have heard many expert opinions of late, particularly when regarding the state of online gambling in the United States and the global gambling market.  With internet gambling recently launched in New Jersey (as well as Delaware and Nevada), many states are set to be following suit and jumping on the online gambling bandwagon.  The knock-on effect on other states has been predicted to have a domino effect.

There have been considerations of allowing online poker only, which is a game of skill, as opposed to purely luck.  This is looking less and less feasible by the day and it is more likely that the whole suite of gambling products will be permitted together.  As we enter 2014, keep your eyes on Colorado, Pennsylvania, Illinois and California, who are supposed to be the next states to follow suit.  However, there are many who still believe that it will be many years before they allow online gambling within the state borders.

Impact of Mobile Gambling Innovation

Any of the predictions for the future of the mobile gambling industry are relating to the fact that mobile gambling innovation will be able to reach more end users with the improving quality of the gambling applications and marketing of mobile websites.  Operators will need to be far more creative to a bid to gain a larger audience and payment method providers will have to come up with newer methods to minimise the potentially high risk of fraud.

Juniper Research

Wireless industry consultant Juniper Research has predicted that the number of mobile gamblers will reach over 100 million by 2018.  Their recent report stated that “164 million people will either place a bet, visit a mobile casino or buy a lottery ticket on their device in 2018.

The increasing ease of using mobile devices has proved that it is significantly more effortless and convenient to place bets from the comfort of your mobile device.  There is absolutely nothing that implies that this trend is going to stop.