Current Challenges for the Gambling IndustryBy Angelica Malin

The world is constantly changing, which is causing a lot of changes in different business niches, including gambling. In this article, we have tried to analyze the key challenges that have arisen in the online gambling market over the past two years and what to expect in 2022. So keep reading to know how the segment is going to evolve.

Modern challenges for the gambling business can be divided into several categories:

• A new generation of players;
• Boosted user experience;
• High competition.

Let’s dive deep into each of them so that you have an idea of what’s going on in the market.

New Generation of Players

As practice shows, there are more and more Z-generation players in online casinos. They have a completely different attitude to gambling compared to the older audience. According to industry experts, the young audience is mobile and social. As a result, modern gambling platforms are projected to be socialized and gamified.

Unlike the older generation, who played for winnings, it is experience, emotions, and feelings that are extremely important for the Z generation. Youngsters do not want to break a big jackpot; they are hungry for bright emotions. In addition, younger players avoid linear experience and seek more immersion in the gameplay process, thus, giving preference to the dynamic gambling content. The new generation is also more financially literate, so gambling companies have had a problem finding the right balance between gambling and payouts.

Boosted User Experience

It may sometimes happen that one technical or graphic error is enough for a gambler to go to your competitor and play there. The operator should always check that the graphics or interface works perfectly. Thus, you need to see how games are displayed and run on different types of devices. It is unlikely that a player will play from a pc all the time; therefore, casino responsiveness is so important. You can find 100% mobile-friendly sites in CasinoLuck’s ratings; it is enough to pick just any casino from the list

Market Oversaturation & High Competition

Due to the high popularity of the gambling business, the market is filled with a large number of operators and affiliated companies. Such tough competition poses another problem – buying traffic and promoting new products is becoming more expensive and difficult.

Six years ago, there were several studios providing gambling services. Nowadays, hundreds of companies and products are launched every week or so. Of course, this is a great advantage for players. The more gambling platforms are available – the better the experience is. But for the operator, this often results in the inability to effectively monetize new products at rather volatile costs for their promotion.

In addition, the gambling market has recently become quite global, and gambling giants are beginning to occupy key positions. These are large international holdings with billions in budgets that can easily buy out a group of companies to enter a new market. Of course, large budgets and state-of-the-art platforms make it possible to attract players with quality and recoup the costs of acquiring traffic and retaining users.

Those who operate on small marketing budgets need to seriously consider their strategies for attracting players. The lack of visibility on the Internet, along with the lack of a competitive product, is a serious problem for medium and small operators. And even if you manage to attract a new audience cheaply, you still need to keep it. 

What to Expect in 2022

Analysts estimate that the gambling industry may face a number of challenges next year, some of which are related to the following trends:

• The potential tightening regulations – the pandemic and the growing popularity of online gambling have created a real boom among lawmakers to limit the work of operators in 2020-2021, so it is possible that this trend will continue;
• The younger generation – some of them are interested in gambling, but most youngsters still prefer computer gaming services. This is a significant threat to operators, as it promises to reduce audiences in the long run;
• Cryptocurrency – today this type of payment instrument is moving the world in seven-mile steps, but not all operators have adapted to the use of cryptocurrencies. And if they do, it’s mostly Bitcoin or Ether. However, there are several other cryptocurrencies that have seriously gained in value and popularity;
• Market growth is a positive trend – but it has its drawbacks. In particular, the market is oversaturated and competition is intensifying;
• Mobile gambling – the growing share of mobile applications is a phenomenon that originated at the beginning of the pandemic and is actively continuing. It has become convenient for players to place bets through applications, so more and more operators are beginning to develop their own solutions. In addition, this is noticed by other companies. For example, Google this year allowed the placement of gambling applications in the Play Market for a number of countries, so this trend will continue.

No matter if you are a gambling operator or a gambler, the new trends in market development open a lot of opportunities to you. As an entrepreneur, you can scale your business better following the key market trends. At the same time, gamblers have a lot of options and can always switch between different gambling sites without being limited to a couple of options.