The sports betting industry was relatively unharmed by the events of 2020. The accompanying economic slowdown did not seem to affect it. Sports industry analysts say that the performance could be stronger than expected when 2020 numbers are out. The high growth is a continuing trend in which the sports betting industry is expected to grow to around $9 billion by 2025. What will be the main drivers of sports betting in the near future?
Move to the Mobile Platform
Currently smartphone ownership is about half of the total mobile ownership. There are an estimated 2 billion smartphones in the world. Around 72% of internet users will access the internet solely on smartphones by 2025.
Mobile gaming is seeing strong growth because of the advantages the mobile offers over other platforms. Mobiles are convenient. The mobile has become an all-round purpose gadget for communication, information and entertainment. A smartphone is the first choice to use for sports betting since the owner is already using it and carrying it around.
Sports betting players have noted the shift and moved quickly to adopt the trend. All major sportsbooks offer their platforms on mobile apps. They have further moved to ring fence their current markets, and attract more clients with incentives. There are very attractive betting offers & betting accounts and more are coming online each day.
New smartphone ownership by young people will also have an expansionary effect on the sports betting market. Young people are more comfortable using smartphones. They will readily access sports betting apps on their smartphones. The barriers to entry are lower on a smartphone than walking to a betting shop or on the computer.
Higher Adoption of Crypto Payments
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoins are becoming more mainstream, as more people adopt them for investment and payments. Some casinos have already started accepting Bitcoins deposits. It has become easier to make crypto payments direct from mobile wallets. The steps are fewer than paying from a credit card or bank transfer.
Higher adoption of crypto will see more crypto payments for everyday situations including sports betting. Betting operators have their own reasons to accept the crypto payments. They are cheaper to process unlike credit card and other bank related payments. Lower transaction costs allow betting operators to offer higher odds since they have better margins. Better odds attract more customers.
Growth of US Sports Betting
The US Supreme Court struck down restrictive betting laws in 2018. Since then, 21 states have legalized sports betting with 13 allowing mobile betting. Sports betting has generated more than $2.5 billion in revenue.
The US is potentially the biggest sports betting market. Sports industry analysts in the US expect this market to hit $81 billion in 2024. The American Gaming Association has even more optimistic forecasts of $150 billion growth. The forecast is on the basis that illegal gambling could be as high as $123 billion today.
Explosion of Sports Betting Operators
The sports betting industry is currently dominated by fewer than 15 major players. But the lucrative numbers will prove very tempting for new investors. The US market is pretty much up for grabs considering there are about 4 major players currently.
The proliferation of sports betting operators will be further pushed by white label licenses offered by the major player. This mode of licensing has lowered barriers to market entry a great deal. Any investor with $50,000 can buy a white label and start pulling in customers with smart marketing. The big players encourage it because they get their cut.
Market forces will push the US market to high liberalization as it is in Europe, where there are numerous small betting operators. Betting customers will have more choices and better incentives as the competition heats up.
Big Data Application
Betting companies are already collecting massive amounts of data with their apps. Deep learning algorithms are getting better at analyzing this data to create highly accurate user profilers. In a few years’ time, betting operators will deliver customized betting odds depending on the player risk profile they create.
Robotic play is a very likely possibility in the near future. Robots are already proficient in fluid data situations like forex trading. Betting robots with the ability to scour and analyze through thousands of games will dramatically change betting.
Growth of eSports and Virtual Sports
eSports currently attracts over 443 million fans. They have become serious betting markets with thousands of play opportunities. There are more eSports coming onto betting platforms every day. Virtual sports modeled on real-life sports, teams and players have become a viable alternative when the game is off-season. These two markets will become bigger as the gaming community gets onto betting platforms to root for their favorite players.
There are few industries with such promising prospects as sports betting. More players, more operators and higher incentives will make for very interesting developments.