Online Betting to Reach One Trillion Dollars by 2021
Juniper Research has published a whitepaper predicting online betting to garner over a $1 trillion by 2021. The paper suggests that the increasing prominence of virtual reality (VR) and mobile technology. The prediction for this year is $550 billion dollars and a 42% increase is predicted by 2021.
The power of mobile technology is expected to cater to more live streams and other mediums to improve customer engagement. This, in turn, will get more customers and increase wage levels. The amount predicted will be the total amount of bets placed in the year with casinos getting a small percentage of it as revenue.
Lauren Foye, the author of the paper emphasized on the new features that mobile technology could introduce to online betting including live updates on teams and events along with better recommendations for users. All of this is expected to draw in more customers.
Virtual reality will further improve customer engagement by allowing players to explore and bet on real money games in virtual spaces. Experts are currently divided on VR however as it’s adoption into the mass market is slow and expensive. A typical high-end PC that is necessary to deliver an enjoyable experience for users will currently cost around $1200. Foye however, argues that amount will reduce in the next 5 years, making it more accessible for both casinos and users.
Bitcoin, unlike real money, is expected to fall as it is too complex to adopt and has more restrictions worldwide. Top bookmakers in the UK, like William Hill and 888 are the only ones currently offering Bitcoin with the online currency expected to fade out quickly. Foye insists that customized online user engagement is the way forward for the gambling sector.
