The rapid rise in demand for online gambling over the past two decades has brought about ground-breaking advances within the entire gambling industry, as well as a spike in different e-gaming innovations.
The online gambling industry is on the rise, having experienced a multi-fold growth rate over the last year due to the ongoing global pandemic. As the gambling industry continues to reach new heights, it has acted as a catalyst for various e-gaming market innovations. These notable tech advancements and the considerable demand for eSports betting and online gambling have contributed to the rapid expansion of the e-Gaming industry.
Here are some of the most recent e-gaming innovations brought about by a growing online gambling demand.
1. Emergence of Real-Money Gaming
With the popularity of e-gaming on the rise and the gamer community’s rapid growth, it was just a question of time before monetisation opportunities in the market segment would emerge. Additionally, the introduction of money attracted even more players to the industry.
The demand for online entertainment significantly spiked in 2020 due to the lack of available betting markets for sports. Similarly, live streaming options like Twitch appeared, offering further flexibility to gamers. All these factors contributed to making the e-gaming industry profitable in the eyes of sportsbook and casino operators.
2. Focus on Mobile Experience
The rise in demand for mobile gambling has had a massive impact on the mobile casino and gaming industries. With advances in mobile technology and mobile devices’ lower cost, playing and betting via mobile phones has become commonplace.
In 2020, the number of smartphone users reached 3,5 billion, representing a whopping 800 million users more than in 2019. Even though e-gaming is still primarily associated with PCs, mobile e-sports have carved a sizeable market niche for themselves. Additionally, the demand for online gambling has enhanced the quality of mobile games, making them equal, and sometimes better, than their PC equivalents.
3. Integration of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) brought many benefits to any industry, and even though this technology had not always been futuristic, it remained useful. One example is facial recognition technology that greatly benefited developers and e-gamers alike.
Should a developer wish to delve deeper into data that shows which games the users find most entertaining, they would use AI detection technology to detect emotions from player’s mannerisms. Additionally, many e-gaming sites began employing AI to provide customer support solutions to their players.
4. Innovative Graphics
The demand for more gambling and entertainment options has pushed the e-gaming industry in the direction of lavish look and feel. Many moons ago, 8-bit graphics were the industry standard. However, as technology evolved and iGaming began to merge with e-Gaming, things began to change.
Cutting edge graphics have made games appear more realistic than ever. Today, gamers and bettors can experience fully rendered virtual reality worlds, where the visual textures are photorealistic. And better graphics coupled with increased playability make participation that much more attractive.
5. Cloud Gaming and Computing
With the trend of everything shifting to online platforms in full swing, especially in the era where remote gambling and gaming have become standard, it was merely a matter of time before cloud gaming emerged. Cloud technology has helped e-gaming to become more convenient and accessible to everyone.
Also, there is no need for better consoles, powerful hardware and buffed up memory when everything can be operated via clouds. These almost limitless servers store all the images and the games that get transmitted via the internet to the end-users’ devices.
As technology continues to develop further, additional e-gaming innovations will follow suit. And with a more sophisticated market offering, a growing number of new players will be drawn to the market segment. Ultimately, innovation = market growth = player choice.
