If you've ever visited an online casino, whether that's for slots, card games, sports betting or anything else, you'll probably not think of it as being a very 'tech-heavy' experience. After all, most casinos aim to make the whole experience silky smooth for players from start to finish,
You may be surprised then that iGaming, the industry behind online betting, is one of the most tech-forward entertainment industries in the world today.
What goes into iGaming?
As an industry, iGaming covers every kind of online betting, in particular slots and table games. It's also something that's probably a lot more familiar than you'd think, as many of the big traditional betting names have moved online. In 2022, you can now play online roulette at Paddy Power as well as slots, live games, card games and so many more, not to mention their original sports betting options.
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It's no surprise that so many of the old guards are going digital; iGaming, as a global industry is worth around £60 billion and that number is always increasing. It is even expected to crack £100 billion within the 2020s. Behind everything is a massive toolbox of tech.
What is standard tech in iGaming?
Starting with the websites themselves, there's a lot of tech behind the scenes. Aside from hosting the games themselves, they require special software to process payments from various sources, now including a range of cryptocurrencies in many cases. Most sites also have custom-made features for triggering things like bonuses and event prizes under certain conditions.
Then you have the games themselves, which have grown more and more elaborate over the years. From the action-packed slots with wild and explosive themes, produced at the same quality as any high-end mobile video game, to a completely different direction with the elaborate live games that emulate a host of nostalgic game shows, the range is incredible.
That last example now includes advanced tech like Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, an industry which itself is worth around £60 billion in 2022 and set to hit a nearly £300 billion value in 2024 according to experts Statista.
What tech comes next?
One of the biggest pains when it comes to technology is making any kind of prediction about the future. That's because the rate of development over the last few years has been incredible, and iGaming has been no exception.
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VR and AR continue to develop in unique ways, and as those technologies become more accessible to people, we can expect more investment in that side. Crypto gambling as a sub-sector of iGaming as a whole is rising rapidly in popularity, more than doubling in value between 2021 and 2021 as reported by crypto gambling leader SOFTSWISS.
Overall, the trend in online betting is to enhance the amount of interactivity for the player. One area that has a lot of potential is in projects like the Metaverse and its fully virtual worlds. It wouldn't be surprising, in a few years, for the big-name casinos to have their own spaces in this world, with fully digital hosts and games.