“Mobile First” were the words that came from Eric Schmidt, Chairman and former CEO of Google, at 2010 Mobile world congress.
Google realized this early, and they did whatever it takes to bring the most innovative products to mobile first. They realized this in year 2007, when both Android and iPhone changed the way we interact with smartphones.
Technology is advancing rapidly these days, and businesses that want to stay competitive have to find ways of adapting themselves to these changes – with the alternative effectively being obsolescence. One of the major areas of our lives which is being affected by these developments is that of leisure and entertainment, and a number of industries – particularly the music, are struggling to find a viable business model for themselves within this. However, there is one exception to all these i.e. Gambling.
According to a February 2010 comScore MobiLens study of the U.S. mobile gaming market, smartphone subscribers are much more likely to play mobile casino games than subscribers of generic phones. The study revealed that 7.6% of smartphone subscribers and 1.2% of generic mobile subscribers played mobile casino games within a three month time frame.
The gambling industry has proven itself to be extremely resilient and adaptable in the past. Luckily enough, when gambling sites started, they already thought of “mobile first” and since the early days, all big companies like poker.ladbrokes.com were ready for it. When the internet began to revolutionize entertainment in the 1990s, the music industry was blindsided by this and subsequently attempted to resist these changes rather than adapting itself to them. By contrast the major gambling firms quickly developed online versions of their services while a number of new, smaller companies also emerged.
Soon after they transitioned to the mobile, Gambling revenues tripled. They realized the ability to be able to Gamble from anywhere payoffs well. Even today, gambling sector and with other entertainment areas became one of the most profitable leisure industries of all. This is likely to remain the case because both the big and the small online gambling sites have spotted the rise of mobile technology, and are adapting their services again, via mobile poker sites and downloadable gambling apps for phones.
Try searching for any Gambling game on any platform’s App Store. E.g. Poker on Play store yields thousands of games.
According to a Juniper Research report from 2010, the total sum wagered on mobile casino games is expected to surpass $48 billion US dollars by 2015. The report bases this prediction on the high growth rates of mobile casinos, lotteries and sports betting providers in major emerging markets and China; liberalization of mobile gambling legislation in Europe; United States repealing the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, permitting people in the US to legally gamble online again.
A 2010 Gartner forecast sees 2014 global mobile gambling revenues reach $11.4 billion dollars.
Other findings from the Mobile Gambling Markets report include:
- End-users have eschewed multiplayer mobile gambling apps, preferring to multitask while playing “snacking” applications
- While Apple & other App Stores allow gambling apps to be sold via the App Store, the majority of service providers are opting for a browser-based approach. Perhaps to build one app for all smartphones.
The latest data available is from March 2011, when there were a total of approximately 100 casino style mobile games which permit the use of real money.
Mobile Gambling is big market, and people are betting big on it. It doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
We write latest and greatest in Tech Guides, Apple, iPhone, Tablets, Android, Open Source, Latest in Tech, subscribe to us @geeknizer OR on Facebook Fanpage, Google+
loading...
loading...