The international online casino market has never been bigger, but what factors have led to its global success, and what might the future hold? Read more details about this resilient and growing part of the global economy.
The State of the Global Online Casino Market
While some business sectors have struggled in recent years, one that has seen continual growth is the global online casino market. As part of the wider and more successful general betting market that includes sports betting, lotteries, bingo, and other forms of gambling, online casinos have benefited from resilience in years of turmoil, as the pandemic swept across the world disrupted many other forms of entertainment. But it would be a mistake to see the pattern of growth in the sector as one that is only down to the healthcare crisis, as online casinos have been rising in value for many years in a consistent fashion.
From 2022 to 2023, the global gambling market increased by 56%, according to The Business Research Company. This entailed an increase from $449bn to $$702bn, which occurred during some lingering effects of COVID-19 (and the economic impact of countermeasures taken in 2020-21) and the Russian invasion of Ukraine which has damaged the global economy and stoked inflation.
Future Expectations
Given recent rapid growth, the future may be expected to be bright for the global online casino market. The worldwide online casino market, around $7.3bn in 2022, is estimated to grow at around 6% per year, meaning it should increase to $9.9bn in 2027. While this is obviously dramatically less than the most recent period, which saw stunning growth for the overall gambling market, the fact continual growth is projected, given the economic difficulty much of the world finds itself in, is cause for optimism.
In addition, as explained further below, there remains untapped and obvious potential for future improvements based on technology. These include live streaming and VR, making live dealer tables even more immersive, and, further down the line, the use of AR (augmented reality) wearable tech to further integrate games into a compelling experience.
Best International Online Casinos
Growth is very much a good thing, and in the online casino world, that applies to the number of available games, bonuses, and casinos themselves. More choice and high levels of competition also make it a player’s market, enabling bettors to benefit from ever more generous introductory and ongoing promotions and having an ever larger range of games from which to pick. The downside, however, of all this growth is that selecting where to play can become something like a chore. Instead of trawling the internet themselves, players can easily find the best online casinos as Top10casinos.com has more of the top sites concisely and objectively reviewed for your consideration. This makes it easy to quickly compare the offerings of the leading online betting platforms before deciding which online casino or casino to join.
What Leading Casinos Offer
While some external factors have helped to drive forward the popularity of online casinos (perhaps most notably the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and ensuing lockdowns that made many other diversions inaccessible), the main reason that the online casino sector has seen strong trend growth is down to a continually improving product. Technological advancement is now so regular it has become, ironically, a fixture of the modern world. People expect and look forward to online activities becoming faster, more immersive, with better graphics and superior sound. And since its inception decades ago, the online casino world has been keen to adopt fledgling technologies and make the most of the opportunities enabled by the latest advances.
Both online casinos and the games they offer are fully mobile-compatible, making it convenient for those who like to game on the go (or prefer a smartphone to a personal computer or laptop). While the numbers are currently few, leading software providers are experimenting with VR (virtual reality) games, a medium well-suited to casino games, as the main problem VR faces in video games is locomotion. E-sports has become a big deal through live streaming on Twitch, and in casino gaming live streaming technology has translated into live dealer tables (another area that could be a good fit for VR in the near future).
But it’s not only technological advances that have seen the online casino sector’s most impressive sites continually improve. Another major factor is the fierce competition for players, which has helped to drive up the quality of available bonuses (especially no deposit promos that offer the chance of winning real cash with no risk of loss). And, for existing players, loyalty programs offer a recurring incentive to stick around and benefit from earning points that can be exchanged for various rewards. The international online casino sector also means a wide array of banking methods is usually available, from old favorites like credit and debit cards to e-wallets and cryptocurrency and some nation-specific methods (such as Canada’s Interac).
Social Casinos
An interesting and relatively recent development in the online casino sector is the social casino. While these involve depositing cash and playing games of chance, there is no way to profit as in regular gambling. Instead, prizes won involve in-game currency or virtual items, and there is an emphasis on the social aspect of playing online. On the worldwide stage, social casinos were worth $4.64bn in 2020, and while this remains significantly smaller than traditional casinos, it does mark an interesting development.
The online casino sector has seen strong global growth amid economic headwinds in recent years. There’s every reason to expect this growth to continue despite tough economic times.