Mobile Gaming Surge Shakes Up Online Gambling Industry
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Although console and PC gaming will always have places in the hearts of players, the gaming industry cannot ignore the rise of mobile gaming. While this segment of the gaming industry can act as competition for some, it can also provide insights that companies engaging in other entertainment forms can utilize.
The online gambling niche of the entertainment industry is an example of a competitor with mobile game developers for people’s screen time. By gleaning insights from the popularity of mobile games, online casinos can set themselves up to better compete for that attention.
Mobile gaming becomes big business
Denying the popularity of mobile gaming is becomingly increasingly impossible.
The Gaming Spotlight 2022 report showed that mobile games accounted for almost two-thirds of the overall gaming market share in the United States in 2022. The number of global downloads of mobile games in the first quarter of 2021, the report states, was up 45% compared to the same three-month period in 2019.
At the same time, online gambling is also growing in popularity in the US, especially in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. As a matter of fact, BlueWeave consulting analysis projects that the value of online gambling will grow by 16% annually to reach $7.61 billion by 2028.
Part of the reason for that success is that online casinos have taken advantage of how mobile games have prepared players for online gambling apps.
How mobile gaming and online gambling intersect
Successful online gambling titles take some of the basic concepts of mobile games and build upon them. On basic levels, mobile games and online gambling titles are not that different.
In both genres, players have a clear objective and actions to perform to achieve that goal. Succeeding requires understanding the rules of the games in both cases.
There are some key differences, however, that online gambling companies have to overcome. For example, games like slots are those of pure chance while many mobile games reward players’ skill. Surmounting those disparities can make online gambling apps more successful.
Online gambling can mimic mobile games’ strategies
To overcome the contrasts between mobile games and online gambling titles, online casino apps can focus on one aspect of the mobile games that captures players’ attention: narrative. The stories that mobile games provide for players can provide a way to capture their attention according to Nicole Spector of Better by Today.
In the same way, online gambling apps can build stories into their games using characters and landscapes. However, they must do so carefully. The online gambling industry in the US is a highly regulated one. Regulators can penalize online casinos if they feel they are marketing gambling to young audiences.
Perhaps no one is more familiar with gambling regulation than the operators of brick-and-mortar casinos. They too can turn the difficulties they may face from people devoting their attention to mobile games into opportunities instead.
Physical casinos must emphasize their unique value
While people can simply pick up their phones and access games, physical casinos can provide experiences that mobile games simply cannot match. Examples of this include amenities and social settings for game play.
Successful brick-and-mortar casinos will use online gambling as a way to drive interest in their facilities, selling those experiences to players in the gaming apps. The gambling industry does not need to fear the rise of mobile gaming if it can adapt and learn from that growth.
