How Online Casinos Have Changed Over the Past Year
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Ever since online gambling made its debut, it has grown significantly. This is not very surprising considering all the doors that the internet opened for lots of business. Despite all that evolution, the sector is still growing in different ways. There is always something new to look forward to.
Now, it is worth noting that things have not been all rosy for the gambling industry. The past year has especially been quite challenging for the industry. This is all thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic whose impact is still being felt across the globe. No industry escaped the effects of the pandemic. Commercial gambling was one of the biggest casualties. To put that into perspective, commercial gambling revenue dropped by a whopping 31 percent in 2020.
Online gambling, however, was not subject to the same things. In fact, over the past year, the sector recorded a surge in growth. After retail casinos and land-based betting venues temporarily closed, lots of people shifted to online betting platforms. This gave online gaming a massive boost. It also impacted such things as market share, industry segmentation, and growth statistics among others. That was just the beginning.
Fresh Offerings from Big Brands
With the surge in demand for online gambling products, established iGaming brands had to step up. Thankfully, they did not back down from this challenge. They scaled up quickly to accommodate the growing customer base. In addition to that, they also made sure to their customers by offering fresh online casino games to keep the fun going.
For online poker lovers, operators such as PokerStars, 888 Poker, partypoker, and GGPoker found ways of keeping their users entertained throughout the pandemic. They did this through new and interesting poker formats. These were further complemented by an impressive lineup of fun and exciting poker tournaments.
Slots are arguably the most popular type of casino game. With casino floors closed or enforcing limited capacities, it was very easy to catch some of that action online. Sites like Slots LV have always held the bar high for amazing online slot experiences. The site had an amazing array of goodies in store for its users. These included the classic branded Slot LV games as well as new and interesting additions. Players could also benefit from the amazing slots.lv no deposit bonus that added even more value to their experience.
All this extended to all other kinds of online casino games. The massive rise in online gambling traffic was an indication of just how big the sector can get. Staying competitive was very important. That leads us to the next way that the iGaming industry changed.
New Online Betting Operations
Even before the pandemic, online gambling activities were already doing very well. The online gambling sector had been growing at a very steady rate. However, the pandemic was a wake-up call for some gambling operators to diversify. Even today, there are still some casino businesses that rely fully on land-based gaming facilities. They were, naturally, some of the biggest losers last year due to all the restrictions that were put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
New online gambling platforms are launched regularly but during the pandemic, there was a notable rise in the number. Several new businesses centered around online gambling were launched. Also, existing casino businesses took the opportunity to try out their luck in the online space. For many of them, this paid off quite decently. For them, this was an opportunity to keep going despite the difficulties. For customers, this was a huge win since they had even more options to choose from.
Other Developments
As the online gambling sector thrived over the past year, it spurred other important developments. Gaming technology, for instance, leaped forward. To make the experience better, operators went all out on leveraging new and experimental tech. Some did work out quite well while others fell short. Still, it is very impressive to see that they could take initiative in the manner that they did.
Perhaps the most notable sector where this was noted was in online casino payments. Online betting and online payments go hand in hand but there are still some limitations especially with mainstream payment options. Thankfully, crypto and blockchain technologies came to the rescue. Lots of new crypto-first online casinos launched over the past year. Even existing online gambling operations now accept digital currencies.
What Next?
The world is slowly recovering from the ravaging impacts of COVID-19. Vaccination efforts have yielded promising results and retail betting facilities in places like the United States are reopening. Things getting back to normal does not, however, necessarily spell doom for the online gambling sector.
There were already huge projections for the sector and these have not changed. Online gambling has carved out a niche of its own and can now co-exist and thrive alongside land-based casinos. Many operators are now even merging both experiences. It all comes down to preference. There is still so much to come and we cannot wait to see how the industry navigates the new landscape that has forever been changed by recent events.
