The gambling industry is currently riding the crest of a wave. Developments in digital technologies and the loosening of restrictions in some countries have seen profits in the gaming sector show steady and sustained growth over the past decade. There has rarely been a better time to invest in the business of betting writes Ben Warrow.

Figures published at the 2015 Irish Gaming Show suggest that Ireland spends a collective €5 billion a year. That equates to €13.8 million a day, or €9,500 per second. Whilst the lottery and established bookmakers account for the established bulk of that spend, it is the online sector that is seeing the most dramatic growth. Currently, 12% of the population use a high street bookmaker regularly, whilst 44% of all adults play the Lotto.

Gaming Providers cry ‘bingo!’

The 24/7 availability of online bingo, casino games and sports betting opportunities on events all around the world represents the perfect marriage of modern technology and consumer appetite. The 16% of the Irish population who regularly gamble online represent a highly active and a rapidly expanding constituency.

Although it is the high end, casino and sports markets that generate the bigger turnovers, it is in the lower stakes, ‘pin-money’ games of bingo, slots and the like that companies such as the Gibraltar-based 32Red generate the foundation of their revenues. 32Red are one of the more successful online specialists which have largely outmanoeuvred the established bookmaking firms such as William Hill, Ladbrokes and Coral whose business models - tied as they have been to high street premises and the high costs associated with them - allow them less scope for investment in the digital arena.

In Association with

Online Streamline

In a marketplace where the user experience is key, being able to deliver state of the art, highly attractive and dynamic gaming options is a sure fire way to generate customer engagement and loyalty. Gaming development is now a multi-million dollar industry in its own right. At the same time, a more streamlined cost base allows for a proportionately greater marketing spend.

Given the highly targeted nature of internet marketing, this makes for an opportunity that is being energetically exploited by ever growing numbers of online brands. At a time of ever-growing technology take up and economic upturn the Irish market offers rich pickings, just as the tech sector more generally stands to provide jobs and growth from the exploitation of this industry sector.

Incentivised innovation

The dynamic affordances of digital technologies are still to be fully exploited by the gaming sector. Current developments include experiments with virtual reality. ‘Immersion’ is very much a buzz word throughout the digital industries. The prospect of being able to play in a 3D virtual reality casino, or to experience a sporting event in a fully immersive virtual reality, is already attracting serious R and D by those online providers who know - better than anyone - that standing still and relying on a pre-existing business model is the one way to fall behind that digital wave.