iGaming - How Technology Created an Industry |
Posted: September 26, 2019 |
Technology has a habit of regularly disrupting industries. Recent examples include ride-sharing apps disrupting the taxi industry, streaming services disrupting the TV and film industry, and e-commerce changing the face of retail forever. There are also many industries that pundits are claiming are on the edge of being disrupted very shortly, which will change the way we visit our doctors, buy insurance and educate ourselves. This is by no means a new phenomenon. Rapid developments in technology during the 18th and 19th centuries completely changed the way we grew food, produced clothes, and traveled around. The disruption of the industrial revolution was on a scale that was significantly larger than what we see today. It didn’t just change production methods and transport, it completely changed the way humans lived. For example, Uber may have changed the way we order and pay for a taxi, but the development of railroads meant that we could travel to distant lands, without giving up weeks and months of our time. Since then, refinements and developments in technology have made incremental improvements to our lives. Providing convenience, improved safety, and more reliability in our lives. Every so often, technology still does create new industries. One prime example of this is iGaming, which was born when the perfect conditions of technological advancements (computers and the internet) and legalization (the passing of the Free Trade and Processing Zone Act by Antigua and Barbuda in 1994). This sparked a race to be the first company to provide an online casino, which saw the first iGaming platform launch in late 1995, with several others launched shortly afterward. This meant that for the first-time consumers could place wagers on card games like poker and casino games like roulette, without needing to visit a physical, land-based casino. The popularity of these services quickly took off, and very quickly, consumers were spending millions of dollars each year on online poker. iGaming vs. eCommerce – the Birth of a New Industry, Not the Disruption of Another Some many argue that the gaming and casino sector was disrupted by the development of iGaming. However, recent market analysis has shown that traditional bookmakers in the UK have experienced growth for most of the time, the iGaming industry has existed. Besides, casinos and resorts in Las Vegas have continued to see growth after a dip around the time of the 2008-9 financial crisis. The city of Las Vegas has faced a lot more competition domestically and abroad though, as other US states and countries have begun legalizing casinos and poker rooms. Casinos and bookmakers have not been negatively affected by people choosing to play roulette, and Texas Hold’em online. In contrast, the rise of the e-commerce industry has seen a decline in the traditional brick and motor stores. Shopping malls are closing right across the United States, and British high streets are seeing more and more shuttered shops and retail chains go out of business and downsize. This can also be seen in the music industry, which was heavily disrupted when consumers began buying their songs from services like iTunes, or streaming them through Spotify, instead of buying physical media from stores. Developing Technology Technology did not just create the iGaming industry. As it grew and improved, the industry was able to innovate and add new features and services to provide a more enjoyable experience for customers. While online poker rooms and casinos have been around since 1995, the early services would be almost unrecognizable today. Slow internet connections, low powered computers, and less advanced versions of internet mark-up languages meant that first online casinos had limited graphics and were quite simplistic in their interfaces. This quickly changed as the technology developed, computers got more powerful, and internet connections got faster. Online casinos could add 3D graphics, stereo sounds, animations and other features that helped to provide a better overall experience that kept in line with the offerings of video games. Mobile The next major step for the iGaming industry was to embrace the developments in mobile technology. This saw mobile poker and casino apps released for iPhones, iPads, and Android smartphones and tablets. These mobile apps mostly just ported the existing games onto these new pocket-sized devices, allowing iGaming customers to play from anywhere, at any time. For example, it’s possible to enjoy a game of poker while taking the train to work, play bingo while watching TV, and enjoy slots games while standing in a queue. This made iGaming more accessible and appealing to a wider audience, making it a more casual experience that could be enjoyed for short periods. Live Poker - Adding in More Realism As a result of the technological constraints of the time, the first online casinos of the early 1990s were very primitive in their offering. This removed all of the human interaction required to play casino and card games, which previously required a player to physically visit a land-based casino and speak to the dealer or croupier. For many, this was a bonus as they wanted the freedom to play from wherever and focus on the game, rather than make conversation with others. For others, though, the social interaction from visiting a casino was part of the fun and added positively to the experience. For this reason, iGaming platforms have been seeking ways to add more of the realism back into their products. One early approach to do this was to add chat features into the games, allowing opponents to talk to each other while playing. This was featured heavily in bingo games targeted at women but also starred in poker and other casino games. Going further, iGaming platforms have begun adding live poker and casino games to their offering. Live poker games are where a live video feed is broadcast to players, featuring a live dealer who can talk and interact with the players. This brings back a major crucial element of the human interaction that features heavily in traditional land-based poker games. Virtual Reality Virtual reality technology in gaming is not new, as Nintendo experimented with it through its Virtual Boy console in the 1990s. However, it quickly learned that the technology was not ready, and the console was discontinued rapidly. It was brought back into the realm in the early 2010s when companies like Oculus began selling more advanced virtual reality headsets. This started a race by tech companies and games console manufacturers to release hardware and games that could take advantage of virtual reality. Although the success of this has been mixed, with Microsoft announcing it will cease working on a VR system for the Xbox, the iGaming industry has begun to offer virtual reality poker and casino games. Virtual reality takes the live poker and casino experience to the next level by immersing players in a 360-degree, 3D world. This fully immersive experience goes one step further than live casinos as it places the player at the center of the game, instead of providing a window into a 2D world. While virtual reality does add back in many of the immersive and human elements lost from visiting traditional casinos, it does require cumbersome and expensive hardware that may restrict its popularity. Overall, the iGaming industry is one that has been created by developments in technology. The companies that run iGaming services have continued to embrace changes in technology by providing new products like live poker and virtual reality casinos. They have also made their games more convenient and accessible by embracing mobile technology that has allowed their customers to play from anywhere, without being tied to a computer. While technological developments have changed industries, to the detriment of existing players in the market (for example retail and music), iGaming is a new industry in itself that has been able to coexist alongside traditional casinos without harming their growth.
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