Big business: How the online casino industry became a juggernaut | TheCable

Even people who have zero interest in online casinos could have noticed the rise and rise of the industry. Little more than a decade ago, this sector was small and niche, yet now it’s mainstream — and it’ll likely stay that way for a long time to come. After years of promise, the online casino industry has well and truly arrived, and it ain’t going anywhere.

The numbers behind the industry are staggering. It’s already worth close to $100 billion and will experience a CAGR of some 6.4% through 2029. By 2029, there’ll be an estimated 280 million worldwide users.

All pretty impressive stuff, but how did the industry get there? The first online casino opened in 1994, but it wasn’t until several decades later that the industry really took off. Let’s take a look at how it happened.

Widespread Tech Adoption

The first online casino may have appeared in 1994, but at that time, there really were not many people using the internet, and even those who did use the web were not using it for substantial things. It was more for sending emails. Fast forward to today, and everyone uses the internet, all the time. The list of things that people won’t do online is becoming smaller and smaller, and it doesn’t include visiting a casino. As with online shopping, it took a while for consumers to become secure with using a digital version of brick-and-mortar casinos, but once they did, they didn’t look back.

Creative, Innovative Work

Of course, consumers wouldn’t have flocked to online casinos just because they’d become comfortable doing things online. The products on offer had to be good, as good as what they’d find in the real world.

And that’s just what happened. In recent years, the industry has invested significantly in two areas in particular: innovation and creativity. The technology that underpins online casinos is robust, efficient, and fast. The games look good and run well. The industry has been able to attract top developmental and creative talent, which is reflected by the sheer quality of the games on offer. You don’t build a $100 billion juggernaut without having excellent products, and the online casino industry has them in abundance.

Customer Offers and Deals

Though it’s a popular industry, there actually aren’t too many real-world casinos around. Most cities don’t have a single one, and most people live a significant drive away from their nearest. Yet, with the click of a button, consumers can easily access an online casino. That’s been hugely advantageous to consumers, not just because it provides convenience, but because online casinos are all too happy to offer offers and deals as a way to encourage new users to try their website, which means they can get more bang for their buck. Oddschecker is keeping this list with new casinos updated, which makes it easy to see just how prevalent the use of offers and deals is. Once a user has seen how much more convenient an online casino is, they’ll usually stick around, and it’s those offers that allow consumers to trial a website in a relatively low-risk way.

Cutting-Edge Investment

The online casino industry has been slowly but surely growing in recent years. But if you thought that the industry would rest on its laurels, then think again. Unlike many other industries, the online casino industry has shown time and time again that it’s more than willing to reinvest its profits to ensure that it can offer an even better experience to its users. While the current experience is excellent, in the coming years we’ll likely see the introduction of AR and VR technologies, which will help to create an even more immersive experience.

The Dream Becomes Reality

It took a long time for the promise of the online casino industry to become a reality, but it feels like we’ve finally gotten there. And with plenty of projected growth, it might just be the case that things are just getting started.