💵 The Biggest Transfer of Power in the iGaming Industry that Nobody Wants to Talk About

A perfect storm of technology, the limitations of PLCs and regulations are pushing the biggest power and wealth shift the iGaming Industry has ever seen

For the past two decades, iGaming has been following a pattern of consolidation. An industry with growing barriers to entry, whether it be regulatory, technology, software fees, setup fees, or content costs, it’s relatively easy to enter, but difficult to succeed.

In recent times we have seen Flutter PLC absorb Betfair, SkyBet, PaddyPower and local stars such as Adjarabet. Whilst Entain has done the same with Gala, Coral, Ladbrokes (and local star EuropeBet) and even 888 with an inevitable William Hill merger.

Sympathetic stakeholders refer to this as consolidation, whereas those who have been beaten out by these behemoths refer to this activity as the monopolisation of the iGaming industry.

Combined with a shift towards many markets requiring a local license to operate such as Romania, The Netherlands, France, and Italy (although an enigma of a market in of itself), betting on the status quo understandably seems like a sure thing. Customers will gamble more in ’24 than they did in ’23, and time spent on screen is also increasing post covid — so what is the big change that is happening as you read this that these groups are secretly worrying about?

The Perfect Storm of Blockchain and GambleFi

Love it, hate it, much like Blackrock starting a Bitcoin ETF, GambleFi is here to stay.

The big players are unburdened by the bureaucracy of these big groups, have a higher appetite for risk and are far more aligned with their users than the likes of Flutter who are actually more concerned for their institutional investors. Whilst this is good in the short term, the longterm impact will become apparent in the future as users vote with their feet and leave for more engaging platforms.

As of the time of writing, we have reached a stage where the main GambleFi platforms have a significant technological lead on the likes of PaddyPower or Betsson.

For these brands to pivot (if they even decided to) it will be as difficult as changing the course of the Titanic 5 minutes before hitting the iceberg —

Whilst it’s possible, but there will be so much internal dialogue, it will likely make the difference between crashing whilst having a debate on how to change course or hitting the iceberg in blissful ignorance -or maybe in the case of some executives they might manage to jump overboard and quietly sailing off before the tragedy unfolds.

Whilst analysts (both internal at these groups and external) have estimated the outflow of customers, and GGR, to proof is in the pudding.

Flutter’s PaddyPower: Casino Page requires login, regisration process burdensome, lack of consistent navigation.

PaddyPower Homepage / LP: Incredible Amount of Whitespace, Needless Interchangeable Currency on Graphics, Not a Single Game or Promotion of Note Showcased

Not to pick on Paddy, they are doing very well on paper — But, as a product they are a useful comparison as they are a major player with a huge budget, thus should represent more or less the best that these groups have to offer and whilst it might not be that bad, it is not 2024 impressive.

HighStakes Homepage: Engaging Navigation, Providers and Curated Games Shown Above the Cut and Promotions for all Users that are Easy to Access

HighStakes Casino Provider Page: Ability to Deep Search Casino Games, Review Providers, View in depth stats like RTP, Volality. Recognition of a more tech savvy audience who wish for a game like, platform type experience.

Shuffle Gameplay Page: Ability to see Live Stats as You Play. Multiple Gameplay views Available. In depth media inspired experience.

Finally, a traditional local operator, which does not represent the cutting edge of what the traditional gaming groups have to offer, but possibly has localised intelligence as a USP, such as local bank transfers, localised promotions and bets:

MozzartBet is a Leading Balkan Based Operator likely benefitting from local brand familiarity. However, in many of these local markets the younger audience are naturally more “international”, thus making the local USPs less powerful than they might have once been.

Insulated by institutional investors, high level media deals and in some cases such as Ladbrokes and Coral a (decreasing) land based presence, it will be a difficult task to combat the product-first brands that statistically users find more enjoyable and engaging. In fact, it might well be the case that to mention such a phenomenon as a credible threat to watch, only has a negative impact for your career development.

Sometimes it is better to let sleeping dogs lie than risk a bite

This is why the biggest shift of power in iGaming (and Gambling) of possibly all time might go uncontested, and maybe only addressed by these behemoths via acquisition (if at all).

Watch This Space and if you believe you have the marketing prowess to take advantage of this power shift 📧 Contact 180 for a technologically superior iGaming Platform.