Prediction markets, casinos, altcoins & global industry: examining the future course of iGaming
When online gambling sites began to emerge at the start of this century, there was cautious optimism among many providers who had put their faith in the rise of the digital economy. Conventional casinos were not as buoyant about the prospects, nor were they particularly open to the idea that the industry’s future would increasingly be influenced by international players playing casino games from home.
Conventional casinos have had to adjust to the way the market has spiralled into the digital universe. Over the last decade, any innovation in the iGaming market has emerged solely from digital platforms and their commitment to integrating fintech ideas, as well as broader technological ingenuity.
Giving conventional ideas a makeover
Many niche casino gaming markets have found an audience thanks to the vastness of the internet, but the main driving force behind the continual growth of the iGaming market has stemmed from casino gaming classics that became stalwarts of the industry long before the internet existed.
Games like roulette, which have been around for centuries, have moved from conventional tables to online websites, to mobile apps, and, more recently, to innovative tech such as VR, cryptocurrency, and blockchain.
However, the core of online roulette has remained largely the same. Online roulette casino table gaming options have several caveats, but they primarily concern how people play, whether they are playing on their phone or using digital payment options to access online roulette tables.
For instance, the rise of the online roulette market has created a new avenue for those looking to learn about strategies and tips.
These ideas and strategies are not new additions to classic casino games like roulette, but they are free to access online and leverage free resources like YouTube. This completely digital approach, and the fact that this market is now entirely online, has created a market for altcoins, prediction markets, and igaming companies to rethink how they operate within the digital ecosystem.
Leveraging the blockchain – pros & cons
The gambling market, especially the online, global dynamic that has unfolded particularly over the last decade, has highlighted just how much potential there is for the igaming market to expand into the crypto world.
Prediction gambling markets have become an industry worth tens of billions of dollars, but even as little as the beginning of this decade, there wasn’t that much of a market for them. The relaxed approach of large, prominent economies and their favorable outlook on the development of blockchain prediction markets have opened a highly profitable, aggressively growing sector that has unfolded across North American markets over the last couple of years.
These markets operate as futures, rather than conventional betting, and within this technicality, they can expand aggressively into markets. By utilising the blockchain, allowing people to set up their own outcome markets, and have people buy shares on the outcome, the decentralised element of crypto betting, which resulted in the rise of a transparent, highly secure payment system, has now become the fabric of prediction markets, where people can essentially create their own markets and bet against other people on the outcome.
Their success has surprised many in the igaming world, with some even predicting it could become a trillion-dollar market by the end of the decade, which again highlights the potential of crypto and blockchain gambling and the influence it will have in reshaping the fabric of the digital gambling industry.
Can conventional casinos adapt?
Conventional casinos have adapted. However, the aggressive growth of prediction markets and the US’s growing dominance in casino gaming could spell trouble for some of the more established betting sites that have been at the top of the market for the last quarter of a century.
Global markets present opportunities for people, but for those who scraped and clawed their way to the top of the industry, they will not be happy that prediction markets masquerading as futures trading and entirely digital forms of payment are looking increasingly like the future fabric of the industry.
We’ve seen traditional financial juggernauts like Goldman Sachs file for Bitcoin ETFs recently, so the idea that crypto casinos will not see the same level of capital and intrigue is naïve.
We’ve seen conventional casinos adopt a more modular, flexible approach to fintech integration. Many now have an array of altcoins alongside their conventional payment systems, and those with the capital have also leveraged their brand visibility to invest in future technologies.
Prediction markets are still in their formative years, and the true test will come when conventional casinos push back against their aggressive dominance, particularly in the US. However, as more people use the blockchain to invest in and trade crypto, the iGaming market is changing, moving increasingly on-chain. Prediction markets and crypto casinos seem to be the next logical step.
