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Mobile gambling continues to trend upward
Last year, mobile gaming managed to surpass PC and console gaming in revenue for the first time in history. With mobile bringing in $41 billion in revenue versus PC gaming’s haul of $34 billion and console’s $6.6, it is by now a widely accepted fact that mobile is not just the future of gaming, but we have finally arrived fully to the mobile gaming era.
Video games are not the only gaming industry that has hugely benefitted from the advent of mobile gaming technology and the ever present availability it presents to players. The iGaming industry, as the online gambling industry is commonly known as, has also turned its focus towards the mobile market and seen huge growth across the board, which has resulted in often record revenues in 2016 and the first two quarters of 2017.
Allowing players to easily place bets on live sporting events, popular casino games and lotteries from virtually anywhere, mobile betting has provided a much needed boost to the industry. Recognizing the potential very early on, online casinos like Betiton, LeoVegas and Voodoo Dreams have focused almost exclusively on building innovative mobile platforms and have since become industry pillars thanks to their efforts.
Mobile betting takes over Kindred Group
In an interim report released in April, The Kindred Group - the parent company of the hugely successful brand Unibet, amongst others - reported a record in revenue for the 1st quarter of 2017. In the first three months of the year ending in March 31st, the Kindred Group experienced revenue of £153.2m, around a 25% growth on the same period last year.
While active customer ranks also increased 22% to a new record of £1.23m, what was most telling about the report was the remarkable performance attained by their mobile platforms. Kindred’s mobile gross earnings exceeded expectations to grow 53% year-on-year, and managed to account for an extraordinary 73% of the overall revenue from Q1.
Growth in verticals like Sports betting (23% to £66.4m), Casino games (26% to £77.4m), Poker (16% to £3.7m) and ‘other’ products (50% to £5.7m) can be directly correlated with the outstanding performance in mobile during this period, and Q3 numbers are on track to continue this trend.
Mobile casino boosts Betsson’s revenue
Nordic online gambling giant Betsson has also seen strong growth in its mobile casino platform, which was instrumental in helping them compensate for disappointing results in their sportsbetting division to still accomplish a 7% rise in revenue for Q4 2016.
While their core casino revenue rose 20% during this period, it was mobile casino that led the way showing revenue growth of 83% from year to year. Meanwhile, the Mobile revenue across all verticals also grew an impressive 46% to SEK 546.8m, which has now led mobile to account for a 49% of the group revenue.
These numbers reflect the huge focus that Betsson has put into building a massive mobile platform, which they have routinely claimed is now the world’s largest mobile casino. Having rolled out a new OBG mobile platform last year that features over 1300 casino games available for mobile players, Betsson has not only achieved impressive results, but have certainly made a case for their grandiose claim.
LeoVegas impresses with Q2 2017 revenue
While Betsson’s 49% mobile-based revenue is certainly impressive, mobile betting pioneers LeoVegas can boast even bigger mobile numbers for their Q2 2017. The Swedish-based casino operator has reported a 60% overall revenue growth, jumping from €31 million in 2016 to €49.7 million in this year’s showing.
In a statement released by the company, Gustaf Hagman CEO and co-founder of LeoVegas made it a point to explain how the credit to their growth relied on the strength of their mobile platform:
“LeoVegas has clearly taken the position as the most innovative and mobile-focused company – something we have gained attention for with countless accolades in industry publications and which can be seen in our figures of mobile gaming… LeoVegas’ growth is proof that we are positioned right with our mobile focus.”
While in the past LeoVegas has mostly focused on the Swedish market, the strength of their brand and their mobile platform has allowed them to gain traction in the notoriously difficult British and Danish markets, helping them improve operating profit from a loss of €2.8 million last year to €5.5 million in 2017. This brings LeoVegas’ revenue for the first half of 2017 to €93.6m – an impressive 55% growth on the same period last year.
Mobile shows no signs of slowing down
With most of the top sportsbooks and casinos managing to cash in on the mobile phenomenon and maximize their revenue, the momentum gained by the mobile gambling industry is not showing any signs that it is likely to slow down any time soon.
In fact, according to the Transparency Market Research (TMR), it is expected that online gambling will grow as much as 10.8% by 2024, becoming a close to €100 billion industry in the process. The research firm expects that users of smartphone, tablet and other electronic media devices will continue to lead the way toward the new era of the global online gambling and betting markets, while also leaving room for new technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality to join mobile betting in revolutionizing gambling for years to come.
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