Group Admins
Are Payment Methods The New Battleground For Innovation In Casino Gaming?
Public Group active 6 days, 14 hours agoAny company that can get ahead in the online casino industry stands to gain enormously. The market continues to grow at an electrifying speed. While this growth was impressive a decade ago, the changing dynamic of the last few years has meant that millions more casino gamers in the US and Canada can now access digital casinos.
This exponential surge in new users and the multi-billion dollar potential awaiting those companies that can crack the code has meant that innovators and designers within the industry are scrambling over each other to try and get their noses in front, with an increasing number believing this opportunity lies in the world of payment methods.
The Growth Of Casino Payment Solutions
Inevitably, a slot game or a casino gaming idea will grab the iGaming world by storm over the next few years. However, these events won’t occur with anywhere near the same consistency as they did back in the early 2000s when the industry was finding its feet and was genuinely starting to disrupt the traditional casino gaming world. The pool is getting smaller for possible billion-dollar creations.
What does this mean? It means a bottleneck, market saturation, a finite number of games, and a growing number of designers and platforms trying to stamp their trademarks on them. However, it also means innovators will stop at nothing to find an unexplored area of the casino industry that could hold the key to success. This is where payment methods enter the fore.
There was a time when casino games that pay real money were the only innovation people cared about. Of all the changes the internet was bringing in, casino gaming was one of the first to harness the potential, bridging gaps between security and convenience to develop ideas that were light years ahead of their time.
21st Century & Beyond
Obviously, casinos that pay real money are still one of the hottest tickets in town. Still, for new providers who are looking to the future, there’s a growing number of fintech solutions that could push the boundaries even further and ensure that digital casinos begin to utilize every possible avenue they have at their disposal.
As the number of online casinos started to explode in the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s, the world of fintech also experienced a raft of fresh ideas. PayPal was the first out of the traps, teaming up with eBay and quickly establishing itself as the spearhead of a new digital payment industry opening up online. PayPal’s value surpassed eBay due to its exponential expansion into other areas of the digital economy.
PayPal continues to play a prominent role in digital finance. While the company has experienced a slump over the last few years, its recent announcements that it’s been eyeing a venture into cryptocurrency, allowing its business customers to buy and trade assets like Bitcoin, show that it is committed to looking ahead rather than behind.
More interestingly, for casino gamers, this means that designers are keen to follow where the money goes. Cryptocurrency wasn’t considered a viable avenue for casino gaming a decade ago; now, it’s a multi-billion dollar sector within iGaming, growing in popularity each year.
Can AI Or VR Muscle In?
Payment methods do provide legroom for designers to stretch and explore new terrain. However, in an industry that is so vast and never stops moving, other possible innovations could become more prominent in casino gaming.
One of the more likely candidates for this title is VR gaming, which, although initially discussed with almost little to no fanfare, is something that is starting to gather momentum again following the news that Mark Zuckerberg is within a whisker of toppling Jeff Bezos as the world’s third richest man, adding over $60 billion to his net worth this year due to his convictions and early investments in VR technology, but also AI, just for the record.
AI in casino gaming is more nuanced, and while we might see some developments in the technology that lead to significant changes over the next decade, VR and payment methods are set to be the primary battleground for designers between now and 2030.
Conclusion
Cryptocurrency payments could prove to be the new battleground for innovation. Even though fintech continues to find ways to make casino gaming more convenient, the rise of Bitcoin and the potential for the next bull run in 2025 will help it ride the wave of change in the iGaming world.
While it still needs to undergo the mass adoption witnessed with mobile apps in the 2010s, the signs are looking increasingly promising. Crucially, those who use crypto casinos will know that the process is more convenient and considered just as secure as a traditional digital casino.
Suppose the market share increases dramatically over the next 18 months. In that case, payment methods will almost certainly be the main focus for innovators within the casino gaming sector. Still, this timeline is crucial, and for those who have been in the industry for a decade or more, these shifts and patterns can also change quickly to accommodate new ideas and trends.