Industry Growth in the Time of Corona Proves the Rule of iGaming

New behavioral data drove solid industry gains for Q1 2020, also known as the Corona Quarter.

Betting Growth

The growth was driven most of all by a massive increase in online betting accounts, estimated by research at 41%.

Research actually credits the current online climate as a direct factor in across-the-board increases in online gambling.

Players are Responsible Overall

One key lockdown-centric behavioral indice reveals that people already using online casinos are inclined to gamble more when at home, with time at home figures skyrocketing during COVID-19.

Responsible gambling was actually an important and highly relied upon if not comforting activity for filling time during the lockdown.

Online Gambling Dropped

Another figure published by UK news service The Guardian revealed that many people actually reduced their online gambling habits since the lockdown, which research says explains the rise in betting.

Betting Increase Explained

The increasing pool of players who added betting accounts was gained from a minority of people the greater overall gaming market segment—in other words, more people registered betting accounts, but the amount still represented a minority of the overall amount of people who regularly gamble.

New Interest in eSports

Even the sports shutdowns have not hurt sports betting markets too badly; with research finding many sports fans adapting their competitive betting proclivities to eSports gamers, spurring a rise in odds offerings from sports bookmakers on eSports competitions.

Government's Protective Intervention

All of this takes place against well-known crackdowns from governments to protect the players in their jurisdictions from problem gambling.

Spain banned gambling ads; while the UK considered cracking down on daily limits--eventually abstaining due to fears such measures would drive licensed play underground to illegal underground casinos where there were no protections.

Nonetheless, the UK did manage to impose a credit card ban on betting sites during the lockdown, which turned out to be a significant step towards protecting vulnerable players during the lockdowns.

Casino Market Expansion

The casino market actually looks set to expand now, in light of landmark-type events such as the Ladbrokes-Coral merger set to drive a rise in betting shops and the land-based offerings across the UK. 

Conclusion

So what do we make of the study? There is no reason not to trust players ability to protect themselves and gamble responsibly, and the COVID lockdowns expanded safe play more than tempting players into destructive habits.

Outlook

Research overall indicates the system worked during Corona, with publicized measures in major EU jurisdictions complementing rather than “covering” safe adaptation of an inherently resilient iGaming market model to the challenging conditions imposed by the lockdowns.