2018 Reviewed: The Oohs and Aahs of iGaming

“The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

The proverb, too often erroneously attributed to George Bernard Shaw (it was in fact French novelist Alphonse Karr who thought of it first, heralding the birth of brooding existentialism – such a French invention, through and through) finds its application in a daily life, as we all – unmistakably and without exception – find out that substantial changes, in reality, seldom happen.

Perhaps it may appear too cynical...

...but when one glances back and all he or she can see is the boundless succession of inventions and novelties, trying to wage just how much of an impact they will truly have is as futile as trying to peek through a looking glass.

But thankfully, the hyperdigital age we long entered is overflowing with ideas. It's the old adage proven true, that concepts feed on concepts and realizations initiate new realizations - sometimes out of divine inspiration, sometimes out of spite. It may be a highly competitive dog eat dog world, but this is the essence of evolutionary processes.

Evolution is the prerogative for revolution. And we had quite a bit of that in twenty eighteen.

Now, as we slowly enter 2019 it’s time to look back at 2018 and make a list of ten great innovations and events that have stricken last year.

Gambling industry was flooded with several outstanding moments worth sharing, so here’s a list of those that have caught the attention of us who were impatiently waiting for something exciting to occur.

1. Sports betting and iGaming in USA

Stirring up controversy in United States isn't the hardest thing to do.

Curiously divided between forward looking go-getting spirit (for better of for worse) and fuddy-duddy conservativism (the same), radical changes of any kinds will be met with enough drama to give Shakespeare run for his money.

May 14th will forever go down in US gaming history as the date when Americans' secret love affair with sports betting was finally given legality...

The US Supreme Court has annulled twenty six years of betting prohibition which Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act kept safely tucked away. The ever-trailblazing New Jersey said in 2014 they've had enough of horse racing tracks and casinos not keeping up with world trends, and the Supreme Court listened.

And by the way, while we're at the subject of New Jersey – the online gambling and sports betting that took off this year proved to be a huge hit with the punters, with millions and millions of dollars of revenue flooding in...

...Some analysts even declared the state the next big thing that will dethrone Nevada – newly constructed Hard Rock and Ocean Resorts may have something to do with it.

Surprising as that decision may have been, the shockwaves of sports betting mania that have followed were hard to predict.

The liberalization of sports betting meant that individual states could now take matters into their own hands without the supervision and fatherly (dis)approval from the government...

...New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, West Virginia wasted no time and their lawmakers, (with New York shockingly lagging behind), under the pretext of enforcing the revenue taxes that should bring prosperity to sorely suffering schooling, pensions, healthcare etc. acted very quickly.

The domino effect worked its magic once again, with the question of online gambling legalization rising in numerous jurisdictions.

A curious (or curiously unfortunate story) occurred in Michigan in December, when legalization of online gambling was all but done and the final formality of legislation being signed into a law by the governor remained.

The unthinkable happened, as Gov Rick Snyder – just TWO DAYS prior to leaving his office – vetoed the proposition, leaving the entire state's hopes hanging until some next opportunity.

Behind the scenes, the bare business side of gambling world was just as exciting:

Mergers and acquisitions (with a particular one, joining of two behemoths – MGM and Caesars, who are allegedly in talks – turning most heads), resignations and promotions (Caesars' CEO Frissora's leaving raised eyebrows).

On a more unfortunate and shameful note, Steve Wynn was forced to step down as Wynn Resorts chairman after sexual misconduct allegations filed in February.

2. UKGC: “What's All This, Then?” and Other Compliance Cautionary Tales

United Kingdom is no fuss when it comes to traditional values and “keeping it real”.

In a manner of a full-blooded “bobby” police officer (black uniforms, pointy helmets, remember them?), United Kingdom Gambling Commission won't let a mosquito fly by without the proper paperwork and evidence of its whereabouts, let alone a shady operator.

Talk about setting the example for everyone else!

World's most finely tuned regulator kicked the year off innocently enough with the announcement of pending investigation probing into the honesty of social responsibility policies anti-money laundering policies with 17 operators.

And, sure enough, they drew first blood:

That no one is above the law, not even globally recognized big boys like William Hill, turned true in February when UKGC slapped them on a wrist with a hefty £6.2 million fine for not playing by the rules! Opportunism or “absent-mindedness”? It's open for a debate.

It didn't take too long before 32Red were caught red-handed, too and took a 2 million blow to their account for the same reasons, which perhaps came as an atonement for a bit of an eyebrow-raising decision to somehow let Hooligans Casino slide and seemingly promote footballing misbehavior through their name and image.

Winter began by more wrist-slapping of Casumo and Videoslots for erroneous approach to protecting (or rather failing to protect) vulnerable players

Having replenished their safe deposits over spring and summer, UKGC turned to heavier stuff in the fall. Disturbing but no less reliable reports of underage people (read: kids) having unobstructed access to gaming machines in 90% (let's say it again: NINETY percent) of nation-wide pubs left the public stunned and bewildered.

Immediate course of action followed, with Gambling Commission calling on all involved parties to contribute to the new National Responsible Gambling Strategy that will replace the old one in March and whose sole purpose is to further reduce gambling harm.

Elsewhere, legal compliance was increasingly taken much more seriously. The much-maligned Curacao jurisdiction took a turn for the better with the announced government control that will monitor it “with greater vigilance”.

3. Casinos Enamored With a Moody Bitcoin

In spite of all the bad press rep Bitcoin and other digital currencies have been getting for the unprecedented display of instability demonstrated throughout 2018, they have shown resilience and weathered the storm successfully.

Though that too fluctuated and oscillated left and right...

...It began on a high not, with BitStarz Casino accepting Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin, two biggest hopes of crypto (that was 12 months ago, things are different now). To keep things in equilibrium of good and bad, Australian government announced war on Bitcoin by banning it from gambling realm.

Macau authorities overheard that, apparently, liked the idea and said there was no way crypto gambling will happen any time soon there.

Some light finally appeared at the end of the crypto tunnel when CashBet raised $38 million for world's first crypto-mobile platform, while during summer we saw the release of two new Bitcoin-friendly casinos: CryptoSlots and Mr Bit.

A big dose of much-needed credibility into crypto world of iGaming was injected by Malta who first introduced new cryptocurrency laws...

...and then, under Malta Gaming Authority guidance, introduced Sandbox Framework that accepts broad adoption of virtual tokens in iGaming industry.

All eyes turned to Asia in Q4...

...in September, SoftGamings joined forces with Asia's maiden Bitcoin iGaming aggregator, Asia Live Tech for integration of live dealer games on supplier's platform.

BlockDraw CEO Darin Oliver said in October that China is seeing a major surge in internet traffic and as such presents the world's most promising grounds for cryptocurrency gaming – namely, he sees virtual tokens as the only amenity that can properly serve such a huge market in the long run.

4. Europe: Sweden Gets It Right, Italy...Not So Much?

Turns out, you CAN teach an old dog (or Old Continent) new tricks. From icy Scandinavia to Maltese Mediterranean and from shores of Portugal to windy Uralus, the iGaming regulatory landscape was shapeshifting before our eyes.

Whereas questions of social responsibility were a prevailing matter in UK, only Netherlands (rising concerns about minors abuse) and Belgium (reducing online gambling ads) truly grappled with it in a similar way...

...to some extent, so did Italy, although somewhat more drastic (in line with the newly elected right-wing government policies) by banning all gambling advertising and sponsoring. Later on, Italian authorities approved higher tax rates, much to scrutiny and horror of operators doing business there.

Working in the opposite direction was Russia, who has actually lowered the gambling taxes, hoping it would work as an incentive for operators to get rolling. Poland was all about diversification, with one huge industry brand, Cherry, obtaining the country's license https://jswqzs.com/news/cherry-obtains-polands-sports-betting-license .

Keeping us a bit longer in the former Eastern block is Belarus – the country veiled in mystery because of its strangely isolationist ways has took a rather contemporary step by legalizing online gambling – its due to begin in April this year.

In fall, Slovakia brought forward the legislation that formally legalizes online gambling in this Central European country.

The rain in Spain may well stay mostly in the plain, but it's all sunny with a prospect of awesome as the country marked the 30% GGR increase across all gaming verticals in 2018 – motivating the authorities to form a new regulatory body working on a modernized national strategy.

Big news came from Malta who has introduced its overhauled regulatory framework – Malta Gaming Authority decided to step up and get with the program of “technological revolution that transforms the way gaming is supplied and consumed”, in the words of Chairman Cuschieri.

The new Gaming Act simplifies the way licensing works, creating only two categories – B2B and B2C.

Swiss Parliament updated the twenty years old Money Gaming Act – the new legislation recognizes iGaming for the first time, among other things, but has also stirred a lot of controversy since online gambling business is open only for local operators. This hostility towards foreign companies is seen as a form of censorship and was met with a very vocal opposition.

Year's biggest success story was Sweden, whose Lotteriinspektionen (now Skolinspektionen) turned the country's disarrayed market upside down – re-regulated online gambling scene saw a surge of international operators' interest and was launched to much fanfare on January 1st with most esteemed companies being a part of it.

With all said and done, the defining impression of European iGaming was not the positive one:

As was determined by a study commissioned by European Gaming and Betting Association, online gambling regulations are VERY partially implemented and poorly respected in EU member states...

...in fact, remarkably, it's only Denmark that has a market regulated fully in compliance with European Union Commission Recommendation! All other countries have failed to intervene and apply common standards resulting in massive discrepancies and, only with a varying degree of success, managed to adhere to standards of ensuring personal data safety and implementation of technology.

5. Asia: Macau Strikes Back, Japan Strikes First

At the opposite side of the pond (well, if you're standing on the West Coast), the topsy-turvy world of gambling and iGaming went hand in had and conspired to bring forward a flurry of events...

MASSIVE news from Japan, as Prime Minster Abe and country's parliament proclaimed gambling legal, paving the way to the gradual construction of three to four casino resorts in the coming years.

Being a massive market both in size of population and its economic power and income, the announcement was welcomed with exaltation by all the major gambling companies, with some of them proclaiming Japan top priority, starting a race for a casino construction license (allegedly to be located in Osaka, but that's still under wraps).

Not as bright about its gaming prospects was Australia that first banned lottery betting and then set out to sketch a responsible gambling framework more fitting to the overall situation and prevailing concerns in its society.

World's wealthiest gambling hub, Macau, had quite a rollercoaster of a year...

...The less than promising figures have hit a major hurdle over summer when a severe typhoon forced to close city's casinos for almost two days straight, reducing GGR expectations to nothing but rubbles.

Yet, somehow, against all forecasts, December made a massive 17% year-on-year increase in turnover resulting in highest annual income for the city since 2014! It gets better still, as city's officials made some pretty sparkling predictions for 2019's revenue taxes.

Phillipines announced that country's annual gaming revenue will surpass $1.8 billion whereas in Taiwan, public figures from Academia are calling for the lift of gambling ban in order to alleviate the monstrous $9.7 billion tourism deficit.

6. Trustly Introduces New Payment Method

One of the leading Swedish fintech corporations, Trustly Group in cooperation with MoneyMatrich developed Pay N Play product with a purpose to simplify money transaction process.

With this creative solution, these companies wanted to make sure that users can easily and instantly access their favorite games without filling out any registration forms.

Furthermore, this groundbreaking system has also allowed operators to effortlessly offer their services to the consumers.

Soon after Pay N Play was launched, many casinos were in a rush to implement this brand-new system in order to present their gamblers with a more convenient option.

Now, although many were perfectly satisfied with this innovation, Malta-based casino Casumo took a step forward by authorizing another beneficial payment option from the payment firm called MuchBetter.

Namely, this potentiates players to experience both fast payout and deposit solution and at the same time, decrease transaction costs!

7. Getting Excited With Virtual Reality

This term in no stranger to us, due to the fact that it’s been years since first virtual reality casino was launched.

In the meantime, many casinos have decided to turn to this type of gaming and 2018 has brought some appealing products to avid gamblers.

One of the pioneers last year was Boyd Gaming that blasted-off a superb product (from HTC and IGT) of this kind called Virtual Zone!

This thrilling product enables anyone who is competitive enough to embark on enticing virtual journey that will allow them to grab some valuable rewards!

It comes with two archery-themed games, SiegeVR and ArcheryVR. Both of them are causing positive adrenaline rush and raising fighting spirit that will stimulate you to engage in a bow-and-arrow battle to guard the castle from the malevolent attackers! The score highly depends on the amount of targets hit!

There are two types of “teams”. First where two persons compete for thirty dollars and as a team, the most they can earn on a daily basis is $300.

On the other hand, if only one wants to compete, they can do it for ten dollars per person, earning not more than $125. Both payments are made in Slot Dollars!

With the advent of this innovation, gaming industry has become more attractive even to those who didn’t find it as entertaining as gamers. It has raised the entire gaming experience to a whole new level with its amusing content.

As we stated previously, last year showered us with some of the best titles we’ve seen in a while, when it comes to VR.Although it will be hard to just name a few, we did our best to segregate the ones we’ve played the most.

For instance, admirers of a famous sitcom “Rick and Morty” will be blown away by this strange, yet very interesting game that was developed by HTC Vive, PlayStation VR and Oculus Rift. It will make you feel like you’ve been transported directly into this show. Amazing!

If you’re looking to test your boundaries and bravery, you can freely do it by playing the Resident Evil 7 game that will give you chills all over your body with its terrifying, scary, yet thrilling atmosphere and graphics!

Watch out for these gems

2018 has left a huge trace in the gaming industry with some of these titles, but we have a feeling like this year is going to be even more exciting!

Highly-anticipated titles like Vacation Simulator (where you will do everything humanly possible to enjoy it), Skyworld (real time battles) and many others are about to be released very soon and we can’t wait to test them out!

8. eSports' Major Expansion

Now:

What does this term mean anyway? In a nutshell, it refers to professionals who enjoy competing against each other while at the same time being watched by live audience. Besides the regular people who are in the same room as these competitors, viewers can also track these tournaments online.

Over the last couple of years, this industry has showcased a rapid growth and the last one was no exception.

According to some reports, total emolument in 2018 was approximately $900 million which accentuates a massive difference in financial gain in comparison to 2017 ($655 million) and 2016 ($493 million).

A few months ago, Spectrum uncovered gaming trends that will inundate the industry and as expected, this one was among them.

As we stated above, eSports already had its audience many years before, however, it wasn’t as nearly as popular as it was (and will be) in 2018.

Namely, last year, many leading corporations saw this as a simple solution to gain new consumers that were otherwise out of their reach, hence, they have invested a lot of money precisely into these games and advertising.

Furthermore, the prospects of this industry seem to be even more optimistic for 2020, because it is expected from eSports market to accumulate around $1.5 billion in annual income, mostly from sponsorships and marketing.

The most popular eSports last year were: League of Legends, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and DOTA2.

9. HTML5 As An Upgrader

One of the latest software innovations has already gained a great reputation in the gaming industry.

It hit it out of the blue and instantly brought a lot of spectacular enhancements and advancements.

From this point of view, we can say that it is no longer “a brand-new tool” since many software companies have been utilizing it for quite some time in order to improve their gaming sector.

Not to say we are saying goodbye to Flash...

...Some corporations are still relying on it, but it looks like Flash will be soon left behind.

Why is that? Due to HTML5 flexibility and versatility online games have become faster, more efficient and dynamic in comparison with the ones that were done using Flash.

Advantages of using HTML5 are truly vast. This type of game development doesn’t require too many resources and that is probably its best trait!

Furthermore, it means that it would take much less time for game developers to create a high-quality game by employing this HTML5.

Moreover, the games that were made using this tool can run several platforms, just as long as they comprehend this markup language.

Ever since it entered the gaming industry, it has become a major hit. Some of the biggest companies, not only in this industry, but in general have accepted it almost instantly and gave it their support.

Huge corporations like Apple, Google and are using it and propagate it as one of their favorite technological innovations.

2018 was definitely the year of HTML5 instant games and judging by some reports it will completely overflow the industry in 2019!

10. Gamification and Other Changes in 2018

2018 saw the significant rise in implementation of gamification – in simple terms, it is “the application of game-design elements and game principles in non-game contexts”, according to Wikipedia.

Gamification is used primarily to motivate and boost loyalty, interaction and engagement of users through techniques that game developers and designers apply to non-game environments (such as advertising, for instance) in order to add value to their business.

In iGaming, this concept took hold via engaging missions, bonuses and competitions that ask players to solve tasks – usually in regards to some marketing scheme.

LetsBet Casino is one of online casinos introduced last year that features gamification in addition to live streaming and social integration. In May, Quickspin rolled out their brand new Tournaments feature...

...Substantial part of this feature, its predecessors Achievements Engine and Achievement Races, both implement gamification. The feature, which is “a natural extension” of two aforementioned engines, has event-oriented rewards tied to different games.

The developer followed this endeavor with Challenges in-game advance that adds a second level of gameplay to their slot titles.

In an exclusive interview with LCB, Foxium's Creative Director Daniil Sanders said that as mobile devices become number one choice of accessing online casinos for players world-wide, the games must be created with that in mind. “This also opens up new possibilities for player interaction”, he added.

It’s no secret that smartphones have been popular for many years, but precisely last year was a turning point when it comes to their usage in comparison to other gaming devices like computers and consoles.

Hardware used for mobile phones is continuously enhancing therefore the difference between them and other gadgets has become drastically smaller.

Fortnite is the best example:

Avid gamers are probably familiar with this popular game. What is so interesting about it, is the fact that its mobile version is almost as good as the one designed for consolers and computers.

It was launched last year and it instantly became one of the last year’s favorites! It looks practically the same as the one released in 2017 and it enabled users to play it against each other online through various platforms.

Other Superb Trends In 2018

Several thrilling gaming trends made waves last year. Plethora of games was made for both types of players – those who prefer to have single-player experience and those who are fans of console-quality games.

In the section below, we will give you our personal highlights of 2018:

Personal avatar – Who doesn’t want to have their own avatar that is going to represent you during gameplay? That’s precisely what happened last year!

Namely, by utilizing face recognition technology along with 3D scan, players are now able to make their own replica while they are playing live video games. This innovation will help you transfer your facial expression into the virtual world.

Furthermore, mobile game developers have received an extremely useful sidekick in the form of (Intel RealSense) 3D camera that helps them create games that can adapt to our expressions and emotions.

Tokenization and Blockchain – Even though this hasn’t marked the year as some other events, the truth is, no matter where it is seen, blockchain creates a total revolution. The same thing we can expect when it comes to gaming industry.

Last year, this idea was just in its inception phase, but still, thanks to 2018 we can look forward to bigger developments and improvements.

Now, as far as tokenization is concerned, various companies decided to implement it in order to make sure that not only publishers, but players also gain some profit from gaming. Moreover, via an amazing feature called Proof-Of-Play, users will also be rewarded!

AppsFlyer Statistics

Data analytics and mobile attribution corporation AppsFlyer not long ago launched their “State of Gaming” report from 2018 where they were analyzing the most popular trends among mobile game categories.

2.1 billion non-organic installs from more than 5,000 applications were studied and they split gaming applications into four categories – Hyper Casual, Casual, Casino and Midcore & Strategy. According to these analysis, they came to the conclusion that Hyper Casual category was the one with the highest growth in 2018.

The country that had the most installations of this kind was Brazil and right after them the United States and the United Kingdom followed.

On the other hand, countries like Russia, South Korea and Indonesia were mostly into Midcore & Strategy games, while Australia favored Casino games.

So...Where to Next?

Playing the prophet is a) never quite what it's cracked up to be and b) highly irresponsible - but we'll give it a shot:

The ground that seems most limitless at the present moment is US of A. If 2018 was the foundation of a new sports betting movement, 2019 should cause utter mayhem – already the federal government is plotting to meddle in the affairs of individual state, not quite content with their share of participation. Even professional leagues are getting in on it (NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB and others already making sponsorship deals with key gambling operators) and the market should be all but complete come year's end.

Technology is the one branch of human undertaking that is always certain to deliver...

Hence, Virtual Reality in 2019 should become a norm, not an exception to the rule. As evidenced by Caesars' visionary efforts, iGaming and land-based gambling could merge and blur – there is a whole new generation of post-millennials to attract and connect with and that means re-imagination of casinos' concepts and their level of offering.

Opinions on blockchain are divided: there are still those fiercely opposed to the whole Bitcoin thing, whereas iGaming industry continues to act as a testing facility to see just how far it can go. The upcoming markets of China and Japan – tech savvy and ridiculously populated – will demand something new and quick to use, although more conservative and controlling China might not look at methods that provide anonymity with sympathies.

Whatever 2019 brings, it's bound to make seismic waves. Long gone are the days of baby steps and modest scratching of the surface.

Deep in XXI century, we are living, breathing and dreaming big – and nowhere is this shown with a higher level of conviction than in iGaming industry.

Authors:  Andrej Vidovic and Tatjana Markovic