As 2022 is now in full flow and spring is almost upon us, one trend that continues to thrive is the popularity of online casino gaming. It won’t be long until you will be able to find a smartphone in every American’s pocket, a device that grants access to the web and a plethora of apps.
Casino games have consistently proved popular at app stores worldwide, as roulette, fruit machine and poker games find new fans on a monthly basis. Popular slots titles like Rainbow Riches have capitalized on their popularity by launching Rainbow Riches Casino, putting their entire series of games in one place as well as including some exciting new additions.
The digital revolution has been revitalizing for the market but what new trends are on the horizon for the casino world?
Virtual Reality (VR)
VR has had a few false starts over the decades, often at least one weak link in the technology chain letting it down. For a long time it was the quality of the displays that could simply not achieve a high enough resolution at the small sizes they were necessary to be at. Battery life and power issues were other limiting factors but it seems now, all the pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place.
Products like the Oculus Quest 2, Valve Index and Sony’s affordable Playstation VR have set the standard for consumer headsets and controllers. And the complementary software developed for the platform has advanced in tandem with the hardware.
VR casinos are already a reality, where players are able to transport themselves to a fully functioning digital casino, and all the classic games that you’d expect to find there. These worlds have the possibility to bring a social element back to online casinos, as players will be able to interact with one another if they wish.
Meta’s (Facebook) recently launched Metaverse has not had the most positive reception but it certainly represents a sign of things to come.
Augmented reality (AR) tech exists in the same sphere. AR attempts to interface the real world with the digital, usually through smart glasses that project a 3D image onto your current environment. Rather than being transported to an alternative world, AR would allow users to place casino games in their front rooms.
Smartwatches
25 billion smartwatches are forecasted to be sold by 2025 and we expect developers to be looking to make their products more compatible with the hardware. Wearable tech on the whole is set to be a huge growth market – smart rings, bracelets, clothing and headwear – and we’re interested to see how the casino industry will take advantage of it.
Esports
The esports universe continues to move into the mainstream attracting huge viewerships, participant numbers, prize pools, and funding. Casinos are no strangers to online competition – poker was arguably one of the first esports to breakthrough. Other casino games are poised to join the fray, blackjack being a likely contender. A good metric from which to measure these emerging trends is their popularity on the biggest game streaming site, Twitch.
Crypto Casinos
Cryptocurrencies continued making an impact on the financial world, several coins establishing themselves as legitimate tender.
Many crypto casinos are already in operation, some of which promote their own token which can be used on their site. We expect to see more casinos accepting cryptocurrencies as a payment option; because if they don’t, some customers will likely go elsewhere.
Expanding Markets
Globally, there has been a move towards more lenient legislation surrounding the casino industry. Over the following twelve months, many new and emerging markets will become available and existing casinos will look to capitalize on this. There will, however, be increased native competition from within these zones.
Cloud Gaming
Subscription services and cloud gaming have become a popular pricing model for modern companies. One restriction of small devices like smartphones is they cannot compete with the processors of consoles and desktop PCs.
In a cloud gaming system, much of that processing is carried out remotely on powerful servers. All the user’s device needs is a lightning-fast internet connection, which more of us are gaining access to.
It will be interesting to see if casinos adopt a similar model with their products, making use of more demanding software and adopting a subscription payment framework like Netflix, Spotify and Google Stadia.
Further Innovation
Competition is fierce within the casino industry and falling behind will certainly result in failure. As a consequence, the gaming sector has always been a hotbed of innovation.
The UK experienced a huge resurgence in the dying pastime of bingo which is now an online staple. Not long after, New Jersey real estate developer, Sal Falciglia Sr. created slingo – a portmanteau of the ever popular slots and the newly revived bingo.
In 2022, gaming companies will endeavor to stay one step ahead of the pack and try to conceive the next big thing – their research and development teams having no opportunity to ease off.
Casinos have always been early adopters of the latest tech and it doesn’t look like that is about to change. And as the proliferation of 5G networks expands plus communications firms rolling out a greater number of unlimited data plans, more of us will be able to enjoy the upcoming casino trends in 2022.
