Last Updated: 3 december 2024
Forecast for the development of online gambling
In September 2022, the consultancy company Grand View Research presented the report Online Gambling Market Size and Growth, 2030. According to analysts, the annual worldwide growth rate of online gambling (including sports betting, casinos, poker, and bingo) will reach 11.7% on average until 2030. The company’s experts currently estimate the global market at $57, 54 billion. Grand View Research’s last forecast was made before the pandemic in 2019 and contained a prediction of 11.5%.
Experts cite the continued increase in Internet penetration around the world as the main reason for the market’s growth. As a consequence, there is an increase in adoption of smartphones and easy access to all gaming platforms and mobile apps.
Likewise, Business Research announced its forecast in September. The Global Online Gambling Market Report 2022 predicts the online gambling market to reach $115.13 billion by 2026 with an average annual growth rate of 9.2%.
On the near-term outlook: in 2022, the online gambling market will grow to $81.08 billion – up from $73.42 billion in 2021. Consequently, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) will be 10.4%. In 2021, the largest region was Asia-Pacific (Australia, Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, USA, Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, Japan, Russia and others). Eastern Europe (including the Baltic States, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania) is expected to be the fastest growing region for online casino and sports betting by 2026.
Experts attribute the growth of the gaming market to several factors:
- The resumption of work and the adaptation of companies after COVID-19. For example, VR headsets have recently become a revolutionary addition to the world of online gambling and have gained considerable popularity. Now, any player can actually `enter’ a virtual casino and play all the games without having to travel.
- The introduction of smartphones with improved internet accessibility. According to Cisco’s annual report, the total number of internet users worldwide is projected to grow to 5.3 billion by 2023, at an average annual growth rate of 6%, while the number of smartphones is expected to grow by 7%. Even now, the use of mobile devices dominates worldwide, with around 80% of all players in most countries.
- Another important stimulus for the gambling and betting market is blockchain. Online gambling is often accused of being closed, which gives an advantage to fraudsters. Thanks to blockchain technology, everyone will be able to see exactly what is happening “on the inside”.
In the meantime, Business Research experts have also identified the main reason slowing down the development and promotion of online gambling and betting. Online gambling laws vary greatly from region to region. Most countries have their own local laws that regulate the relevant legal and regulatory issues. Meanwhile, licensed gambling and betting sites are required to operate legally, ethically and safely. Therefore, the complexity, strict and uneven laws in different countries may hinder the growth of the global online gambling market.
Several other predictions for the development of online gambling have been published previously:
- in July 2022, Sports Value analysts predicted that the global sports betting market will grow to USD 200 billion by 2025;
- in July, the Asian Racing Federation predicted the growth of illegal betting in Asia over the next 10 years;
- in March 2022, experts at Global Industry Analysts Incorporated announced that the global online and land-based casino market will reach $153.2 billion by early 2027. This market is currently valued at $129.2 billion.
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