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Almost every sports bettor who plays at an online sportsbook often wonder about the future of online sports betting. The introduction of in-play (live) bets and cash-out features in sports betting is an indication of the future of this industry being more mobile-oriented, even more than what we see today. The evolution of the mobile market has completely changed the way people used to make bets on various sporting events. It is the same kind of change that we witnessed when the sports betting market shifted from offline to online.
With more than 70% of bookmakers now trading through mobile devices and apps, it is fair to say that mobile gamification is the future of sports betting.
The evolution of mobile gaming
The mobile sports betting market has grown a lot in the past few years. This growth was obviously inspired by the increase in the number of mobile users across the world. The core process of making a sports bet online remains almost the same, irrespective of the device you are using. However, the mobile technology has greatly affected (mostly improved) the process of communication between bettors and bookmakers. Cash-out and in-play are two of the biggest developments we have seen in the field of online sports gaming in recent years. Let’s find out more about them.
Cash-out: It is a special feature offered by some online sports betting sites, especially mobile sportsbooks, in which a bettor can take his/her cash and winnings and leave the bet anytime during the game. This is an effective way for bettors to secure their profits. As they say in gambling, leave while you’re winning. However, most betting operators do not allow you to cash out before the end of the particular game or round. Cash-out is a technique that provides this facility.
In-play: As the name says, it is a betting type in which you can bet after a particular event has started and anytime before it ends. It is most common in soccer, cricket, and horse racing. Also known as live betting, in-play wagering obviously gives you better odds and more winning opportunities than the regular alternative.
The next biggest change is likely to be in the form of translation of popular mobile games into mobile gambling experience. These games are already liked and used by thousands, even millions, of users who might be interested if given the option of making money by placing bets on their games. The mobile gaming apps have seen a lot of success in these past years, and it is fair to say that this will further motivate other industries like sports betting to try their hands in this field.
Betting in Mobile games
As we already know, internet gambling is not very different from mobile gaming, the only difference being the type of games in the two. The news of the huge success and popularity of mobile games like Candy Crush and Angry Birds is not unknown to anyone. This has further motivated mobile betting operators to come up with new yet similar game ideas for their own purpose.
The display of ads and other money-making techniques is also very common in mobile gaming apps. Therefore, there is a strong possibility that gaming companies may consider introducing the betting feature in their mobile games with the aim to make more money out of them. This will also be preferred by the players as bets are far less annoying than the ads that keep popping during the plays and the players will get a genuine chance to make money out of something they love doing.
There are already some gaming companies as well as sportsbook sites taking required steps in this direction, 888sport being an example. The company has recently launched a new game based on the concept of Pokemon Go, along with the option of free betting. The game makes use of the advanced technologies like geo-tracking and augmented reality (AR) to provide betting options to the players of this game. This was a rather refreshing concept that many other online sports betting sites are looking forward to embedding. However, the one condition that needs to be fulfilled for this concept to work is that the mobile game should be somewhat similar or relevant to the sports industry. This is important to make the existing sports bettors feel that they are still gambling on sports, and not just on some mobile games.
As for the conclusion, gamification definitely seems like the best next move for online sportsbook industry. It might experience some initial hiccups but it is certainly going to work in the long term.