Present-day trends in betting market evolution
The betting market is considered one of the most dynamic. It is constantly evolving and growing, new marketing ploys are being developed, and the target audience is expanding. Every season brings us new interesting bets. All of this has a positive effect on the industry's income. Although in 2020 the betting industry suffered losses due to the pandemic and restrictions in the work of physical establishments, the difficulties encountered became an impetus and brought bookmakers to a new level. Experts have assessed the situation and formulated forecasts for the industry for 2021.
According to analysts, several major trends will dominate the betting market this year. One of the main trends that has become a necessity during the pandemic is the digitalization of the industry. Those bettors, who were forced to go online, now appreciate the convenience of this format, and therefore not everyone will return to bricks and mortar bookmaker offices.
On the one hand, the pandemic contributed to the development of online betting, and on the other hand, it has tightened people's purse strings. Estimating the overall solvency of players, analysts assume that the average bet size will decrease. Bookmakers will have to invest in marketing and advertising to retain customers, which will become another major development factor.
It is also expected that bookmakers will rely more on mobile sites and applications. This trend has been traced over the past few years and every new company entering the betting market has an extensive mobile website, as well as applications with numerous features, including the live broadcasting of sports events.
Tax-free gambling is a new solution in the world of betting. When promoting their services, bookmakers, especially new ones, pay taxes themselves. They do it during promotions and also as permanent offers. Bookmakers create favourable conditions for players by reducing their own margin.
The popularity of bitcoin and other types of digital money systems fuels their use as a payment instrument. Soon, all betting providers will accept cryptocurrency bets. Some bookmakers may well leave this method of payment as the only one available. The list of bookmakers accepting bets with cryptocurrency is published on the bookmaker-ratings.com website.
Recently the client audience has become younger. This is supported by the development and promotion of e-sports competitions. Although not so long ago betting on such events was considered something peculiar, today virtual sports events are just as important for bettors as traditional sports.
During the quarantine, exotic bets on events taking place in different countries have gained worldwide popularity, for example on the results of elections, the date of the end of quarantine, or the results of international movie awards events and song contests.
In almost all countries that are the centres of the global gambling industry, one can see the strengthening of control over this sector accompanied by tightening of legislation and measures taken. In 2020 the UK authorities thoroughly revised the legislative framework and brought about several changes, which, for example, prohibit bettors from playing with credit funds, and the daily betting limit was also reduced. The search for maximum transparency of the betting market will lead to new solutions in British legislation, so we have to look forward to further changes in 2021.
