The Effect of Technology on Asia’s Gambling Sector 2020
In this reflective article we take a look at the gradual changes being felt across the Asian gambling industry and the most pivotal technological innovations that kept the industry going throughout 2020. Asia’s online casinos experienced immense growth throughout the last year, and given the unprecedented conditions presented to the industry throughout the year, the sector was forced to rapidly innovate and upgrade many of its outdated approaches to business infrastructure and connectivity.
There are many innovations being made across the gambling technology sector that have greatly improved the performance and reachability of Asia’s strongest betting and casino brands. ©stevepb/Pixabay
The biggest improvement within the technology ecosystem within Asia over recent times has been with faster broadband connection speeds and the widening of availability in mobile devices. Combined with much cheaper data plans allowing a wave of new users to the already swelling userbase across Asia, this has allowed the biggest and highest quality online casinos to quickly dominate the market.
COVID Induced Re-Structuring
Before the pandemic, the gambling sector in Asia was predominately bankrolled by its high revenue-generating land-based casino network. The brick-and-mortar venues located across Asia’s gambling hubs such as Macau, Manilla, and Singapore were highly-profitable ventures for their international conglomerate owners. The proportion of profits being generated via these land-based casinos was significant when analyzed in a global context against the other continent.
Compared to similar regions in the western economies that encourage gambling on the same universal scale-like Las Vegas, the Asian counterparts are far-surpassing them in terms of gross gambling revenue. All of this had led to Asian gambling investors becoming extremely bullish on the long-term prospects of the market. The favorable conditions seemed to be not too dissimilar to a high-functioning cash-generating machine.
Australian casinos had experienced similar optimistic forecasts before the pandemic struck, and the largest cities across the country had all completely endorsed large international casino brands within their societies. Several large commercial brands exist in this market, and one of the largest had been attempting to build a new casino resort at Barangaroo, Sydney.This giant cash-cow as it is now referred may have been the earliest victim of the pandemic, with a business model completely dependent on the free flow of citizens from Asia, its operation in the current climate seems completely untenable. That’s without even taking into consideration the current legal problems embroiling Crown Resorts.
This major shift in demand for land-based gambling products has led to a transformation, which quite frankly was long overdue. Inevitably, the land-based casinos which dominated this corner of the world for so long have had to migrate their businesses into the online medium. Given this major shift in the direction and scope of the industry, we look at the major changes coming to Asia in terms of online casinos and gambling options in the times of COVID-19.
New Approaches to Marketing Paying Dividends
Before the mid-90s the pre-internet societies of the world, gambling was limited to an audience of customers that could easily access their local brick and mortar establishment. The industry now has undergone a similar transformation, having to rapidly expand its user base beyond local customers in order to generate similar revenues. This expansion in the industry has caused a major restructuring of the marketing strategies deployed by the biggest brands in the game.
Instead of appealing to patrons on the curbside, these rapidly growing casino brands are being forced to re-evaluate the methods they use to recruit new customers into the platform. Whether it be via paid campaigns, affiliate marketing, or branded sponsorships of local clubs and other outlets, all of these avenues are being explored. The pandemic has forced casinos with clearly defined and highly structured business models to re-innovate and behave more like a start-up.
But technology is also considered a means to an end when it comes to the marketing of these new online gambling platforms. The primary benefit of technology for the gambling industry is by making the products much easier to access from anywhere around the world, but also giving customers a better product to interact with. In terms of security, variety of betting options, and the efficiency of which basic customer needs can be fulfilled, this is all greatly improved when looking at the advantages of a purely online casino business compared with the land-based alternative.
Looking Forward to Long-lasting Changes in Asian Casinos
It goes without saying that the casino business in its land-based form is certainly going to play a prominent role in the future of the overall gambling sector across the entire world. Despite taking enormous losses over the previous year, there has emerged a class of business that will successfully be able to navigate the new market conditions and bring about a much sturdier and leaner way of operating. So what are the long-lasting changes inflicted on the casino industry as a result of the COVID pandemic?
At present customers can easily access the best online casino games, but deciphering between the thousands of options is not something easily completed by newcomers. One answer to this problem is by utilizing the services of ranking companies and review sites. As it happens, we have revamped our review series into the biggest online operators across the world, so feel free to explore this website to discover the best brands in the online casino space.
There are a number of other innovations being made within the payment processing capabilities of sportsbooks, the mobile apps used to connect customers on the move, and the security mechanisms being designed to allow platforms to maintain good operational posture.
This approach to platform analytics is propelling the industry forward on a growth trajectory that many would not have anticipated before the pandemic. As Jeff Bezos the founder and CEO of Amazon recently articulated, Amazon has been able to experience nearly 10 years of growth during the pandemic due to major shifts in consumer behavior, and that is exactly what is happening across the online casino industry in Asia.
