Online Gambling: A Good Bet For The Future
Online gambling is becoming an increasingly popular pastime, both for British and European internet users. Alex Burmaster, European Internet Analyst at Nielsen//NetRatings, explains the advantages of gambling from home, and the factors fuelling the industry’s phenomenal growth.
Thirty million people in the US do it each month, as do one in four of the French Internet population and Spain has tripled the number doing it each month in the last year alone. Wherever you look across the world the size and growth of the online gambling sector shows some impressive odds.
It’s probably worth noting that outside of this paragraph you will read ‘gambling’ but not ‘gaming’ in recognition of the eight million online Britons each month who might fight dwarves in a mystical online realm or crunch numbers in Sudoku who would consider themselves ardent gamers but certainly not gamblers.
As both are online sectors experiencing exciting and impressive growth the industry could do worse than come up with a standard online definition that avoids causing confusion by potentially bracketing those staking a tenner on the turn of a card and those bursting balloons with mini rockets into the same group.
So back to the gamblers. The Nielsen//NetRatings ‘Gambling/Sweepstakes’ Category attracted 8.7 million visitors in the UK between September and November last year, with almost half (four million) visiting the National Lottery site – Europe’s biggest online gambling brand. In the UK lotteries and casinos tend to be the most popular gambling sites followed by the bookmakers. However, it’s important to understand that online gamblers play in multiple ways – not just sticking to a single format. For example, more than half of those visiting an online bookie each month also visit a lottery site.
Despite gambling in different formats gamblers tend to stick to a single brand within each format. This form of loyalty is encouraging for the brands and indicates that money invested in keeping first-time visitors or current customers is the wisest and most lucrative investment route.
The 8.7 million visitors to the category represents 30% of the active UK Internet population and an impressive 40% audience growth on the September to November period last year, which leads to the obvious question of why online gambling is becoming so much more popular. The answer lies in its appeal to both potential operators and potential gamblers.
Online gambling is booming, due in part to the increasing number of operators attracted to the sector by the low barriers to entry. Everyone knows that the real winners in gambling are the casinos and bookies themselves but the infrastructure costs of setting up a traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ outlet provide a significant barrier to entry that doesn’t exist in the online world. The time and cost-efficiencies of off-the-shelf technologies available today mean setting up an online casino or bookmaker becomes a possibility to a much wider range of people.
Furthermore, the reach potential provided by the online version is more attractive than that of the ‘bricks and mortar’ format. Take Manchester United, for example, who were considering opening a casino at their Old Trafford ground – the number of potential gamblers are limited to those who actually visit the ground. However, establish one online and it becomes potentially accessible to their entire fan-base throughout the world.
However, the main reason behind the increasing popularity of online gambling lies in the fact that the Internet is introducing gambling to a wider audience. As with potential operators, gamblers are faced with lower barriers to entry. To begin with many of the leading players offer a ‘no money’ gambling experience which allows potential gamblers to learn the art without financial risk and ascertain if it is an activity for them. This is also likely to contribute to brand loyalty – a further bonus to the operators.
Furthermore, walking into a casino, taking a seat at table in front of a dealer and placing a bet can be an intimidating experience. However, the Internet allows the gambler to do this from the comfort, security, anonymity and convenience of one’s own home – factors, as a survey we ran last year showed, particularly important to women.
However, it’s important not to tag the online gambling experience as a classic example of loner and disconnected Internet behaviour. The nature of the web allows gamblers to play against and interact with people from all over the world. Just take the author’s experience, for example, of attending a presentation on online bingo containing a live feed from a session full of women discussing various methods for getting rid of varicose veins whilst waiting to tick off their numbers. A cure for varicose veins whilst gambling online – now there’s a real money-spinner.