Hottest iGaming Trends to Know Now

Successful running of a casino business involves multiple stages to be carried out perfectly and coherently. One of the most relevant is an adaptation of the project to up-to-date industry trends.

Constant monitoring of the sphere and adjacent niches allows operators to define what is worth paying attention to. 2023 will be a year of artificial intelligence trends and changing user behaviour.

The aggregator Smart Money offers an in-depth analysis of the upcoming year’s development and explains the benefits of cooperation with our company. Order the integration of innovative components or buy an entire ready-made project.

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Market Situation Reflection

While calendar years may be different on paper, in the iGaming industry, they are heavily interrelated. What was popular in 2022 will most likely stay like this the next year, yielding benefits of new emerging trends.

Breakdown of industry success so far:

• While the precise iGaming market value will be available in early spring, preliminary estimates show a whopping number of $80 billion.
• Over the year, it increased by almost 30%, and with such a growth rate, it will reach $150 billion by 2030.
• Legalisation of iGaming in certain Canadian provinces became the biggest North American achievement in 2022.
• Curacao Gaming Authority has turned into a proprietary iGaming regulator, granting its partners new prospects.
• The UK Gambling Commission introduced additional principles of responsible gaming, making licensing terms even more secure.

The market expansion was uneven in 2022, with new regions gaining substantial increasing momentum:

• African sector — 13%;
• Asian-Pacific zone — 11%;
• European region — 7%.

Stable development of the iGaming sphere incentivises all market participants to invest more in projects. This contributes to the appearance of new tendencies that significantly boost the lucrativeness of individual platforms. Smart Money introduces the upcoming trends for 2023.

Operability Innovations

Every year, the online gambling industry becomes increasingly comfortable to work in. Even though more information and responsibilities appear, operators receive new tools for their management and resolution. What are they?

Transparent AI-Based Decision-Making

When a player accesses an online casino, he specifies much information, including address, billing credentials, preferences, etc. Operators can all see this data, and some punters worry that this can be used against them.

The issue is going to meet its resolution in 2023. A lot of information is already processed by special software. But developers can now combine this data with preconfigured settings for an AI to make basic decisions. This way, even an operator will not have the necessity to deal with personal information.

The first instances of successful data-based decision-making are already present on the market:

BM3 BI Platform	A package of analytical instruments for information gathering and processing. The main aim of the software is to find system deviations and boost the management performance
Event Streaming Systems	The amount of raw data that is produced by a casino platform can be complicated for instant processing. This software transforms numbers and figures into understandable visual elements for further clarification
iGAP Solution	Similarly to the previous tool, this user interface is directed towards relevant business data. Visualisation of analytical features, reports, and their further processing can be carried out automatically

Investments in Interactive Promotion

The evolution of iGaming advertising generates better ideas every year. Static banners no longer produce the same conversion, compared to how beneficial they were initially. The progressive trend of interactive promotion showed how important TV marketing is now. For example, in the US, this direction was valued at $10-12 million in 2019. Almost three years later, TV promotion of iGaming content rose to over $150 million.

This is partly achieved by brand ambassadors that became popular not only among operators but even software suppliers:

• Conor McGregor and PariMatch;
• Jason McAteer and LV Bet;
• Roberto Carlos and Playtech;
• Shane Warne and DafaBet;
• Wayne Gretzky and BetMGM;
• Zlatan Ibrahimovic and BetHard.

Higher Lifetime Value of Visitors

Better user retention has been a typical issue for operators and service suppliers for years. Multiple strategies turned out huge successes or poor failures. Nevertheless, new approaches to increasing the LTV of players have been attempted over and over again.

User reactivation has been noticed to be quite effective in the last months of 2022. The strategy utilises special AI-based software that is aimed at targeting players with low attendance or even contacting people who have recently stopped accessing the site.

These players get extra attention in the form of special credits, complimentary spins, additional wild symbols, and more perks to reignite their aspiration to gamble. A communication process is achieved via on-site notifications, e-mails, or popular messengers and specially programmed chatbots.

Furthermore, it became strongly important for an operator to build long-term relationships with his clients. One of the main reasons for this is generating trust and loyalty for even longer gaming sessions. And the means for achieving this are also versatile: from more engaging activities to the return of a percentage of losses.

Player Behaviour: Trends Based on Demand

While the general operability changes can be easily predicted considering the development of modern technologies, understanding the audience is more complicated. But once the preferences of gamblers are clear, adapting the platform to them will result in highly beneficial functioning.

Experience Provision

Modern players do not look for casino content today. It is easy to type in a search request and find a list with hundreds of platforms to access. It is all about the engaging experience they are willing to get.

The elaboration of software and casino structure is now fully adapted to the needs of the audience. Games are no longer created because Ancient Egypt or Cowboy themes are popular everywhere. Particular games and unique mechanics are manufactured to offer something that a punter has never experienced.

The possibility of operators adapting to these changes quickly makes the difference between a good and a poor brand. This largely depends on the feedback — positive reviews underline what to focus on, while negative responses hint at things that need to be improved or eliminated.

New Platforms

Online casinos on desktop computers and mobile phones are the most popular manifestation of entertainment today. It seems like there can be no more convenient ways of gambling until you find out about smartwatches.

These gadgets have become powerful enough to support gaming software with substantial visual requirements. Apple and Samsung have amazing flagship models, and other brands manage to keep up. Besides, some casino companies began offering popular activities on smartwatches already.

Gambling with Real Dealers

One might say that this is not a trend to introduce entertainment with live croupiers. Indeed, online casinos have been offering rooms with real dealers for several years now, but they served as an addition to traditional content.

During the Coronavirus pandemic, when people were unable to join their favourite casino halls, more gamblers resorted to online entertainment. Their urge to the atmosphere within a facility directed them towards live activities.

As a result, more brands (new and existing) began creating entire online casinos that featured exclusively games with real croupiers. This is exactly what will be relevant in 2023 — gambling sites with a huge assortment of live entertainment.

Trendy Additions to Payment Provision and Licensing

There is no year in the iGaming sector without new legal and financial adaptations. Considering that not all countries have legalised online casinos and betting, there is still enormous room for improvement. The same is with payment methods — the digitation of resources continues, and you never know how gambling sites might accept deposits the next year.

As for 2023, it is worth paying attention to:

1. The versatility of depositing and withdrawing. Traditional card-based payment methods are slowly losing their popularity. Gamblers often switch to e-wallets and even NFT-based options. Besides, local variations are typically more used in specific areas, so it is important to include them.
2. Cryptocurrency stability. Bitcoin and other tokens themselves are not a new trend in the modern iGaming sphere. It is their resistance that makes them so popular in online casinos. Despite fluctuations in the financial market, crypto is expected to be widely used in gambling for years.
3. New regulations. Many casino sites hold official licences from popular offshores. These platforms are 100% legal and can function throughout the world. Since every year more countries adopt their regulations, it becomes rather prestigious to bear a permit from those jurisdictions in specific.

Profound Gamification Changes

The retention strategy itself is also not new for the iGaming industry. At the same time, its flexibility allows operators to come up with new entertainment possibilities. In 2023, gamification changes will also be directed to the personal preferences of users. In combination with advanced technological additions, platform managers will receive efficient opportunities for improving the lifetime value of players.

Top gamification strategies to work on in near future:

• Metaverse gambling experience will provide players with something neither traditional online casinos nor VR platforms can. Being a part of an entire entertainment world grants users freedom of interaction besides regular participation.
• Nonlinear jackpot paths will care not only about single spins or number combinations. Again, it is the enjoyable experience that a player has while he is trying to get the big win (this includes multiple rounds, spins, stories, etc.).
• A wide range of bonuses has always been an enormous incentive for players during online casino participation. A huge innovation connected with promos is gifting a user additional perks in case his real-money losses are considerable as compensation and mental encouragement.

Safety Provision Trends

The advancement of technologies also creates new opportunities for hackers and dishonest players to conduct their illegal activity and receive an unlawful advantage. That is why ensuring players’ safety is of utmost importance. Installing new and updating existing security systems will be easier if an operator is aware of the latest safety provisions.

Player Monitoring

It is also worth starting with new AI-based opportunities. Thanks to a player-centric operational approach, all visitors’ behaviour is thoroughly analysed by corresponding software. Such tools can not only understand what is better for casino participants but can also detect unnecessary activity.

When conducting their dishonest actions, criminals and hackers want to be left out. However, it will soon be impossible due to the detailed monitoring of modern systems. As a result, any suspicious behaviour is registered, and managers are notified for further action.

Confidentiality of Data

One of the most important requirements from players during their registration on the site is the specification of personal information. While online casinos do not really need all this data, they are obliged to collect it according to legal prerequisites. The main document of this kind is the General Data Protection Regulation.

In 2023, it will feature some new aspects regarding the clarity of the information-gathering process:

1. Better transparency. This will directly require operators to indicate what information is collected during participation.
2. Improved user rights. In this case, players will clearly see how the data is used and where it is directed.
3. Improved regulative measures. A lot of gamblers are now ready to dive into licensing aspects of a casino to ensure a fair interactive process, so better formulating will be important.

Innovative Principles of Responsibility

Besides making safety measures more advanced to secure players from criminals and hackers, operators work on protecting gamblers from their own actions:

• better strategies in favour of combating excessive interaction;
• improved analysis of the audience for defining problem punters;
• leveraging marketing efforts to minimise negative influence;
• limiting how much funds a certain player can deposit considering his behaviour.

Even though it may not seem wise for an operator to resort to actions that might lower his profitability, financial advantage in modern iGaming comes from a different source. By gaining users’ trust and loyalty, a manager shows care for his clients, builds a positive reputation, incentivises them to play frequently, and attracts new participants.

The Main Things about Top iGaming Innovations of 2023

Every year, online casinos make a better job of transforming from simple slot-spinning platforms into entertainment hubs with engaging gambling experiences. This becomes highly effective thanks to fundamental changes in technologies, players’ behaviour, legality, and even political arrangement.

2023 will feature some more substantial milestones for the iGaming sphere:

• Thanks to the considerable progress of the industry in previous years, stable development and legal support will incentivise market participants to invest more in projects in 2023.
• For a comfortable operation, online casino managers will benefit from such aspects as transparent AI-based decision-making, efficient investments in interactive promotion, and new strategies for increasing visitors’ LTV.
• Adapting a platform to modern trends will be integral from the players’ point of view, focusing on the provision of interactive experience instead of linear gameplay, new platforms (i.e. smartwatches), and gambling with real dealers as standalone activities.
• Changes in financial and legal directions will feature the versatility of depositing and withdrawing with a focus on regional tools, cryptocurrency stability despite global issues, new regulations, and preferences for local licences.
• Gamification principles will also be different, improving within the iGaming industry thanks to the Metaverse gambling experience, nonlinear jackpot paths, and a wide range of bonuses.
• Security of online casinos and a stable gaming process will be crucial, and with trends that involve player monitoring against frauds, enhanced confidentiality of data, and innovative principles of responsibility, platforms will become even better protected.

Monitoring of relevant trends and their implementation to platforms is a main task of an acclaimed aggregator Smart Money. The company has substantial iGaming experience behind its back, offering a wide range of ready-made and individual services.

We will ensure that your platform keeps up with modern tendencies and has a satisfied audience. Order our turnkey gambling solution or inquire about such services as licensing assistance, help in advertising, software advancement, and much more.

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