In our globalized world, most countries keep up with technologies, new services and inventions. When a great new product or service appears in one country it can spread like wildfire. This also applies to gaming and gambling.
Within the gaming industry, trends and habits are changing but the business, in general, is steadily growing every year. In this article, we are investigating the reasons behind this growth, with particular emphasis on the Polish gaming industry. Luckily, we could ask Jacek Michałski, Polish gaming expert about what is driving the growth. Jacek lives and works in Poland and you can read more about him here.
The availability of online gambling
Just like in other European countries, in Poland, the number of gamblers significantly grew when online casinos started operating. At the moment only 9 land-based casinos operate in Poland (mainly around large cities) so gamblers from the rest of the country can only turn to online casinos. Dozens of online casinos are licenced to operate in Poland, among those Joy casino, which added significantly to the gaming industry growth.
Mobile technology
When considering mobile technology, there are two aspects: smart devices and internet speeds and their availability.
With the widespread use of smartphones, gaming is available for everybody. Worldwide it is estimated that every third person plays some games on their mobile. People don’t need to invest in expensive PCs or gaming consoles anymore but they can play on their smartphones instead.
Unlimited data packages and 5G internet are soon becoming the norm in most EU countries so lags in games or running out of data is not an issue anymore.
Gaming companies have been concentrating more and more on their gaming apps and mobile-optimizing their content as this area is clearly taking over. Nowadays mobile gaming exceeds console and PC gaming put together.
If you enjoy playing games on your phone but would like to try out something more exciting than Candy Crush or Solitaire, check out here for more inspirations.
Cloud Gaming
Cloud storage has changed so much in recent years. Downloading movies and storing pictures on the PC is already of the past, but online gaming has benefited from the cloud immensely as well.
With games being stored on a central server, your PC’s processor and hard disk size are not that important. Processing, rendering and streaming are all taken care of for you, so all you have to do is to enjoy the game.
The demographic change of gamers
In the 80s and 90s, it was pretty much only teenage boys who played video games but those boys are now in their 40s and 50s and they have passed down the habit to their children. In Poland, the biggest demographic of gamers is the age group between 35 and 50, followed by the age group 25 to 35 and finally those who are between 18 and 25. Playing some sort of game is about as popular as watching TV. So as the age group of gamers widened naturally the number of gamers rose as well.
The coronavirus lockdown earlier this spring has further increased the number of gamers as other entertainment options were not possible.
Esports
Esports jump-started with the coronavirus lockdown. Traditional sports bettors had nothing to bet on, as sports events were cancelled worldwide. Esports quickly filled the gap though and people started betting on virtual football matches and other virtual sports events. Soon enough even a virtual Formula 1 series was launched that avid bettors could bet on.
Video game trends are changing and playing video games in esports tournaments is not only for entertainment but it can pay incredible prizes to the winning contestants. The popularity of existing esports tournaments, such as the Dota 2, has also grown during the lockdown and the trend suggests that even when things turn back to normal esports will remain a popular area to bet on.
The bottom line
Just like in all EU countries, in Poland iGaming is on the rise. With technological advances, demographic changes, the widespread use of cloud services and new gaming products appearing on the market, iGaming is steadily growing every year.