Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming October 2015 36 Online Gaming rate of customers (percent of players who spend money) is around two percent. Historically, growth and investor entry into traditional casino gaming has been a challenging proposition, given the high fixed costs and barriers to entry associated with the traditional brick- and-mortar casino. The online casino space has been a game changer, allowing for market entry via lower capital requirements with the enticement of higher growth rates, compared to land- based casinos. The result: New and existing competitors entering this space. As seen in the following graph, social online gaming growth has declined, but is still projected to outpace land-based growth through 2017 and real money online gambling growth through 2016. DRIVERS OF CHANGE What are the real drivers fueling this sector transition? The answer is technology evolution and regulatory change. To start, higher growth rates in online gaming have primarily been due to the innovation in technology-driven social media platforms, mobile technology and smartphone use. As these drivers continue to evolve, the industry is expected to react accordingly. Social media: Online casino game operators have developed casino platforms on high-traffic social networks such as Facebook to ride the momentum of social network user adoption and gain access Zynga, a top social gaming developer, made a push for real money gaming through its acquisition of Spooky Cool Labs. The online casino space has been a game changer, allowing for market entry via lower capital requirements with the enticement of higher growth rates, compared to land-based casinos. Global Casino Game Market Growth Source: Eilers Research; h2 Gambling Capital