In the past few years, online betting has increased in popularity. The iGaming industry is defined as less shady, more accepted and less people are ashamed of betting online to earn some money.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there were no sports to bet on. So besides gambling in the online casinos, people started to bet on virtual sports. eSports have already been popular for quite some time, but now betting on virtual tennis, virtual soccer, etc., has gained in popularity.
But not only betting on virtual sports became more popular, also betting via mobile platforms is now more in favour than betting via desktop. Multiple bookmakers have announced that their players who have been using their mobile platform have increased significantly over the past year. Therefore they’ve started to invest heavily in their online platforms.
The sportsbook owned by Las Vegas, Superbook, announced that 80% of all their bets have been placed via their mobile platform. This is in comparison to 65% before COVID-19. Also William Hill chose to invest in their mobile platforms, especially the ones targeting the US market. Other bookmakers didn’t want to stay behind and also invested their time and money in their mobile betting features.
It probably doesn’t surprise anyone that mobile platforms have increased in popularity in the past year. The technology has advanced so much that the mobile version of the bookmakers’ website or their app is just as good as the desktop version. Besides that, during COVID-19, most of the people are heavily dependent on their mobile devices. It’s often their only way of communicating while they’re stuck at home. And how convenient is it to place a bet on your mobile phone without even needing to get off the couch and open your laptop! So it’s expected that mobile betting will only increase in popularity in the near future.