Industry predictions: Arcade games in demand and esports continues to accelerate
Green Jade Games CEO and co-founder Ben McDonagh and PandaScore's head of sales Oliver Niner predict the big themes in online gaming this year
Ben McDonagh, CEO and co-founder, Green Jade Games
Arcade games in demand
We believe that arcade games will emerge as a significant vertical in the online casino space, with a community broader and more vocal than before seeking out this format of gambling game. Player needs have already changed, but they will changer further throughout 2022.
You just have to look at the number of companies talking about developing multi-player online casino games to see just how important this vertical will become during the coming months and years. We will also see a continued focus on the control afforded to the player on the game round outcome.
Players are no longer satisfied with just spinning the reels; they want to play games where they can improve their skills, challenge their minds and be entertained. Of course, they still want to be able to gamble on the outcome and arcade games provide exactly that.
The line between video gaming and gambling will blur further still, so we also predict that programmatic banner advertising will be key to ensure that player targeting doesn’t inadvertently create a gambling appeal to minors.
Oliver Niner, head of sales, PandaScore
Esports continues to accelerate
Last year esports became truly established and esports betting proved that it has legs and will undoubtedly continue to accelerate throughout 2022.
I believe that we will see growth across the three big titles – CS:GO, League of Legends and Dota 2 – as well as new games such as Valorant which burst onto the scene in its first year of competitive play.
From a betting perspective, we have seen significant uptake with this title, and it has already taken the number four spot for betting turnover among our clients.
We’re excited to see if it can make a run at the top three in 2022.
Another trend I am looking forward to watching play out is crypto and specifically non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and how they can be used to engage esports fans with betting.
Historically, we’ve seen esports bettors pick up betting using CS:GO skins, which is a big contributor to that game’s established betting culture so there is plenty of potential here.