Big Debate: Is the metaverse the next big thing in online gambling?

Yes

Stefan Kovach, founder and CEO, RARERTHINGS

The eye-watering projections for the growth in the size of the metaverse industry have got everyone’s attention: $800bn by 2024 (Bloomberg). So, is this justified?

If you look at where the smart money is moving, there is a clear consensus among big tech, VCs and entrepreneurs that the metaverse is going to be the next big thing. From Facebook rebranding as Meta and building a team of 10,000 metaverse developers, Microsoft purchasing Activision Blizzard and the rise of the digital nation embodied by Sandbox and Decentraland.

A generation is used to playing, socialising, attending concerts and shopping in metaverses like Fortnight and Roblox. For this demographic, spending time in 3D environments is second nature. Couple this with the rapid rise in the use of all things digital due to the pandemic and the coming of age of techs like the blockchain (NFTs and cryptocurrencies), VR, AR, 5G and AI, and you have a perfect storm for metaverses to flourish in.

Will this impact the gambling industry? You bet. Internet and mobile technologies have had the single most profound effect on the industry this century. The metaverse will only accelerate this digital transformation by re-establishing the social aspects of gambling lost by the digitisation of the sector to date. How long before 10% of Decentraland’s real estate resembles the real Vegas strip with casinos, concerts, esports championships, and many yet-to-be imagined experiences impossible in the real world.

The intersection of the metaverse, NFTs and play-to-earn heralds an entirely new game genre where economic incentivisation is built in. Whether this new game category constitutes gambling or not, it will compete for the same customers (millennials and Gen Z) and will almost certainly prove more popular.

The industry should be on alert for these accelerating trends that will disproportionately benefit those brave enough to embrace them early.

No

Vladimir Malakchi, CCO, Evoplay

The metaverse is an undeniably impressive and disruptive phenomena in terms of gambling, however, I’m convinced that it’s not the next ‘big thing’ in the industry, and here’s why.

Yes, the potential for its implementation is huge, and the opportunities that could arise from its application could be a gamechanger. But for now, it’s still so early to be talking about it, let alone asserting that this will be the new battleground for igaming brands to compete over. The industry is only just taking its first steps towards meta gambling and will take a while to fully warm up to it.

Any new technology that makes it to the mainstream must undergo mass adoption, and this is yet to happen for the metaverse. Given the resources needed, starting with VR headsets and other devices that cost anywhere from a few hundred pounds to well over £1,000, it’s clear that this is not feasible for a large majority of players. The technology also just isn’t ready to facilitate global player reach in developing and emerging markets. Therefore, at present, it does not appear to be a cost-effective investment, as it requires both financial and technological improvements to be made.

Moreover, I would argue that the players themselves are not ready for such an experimental type of gambling, and their safety is of paramount importance. From the perspective of a game developer, it must be stated that all innovative inventions need time to be accepted and understood, and the metaverse is no exception to this process.

When we look back on it, meta gambling will be another era of gambling, but we are still in the current era, where there are so many things left to implement, adapt, improve and reinvent.

I would recommend focusing more on the development of the technology utilised by current products, ways of implementation and adaptation, and the formation of the necessary patterns of player behaviour that will ensure maximum player protection.