Why Tech Behemoths Are Fighting for a Piece of the Gaming Sector

According to the Online Gaming Global Market Report 2021, the market for online gambling is expected to grow from USD 64.13 billion in 2020 to USD 72.02 billion in 2021. This represents a substantial increase. This corresponds to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.3 percent.

Even though horse racing and lotteries are prohibited in most regions of India, the market for internet gambling is growing at a rate of around 20% each year. If this trend continues, India’s gaming business could exceed $1 billion this year, according to the India Post. More and more websites are now offering games such as slots, blackjack, and poker in rupees, the native currency. Furthermore, it is expected that the numbers will continue to rise as a result of the emergence of trustworthy casino portals such as AskGamblers. 

However, the expansion is being driven by factors other than the game sector. As a result of the global epidemic, millions of people around the world are remaining indoors and looking for ways to pass the time, which has increased the popularity of online gaming in general. Now? Everyone wants a piece of the game industry, but huge IT corporations want it more. 

Who exactly is involved in this? 

The number of companies entering the online gaming and gambling market is expanding, and the list of those companies reads like a who’s who of the world’s greatest technology corporations. Microsoft follows Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google. Gaming has been a key strategic goal for everyone in recent years. 

“For many years, the video game industry was somewhat obscured by the film and music industries, and it was always seeking to establish itself as a type of popular media and entertainment.” Phil Harrison, a long-time game executive as well as a vice president and general manager at Google, revealed this knowledge to Protocol in April of 2020. “Now, games are by far the greatest entertainment medium on the planet from a digital aspect,” so the global scale and magnitude of the gaming industry are tempting to large technology companies as a way to advertise their goods and services to a larger number of people. As a result of technical developments, the user experience will improve. 

Staying one step ahead of the competition is critical in the world of big tech

And it entails offering users with a more improved overall experience. There will be no more simple digital card games. Because of technological developments, slot machines and other casino games now present players with a more immersive visual experience. This, in turn, leads to the acquisition of new users. Why bother traveling to a huge casino when you can enjoy the same level of gaming action from the comfort of your own home while saving money on travel, hotel, and food? 

The same can be said for another thriving industry, that of eSports wagering. The majority of service providers currently only offer outright bets and money lines. However, evidence revealed by Picante Today reveals that some service providers may soon allow customers to put live wagers on their favorite streams. Again, improved user experience is expected to draw more gamblers to the world of eSports. 

According to Market Business News, the existence of Big Tech also indicates that many clients will have a higher win percentage. This is because technologically advanced sportsbooks, live betting, and customisable algorithms make it much easier to predict the outcomes of events. 

Why is there such an increase in demand? 

It is easy to point to the epidemic as the sole cause of the surge in popularity of online gaming and gambling. However, this is not the only reason, and it may not even be the most important one. 

Instead, advancements in cellular and mobile technology are viewed as the most important engine of the industry’s sustained growth. Take a look at these mind-boggling figures from the most recent Online Gambling Global Market Report:

  • According to a Rub90 analysis, the percentage of consumers who prefer to gamble online using their smartphones climbed by 117% between 2012 and 2018. Mobile users account for almost 80% of all traffic in the online gaming industry worldwide. 
  • In a recent survey, eighteen percent of respondents said they have engaged in some type of internet gambling in 2019. 
  • According to Cisco’s yearly research, the number of people utilizing the internet around the world will expand from 3.9 billion in 2018 to 5.3 billion in 2023. This equates to a yearly growth rate of 6%. 
  • According to THE SAME CISCO REPORT, the CAGR growth of smartphones is expected to be at a rate of 7%. 
  • What precisely does it all mean? Big IT corporations want to be a part of the expansion of online gaming because it is here to stay. 

For the first time, data service sales have eclipsed gaming revenue. Have you ever left an online gaming website and been blown away by the graphics? 

You may also blame it on the huge tech giants

According to T HQ, that kind of user experience would be impossible to provide without data center servers capable of handling the massive surge in demand for laptops and cloud-powered goods that require graphic processors. 

Nvidia, for example, is one of the world’s most successful and well-known semiconductor manufacturers. You may not recognize their names, but you are probably aware of the job they have done because the hardware behemoth is best recognized for the realistic graphics seen in games. 

However, as the popularity of online games has skyrocketed, manufacturers of graphics processing units are beginning to move their focus away from the video game business. Instead, Nvidia is turning its emphasis to the sale of components to data center owners. 

And the move became incredibly profitable for Nvidia. According to THQ, Nvidia’s data service sales have recently surpassed gaming income for the first time in the company’s second fiscal quarter of 2020. This was the company’s first milestone. As a result, the organization has increased its use of software-based business solutions, causing a chain effect. 

What impact will this have on the growth of the online gambling and gaming industries? 

It is incorrect to assert that the global pandemic is the primary reason for Big Tech’s gradual entry into the game sector. For a long time before the epidemic, the industry’s heavyweights were attempting to expand their global reach. 

However, this only served to stoke the gaming industry’s fire. Big Tech will almost certainly maintain a presence in the gaming industry due to a variety of variables, including the constantly rising use of mobile devices and the ever-advancing state of technology. This, in turn, will have a snowball effect, as more people will turn to online gaming and gambling if the overall user experience improves.