What Lies Ahead For The Social Casino Market?

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Wednesday, November 25th, 2015 | Written by Stephen Smith

While the interest in some types of gambling games are showing a downward trajectory, the social casino games sector, whose key platforms are slots, bingo and poker games, continues to surge in popularity. Already the size of the social casino game niche has reached $3.4 billion, and currently accounts for about 4 percent of annual worldwide gambling revenues of $91 billion.

With gaming analysts expecting the social casino games market to grow by another $1 billion by 2017, the sector is obviously attracting an increasing amount of industry interest, and recently Adam Krejcik of Eilers Research spoke about the niche at the Casual Connect Tel Aviv symposium. His insightful speech included a number of predictions about the future of social casino games. Some of the key points that Krejcik made include the following:

1. Social Casino Games Will Become More Skill Based

Currently, social casino games are based primarily on chance and have themes that appeal to middle aged women. In order to broaden the appeal of the social casino game experience, developers are beginning to integrate more features that require skills to win.

2. Social Casino Games Will Begin to Include Live Dealers

Part of the appeal of playing table games in casinos is interacting with live dealers. So far, social casino games have been missing this element, but companies are now developing ways to allow players to gather at virtual tables manned by human dealers who are visible through webcams.

3. More Players Will Be Using Phablets and Wearable Devices to Play

Analysis of the mobile device market indicates that sales of traditional phablets are beginning to decline while tablets, larger screen smartphones, and wearable technology like the Apple Watch are increasing. As a result, it follows that the developers of social casino games will need to adapt their software to display properly on these smaller screens.

4. Virtual Reality Will Become a Part of Social Casino Games

In 2016, the Oculus Rift Virtual Reality headset will hit the market, and it’s likely that social casino games will be some of the first apps that will become a big success with the new technology. With a set of these goggles on, it will be possible for players to feel as if they’re in a real land-based casino, making the virtual gaming experience more enjoyable.

5. Customer Acquisition Costs Will Decline

Right now, developers of social casino games pay as much as $10 to acquire a new customer who will install their games. As more people begin to discover social casino gaming and games move beyond Facebook to other platforms, the cost of advertising to acquire new customers is expected to decrease.

6. Social Games Will Soon Become Attractive to Investors

If you follow the world of gambling finance, you’ve likely read that Zynga has had difficulty maintaining high stock prices, as investors still aren’t sure that social casino games are here to stay. As the industry continues to grow, investor confidence will likely increase.

7. Social Games Will Encourage More Interaction

Big Fish Casino has introduced features that allow players to interact with one another during game play, and this has proven to keep players active for longer. You can expect other developers and sites to begin introducing similar features.

8. Amaya Will Embrace Social Casino Games

Amaya Gaming currently focus on real-money gaming, although its chief website PokerStars does also offer a number of social casino games, with PokerStars PLAY presently attracting more than 100,000 active users each month. As the popularity of social casino games which offer digital prizes is becoming an increasingly attractive market, one can expect Amaya and PokerStars’ involvement in the sector to grow exponentially over time.

9. Asian Social Casino Market to Expand

The Asian social casino market is currently worth around $900 million, but that figure is only set to grow over the next few years as social casino games make further inroads into the Asia-Pacific (APAC) Region. The social casino market’s leader, the Caesars Interactive Entertainment owned Playtika, is already trying to penetrate the Chinese market, while the endeavors of this and other companies will only be helped by the spread of mobile messaging networks, including the likes of Line, WeChat, and Kakao.

10. Social Slots Games Adapted for Land-based Casinos

The millennial demographic has a taste for slot machines with a heavy focus on the skill part element of the game. This trend not only makes it more likely such online slot games will eventually start featuring in land-based casinos, but eventually major social casino brands may decide to open up their own real-world casinos.