Per Eriksson Expects 60% of Net Entertainment’s Revenue to Come from Mobile Gaming
Net Entertainment CEO Per Erickson predicts that the mobile gaming industry is set for a massive increase. Erickson suggested recently that his company’s mobile gaming aspect could increase tenfold in the next few years.
NetEnt had 16.2 billion gaming transactions last year, so the software developer’s chief executive knows what he’s talking about. At present, mobile gaming represents only 13% of Net Entertainment’s revenues. Per Erickson predicts it could be 60% of the business by year 2018. If you crunch the numbers and assume the traditional online gambling aspect of the business remains relatively stable, it would take ten times the revenues to become 60% of NetEnt’s business.
Per Eriksson recently told a Bloomberg broadcaster, “Mobile gambling is increasing, because now you can play casino games wherever you are. Apple and all the other mobile devices are very important for our industry. It’s incremental revenues coming in for us.”
Mobile Gaming Boom
Eriksson isn’t the only one bullish on the mobile gaming market. As virtually any gaming analyst and they’ll tell you mobile casinos are ready to become a boom industry in the next few years. Some gaming analysts believe the mobile casino boom may have begun in 2013, but market experts believe mobile gaming will revolutionize online gambling by the year 2017. By that time, mobile gambling is expected to exceed $100 billion worldwide.
Why Mobile Is Better
In many ways, the predictions are common sense. They say prognosticators are only better at seeing logical patterns than other people. Instead of reading the tea leave, they understand what drives human activity and see the trends before the mainstream of people.
Mobile devices have changed the modern world. Android smartphones, iPhones, and iPad tablet computer have taken the online experience on the road and out into the cities. Even though laptops have given computer users a certain mobility in the past, it is the mobile cellphone and the tablet computer which makes the experience handy.
Traditional Online Casinos
Throughout its history, online gambling has been a solitary pursuit which takes place mainly in the privacy of one’s home. People needed to stay home to play at online casinos and poker rooms. Mobile gadgets allow a person to play on their own device while carpooling to work or taking the subway. They can enjoy a hand of poker while waiting at the doctor’s office. A person can play the slots while waiting for an interview, or gamble on blackjack while waiting for the date to arrive to dinner.
Everything is handier with a good cellphone in hand. People can text and email from anywhere. They can pay bills or enjoy Facebook gaming with friends on their smartphone. They can shop online for holiday gifts. Everything is handier, more efficient, and more pervasive in our lives.
Mobile Will Revolutionize iGaming
Those predicting a mobile gaming revolution are saying the same changes will come to online gambling. Almost half the world’s population engages in gambling of some type each year (usually offline gambling). Most people in the developed world carry cellphones. Put those last two statements together and it’s only natural that 50% of the world’s people might eventually use their mobile device to gamble.
Such an outcome would revolutionize online gambling. At the moment, a small but growing section of gamblers bet online. It’s more than just betting on blackjack, poker, or the slot machines, though. People can bet on the lottery or join real money bingo games. They can play scratch-offs or engage in binary options trading. In times, any form of wagering you do in a live setting is going to be available through a downloadable mobile application.
In the military technology field, engineers talk about force multipliers. That is, a weapons system which does the work of dozens or hundreds of previous combatants. In many ways, mobile gaming devices are the opposite. They’ll take online gambling casinos and expose them to 10 or 20 times the possible demographic, making some casino operators massively wealthy.
Killer Apps in Mobile Casino Gaming
With such an opportunity, the next big gaming software developer is likely to be the one which builds the right gaming app at the right time. Mobile gaming downloads are like a wave about to break; if a gaming app designer’s timing is right, they’ll be able to ride the crest.
