The big reset to the gaming ecosystem

The world is reopening gradually after a once in a lifetime BIG reset to the gambling industry. In contrast, we’ve seen the gaming industry upended over the past few months as well as other areas of our lives to the sports industry to media firms down to businesses.

The Social distancing measures, brought in to limit the spread of coronavirus, have had a significant effect on the gambling industry as it was known the livelihood of sportsbook firms is sports. At the same time, the restriction from travelling as significantly affect the tourism sector; in contrast, the majority of land-based casinos function through tourists visitors which many have closed down. The Covid-19 pandemic has sent shockwaves across the globe, leading to a public health emergency that has killed thousands and plunged the global economy with many countries looming into recession particularly in Africa where so many have filled for bail-out fund from IMF International Monetary Fund.

Looking at the Bigger Picture

The covid-9 pandemic outbreak is creating its mark from both the positive and negative side for the gaming space. The pandemic as set the tone, whereas we’ve seen the popularity of other gaming products in recent times. In which previously most of this gaming products have been in the shadow for many years, sectors such as the Esports betting have garnered a lot of momentum among punters especially in recent months across the European market, Asian and American market due to the covid-19 pandemic. While in Africa, we’ve seen the Esports industry got the attention of sportsbook brands which virtually all sports betting brands offer is customers as an alternative when there are no live sports available. Also, the Simulated virtual games garnered a lot of momentum in recent month in Africa, whereas a lot of punters were happy with it. We also see bettors turning up to online betting, especially to those punters that predominately used to betting in shop particularly in Africa in which much of sportsbook brands are reporting a new sign-up of new customer online.

The major talking point was the B2B gaming events. I can’t imagine how much online B2B gaming events we have had within this period of the pandemic. Who could imagine that we will have online gaming events this year which the majority of the event’s organizers as vowed to continue with this trend, in some of their statement they promised that it wouldn’t be one of those one-off events. Well, I firmly believed this would be the future of gaming events across all board; the online event comes with its positive side for both organizers and stakeholders in the gambling industry. In which it will save a lot of cost for event organizers and reduce that stress of travelling for hours in the air, visa issues, among other things.

The Covid-19 pandemic as set the tone for Africa, in all sectors especially the future of online gambling legislation which could be fast-track. For example, some of the African leaders have shown the commitment to embrace the digital economy in most areas of their economy, for sectors that are processed manually. Final word, the pandemic outbreak as caused shock waves whereas countries have learned from the epidemic in the areas and industries there are lacking technology capabilities, and by identifying and implementing them among other things. I could imagine that Africa will be the next hot spot with digital inclusion across all board over the next decade.