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When it Comes to Growth in Gambling: Look East and West

January 17, 2020 4 min read
The world of gaming is an exciting place for businesses seeking to dive in. We take a look at the state of gambling in Latin America and Asia.
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We’re as proud as ever to work alongside business no matter what their industry to streamline their payments and find their way and target audience.

There’s no better place to look than at the emerging markets of Asia and Latin America for that!

Both of these continents have made impressive strides in annual growth, but represent very different demographics that businesses need to get their heads around.

Is it a challenge? Always, but the rewards for breaking into the market well are well and truly worth it.

Gambling Industry set to hit $546bn by 2022 and Online’s Right Behind it

It’s a pretty staggering number to think of on its own. But, according to ResearchAndMarkets.com, this is what the gaming/gambling industry has in store for the foreseeable future. A certain amount of it does also hinge on the willingness of businesses to embrace innovations and new generations of gamers.

Fortunately, this is very much the case, it’s exactly why otherwise niche concepts like VR/AR and blockchain are slowly gaining a foothold in the space. We delved into the big trends in the gaming world earlier this month, so if you haven’t had a look, we highly recommend it!

So with these innovative ideas entering the industry, it’s no surprise then that the online market is also coming along leaps and bounds. In fact, online gaming will reach a valuation of $102bn in the next five years.

Roughly speaking, that’s one-sixth of the entire market, and this is going off the ongoing trends we’re seeing in internet and smartphone use internationally.

These numbers in mind, it’s important for any business that isn’t otherwise operating online to seriously consider it. And if these figures aren’t enough, let’s dig into some of these emerging markets!

Go East, go West, gambling is going global fast!

Going East With Gambling: Asia



Asia is the continent to be for smartphone users. For some time now, some of the most popular payment methods have been through ‘super-apps’ like WeChat Pay.

More than that, it’s also home to 11% of the total gaming market, with China specifically (though unintentionally) contributing $24bn on its own online, reaching $36bn this year, overall.

Unintentional or not, Asia is a force to be reckoned with in the future and has grown at a pretty healthy level over the last couple of years.

But as any reader of some of our previous reports will know, the prime movers are younger, upwardly mobile and very active on social media and mobile. Factor in the increasing applications of 5G technology and Asia represents lightning in a bottle.

As a result, businesses need to think efficient, digital and highly social, as they’re some of the primary attributes of winning business in Asia.

Getting ensconced in this exciting market doesn’t have to involve completely out-of-the-box thinking either; sports betting is already a massive segment of gaming in this region.

This is, of course, referring to eSports betting, which has become a $13bn industry in its own right. As a result, it becomes more about broadening the kind of offerings that betting and gaming companies offer when expanding out East.

The only real headache for businesses seeking to expand in this direction is the otherwise murky state of regulation where online betting is concerned.

For example, countries like China, Indonesia, Taiwan and South Korea have all banned online gaming, while others enjoy limited legality under certain laws or in certain states. Countries like India, as another example, has limited legality for gambling, but only in a couple of states.

Going West With Gambling: Latin America



While the market for gaming/betting in Latin America remains fractional compared to giants like the USA, Europe, the Middle East and Asia at 4-5% of the global market, it is a rapidly growing one.

Year on Year (YoY) growth of this industry in 2019 alone hit 11.2%, or $5.6bn, making it a major player in the foreseeable future.

Of course, this region still has the issue of regulation for some parts. Colombia, for example, is the only country on that continent with a fully legal and regulated online gaming sector, which reliably pulls in $530m, with its online market expected to rise by 83%.

Brazil, on the other hand, is made a problematic market on account of gaming being illegal, which leaves things murky for the online sector.

This illegality is in spite of drawing in well over $1bn in revenue, making it one of the ‘big two’ next to Mexico, which brings in roughly the same.

But much like Brazil, online gaming is a strange grey area for Mexico, but that doesn’t appear to hinder it too much. Online alone brings in $300m annually, for example, and its interest in alternative mediums for gaming and betting makes it a really interesting market to venture into.

Along with the introduction of 5G, internet penetration means that the whole region of Latin America is set to grow significantly in the number of its people getting online.

One difference is that where Asia is mobile, desktop is still the preferred medium for 64% of the population.

For gaming/betting companies going west, the focus then switches to providing an easily accessible payments gateway, an immersive experience and a variety of games that resonate with users.

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