Sian Rowlands Talks Market Outlook

An Interview with Siân Rowlands, Research Analyst and author of Juniper Research’s latest Mobile Gambling Report:

Mobile Gambling ~ A Smart Bet.

Juniper Research just published its latest Mobile Gambling Report offering a timely review of the sector to investors and industry executives. Juniper Research’s new report released Tuesday highlighting mobile gambling as being a major channel to today’s mobile market. According to Juniper Research, over the next five years, the number of mobile and/or tablet owners using their devices to gamble will increase by 100 million, meaning that 164 million people will either place a bet, visit a mobile casino or buy a lottery ticket on their device in 2018. The report also states the number of U.S. users is expected to pick up sharply from 2014 onwards.

Siân Rowlands, Research Analyst for Juniper Research

In the following excerpt from Mobile Gambling ~ A Smart Bet, Siân Rowlands, Research Analyst and author of Juniper Research’s latest Mobile Gambling Report discusses her outlook for the sector for industry executives.

Droid Report: Which mobile gambling areas of the sector are you most bullish about and why?

Siân Rowlands: Sports betting currently generates the most revenue for the mobile gambling industry, because features such as in-play betting are well suited to the mobile form factor. Historically, the key market here was Japan, due to the success of the Japanese Racing Authority in enabling horse race betting application. More recently, the highly competitive UK sports betting market has also seen a dramatic extent both of migration from desktop to mobile sports betting and of new spend on the mobile device. However, our recent report is bullish on the growth of casino gambling, as a ruling by the DoJ in 2011 stated that, contrary to popular belief, only remote sports betting was not permitted in the US. This has paved the way for mobile casino services to launch. Free-to-play titles are already popular (eg Slotomania), so the onus is now on gambling operators to create engrossing real-money titles with a similarly polished feel. A further driver of mobile casino gambling is the tablet device. The tablet is really well suited to casino gambling, as the larger screen means developers can include dual-screen options, among other features, to enhance the user’s experience.

Droid Report: How would you describe the overall health and outlook for the U.S market?

Siân Rowlands: The US market is currently poised for huge growth in terms of mobile gambling. At present, there are only 3 states where remote gambling is permitted – Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey (a mobile lottery service also exists in Illinois). New Jersey only launched their online gambling services last month but it was executed really well, and Juniper expects this to encourage other states to legislate on remote gambling. Thousands of new players signed up after it launched, and it has been reported that people from 23 different states tried to access the gambling services during a trial period – so there is definitely demand in the US. In this market there is already an appetite for consumer entertainment – content and apps – on mobile devices, so there is no reason that, where permitted, mobile gambling services should not take off. However one caveat is sports betting – New Jersey recently tried to legislate on this but the US District Court maintained that the law extends only to Nevada and three other states.

Droid Report: How do you see HTML5 and Native Mobile Solutions impact for the future?

Siân Rowlands: This is one of the key questions for gambling operators looking to develop a mobile solution – do I build a native solution for iOS etc, or a HTML5 solution? One key issue here is that Google Play currently does not allow gambling apps. So in order to reach Android users, developers must either create a web-based (HTML5) app, or make it possible for users to download the app via alternative means (typically by installing an .apk file directly from their website to the device). For those creating an app for iOS users, the stringent QA (Quality Assurance) procedure can be quite off putting, particularly given that gambling operators already have a long list of Government legislation to adhere to. However having a presence in the storefronts is undeniably a strong marketing tool, so perhaps the best option for mobile gambling operators at present is to build a hybrid solution. This provides the best (and, as some might argue, worst) of both HTML5 and native. It’s basically an app which is built using HTML5, then packaged in a native ‘wrapper’.

Droid Report: Do you feel 2014 could be another breakthrough year for Mobile Gaming?

Siân Rowlands: Definitely – one of the key drivers for mobile gambling will be the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Many gambling operators in Western Europe will begin heavily promoting their services to try and attract customers. I think 2014 will also be the year when some of the main players in the online gambling industry begin to announce >50 percent of their online gambling revenues come from mobile devices – meaning that they are essentially mobile gambling companies. This will spur them on to develop really high quality solutions for mobile gamblers. Furthermore I expect to hear more announcements that states in the U.S. are planning to regulate on remote gambling.

The full report is available by calling Tel: +44 (0)1256 830001 or via Juniper Research online.