Sports fans who like to place a bet or play casino and slot games now have more choice than ever before. Long gone are the days of having to make your way to the local bookmaker’s shop to fill out a ticket with a stubby little pen and then place your bet at the cashier’s desk, or traipse to your local pub to play the latest slot machines. In fact, many young bettors will not even be aware of such arcane practices.
The gambling industry used to be known for being slow to adapt to the modern world, and it wasn’t until the new millennium that companies started to take the internet seriously. Since then, the betting world has been transformed and new technology is right at the heart of this revolution.
Today, someone who wants to place a bet can do so at any time and from anywhere. They can bet on different league and tournaments from all around the world and they can even bet during an event. All this can be done from the comfort of their own home, on a bus or whilst walking down the street.
The first step in this change of landscape was the introduction of betting websites. At first, they were slow, badly designed and would often crash before and after a big event such as the Grand National as punters scrambled to place bets and withdraw their winnings.
Today, the betting companies’ servers are built to cope with phenomenal amounts of traffic. At any one time, there will be live and fixed-price sports bets being placed, matches being streamed and thousands of poker, slot, bingo and casino players taking part in countless games.
And with so much choice available, a new market of specialist review and recommendation websites such as www.365freespins.com have sprung up to ensure that punters are getting the most for their money. Through these sites, punters can find out where to play for longer, how to boost their winnings and where to play the latest games for free. Freedom and choice have never been more widespread in the industry.
The question that now remains is: What next for the gambling industry? While some have suggested that the industry has already taken full advantage of online technology and is set to enter another period of relative stagnation, others have suggested that there is plenty more to come, with concepts such as the gamification of casinos – where video game-style challenges are built into casino games – and the further integration of e-sports set to dominate over the next few years.
For sports fans, there is an ever-increasing range of wagers available, particularly in the live in-play market, which continues to grow at a rapid rate. And, with technology so vital to the modern bookmaking industry, it has been predicted that more major tech companies could enter the marketplace with state-of-the-art gambling portals. The fact that more and more bettors are turning to mobile devices could also shape the way the industry moves with geo-specific betting features expected to become the norm.
