Online gaming has been on the rise since the explosion of titles for all tastes in the last two decades. Gone are the days when games were reserved to the lonely teenager stuck in his bedroom. Hardcore gamers may spend many hours immersed in MMOs (Massive Multiplayer Online games) like World of Warcraft but it couldn’t be easier to download an app on your smartphone in a couple of minutes – it’s easy enough to guess that Pokémon GO and Piano Tiles 2 mobile games topped the chart last year. Let’s look at two of the trendiest game genres out there.
eSports
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you must have heard of Call of Duty, League of Legends or Dota 2…. eSports are fashionable now, but video game competitions have existed since these games became mainstream – in the 1980s, the Space Invader World Championships in the United States filled entire warehouses with prize money already in the region of $10,000 (£8,000). The popularity of eSports shot through the roof thanks to the growth of online video around 2011-2012, and the genre caught the attention of both the media and advertisers with shows sponsored by big brands such as Samsung, Intel and Coca-Cola. The professional side of eSports is very similar to that of traditional sports with analysts, bets on matches and professional players who can get their hands on healthy sums of money. Indeed, our own local eSports star can boast career earnings of over $100,000 (£80,000): Durham-based pro Callum “Swanny” Swan, who took part in a Call of Duty World Championship and has dubbed himself “Professional thumb twiddler”, has almost 92k Twitter followers.
iGaming
When you turn on your TV you’re bound to see an ad about placing bets on matches or playing online bingo. Indeed, another gaming sector which has been thriving is online gambling, also known as iGaming. After all, if you are a Manchester United fan and your housemate supports Liverpool, then watching the match live on TV becomes more exciting if you wager a bet. And the numbers don’t lie: in 2016 21% of people aged 35-44 went gambling online in the UK.
Some of the best bitcoin sports betting sites provide their customers with benefits that regular sportsbook can’t. One good example is about geo-restriction and privacy. Until the creation of cryptocurrencies, regulations were highly impacting punters. However, since Bitcoin can be used anonymously, a few sportsbooks now offer their services worldwide using Bitcoin. Deposit and Withdrawal fees are often lower as well since Bitcoin is a cheaper way to transfer money than your credit card, or than financial institutions like Paypal and Skrill.
“poker-online-logo” (CC BY 2.0) by texasholdempoker
It is not only the ads which have been enticing punters to log on to online casino and betting sites – one of the keys lies in the accessibility of the games and punts offered by these sites. After all, all one needs to place a bet on a horse race or put a few pence on a slot machine is a smartphone and an Internet connection. Online casinos and bookmakers have also made sure that they offer a wide range of payment options to entice more punters, from regular debit card to pay-by-phone-bill options. There are even sites which are entirely dedicated to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. The best casino with Bitcoin, BitCasino.io, deals exclusively in this new digital currency which has been praised because it is safe, fast and protects your privacy. Players who register on BitCasino.io will also collect a welcome offer bonus of 100% up to 1BTC – yet another way to entice new customers. You cannot take bitcoins to the local betting shop, can you?
Then there is the chance to win big from a small bet. Stories such as British soldier Jon Heywood winning over £13 million from just a 25p bet in an online casino, a father of three scooping £180,000 from a £1 football bet and an unemployed man picking up more than £353,000 from a £1 accumulator bet can only attract more punters.
If you’re not convinced yet that online gaming is huge and continually attracting new players, just look at the stats: one third of the most active gamers play online and just in 2014, more than $10 billion (£8 billion) were spent on online games in the USA alone! Food for thought.