Gambling a safe bet despite bleak prospects for US market; Europe leads the field
Despite the strengthening of legal barriers to its development in the US, prospects for the development of the global mobile gambling market remain strong, according to Juniper Research. In new forecasts for the mobile gambling market, Juniper predicts that the global market for all forms of mobile gambling (casinos, lotteries and sports betting) will grow from $1.35 billion in 2006 to $16.6 billion by 2011 in terms of gross value of bets placed.
“Juniper Research published its last full report on mobile gambling in June 2006. Following the tightening of legal barriers to all forms of online gambling in the USA we decided to revisit our market forecasts as clearly the environment had changed,” author Bruce Gibson commented. “The new forecasts confirm that there is still great potential for mobile gambling services where legislation permits. However, we have certainly dramatically cut back forecasts for the development of the North American market.”
Europe is currently seen to be the largest market for mobile gambling, with an estimated $665 million in bets placed in 2006. However, it is forecast to be overtaken by the rapidly expanding Asia Pacific market by 2008. The Asian market is expected to reach over $6.7 billion by 2011, in terms of value of bets placed. Bruce Gibson goes on to say: “The downgrading of forecasts for the North American market increases the focus on the key markets of Europe and Asia Pacific. These two markets are now expected to contribute over 80% of the value of bets placed through to 2011.”
Sports betting is currently estimated to be the largest sector in mobile gambling, opening up a valuable additional channel to existing gamblers as well as creating opportunities in new markets. Lotteries currently represents the second largest sector, but is forecast to take the top spot by 2010 as lotteries and related games, such as bingo, exploit the mass market mobile channel.