Five Fearless Gambling Industry Predictions for 2016

The igaming industry saw plenty of change take place over 2015. Between big deal mergers and acquisitions; and regulatory changes across the globe, the business is in a state of constant flux.
That state of never-ending change isn’t enough, however, to prevent us from making a few, bold predictions about what’s coming down the line for those work in the affiliate marketing and gambling industries. Here’s what we think might go down in 2016.
More Industry Consolidation – Life is a lot easier for big gaming operators than it is for smaller ones, so expect to see more igaming mergers and acquisitions in 2016. As long as gaming and financial regulators give them the OK, the many players on the igaming stage will continue to consolidate their forces.
Baccarat Bust Continues – Remember when a single month’s worth of Macau casino revenue was equal to a years’ worth of business on the Vegas Strip? Thanks to an anti-corruption crackdown, those days are gone for good and we don’t anticipate the return of Chinese whales to the baccarat tables anytime soon.
That’s bad news for land-based casinos in Las Vegas and even worse news for the casinos of Macau.
DFS Struggles in the States – The daily fantasy sports business had big dreams of dominating the American market when it flooded the airwaves with promises of million dollar jackpots last fall. These days, the industry is fighting for its life in a desperate bid to avoid being labelled as gambling or, even worse, sports betting.
Unfortunately, that’s not a fight the DFS business is likely to win. We predict a 2016 that’s full of legal fights in just about every state and patchwork of state-by-state regulatory schemes the industry will have to abide by if they want to keep operating in the US. In short, the DFS industry’s troubles are just getting started.
Europe Drags its Feet – The promise of igaming liberalization in the European Union has been a relatively unrealized dream for quite some time. Sure there’s been some movement, but there’s also been a tremendous amount of foot-dragging and bureaucratic nonsense, too. (Spain, we’re looking at you.)
We understand that Western European governments are loathe to give up their sports betting and lottery monopolies, and the tax revenue that goes with them. We also understand that until they are ready to really move on, as has been the case in some Scandinavian countries, liberalization will remain just a dream.
e-Sports Emerges – If you think that wagering on the outcome of a video game sounds far fetched, you’re clearly not aware of how popular e-sports have become. This, decidedly non-athletic, corner of the wagering world is the next frontier of the igaming world.
There are already plenty of big-time investors, like Mark Cuban, lining up for a piece of the e-sports pie and we expect that trend to continue in 2016.