Many operators have been able to take advantage of the past few months which saw an increasing number of players turn to online gaming alternatives as their primary form of entertainment where others may have been restricted or postponed. This has been especially true in the betting market as numbers have seen a sharp increase as ability to attend live games or participate in other ways becomes more restricted. Mobile gaming has largely been the most popular platform as despite adjustments in regulation that have prevented access for many, max casinos list sites not blocked by gamstop in this mobile space that continue to be the most popular but there have been alternate forms developing in recent years that have grown in popularity.
(Image from extremetech.com)
Perhaps the most notable, and most widely reported recently has been within the widespread introduction of loot boxes throughout multiple games and platforms – first being introduced a little earlier in the decade, the system is now represented as a method of obtaining rarer items or upgrades across many games titles for most modern releases. The biggest case comes from one of the biggest esports in the world of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive – the loot boxes held rare cosmetic items that thanks to the online market place built into the game held some real monetary value for collectors and in some cases investors too, in 2016 it had been speculated that the cosmetic trading market from these loot boxes was valued at around $7.4 billion through trading, buying and selling, and the betting industry that developed too – and for many has been the reason why so many other titles have decided to include this into their platform.
FIFA has recently fallen into the public eye because of these loot boxes too as the Dutch court has ordered developer EA to pay fines of up to five-hundred thousand euros per week until these mechanisms are removed. The argument for many is that the games these systems have been implemented on are largely filled by a younger audience and the method these loot boxes use encourage gambling, with little regulation in such a new space it has been difficult to discern where the problem may be coming from – one defence particularly from EA has been that these items hold no real world value, but as markets do exist for accounts with certain players or teams for many this seems to be a way to avoid the issue.
Other forms of betting have also become popular through bigger games through a pick’ems style fantasy approach, many are being offered free of charge during larger tournaments following reduced participation for the paid variety previously and provides another opportunity for alternative forms of gaming away from mobile apps and sites and into other popular forms of media. Gambling and betting as a whole is on the rise across all platforms, and despite attempts to slow what has been considered to be a growing pandemic, it seems there’s little to be done to stop the huge successes that are being found.