Egaming industry predictions for 2014 - part five

Giulio Coraggio (pictured), gaming lawyer and counsel at DLA Piper

1) Mobile gaming and wearable technologies: mobile gaming will become at least 50% of the gaming offering for most of the main operators in their major markets and we will see the development of the first wearable technologies in the gaming sector thanks to the massive boost that such technologies will have in 2014.

2) Italian online betting market: the Italian online betting market will at least double its turnover because of the entrance into the market of new operators and the launch of bets on virtual events and betting exchange. The value might further increase if the tax model for sports betting will switch from a turnover based system to a GGR system.

3) Mayor M&A transactions: the gaming sector is becoming more and more competitive especially in regulated markets like Italy, Spain, France and it will become very competitive in the other countries that are in the process of being regulated including New Jersey and Nevada. This scenario will lead to major corporate transactions not only in terms of acquisitions but also of joint ventures aimed at benefiting from synergies and sharing of financial investments.

Isabelle Andres, CEO at Betclic Everest

1) Regulation will become the key word ““ and companies that will be agile enough to adapt to regulated markets and grow their business in these areas will be the ones with a clear future.

2) Mobile will become more and more a key channel for acquisition, and consumption as well.

3) Customer centric strategy will be a priority and we’ll see operators investing massively into big data analysis and retention systems (copying in this way what some e-commerce companies have been already very successfully achieved) ““ targeting, segmenting, etc. so that you address your customers’ needs almost individually.

In other news:

– Egaming industry prediction for 2014 – part four