The United Kingdom has long been viewed as the epicentre of the global gambling industry, setting the standard for other nations to follows.
The sector had a Gross Gambling Yield of £15.1 billion from April 2022 to March 2023, placing it comfortably ahead of the emerging United States market (£9m).
The established UK regulatory framework governing casino platforms and other elements of the industry is primarily responsible for creating a landscape for iGaming to flourish.
The UK Gambling Commission have strict guidelines designed to protect consumers, although some of these are in the process of being amended to keep pace with the shift towards digital platforms.
Remote betting accounted for £6.5bn of the GGY, with the online casino sector delivering £4.03bn of that figure. Slot games were the biggest attraction, generating £3.2bn.
Intriguingly, despite a significant number of closures in land-based betting premises in the UK, revenues from non-remote betting actually increased by 15.4% year-on-year.
Recent preliminary results published by several operators for the first three quarters of 2023 indicate that the iGaming boom has continued apace during the current financial year.
Online slot machines remain the primary revenue driver in the UK as software developers add increasingly immersive games to their product portfolios.
The global rollout of 5G Wi-Fi connectivity and advancements in technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR) will keep the industry powering forward.
VR is arguably the most exciting innovation to hit the iGaming sector in recent years, and is one which could be hugely transformational over the next few years.
The technology will introduce unprecedented levels of immersion into the industry, which will serve to fire iGaming into a completely different stratosphere.
By using a compatible VR headset, players will be able to step into a virtual casino environment which accurately mirrors the experience of visiting a brick-and-mortar establishment.
VR will allow players to fully interact with their surroundings and engage with fellow players as if they were together in a traditional land-based casino.
Game experiences will become more expansive with VR, bringing the iGaming sector even closer to console gaming in terms of the enjoyment it delivers to players.
As VR technology establishes a stronger foothold in the iGaming industry, the costs of the supporting hardware will fall. This will open the door for more players to jump on the VR bandwagon.
Developments of this nature have been forecast to add a further $3bn to UK iGaming revenues by 2028, setting up the possibility that the sector could be worth $20bn by the end of the decade.
With other as-yet unknown innovations likely to be introduced into the mix over the next few years, the projected growth may ultimately prove to be on the conservative side.
