Industry Giant SoftSwiss has released a report earlier this year, which paints a compelling picture of cryptocurrency adoption steadily growing in the gaming industry. The upward trend is easily noticeable when you read the report, which compares data from the first quarters of 2022 and 2021. SoftSwiss based its conclusion on the data collected from the company’s Game Aggregator and Casino Platform. It turns out that players are choosing to bet with crypto more often than last year. Here are more insightful statistics from the report.
The Number of Crypto Bets is Going Up
The report takes a very interesting approach, measuring the number of bets rather than the sum total thereof. Regardless, the number of bets is up 216%. That puts the increase at 116%, which is more than twice what it was in the first quarter of last year. That goes to show people find more and more utility in bitcoin and the other forms of cryptocurrency payments commonly used for online gambling. In turn, that opens new avenues for operators like this Bitcoin casino to reach potential customers.
The report also suggests that interest in crypto gambling is growing continuously, meaning that what’s occurring in the first quarter of 2022 is not just an isolated case. This gives an edge to those casino operators that have integrated cryptocurrency payments into their online gambling platforms. Such functionality gives the latter more exposure to a wider and currently growing audience.
Bets at Fiat Casinos vs Bets at Crypto Casinos
Fiat currency is still king in online gambling, but blockchain-based payments are becoming more and more sought after among gamblers. What SoftSwiss found out is that in Q1 2022, 35.96% of all bets made on their platform were backed with cryptocurrency compared to last year’s 26.30%. Interestingly, bitcoin bets didn’t contribute all that much to this upward trend. Ethereum and Litecoin bets is what spearheaded this statistic. 13.45% of all bets made on SoftSwiss’ gaming products are backed with Ethereum, 6,45% with Litecoin and around 2.56% with Dogecoin.
This ties to the fact more and more people are seeking alternative ways (altcoins) to make short-term profits. These two particular coins have great practical application for online bettors and their price remains somewhat stable relative to the ongoing chaos. Be that as it may, bitcoin accounts for 72.80% of all cryptocurrency bets – shows the report for Q1 2022. This number marks a decrease of 10% from Q1 2021 when 83% of all bets were made with bitcoin.
Gross Gaming Revenue
Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) is up 54.77% compared to Q1 of 2021. The metric expresses how much players bet minus the amount they win. In other words, what’s left for the gaming operator after all is said and done. Much to the content of gaming operators in the SoftSwiss ecosystem the increasing gross gaming revenue comes as a result of higher player activity. There are more online players, wagering more over the internet – great news for everyone involved in the trade.
Andrey Starovoitov – COO of SoftSwiss – predicts that the tendency of increased player activity will continue. As more gamblers discover the Game Aggregator and Online Casino Platform of SoftSwiss, parameters such as gross gaming revenue are sure to keep growing.
What’s Next?
The gambling market is expanding every which way. Going crypto can be viewed as the final stage of evolution mainly because it opens the door to new safety and fairness features. Regulation of traditional online casinos is only going to tighten up as long as the problem gambling statistics keep on being so worrisome. This would naturally mean that new players will make a beeline for the much easier to enter crypto casino market. Tapping that same market is a huge incentive for already established gaming operators currently not present there to come up with their own offering.
Whether or not new real money players will go crypto in the future is a matter of how discoverable crypto casinos will be. Unless the notion that such casinos should be restricted gains popularity, I tend to agree with the COO of SoftSwiss Andrey Starovoitov that crypto gambling will become even more attractive to players in the future.