A recent study by the newspaper Yale Tribune brought to the attention of all the habits of the “millennials” (boys born between 1981 and 1996) and the “Z generation” (boys born after 1996). As for online gambling, the prospects are not very positive.
Millennials are not interested in casinos and slot machines, but different gambling experiences. The University of Stockton (USA) has recorded that today’s young people spend about 65% less in gambling than in previous generations. Although many of them gravitate around eSports, they don’t trust online casinos, but rather dark market gambling.
eGambling sites
How are eGambling sites presented? At first glance they are a real mix between a video game and a betting / casino site. Modern and sometimes unintuitive graphics and the possibility of playing with different games like Jackpot, Roulette, Dice, Blackjack, Hi-Lo, Crash but also betting on eSports and classic sports. Let’s see in detail what it is.
VGO Gambling
CS: GO (Counterstrike Global Offensive), also called VGO, is without doubt one of the favorite games in the world of eSports. The players grow exponentially and CS: GO has become the favorite FPS (first person shooter game).
Even the scene that affects CS: GO has its gambling side and you can bet your skins (or real money) on various sites that offer coin flips, roulette, case opening, jackpots. The only purpose is to earn and you are a little smart, you can get a lot from these sites.
What are skins? They are virtual items (VGO items) that change the aesthetic appearance of your weapons. They are extremely popular among players, they can be used in the game, sell, collect, bet and then make profits.
Valve Corporation often introduces new skins to keep up the hype and there are now so many, so much so that we talk about “Economy of the Skins“. VGO items are unique, because each of them is linked to a smart contract and are formed by vKeys that open vCases and generate new vSkins.
Jackpot
Classic game where you fight with other players by betting your skins, which end up in a pot. Based on the value of your skins, you ensure a win percentage and so do the other participants. The site randomly generates a winner who takes home all the skins. So the more you increase the value of your skins, the more the probability of winning increases.
Roulette
The simplest game available, based on classic casino roulette. Also in this case use the skins and change them with the credits of the site that hosts the roulette. This is a simple three-color wheel (red, black and green). The goal is to choose one and bet on that. If the chosen color comes out your bet will be multiplied by a predefined number and you get everything. Generally the multiplier is 14X for green and 2X for black. Some sites offer five color roulettes with multiplier up to 50X.
Dice
This is not the traditional game with two dice and the possible numbers between 2 and 12. Here you have a slider that goes from 0.01 to 100.00 which can be set at any value that represents your limit. How do you win? If the dice you threw gets a lower result than the limit you set. Obviously, the lower the chance of winning, the higher the multiplier of your winnings. The best way is to set the slider to 50, so you are entitled to a 2X multiplier.
Case Opening
There are sites where you can deposit your skins or real money in cases to earn credits to invest in other cases to open. Or you can create one yourself and define the percentage to get the items you need. The odds in case openings are generally quite high.
Vgo Coinflip
In coinflip you play against another player and both bet skins (50% each) in a sort of “head or tails”. The site randomly generates one side or the other of the coin and if that’s what you chose, you win all the skins.
Current eGambling market
In the United Kingdom, google searches for sites that allow you to bet on a much loved video game like CS: GO (from the Counter Strike series) are about a quarter of those of online casinos. The same ratio exists between monthly visits to the big gambling (Skybet, Betfair, William Hill …) and those of eGambling sites, which are always a quarter, which is not little.
Millenials play on eGambling sites that offer different types of games, as we said before:
- Loot box: virtual boxes that give prizes
- It says: simple dice games paid for in crypto
- Skins gambling: bets that are paid with virtual video game assets, such as weapons, ammunition, clothes
- Crypto gambling: gambling paid in cryptocurrencies
In these sites 80% of the traffic is direct, 12% comes from organic search and 3% from social media.
What happens in most cases? A gamer has his own channel and makes a promotion agreement with an eGambling operator and promotes his brand during his video streaming. The reward is a kind of referral bonus.
Differences between eGambling and iGaming
Considering that kids like to bet on video game championships, how can the world of eSports and gambling coexist? We must rely on the two big players of this ecosystem: advertising and affiliations, which by working together can expand and consolidate eGambling.
As for advertising, it is already being exploited by the big brands, which use mainstream media because they work. The goal is to attract new players with the sportsbook and generate extra profits with the casino. Nevertheless, eGambling sites will never be able to reach mainstream approval because they use cryptocurrencies and unregulated games.
The iGaming operators then rely on affiliates, able to bring huge amounts of traffic to their sites. This method has been working for about 15 years without having needed special innovations. This is why bookmakers come to offer increasingly aggressive CPAs and Revenue Shares.
Here’s what characterizes these two forms of online gambling.
eGambling
- New and growing
- Attracts millenials
- Approve cryptocurrencies
- Regulation is minimal
iGaming
- It is now old and consolidated
- The market favors big brands
- It is dominated by slot machines
- It is deeply regulated