All industries are always on the lookout for emerging markets. In Europe, the market has become very saturated with online casinos. Although new challengers open up new online casinos, gaining fast and big revenues has become more challenging to the online gambling industry. Furthermore, new markets oftentimes mean new innovations and ideas to the company which helps the whole company to regenerate.
The first steps towards the Indian market were taken about 3-4 years ago when the first Malta-based casino companies opened their doors to Indian players. A lot has changed since then. More sites have opened, the offers and deals have been diversified and game providers have created their versions of popular Indian card games.
In this article, we will have a look at the most desired market within the field in 2021: India. Enjoy learning about how online casinos made their way to the market and what to expect next!
Legal aspects are a hot potato when it comes to online casinos
Although online casinos having their base outside India can operate relatively safely, the legal issues are always discussed within the industry. The government in India has slowly noticed the emergence of online casinos, but the discussion is still within the level of states. The states are not able to do much in practice in order to limit access to online casinos either.
In addition, no real action has been taken. Some online casinos have limited gambling to Indians only from certain states as a precaution. All in all, as online casinos are operating under foreign jurisdiction, it is not expected that legal aspects will have an effect on online casinos in India.
When will the India boom calm down?
If you are looking for the short answer, the short answer is not for a while. The longer answer needs a bit more clarification. Hundreds of Malta-based online casinos and a couple of thousand of other online casinos have found their way to India. Although challenging sometimes, overall the market is flourishing. Good deals and lucrative offers as well as games targeted exclusively to Indian players are only some of the reasons why the online gambling industry is still seeing rapid growth from the market.
It is challenging to predict when the market is going to slow down. Not everyone in India is of course interested in casino games, but even if some percentile of India’s population are, it still is a huge number of players. Furthermore, the income distribution within the country is huge, meaning that those who have the means are keen on playing big sums of money at online casinos. Although the boom will eventually slow down, there are no signs of it yet. The industry has now seen that entering the market is beneficial, thus more casinos who did not want to spend resources on market research are now setting up their own casino pages for players from India.
Land based casinos are not able to challenge the online world
As mentioned above, the laws and regulations are complex in India. The states have a lot of power to decide how regulations are interpreted within the state. This means that some areas such as Goa and Sikkim have been active in opening land based casinos whereas other areas have made their regulations stricter than ever. What is worth noting is that these land based casinos are targeted towards tourists. Oftentimes locals are not even allowed to enter these casinos. Limitations towards locals mean that locals will either have to engage in illegal gambling activities within the country (just like has been done for years) or to opt for global online casinos. Needless to say, the latter has become much more attractive to most gambling enthusiasts.
Which country is going to be the next India?
While it may take years before India´s online gambling market is saturated, online casino providers are always looking for new emerging markets. This is because there is more and more competition among online gambling providers meaning that they are currently competing about the same audiences. Those businesses who manage to enter the new emerging market first have a great advantage to set the standard on how competitors must operate within the market. Furthermore, the first ones are going to draw in many customers relatively easily compared to saturated markets.
Currently, online gambling companies are looking towards countries in South America. These countries include countries such as Brazil and Colombia. Although it may seem a bit surprising that countries with relatively low GDP would be financially beneficial for online casinos, it is important to address the volume these countries have. Players may not need to play for large numbers if there are many players. But for now, most providers are keeping their eyes mainly on India.
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