It’s perhaps no surprise that given the money involved with sports betting, they’ve really adopted the latest in technology, from live streaming to social integration and more.
What they adopt is also always a good indicator as to how other apps and industries may go too.
Which is why it is always useful to explore what’s next for sports betting apps and the gambling industry as a whole.
Below you’ll find where we predict sports betting apps will go next, as well as the moves the big guns, such as bet365, BetVictor and 888sport may make over the next few years…
More Payment Methods: Bitcoin To Be Prominent
Bitcoin isn’t new to anyone and the arrival of the first Bitcoin millionaire a few years ago really put it on the map.
However, few businesses currently accept it as a payment method. Many bookmakers have been the first to adopt it and more and more sports betting apps are expected to do so over the coming years.
Some bookmakers offered on sites such as Freebets.co.uk already offer Bitcoin, and they’re always regular adopters of new payment methods, from the likes of Neteller to Skrill and paysafecard. Bitcoin and other forms of crypto-currency will certainly be next.
Virtual Reality
While the sports betting side of things won’t be particularly adopting virtual reality, the online casinos integrated into apps certainly will.
Virtual reality is already in place in a small portion of online casinos but it’s expected it’ll land in the mainstream over the next few years.
That’ll mainly come in the form of table games, with the likes of blackjack, roulette and poker ideally suited to the tech. It’ll place players at the very heart of the casino floor and bring a more lifelike experience.
That’s always been the goal of online casino apps, with live casinos the closest feature currently on offer. That would certainly change with the arrival of VR casinos though.
Peer To Peer
There are already some elements of peer to peer betting in sports betting with the likes of Betfair Exchange, but with the community only getting bigger thanks to the likes of social media, there’s going to be further integration of peer to peer betting into standard betting apps.
This of course isn’t entirely new to apps at all. Games such as Words With Friends and many others allow you to communicate with others. But in terms of sports apps, it is a relatively new concept.
If the sports betting community becomes more and more engaged outside of social media then that may translate to the likes of football scores apps and services or football news or games apps may follow suit.
Live Streaming
Live streaming is already a huge part of betting apps, but the coronavirus pandemic and the emergence of every Premier League game being available for live streaming is going to increase interest from betting apps on showing them.
At present, Premier League football isn’t available to stream via betting apps in the UK. It comes at a huge cost; any 3pm Saturday games cannot be shown legally. That has changed with games being played behind closed doors, and that could be the beginning of 3pm games being shown forever more.
Betting brands will naturally try and find streams for this and bring both football and betting, two bedfellows already, even closer than ever before.
What it also may do, is change the face of sports channels and their streaming apps too. It may be the case that more and more odds are integrated into those as channels and betting brands form powerhouse partnerships.
That may then begin to have knock-on effects into other industries and other shows. For example, reality TV shows and social media apps or celebrity gossip outlets.
