iGaming has undergone a huge transformation since its inception back in the nineties. Growth has been facilitated, in part, by a series of mergers, acquisitions, and licensing agreements.
Today, operators and software developers are more actively embracing communication, collaboration, and collective effort than ever before.
A Culture of Collaborative Effort
When companies such as Microgaming and Cryptologic entered the market in 1994 and 1995, respectively, competition was scarce. This lack of competition allowed them to grow independently of each other and carve out niches. However, fast-forward almost 30 years and things are very different. There are thousands of online games, poker, and sports betting sites available to customers around the world. These sites are a combination of proprietary platforms and white labels.
Helping to power these platforms are hundreds of software companies. So, to say the industry is more competitive now would be an understatement. This doesn’t mean companies can’t operate independently. Projections suggest that, in the US alone, iGaming is poised to attract 105 million users by 2027, so there are definitely enough people to target.
Despite the size of the market, iGaming companies have taken inspiration from other industries and broken down barriers. Specifically, they’ve engaged in mergers, acquisitions, and collaborations. For example, players can spin the reels of Fishin’ Frenzy Megaways at Paddy Power, where they’ll enjoy its aquatic graphics, dynamic payline structure, and payouts worth upwards of 200x. What they might not realize, however, is that the game is the result of a three-way collaboration.
Paddy Power is the host gaming operator, Blueprint Gaming developed the game, and Big Time Gaming created the Megaways technology. To break this down, Fishin’ Frenzy was originally developed by Blueprint Gaming. The company’s developers came up with the concept and built the game. It then got licensed out to iGaming companies, including Paddy Power, who hosted it.
Big Time Gaming is a software company that created Megaways, which is a system that changes the number of active pay lines in a slot game each time a player spins. This technology can be licensed by other software companies that want to reinvigorate existing games. That’s what Blueprint Gaming did with Fishin’ Frenzy. This three-way collaboration demonstrated a willingness among iGaming companies to share resources.
Merging into a Mature Market
Paddy Power subsequently acquired the rights to Fishin’ Frenzy Megaways and, thus, a three-way collaboration gave customers a new game. These relationships are more common in iGaming than people think. In fact, they’ve become more common in recent years as prominent brands have merged. Indeed, companies such as Flutter Entertainment and Entain are umbrellas under which popular brands operate as stablemates.
Working within a network of similarly popular brands gives iGaming operators the ability to share skills, talent, products, and resources. This is how modern iGaming companies continue to attract new customers, innovate, and, importantly, stay competitive.
Statista data shows that global iGaming revenue topped $95 billion in 2023. Analysts expect revenue to hit $131 billion by 2027. That’s a testament to the power of mergers, acquisitions, and collaborations. More than that, it’s confirmation that these things are necessary. A company trying to go it alone in today’s market will struggle.
Some of today’s most established brands have collaborated at some point, including Red Bull and GoPro. The two have worked together on multiple occasions, with the most famous being the project that saw Felix Baumgartner jump from the edge of space, more than 24 miles above Earth’s surface with a GoPro capturing his point of view.
It’s not like it was back in the nineties when a handful of companies could release their own products and thrive. This, of course, is how most mature markets operate.
What’s interesting though is that we’ve seen iGaming do this in a relatively short period of time. It wasn’t until the turn of the millennium that people started to fully embrace online betting. Since then, the market has become a multi-billion-dollar entity powered by the communal efforts of companies around the world.