2023 was yet another year marked by a growth of the iGaming sector and a time of huge acceleration for Delasport. Our industry is fast-paced and exciting, which is why there is a lot to look at while reviewing the last 12 months. Join us as we wrap them up in the paragraphs to follow.
Contents
Overall Performance of the Sector
INDUSTRY HIGHLIGHTS
Overall Performance of the Sector
The iGaming industry continues its upward trajectory hitting a staggering revenue of US$95.05 billion in 2023. Looking ahead, the market volume is forecasted to reach US$138.10 billion by 2028, reflecting an impressive annual growth rate (CAGR 2023-2028) of 7.76%. The user base is set to expand to 243.2 million users by 2028 (source).
Some of the reasons behind the continuous surge include the further adoption of mobile gambling, the rapid development of markets like Brazil, UAE, Africa, and Ontario, as well as the rise of female gamers worldwide.
Markets and Legislation
This year we started observing a shift from international to national regulations worldwide, shaking the ground beneath Malta and Curaçao’s prevalence in iGaming. The two countries were leaders in issuing licenses valid throughout multiple jurisdictions. Now countries like Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden have introduced their own regulations, forcing Malta and Curaçao to come up with innovative solutions in order to keep their strong positions.
Case in point: Curaçao is introducing serious changes with a gambling regulation bill that is now officially in the parliament (source). As part of their regulatory transformation, Curaçao’s legislators also launched the Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA).
Another breakthrough in 2023 comes from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE introduced a new regulatory body to oversee commercial gaming: the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) (source). As a market, the UAE is projected to reach US$1.6 billion by 2026, making it one of the territories with the highest growth potential.
In the meantime, another rapidly emerging market – Brazil – is making a serious leap both in terms of iGaming market development and iGaming regulation. Forecasts place the annual growth rate of Brazil at a whopping 18.10% from 2023 to 2028. By 2028, the projected market volume is expected to reach US$3.63bn (source). A milestone was reached in July this year related to sports betting too: the Brazilian Senate approved a fixed-odds sports betting bill (source). It focuses on some of the most important points: taxation, local ownership, improper advertising, bettor identification, fees, and more.
Another jurisdiction that has kept an eye on itself throughout 2023 is the UK. In April, the British Government released the Gambling White Paper, presenting a fresh strategy for overseeing online gambling regulation in the UK. This document aims to assess and update the 2005 Gambling Act, putting forth various measures that empower operators to utilize technology responsibly. The goal is to allow the majority of individuals who engage in betting without problems to continue doing so, while also ensuring that those with gambling-related issues receive the necessary support (source).
A brave approach to advancing safer gambling has been taken by several countries, including Australia, where credit cards have been banned as a payment instrument leaving players with debit cards as the only digital payment option (source). We’ve been seeing more and more innovative and much-needed ways to increase player safety worldwide.
Trends and Innovations
Personalization as a trend has skyrocketed in iGaming this year, with Delasport being among the leaders in this innovative field (more details – below). Amidst the massive industry growth, players still need to feel seen and appreciated and personalization has been THE way to do it in 2023. Aside from letting players choose their own settings, layout, and favorites across sports betting and casino solutions, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) have also played a key role (read more about it). They have been instrumental in user profiling in terms of behavior analysis, RG screening, and segmentation for tailored suggestions and targeted promotions.
Fraud prevention, Anti-Money Laundering (AML), and Compliance Management have also seen significant benefits from the advancement of AI. Companies on the rise like Sift and Sedric are proof that there is a serious need for such innovative and even creative solutions in otherwise strict fields.
While looking at the trends in 2023, we can’t miss the opportunity to mention that the shift towards mobile betting and gambling has continued this year. According to internal Delasport data, mobile devices now take up about 75% of all iGaming usage. This is why we’ve always made it a point to keep our mobile–friendly solutions up to date (more on this – in the next section).
Lastly, we can’t miss the opportunity to mention one more intriguing (yet logical) trend we’re seeing in the past months: sportsbooks are now including more and more niche or less popular sports. The sports betting sector has been oversaturated with the big sports and events and it is now essential for every serious iGaming supplier, provider, and operator, to provide access to as many smaller disciplines as possible.
DELASPORT HIGHLIGHTS
Product Development and Growth
As mentioned above, Delasport has been among the champions of personalization in 2023. Our proprietary suite ‘My Era’ got well-established and proved profitable in the past 12 months.
‘My Sportsbook’, ‘My Event Builder’, ‘Live Personal Trader’, and ‘If Bet’ are the flagship features that showed everyone how essential personalization really is in times of content inflation. And while we can’t reveal much at this point, we can hint that something big is coming for our Casino solution regarding personalization that you can read about here.
Speaking of Casino, we can’t miss mentioning our latest exciting additions there: a Cross-Providers Jackpot and a Booster Panel for mobile devices. Both of them significantly improve player retention and satisfaction, but the Booster panel is a true innovation allowing players to deposit funds, view the Cross-Providers Jackpot, and notifications without leaving their favorite game for even a minute. The Booster panel assists maintaining the immersion and makes everything accessible – it’s all a single tap away.
Turning our attention to sports again, we should definitely mention the impressive enhancement of our Live Center feature and the new sports we have developed it for. American football and handball are just a part of the new disciplines covered by our proprietary 3D live viewer.
In terms of overall sportsbook enrichment, as mentioned in the previous section, we have also introduced a significant number of new sports:
– Beach Volleyball
– Netball
– Lacrosse
– Floorball
– Australian Rules
– Futsal
– Water Polo
Additionally, we also expanded our outright portfolio with the introduction of:
– Gaelic Sports
– Bandy
– Pool
– Rowing
– Moto GP
– Sumo
– Wrestling
– Surfing
– Softball
– Sailing
– Curling
– Swimming
– Chess
Overall, 2023 has been a cornerstone year for Delasport’s sportsbook solution and we can’t wait to share what we have planned for 2024. But more on that – in early January.
Business Growth
Understandably, with the technological advancement of our product, we’ve been seeing a great surge in our business performance as well in 2023. Some of the key deals and partnerships we’ve signed include EEG, Videoslots, BeyondPlay, Bejoynd, Campeon Gaming, and FansBet. Some of them come as a package deal with more than one brand, so our reach is now extending across several jurisdictions and even continents.
Events and Awards
2023 has been more than dynamic for us at Delasport. We’ve attended most of the largest iGaming events globally: ICE London, iGB Live – Amsterdam, SBC Summit – Barcelona, and SiGMA – Malta, while at the same time successfully organizing our own dedicated event in Malta. We got to meet new partners and friends as well as deepen some already existing ones. And best of all, we got to also have fun while doing it!
This year has been generous towards Delasport in terms of recognition too. We were awarded in the ‘In-Play Betting Software’ category by EGR B2B Awards, followed by ‘Live Betting Product of the Year’ by SiGMA Europe Awards. Furthermore, Delasport was named ‘Rising Star in Sports Betting Technology’ by GamingTech CEE Awards and ‘Platform Supplier of the Year’ by iGaming Sword Awards.
New Markets
Our expansion is multi-layered and in the past 12 months we grew not only product-wise, but also in terms of market availability. We’re now present in dozens of jurisdictions worldwide with the latest ones being Isle of Man, Estonia, and Romania.
In most of the jurisdictions we’re compliant with, we’re present with our full product portfolio. New regions of interest for us are the Nordics and Africa and we’re about to share more details about each of them in the near future.
CONCLUSION
2023 has been so exciting that we’re almost sad to see it go. Thankfully, we’re sure 2024 will be just as full of innovations, recognition, surprises, and positive results, as the current year (if not more). That being said, we’re hoping to see as many of you as possible at the upcoming industry events – the closest one being ICE London 2024. Make sure to book a meeting and come talk to us about your achievements across 2023 and your aspirations for 2024. You’d be surprised how fruitful our conversation can be!
From all of us at Delasport: May you have amazing holidays, dear colleagues and friends!
