The online gambling industry has continued to boom despite having to navigate its way through a particularly testing year.
Analysts have predicted that the global market could grow to more than $66 billion in 2020, a year-on-year increase of over 13 percent.
Further double-digit growth is forecast over the next few years, with revenues expected to exceed more than $92bn by 2023.
888 Holdings has been at the forefront of exciting innovations in the sector, with sites such as 888 Ladies Bingo providing the company with significant growth in recent times.
The global gambling giant has posted annual revenue increase across the majority of its verticals, although it did suffer a slight drop in sports betting due to the suspension of action earlier this year.
With the overall picture undoubtedly a positive one for the business, we take a closer look at some of the latest developments surrounding the 888 world.
888 Rolls-Out Safe Gambling Feature
The company has started to roll-out Control Centre, a new customer-focused safe gambling feature that will sit across all 888’s websites.
It will provide players with an improved understanding of their wagering activities and further promote the firm’s commitment to safe gambling practices.
The Control Centre is described as a ‘one-stop shop’ for customers to monitor their gambling through data and take appropriate steps to control their behaviour.
The tool is initially launching in the United Kingdom, but will be rolled out in other jurisdictions over the next few months.
“The Control Centre has been developed over a number of months and we have identified new ways to ensure safe gambling remains at the heart of the user experience for all 888 players from the first time they visit our websites,” said CEO, Itai Pazner.
“The Control Centre will be an integral part of 888’s product offering moving forward and reflects our commitment to invest resources and expertise to create industry-leading, user friendly and AI -driven safe gambling tools.
“Our business rests on ensuring our customers are empowered to make safe and responsible decisions about their gambling.
“We are committed to continually investing in our teams and technology to prevent gambling-related harm and we are confident that this innovative feature will offer customers new levels of data and clear, transparent insights that will help them to stay informed and in control.”
Playzido Teams Up With Evoplay
One of 888’s newest partners, Playzido, has signed a deal with Evoplay that will further add to its offering of slots, tables and instant games.
Evoplay has built up a strong reputation in iGaming, and their portfolio of more than 60 games contains some hugely popular titles.
The games have been optimised to work on both desktop and mobile platforms in six different languages and localisations.
Playzido, an aggregator and supplier of online casino games, will now deploy Evoplay’s titles across its partnership network with affiliated UK and Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) license holders.
Stuart Banks, CEO at Playzido, said: “Evoplay Entertainment has cemented itself as one of the iGaming industry’s most exciting content developers, so it’s fantastic to have a partner that shares our values when it comes to delivering player-first gaming experiences.
“Our platform is designed by and for operators, and we’ve got a proven track record of delivery for high-profile clients across the globe. I’m sure Evoplay Entertainment’s content will prove to be very popular.”
Vladimir Malakchi, CBDO at Evoplay Entertainment, added: “We’re all about introducing the next generation of gaming to players, with some of the most advanced tech on the market to power our gaming experience.
“We are delighted to be teaming up with Playzido to showcase our games to their stellar network – I’m sure they will prove to be a huge hit with players and partners alike.”
888 Expands its US Footprint
888Sport has confirmed it is expanding its operations in the United States after signing three multi-year market access agreements to launch in Colorado, Indiana and Iowa.
The brand will be operated under the license of the Colorado Grande Casino, Catfish Bend Casinos in Iowa and Harrah’s Hoosier Park in Indiana.
The US online betting and gaming market has huge potential for growth, with changes in the legislative landscape proving to be extremely attractive to gambling operators.
888Sports is expected to go live in Colorado during the early part of 2021, with Indiana and Iowa likely to follow during the second quarter.
Yaniv Sherman, SVP Head of Commercial Development at 888, said: “Expanding 888Sport.com into these three states represents another major milestone in our ongoing growth across the regulated US online gaming market.
“We have deployed our proprietary technology in the US, and our exciting pipeline of new products will deliver industry-leading propositions to customers across both our B2B and B2C operations.
“We continue to appraise strategic partnerships that will provide additional brand-building and market access opportunities for 888 across the US market in the near future.”
Diffusion Deployed for Real-Time Bingo App
888 has confirmed that it has chosen Push Technology’s Diffusion Intelligent Data Mesh to address its real-time application requirements on its Dragonfish bingo platform.
The deployment will aim to reduce infrastructure costs, provide enhanced network efficiencies and offer simplified application services.
Push Technology is widely viewed as the pioneer in real-time intelligent data streaming and messaging solutions, and the firm will help to improve 888’s bingo service.
CEO of Push Technology, Sean Bowen, said: “We are seeing constant demand for scalable, future-proof, real-time data delivery solutions.
“A key objective for application development teams is to establish, monitor, and manage data pipelines that extend Enterprise back-end systems through to the constantly proliferating array of end-user devices.
“To achieve this there is an increasing requirement for platform intelligence, which is what we provide.”
Ronen Tidhar, Bingo R&D Director at 888, added: “Diffusion’s data efficiency and delta streaming technology provide a big advantage over polling for live play. Diffusion has helped us in delivering an immersive, real-time player experience.”
