Nowadays, we have access to all sorts of services that we use daily. Some of us take them for granted, but if we think carefully, we will see that none of those things were available 20 years ago. Unsurprisingly, many of them also affect the iGaming industry.
According to www.jaxkidsdirectory.com, services like Android, iOS, and several other popular things we use today for iGaming weren’t available when the first gambling websites were released. People who used those things back then had to focus on their computers because it was the only thing they could use to gamble with. “The tech industry has been flourishing in the last couple of years, which explains why we got all sorts of services and apps that allow us to have a better online betting experience. Not all of them are worth it, but some have changed the iGaming business”, said Kristiyan from NB.
Besides affecting the online gambling industry, many other things changed our daily lives. With that said, let’s go through some of them and learn more about when they started operating.
Twitch
The first interesting service that was not available 20 years ago is the popular live-streaming platform called Twitch. Although most people worldwide use it to stream video games, you can also find many other categories. For example, there are people who play music and those who just chat with their audience.
What’s interesting about Twitch is that it started operating in 2011 as a slightly different version of the popular Justin.tv. The latter became available in 2007 and quickly established itself as one of the top-tier platforms for these services. Justin Kan is the founder of this incredible company, which was sold for $970M in 2014 to Amazon.
Besides using it to live stream video games and other things, Twitch also has a vital role in eSports. Twitch broadcasts all eSports events, so you can also find it among the leading online bookmakers. The latter intergrade Twitch into their sites and allow bettors to watch events in real-time.
YouTube
There is no arguing that YouTube is one of the most popular websites in the world. Created in 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, this platform quickly took over the world and became the leading online video-sharing website. In fact, people often regard YouTube as the second most visited website after Google.
Speaking of Google, the latter acquired the company and helped it grow even more. Today, billions of people use it on a daily basis, and this also includes online bettors. Even though only a few bookmakers offer live streaming options from YouTube, they use the platform to showcase different things, such as the registration process.
Bitcoin
We’ve seen a lot of interesting things in the last couple of years, but when it comes down to payment options, we can agree that cryptocurrencies stand out. Although many people hate them, there is no arguing that digital currencies changed the world. There are many options out there, but it all started with Bitcoin, the most famous cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin is undoubtedly the world’s most popular digital currency, and it became available in 2009. Since then, Bitcoin has paved the way for many other popular cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum, DogeCoin, XRP, and more.
Following the crypto boom in 2020-2021, Bitcoin became even more popular, and it also affected the online gambling industry. The fact that so many people started using digital currencies forced some of the leading online casinos and bookmakers to add cryptocurrencies to their portfolios. Consequently, online gamblers can find many crypto-gambling platforms allowing clients to use Bitcoin and other options.
In addition to using it as a payment option, some people also have the chance to play Bitcoin games. For example, you can often find unique slots only available to those using this cryptocurrency.
Of course, Bitcoin is also incredibly popular outside of the iGaming industry. El Salvador, for example, even adopted digital currency as a legal tender. Needless to say, we expect to see even more from this digital currency in the future.
Android and iOS
The next important thing on our list that wasn’t available 20 years ago is related to our mobile devices. Even though we had access to such things, smartphones weren’t that popular until the arrival of the leading mobile operating systems, Android and iOS.
Formerly known as iPhone OS, iOS became available in 2007 with the introduction of the first-generation iPhone. This was a revolutionary product at the time because it changed the way we use our smartphones.
On the other hand, Android is Google’s mobile operating system, that the company created in response to Apple. Even though Google unveiled it in 2007, the first time we got to see it was in 2008.
Billions of people have smartphones in 2023, and almost all of them use either iOS or Android. These 2 mobile operating systems changed our daily lives in many ways and had a massive effect on the online gambling industry.
The best bookmakers and casinos in the world have noticed they are growing in popularity, so they’ve decided to create mobile applications for them. Consequently, users can download them on their devices and use them to bet on sports or play casino games from the palm of their hands.
ChatGPT
Finally, we have something growing in popularity by the day, even though it only became available a couple of months ago. ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence that OpenAI created, and it took over the world in November 2022. In fact, it became the fastest service to reach 1M users, which is impressive, to say the least.
Although it’s still in its early days, this tech has the potential to change the world as we know it. The AI chatbot can provide us with solutions for all sorts of things and many people expect to see it in all areas of life. This also includes online gambling because some punters use it even today to ask for tips and tricks.
