The size of the global online betting market could reach a value of $73.45 billion by 2024, fuelled by regulatory changes, technological changes and a surge in popularity.
The estimate is contained in a new report by Hexa which focused particularly on the transformative effects of new mobile technology, through which gamblers are able to make secure bets quickly and conveniently. The report also noted that there has been a trend towards increasing legalization of betting, with a number of countries relaxing gambling laws.
Analysing the trends in the online global market since 2014, the report estimates that by the middle of the next decade, the size of the market could increase at a rate of around 9.8 percent, from a starting point of $27.56 billion, driven for the most part by sports betting, which was found to account for more than 40 percent of all global online betting.
Mixed picture
But the report also suggests that the growth of the online gambling market will not occur evenly across the globe, and despite a general trend towards de-regulation, there is a mixed picture, with some regions maintaining or even strengthening anti-gambling legislation.
For instance, while Europe’s well-developed infrastructure and wealth has made it the leading region for sports betting in recent years, there has been a trend of increased regulation in some of the major European markets that might have an effect on the growth of the sector.
But those effects are likely to be offset by the growth of other markets, most notably in the Far East and in the United States, where sports betting was effectively legalized by a Supreme Court decision in May 2018. There has also been a trend for betting companies to take an increasingly international approach in exploiting newly legalized sports betting jurisdictions, which the report concludes is also likely to increase the size of the overall online betting market.
