Year 2020 and the beginning of 2021 has been a doozy of a time. Not only were we hit with a worldwide pandemic that seemingly nobody was adequately prepared for, but the repercussions of this development are still in full swing even as we have entered the new year.
Having a look at how 2020 was treating the casino industry, it’s important to distinguish between land-based casinos and online casinos. Because their journey could not have gone in more opposite directions if they tried.
One man’s trash is another man’s treasure
While this figure of speech might not be the most fitting, it accurately describes how the general public of casino players were handling the year 2020 and their casino play. While online casinos might have been someone’s guilty pleasure before, a lot of people preferring the slightly elevated atmosphere of land-based casinos, the choice was taken away from people when the lockdowns hit left and right.
Most land-based casinos had to close their doors during the long stretch of the past year and even when they were open, the constant ring of stay at home orders and recommendations to socially distance were incentive enough for a lot of players to stay away from the casinos.
Online casinos didn’t have to deal with all of that. For them, it was mostly business as usual. There were a couple of things they did to acknowledge the restrictions and woes of the pandemic. Most of those were capitalizing on the marketing opportunities. Since online casinos were a service that could offer exactly what they’ve been offering before Covid hit the world right in the nose, they could also emphasize on their advantages now when the competition couldn’t really fight back.
Special promotions and bonuses fit for quarantine
It has always been an advantage of online casinos that there was no dress code, no closing hour and that players could access their games whenever and from wherever they wanted. With people being forced to mostly stick to their homes, online casinos had an unprecedented opportunity to gain new players and reactivate players that they thought might have been lost.
In that vein, there has been an increase in special casino bonus and campaigns geared towards new and old players that might think about joining an online casino or who have found their way back to long abandoned accounts.
Online casinos have found many creative ways to make the best of this new reality where more people stay at home and need entertainment and distractions. And who can blame them for capitalizing on the situation?
A staggering increase in memberships
With the stiff competition of land-based casinos all but taken out of the equation, online casinos have seen a steep increase in memberships. The current situation that has been so hard on industries that rely on interpersonal contacts, such as the hotel and culinary industries has been kind to most online-based industries and online casinos are just one of the beneficiaries.
With more players, come more possibilities. Online casinos are clamouring for new players to join their ranks and even though the competition of land-based casinos isn’t so much of an issue right now the competition among the hundreds of online casinos is as fierce as ever.
And while there are more players willing to try an online casino while they’re stuck at home anyway, most of them will still end up only choosing one specific casino or maybe two.
Where do we go from here?
The outlook for the general public remains bleak, with Corona cases still on the rise as the second wave of the pandemic hit like a truck. And while governments still mostly seem woefully unprepared even though they should have seen this coming from a mile away, online casinos are prepared to do the work and continue to satisfy their customers.
They will surely continue to improve their services to adapt even better to the situation. Bonus offers will continue to be adjusted and better servers and mobile websites will ensure that players will be able to play to their hearts’ content whenever they feel like it.
So, in the midst of difficult times for a lot of industries, the online casino industry will surely continue to strive.
SiGMA Group releases its latest publication
SiGMA is proud to announce that the 13th edition of SiGMA magazine is now available online here. The magazine is packed with quality content, interviews and features coming from four different continents around the world – including Europe, Asia, Africa and LatAm. The magazine will be distributed by post to leading gaming and business companies worldwide. Should you wish to be featured in the next issue please contact Katy Micallef.
