Friday view: Year of the tablet
Alun Bowden, head of content at eGR Mobile Intelligence, asks if 2014 is the year of the tablet is this really good news for everyone?
If 2013 was the year of the mobile sportsbook, then 2014 is set to be the year of the mobile casino. Or more precisely the year of tablet casino.
With Christmas stockings up and down the land expected to be bulging with tablet-shaped presents this year, operators are backing the bigger screens to finally deliver the great leap forward in mobile gaming.
But if only it was that simple. With the majority of tablets sold likely to be Android-driven there remains some significant hurdles for casino operators to overcome. At present, the mobile web seems to be the slightly inelegant solution to Google Play’s blanket ban, but html5 is not not quite the catch-all problem solver some make it out to be.
The html v native debate has been running as long as there have been smartphones, but there is still no definitive answer. Most major operators continue to develop on both platforms, but what’s interesting is seeing how native-focused companies are moving towards html5 and vice versa. The grass is always greener it seems.
One firm that is focusing more on native in 2014 is BetVictor, which has seen fantastic growth in both mobile sportsbook and casino during 2013. Find out how it did it here. You can also read its director of mobile’s thoughts on the future of mobile casino, and with mobile already representing 40% of BetVictor’s casino revenues it may be wise to listen.
Although, as with everything in mobile, there are at least two sides to every argument – and both are usually right.