A Look Behind the Growth of Online Casino Market in Canada
The online casino market in Canada is growing exponentially. The best online casinos in Canada are working hard to keep pace with developments in the market, responding to consumer demand by upgrading their services and offering new products to their customers.
Unlike some parts of the world, though, the online casino market in Canada is a little different. For the most part, online casinos aren't allowed to offer services from within the country. However, residents of Canada are allowed to play at online casinos from around the world.
This has resulted in Canadian provincial governments bringing in less gambling revenue than they perhaps could have, if online casinos were allowed throughout the country.
Still, there are positive signs for the online casino market in Canada, and plenty of reasons why it's growing so much.
Pandemic Increases Demand
There's hardly been an area of life that hasn't been affected in large part by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The casino industry is one that was certainly affected by the pandemic -- but whether that effect was positive or negative depends on the type of casino you're talking about.
Land-based casinos, like the ones that are located throughout Canada, got hit tremendously hard. Local lockdown measures kept people inside their homes, and kept casinos shuttered for months. Even after the lockdowns were lifted, there were still many restrictions casinos had to deal with.
With so many people at home, online casinos experienced unprecedented growth. Some developers reported that their revenues exploded by 90% during the early months of the pandemic.
On an industry-wide level, that trend didn't quiet down once the year turned to 2021, either. In the first half of the year, online casinos experienced a growth of 51% year-over-year.
With so many people now used to play at online casinos -- and loving every bit of it -- it's likely that impressive growth will continue into 2022 and beyond.
Online Casinos are More Accepted
Consumers around the world are also getting smarter about where they risk their money online, and with which companies they are willing to share their personal and financial information.
With so many online casinos popping up all over the world, Canadians have been very careful about making sure that they play only with operators that are properly licensed and regulated.
The good news is that today, there are many different reputable gambling agencies. The environment for online gambling is now very well regulated, with a stable framework in place for governments to promote online casinos while at the same time ensuring they are safe and secure.
Players Demand More Choices
One thing that today's online gamblers in Canada and elsewhere demand is choice. And with so many different online casinos on the market, the consumers are the ones who can drive what casino operators do.
This choice comes in many forms, too. First, they want more gaming options. They don't just want the standard offerings of slot games and table games. They don't even just want live dealer games and other new features.
Players today demand that online casinos constantly update their gaming library to keep things fresh and fun. They demand new types of games to change up the way they've played games in the past. And they demand completely new offerings, such as virtual reality and augmented reality that bring the online casino to life.
In addition, players want choice in terms of how they are able to access online casinos. At the very least, they demand that every online casino offers a mobile-friendly version. Some players even want a mobile-first mentality from their online casino, including some games that are designed specifically for mobile devices. The name of the game here, obviously, is choice.
Bonuses Must Be Abundant
A simple welcome bonus and some free spins here and there aren't enough, either. Canadian online gamblers want to know they are being taken care of, and they want this to continue long after they become new players.
Many online casinos of the past would tailor all of their bonuses and promotions to new players. They used these offers to entice new players to sign up at their casino, in an effort to draw them away from the competition.
But players caught onto this trend and would simply sign up at multiple online casinos to take advantage of all the bonuses.
In Canada, some online casinos are responding to this by offering impressive ongoing bonuses and promotions to existing players, too. This includes free spins being offered to new slot titles as they're released. It also includes things such as reload bonuses that add more money to a player's account every time they deposit more money.
Canadian online gamblers of today are driving this change, which is very positive for players.
How Brick-and-Mortar Responds
This shift in where casino games are played happened across the world, too. In other parts of the world -- say, in the United States, for instance -- major casino operators have been able to made adjustments to focus more on their online products
It's not so simple for the major Canadian casino operators to do the same, since they aren't permitted to offer an online casino that's based in Canada. However, some of the main brands in Canada also offer online casinos in other countries, so they could try to entice Canadian players to sign up there.
For instance, MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment Corporation both have offline presences in Canada, but their online brands are much stronger in other countries.
Until the Canadian government changes its laws as they pertain to online gambling, many land-based casino operators in Canada will have to be OK losing some of their players to offshore companies.