Emerging technologies are helping all types of businesses streamline processes and improve their service and the betting industry is no different.
Between the 2022 to 2023 financial year, the UK gambling industry was worth approximately £3,303 million. The industry also employed more than 75,000 people, making it vital to the economy.
This article will explore how technology has helped the industry grow in the UK and the potential impact of emerging tech.
Technological Advances in Online Gambling
The popularity of online gambling has experienced a continuous growth due to its convenience, which only increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. With betting offices closed, many customers looked online with major betting companies and smaller independent online casinos offering a range of services.
As the online betting industry in the UK grows, operators are making the most of developing technology to give them a competitive advantage in a tough market.
Security
Providing a safe and secure online betting experience is essential to success. Customers provide betting sites with sensitive personal data including banking information and credit card details.
As cyber criminals continually adapt to target different weaknesses, so must the security of online betting sites. Providing security for customer information, money, and cryptocurrency. Encryption methods including Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TSL) provide safe connections and protect sensitive data.
AI
Many of the newest gaming sites in the UK make use of AI technology to streamline processes. AI has been used to monitor individual users’ gameplay in order to tailor experiences and recommendations for them. AI has also been used to track betting patterns and identify potential problem gambling.
The gambling industry is dedicated to ensuring its customers enjoy betting and doesn’t get into trouble with it. AI can flag concerning betting behaviours and provide users with avenues to seek help.
AI automation of other processes also helps online operators lower overhead costs and minimise the time it takes to carry out procedures.
While this is great news for the betting industry, it could make previous positions redundant as operators look at ways to save money and a greater shift towards online betting.
Loyalty Schemes and Bonuses
The ability to entice and retain new users is essential to the success of an online betting site. Bonuses and loyalty programmes make use of data-tracking technology to tailor offers to particular users.
This offers a unique marketing advantage as user behaviours can be studied in real time and automated data management systems can react to this information.
User Experience
The user experience is greatly affected by new technology in online gambling. Everything from customer service to the quality of games can be improved to ensure users are provided with everything they want.
Developers make use of software improvements to ensure better gameplay and graphics are available for the latest games.
The rollout of 5G in major cities around the world has also improved the quality of mobile gambling sites by allowing a secure connection and making live dealer games possible.
Technological Advances in Betting Shops
The in-person betting experience has come a long way in the UK from smokey, intimidating betting shops and rowdy racetracks to welcoming, diverse entertainment venues.
Technology has facilitated this change and has also seen the market move online. Before online betting took off, changes in how betting shops operated started to revolutionise the industry.
Settling Technology
Manual bet settling and time-stamped tills used to be the standard for betting shops. This meant that human error was a very real possibility and the opportunity for fraudulent behaviour was greater.
In 2005, one of the UK’s largest bookmakers started rolling out EPOS (Electronic Point of Sale systems) in their shops. This allowed data to be manually entered and automatically settled using state-of-the-art technology. Some betting slips and football coupons were also designed to be read automatically by the system, saving time on data entry.
This speeded up processes and allowed bettors to be paid out more quickly, improving the in-person betting experience. It also allowed betting shops to be efficiently run by one person during breaks.
FOBTs
The introduction of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs) allowed customers to bet on casino-style games and slots all on one terminal. The benefit of these machines was that they gave customers a far greater choice and allowed them to place bets without the help of staff members.
Virtual Racing
Virtual racing provides a computer-generated racing experience for customers to bet on. Virtual racing offers a range of dog and horse races at various virtual courses throughout the day and night.
This ensured betting shops could still offer customers a consistent service that wasn’t affected by weather or abandoned meetings. The implementation of virtual racing and FOBTs saw betting offices extend their opening hours year-round when this only used to happen during the summer months.