Gift cards gaining prominence among online gaming platforms worldwide
The online casino market has been growing at a rapid rate, as more and more state legalizes and regulate online gaming in the United States. As a result, there has been a significant increase in the number of online casinos and sportsbooks, all competing for a piece of the highly profitable market. In the United States, the competition among online casinos is becoming even more fierce as they introduce innovative features and expanded payment options, all aimed at captivating and maintaining their customer base. This is beneficial for the players who are benefitting from improved gaming experiences.
Over the years, gaming platforms have introduced faster payout options to stay ahead of the competition. More recently, online casinos have started accepting gift cards to gain an edge over their competitors. In the United States, a number of online casino platforms have incorporated gift cards as a viable payment option.
- Wild Casino, Ignition Casino, Las Atlantis, and BetOnline are among the popular online casinos that accept gift cards. In addition to Visa gift cards, some of the online gaming platforms like Ignition Casino also accept Mastercard prepaid cards. Las Atlantis, on the other hand, also accepts other new-age payment solutions such as cryptocurrencies.
In the online casino space, this trend is projected to further continue from the short to medium-term perspective in the United States. The trend will be driven by factors such as transaction anonymity, security, budgeting, convenience, and bonus offerings. Many online casinos are offering bonus promotions for using gift cards as a payment tool in the United States.
Furthermore, with no personal information required to use gift cards for online transactions, gamers are turning to the payment tool to play at online casinos without revealing their identity. The payment solution also helps the gamer in staying within the budget while gambling online. These features of using gift cards as payment methods will keep aiding the adoption among gamers in the United States over the next few years.
Over the last few years, online gaming platforms have also forged alliances with gift card providers in the United States. These strategic collaborations have led to the widespread availability of gift cards in retail stores. For instance,
- DraftKings, the digital sports entertainment and gaming industry platform, entered into a strategic alliance InComm Payments in 2020. The collaboration was aimed at launching the industry-first retail gift card. The partnership expanded DraftKings’ presence in retail outlets such as 7-Eleven, Dollar General, Speedway, and Sheetz. The aim of the collaboration was to expand the reach and physical distribution.
This trend is also gaining strong momentum in other global markets, wherein gaming platforms are forging alliances with gift card service providers. Shanghai Moonton Technology Co. Ltd., also commonly known as Moonton Games, entered into a strategic partnership with Blackhawk Network in September 2022. As part of the collaboration, Blackhawk Network will launch physical gift cards for Moonton Games in Indonesia.
Read More – Innovative business models are driving gift card industry growth in 2023
Read More – Strategic moves: Exploring recent mergers and acquisition activities in the gift card industry
The partnership will enable Moonton Games to reach hundreds of millions of gamers in the Indonesian market. Notably, online and mobile gaming has been growing at a rapid pace in the Indonesian market. The availability of gift cards, therefore, makes it easier for gamers to access in-game features. For gaming platforms, on the other hand, gift cards enable enhanced experience. As part of the collaboration, between Moonton Games and Blackhawk Network, the gift cards have been made available at Indomaret stores.
Amid the growing popularity of gift cards, online video game streaming service providers are also launching their gift cards in more and more global markets. Twitch, for instance, launched gift cards in more global markets like Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom in 2022. Initially, the firm introduced Twitch gift cards for gamers in the United States allowing them to reward their favorite streamers by donating Twitch currency, Bits, or gifting subscriptions to other users.
While a lot of new-age gaming platforms have been forging strategic alliances to launch their gift cards at retail outlets, the popularity of digital ones has been growing at a rapid rate globally ever since the pandemic outbreak. The adoption of digital gift cards is expected to exceed the adoption of physical ones over the next few years. Consequently, PayNXT360 expects more and more digital gaming gift card launches from the short to medium-term perspective in the global market.
Read More – Earned wage access providers are unlocking the growth potential with gift cards in 2023
Amid the growing adoption of digital gaming gift cards, new players are also entering the market with their marketplace solution. In India, Driffle is seeking to provide innovative solutions to online gamers, including gift cards. The online marketplace, in November 2022, also raised a funding round from BEENEXT.
As part of its seed funding round, the firm raised US$3.4 million as it plans to accelerate its growth in the fast-growing online gaming market in India. Over the next five years, the online gaming space is expected to see an influx of millions of new gamers across the country. This will subsequently lead to higher sales of gift cards in India from the medium to long-term perspective.
Overall, the online gaming market is growing rapidly worldwide, and this will keep aiding the growth of the global gift card industry over the next three to four years. The growing competitive landscape will lead to more strategic collaborations between gaming platforms and gift card providers. This will also drive innovation in the global gift card market, which is expected to increase US$472.7 billion in 2022 to reach US$668.4 billion by 2027, according to estimates.