Global payments provider Paysafe has launched a new whitepaper, titled ‘The Evolution of Sports Betting: Assessing the impact of 5G on the online gambling industry‘.
The research paper was released yesterday and focuses on the UK, US and Germany.
In-play sports betting could be boosted by 5G
From the three surveyed countries, 18% of research participants can see 5G leading to them betting more in-play. Moreover, 42% of those that already bet more than once each week say that they’ll wager more during events.
But it’s not just the amount of bets that will go up, according to this report. Players are also likely to diversify what they put money on. Just over one-fifth of individuals (21%) say that they’ll bet on different kinds of sports.
One thing that could come into play is the proposed law changes to in-play gambling ads in Germany. Here, in-play wagering currently makes up over 60% of the country’s sports betting market. But since brands wouldn’t be able to advertise from whistle-to-whistle, there’s a chance that this could have an adverse effect on player betting behaviours.
What are players concerned about?
At the moment, 31% of individuals in the three countries don’t bet at sporting events. This is due to connectivity issues related to 4G.
On top of the above, 27% of participants were worried about not being able to place real-time bets.
All-in-all, only 14% of players said they had no connectivity-related concerns for in-play betting. That figure was 10% in the US.
More betting in general
Along with the projected increase in real-play betting, it’s also predicted that overall mobile betting will go up. Throughout the UK, US and German markets, 54% of existing bettors feel that they’ll bet more often on their smartphones.
Daniel Kornitzer, Chief Business Development Officer at Paysafe, voiced his thoughts on the paper’s findings. He said the following.
“5G offers a lot of growth opportunities for operators of mobile betting platforms as it gives better searching, faster transactions and improved in-play functionality.
“Our research clearly indicates that consumers have the appetite for the progress and flexibility we see with the emergence of this new standard of wireless connectivity.”
Kornitzer continued with the below.
“For players, it’s all about being able to place bets safely, anytime and anywhere. We would urge sports betting operators to be ready for the increased traffic on their platforms – it’s a huge opportunity for them.”