The Coronavirus Pandemic that outbreak in the early year of 2020 has brought global impact to most of the business sectors. The gambling industry, especially land-based casinos, has struggled in this pandemic crisis as many of the countries are now in lockdown to prevent further outbreak of the Coronavirus. At the same time, sports bookmakers are also being hit greatly by the pandemic as almost all sports leagues are being canceled and postponed.
However, the digital part of gambling industry has managed to sustain through this pandemic and come to a new opportunity. Many players are migrating from land-based to online casino. While the majority of the industries are struggling in this hard time, experts foresee that the growth of the online gambling industry will slowly transform into long-term growth.
Negative Impact of Covid19 to Land-Based Casino
1. Massive Drop in Revenue
As most of the countries have been locked down, there is no other way a land-based casino can operate. Countries with famous casinos such as Macao, Las Vegas, Singapore, Malaysia rely heavily on tourist players to face a more serious impact in this pandemic as mainland visitors/ travelling are temporarily not allowed in this pandemic. The latest report from the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau has shown a drastic drop in Macau Gross Gaming Revenue in April 2020, from last year April revenue of $3 billion to now $95 million, almost 97% dropped. .
2. Suffer from Huge Operating Cost
Although casinos are not operating during the lockdown period, however, there are still unavoidable cost that they will face, e.g. employees’ wages. While no revenue is generated, these operation costs are still incurring. With the pandemic mitigate and restrictions reduced, strict anti-virus measures still needed to be taken which is also another extra cost to the casino operators. With lesser players in this crisis period but increased operating costs, casinos are facing its challenges. According to The Edge, Genting Casino in Malaysia has announced to be releasing 3,000 of its employees. First time ever for Genting Group since it has been founded.
Opportunities Covid19 Brings to Online Casino
- Increase Mobile Users
When the gambling market is facing the darkest period in this Covid19 pandemic, online casinos have managed to find their opportunity. Players within the lockdown period are looking for a substitute for entertainment has spiked an increase in online gambling. Overall, the search volume of mobile users in this period has significantly increased. Especially in Malaysia online gambling market, online casino Malaysia is able to give a boost in their revenue during this Coronavirus Pandemic.
- Growth in Esports Betting
Covid19 has caused most of the sports leagues such as UEFA Champion League, English League, Euro Cup, NBA etc. to be postponed. Which in another way, bookmakers are unable to make any revenue from it. Moreover, some operators that sell lottery tickets have also been affected as most of the land-based lottery operators are not allowed to operate in this crisis period. These all factors have given esports betting, virtual sports betting and VR casino games a chance to grow. We are seeing the opportunity of online gaming to be dominating the online gambling market in near future.
12Play is one of the top leading online casinos that have managed to grab the opportunity and developed quickly in this pandemic. They offer a wide range of online betting games such as esports, sports, slots, live casino, and etc.
