Blackjack, roulette, slot games, lotteries, and sports betting from desktops and mobile devices. The iGaming sector includes companies that offer online services and products related to games of chance and betting. This includes online casinos, online lotteries, online poker, and online bookmakers, among other types. Often you’ll find companies bundling all these together, offering a complete gambling portfolio to their customers. In the coming years, this lucrative sector is poised to grow significantly in India.
The online gambling market in India is young, at least in comparison to western countries and China to the east. Rules and regulations are still blurry but relevant laws are being introduced more and more around the world. Currently, iGaming operators located in India are not allowed to offer services online, while operators located outside of India are not stopped from providing gambling services to Indian players. India is effectively a gray market.
It’s challenging to get accurate estimations due to the market being grey, with rules and regulations for online gambling blurred. However, there is this comparative market report where India is compared with China in terms of market size and growth. In these findings, it’s argued that these two markets are comparable due to the similar state of laws and regulations, China being a grey market, the population size, state of infrastructure when it comes to ISPs (Internet Service Providers), and use of technology, such as handheld devices.
So, how is the situation in China? In 2019 the online gambling market was valued at $23.8 billion and is expected to grow to be worth $35 billion by 2022. Considering that the Indian market is still relatively young, it is safe to predict that the iGaming sector is an area that will continue to boom in many years to come.
For people who are online all the time, it’s easy to forget how young the internet really is. In the 90s there were no Wikipedia pages, Google was still not around, Twitter was launched in 2006. The Internet’s growth globally is unparalleled and it has had a significant impact on all aspects of our lives.
One of the industries that went from offline to online in the early years of the internet was online gambling. Many companies dealing with online casinos saw the light of day in the late 90s and early 00s. Sweden was a hotspot and some of the biggest global operators today have their roots stemming from there. Many of these companies are offering their services in India today. Some have over 20 years of experience catering to customers in different markets and cultures. A long history means that the foreign online casino operators that entered the Indian market are well prepared to meet the high demand and provide top quality service to a new and young market.
One of the reasons why India was late to the party is because of the lack of internet access, overall poor stability, high-speed internet, and wifi coverage and for casinos specifically, a lack of payment providers available for safe and secure financial transactions. Infrastructure improvements have enabled massive growth in internet usage, mainly through enormous advances in fibre optics and wifi network coverage around India. Usage is boosted further due to the widespread use of mobile devices, making products and services such as online casinos available from anywhere in India and at any time.
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