February 28, 2022 -- InvestorsHub NewsWire -- via NetworkNewsWire
Editorial Coverage: Almost everything in the online gaming
market produces eye-popping numbers. Even pre-COVID, online
gambling was accelerating at a brisk pace as ever more people
discovered mobile apps and demand surged with the younger
tech-savvy demographic. Enter the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and
millions more people suddenly became familiar with remote gaming.
Operators were caught off guard by the tsunami of demand and
continue to scramble to capture market share in the booming digital
sector. As the technology continues to gain ground and more
effectively recreate the casino experience, companies with
innovative technologies and insight, such as Playgon
Games Inc. (TSX.V: DEAL)
(OTCQB:
PLGNF) (Profile), are providing operators with a
variety of new turnkey packages to capitalize on strong consumer
demand. Other players in the space, including Bragg Gaming Group
Inc. (NASDAQ:
BRAG), DraftKings
Inc. (NASDAQ: DKNG), Penn
National Gaming Inc. (NASDAQ: PENN) and Wynn
Resorts Limited (NASDAQ: WYNN), are also focused on
making the most of a variety of opportunities in the burgeoning
online gambling market.
- Total gambling revenue worldwide is forecast to reach $525
billion in 2023, with online gambling expected to climb to $92.9
billion.
- Playgon develops, licenses its software platform and suite of
games, including HD-quality live streaming dealer casino games and
multiplayer e-table games.
- Playgon’s live-dealer technology went live in May 2021,
exploding to 23 operators and processing more than $54 million in
bets by October.
- Seasoned leadership team has now onboarded 30 operators, raised
$10.5 million for growth, and is preparing to enter the coveted
U.S. online betting market.
Click here to view the custom infographic of
the Playgon Games Inc. editorial.
Online Gambling Growth Outstripping Broad
Market
Hard
numbers provide some clarity to the outsized growth of
online gambling (sometimes called iGaming). In 2019, total online
gambling revenue was $58.9 billion, forecast to nearly double and
reach $92.9 billion in 2023. At the same time, mobile online
gambling revenue will grow even faster, jumping from $24.8 billion
to $42.5 billion. Even with the tremendous growth, the online
segment is still only a small percentage of the total gambling
revenue (both land bases and online), which is expected to reach
$525 billion next year. However, online gambling has gained
traction, capturing growing market share, and big-name Vegas
casinos are going all in.
Nevada isn’t the only state paying attention. Since the federal
government legalized online betting in 2018, states are
increasingly warming up to the idea of online gaming, looking to
seize a revenue and job-creation opportunity. To date, more than 30
states have abandoned moribund laws blocking online gambling and
are now either live or in the process of launching sports betting
and iGaming. According to MGM, the total addressable North American
market (“TAM”) will reach $27.5 billion per year, broken down into
$14 billion in online sports betting and $13.5 billion in iGaming.
iGaming by definition involves any betting online on games of
chance.
Technology Is Pivotal
The technology infrastructure that is foundational to operators
that offer live dealer content is a bit of an oligopoly, dominated
by Evolution Gaming, Playtech and Microgaming.
Playgon Games Inc. (TSX.V: DEAL)
(OTCQB:
PLGNF) is the savvy upstart, recognizing that the
current suppliers have overlooked mobile and offer largely the same
or generically similar products. This pioneering
Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) company has taken a
business-to-business (“B2B”) strategy to provide a multitenant
gateway allowing online operators the ability to offer their
customers innovative iGaming software solutions that outclass the
competition. Playgon prides itself on innovation, modernizing live
dealer games while developing designs specifically for mobile,
rather than desktop like most peers, making a superior user
interface (“UI”) and user experience (“UX”).
With a B2B model, Playgon doesn’t get involved with consumers,
which can cripple margins at the hands of high customer acquisition
costs and marketing costs. Rather, the company develops and
licenses its software platform and suite of games that include four
live-dealer casino games (HD-quality streaming content from its
studio Live from Las Vegas), four multiplayer e-table games (with
nine more in development), Playgon’s innovative platform is built
for seamless integration at the operator level without compromising
any sensitive customer data.
From aesthetics to performance, Playgon offers the most advanced
and ingenious mobile offering in the live-dealer space. The
company’s live-dealer games currently include Blackjack, Baccarat,
Tiger Bonus Baccarat (a proprietary game of Playgon) and Roulette.
Management was mindful in its design, using ProgressiveWeb App
technology to make the product device and store agnostic. By
focusing on mobile, Playgon was able to enhance the player UI and
UX, which attracts the most sought-after player segment, those that
can return remotely.
Playgon went so far as to build its technology to allow for
portrait mode only play, meaning games can easily be played with
one hand on a mobile phone. Top it off with realistic graphics and
live streamed dealers, and architecture built on cloud-based
technology for robustness, scalability and high-speed play, Playgon
is capturing the attention of online operators, casinos,
sportsbooks, and even big database companies.
More Customers, More Players
With the incumbents controlling most of the market and a strict
regulatory environment, there are high barriers to entry into the
iGaming space. Playgon has cleared the hurdles on the strength of
its technology as evidenced by its growing client base and
increased player activity following the award of its Malta Gaming
Authority License last March. The license gave the green
light to Playgon partner SWINTT Malta Ltd, a fast-growing iGaming
content supplier and subsidiary of Glitnor Group, to offer the
Playgon suite of products to its online gaming operator
customers.
Subsequently, international deal flow has been steady. Playgon
went live in South Africa with its partner Intelligent Gaming
(“PTY”) Ltd. By June, six
operators were onboarded, hosting more than 220,000 bets
and 6,000-plus unique visitors in the first month of operations,
with a seventh operator onboarded at the end of the month. Come
August of last year, and the number of operators
leveraging Playgon’s
Vegas Lounge live-dealer platform was up to 14. In
September, SWINTT onboarded three more operators. By October things
were starting to hop. The number of live operators stood at 23, and
Playgon’s platform had exploded to $54
million in player betting turnover in the first half of
the month, up from $1.6 million for the entire month of September.
Since the end of October, 7 more live operators have been
onboarded, bringing the total overseas to 30.
Savvy Team Leads Expansion into Lucrative U.S.
Market
Playgon is led by CEO Darcy Krogh, an iGaming industry vet with
more than 20 years senior-level management experience, including
founding iGaming pioneer Chartwell Technology in 1999, which he
subsequently sold to Amaya Gaming Group in 2011. He served as VP of
Amaya post merger, ultimately facilitating the sale of the B2B
asset portfolio to NYX Gaming Group in 2015.
A recognized subject matter expert in developing real-time,
live-dealer tech and platforms, Playgon Interactive president Guido
Ganschow successfully built and launched state-of-the-art iGaming
technology throughout Asia and Europe.
Playgon COO Steve Baker was previously VP of operations for Shaw
Communications, managing M&A activity and spurring sales growth
from $300 million to $2.8 billion.
The acumen of the team is evidenced in the stellar international
growth and domestic growth should easily follow. In October,
Playgon hit a major
milestone in going live with Solid Gaming, a Bally’s
Corporation company. Bally’s is a big hitter, and after months of
work customizing, integrating, and testing with the Solid Gaming
integration team to ensure performance, Playgon got rave reviews
and is now live with Bally’s Solid gaming. To meet demand and
continue expansion, Playgon opened a private placement in October
to raise $5.0 million, but due to strong interest, the raise was
increased with the company raising $10.5
million, which is likely to increase Playgon’s
velocity and entry to the U.S. markets.
News about Playgon penetrating the U.S. iGaming market should
come soon. The company has engaged Duane Morris LLP to represent it
in its application process to license its live-dealer technology in
legal markets throughout the country. The play is to first submit
applications in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan. The U.S. is
a coveted market that is regulating quickly since 2018 for online
gaming, with a projected TAM of $27.5 billion per year and includes
about 400 casino hotels and 465 nonhotel casinos. Based on those
numbers, interest in Playgon’s new technology should be extremely
high.
Online Action
Other players are paying attention to the online gambling
market, making moves to leverage their expertise and strengthen
their positions, both in the United States and around the
world.
Bragg Gaming Group
Inc. (NASDAQ:
BRAG) is a global gaming technology and content
group and owner of leading B2B iGaming companies. The company
offers full turnkey solutions in North American, European and other
regulated international markets. Most recently, the
company debuted its
exclusive iGaming content in the Czech Republic in
partnership with SYNOT Group, via its SYNOT INTERACTIVE platform,
marking its debut in the country and strengthening its presence in
central Europe. The announcement marks Bragg’s sixth new market
entry in the last 10 months.
DraftKings
Inc. (NASDAQ: DKNG) has a vision to build
the best, most-trusted and most customer-centric destination for
skin-in-the-game fans; to develop the most innovative and
entertaining real money products and offers; and to forever
transform the manner in which people experience sports. As part of
that plan, the company launched its
mobile sportsbook in Louisiana in January. With the
launch, Louisiana became the 17th state to offer DraftKings’ online
sportsbook, and the company is now live in 18 states including
retail-only jurisdictions.
Penn
National Gaming Inc. (NASDAQ: PENN) offers Penn Interactive, the online gaming arm of the
company. Penn Interactive is focused on creating the best online
gaming customer experience available using creative outreach,
innovative product design and world-class engineering. Penn
Interactive operates the mobile and desktop
apps mychoicecasino.com, Viva Slots
and HollywoodRaces.com, which offer more than 100 of the most
exciting online Vegas-style slots that can be played for free on
any device and easy wagering for horse racing online,
respectively.
Wynn
Resorts Limited (NASDAQ: WYNN) online gambling
offering is WynnBET, which has a world-class collection of casino
and sports-betting mobile options for discerning players who
understand the difference between placing a bet and experiencing a
bet. The company announced last year that WynnBET opened its
mobile sports book in Tennessee, marking the sixth state where
the app has launched in less than nine months. With the
announcement, the WynnBET app became available for download
anywhere in Tennessee on Apple and Android devices.
Already generating tens of billions in revenue, there are
multiple drivers that support analyst’s calls for the online gaming
market to soon cross $100 billion globally. The pandemic only
accelerated the online action as new users gravitate to iGaming.
The trend is now a pattern, and it will continue to drive consumer
demand going forward.
For more information about Playgon Games,
please visit Playgon
Games Inc.
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