The mobile casino gaming industry has taken the world by storm in recent years. While it seems like these betting platforms popped up overnight, there’s a lot more behind the scenes that goes into their success: it isn’t all flashy headlines, enticing promos and high rollers placing massive bets. Here’s a look at the technological developments that drive the mobile gaming industry’s success.
Beginning With the Basics: Location Services
It may seem like a relatively small thing, but the location services that modern cell phones, laptops and other devices use play a critical role in making the mobile betting platforms offered at the best online casinos work. That’s because gambling laws vary dramatically from state to state and country to country.
Some governments let the free market do its thing, condoning just about any form of betting. Others proceed with cautious optimism, holding stricter requirements for the minimum age of bettors or the types of wagers available: when it comes to college sports betting, for instance, many states limit the types of wagers you can place, aiming to take the onus off of athletes to perform in a certain way because of their protected status as amateurs.
Other locations still ban betting entirely, or limit it to for cash fantasy games like those hosted on DraftKings and FanDuel.
Location services matter for bettors and bookies alike, helping to ensure that everyone is acting within the realms of the law: if that weren’t happening, regulatory agencies would shut these businesses down before they even got started, making these simple solutions critical to the industry’s success.
With that said, they aren’t a perfect solution, as some Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) are designed specifically with flaunting the location requirements of betting apps in mind.
The world of mainstream mobile betting is still so new in the United States that we’re seeing a sort of technological arms race as some people try to find workarounds to dodge the requirements currently in place.
While mobile betting games like online poker have existed for roughly a quarter century at this point, they haven’t always enjoyed the level of popularity that they do now. With mass adoption comes a host of individuals trying to game the system and find loopholes, and it’ll be interesting to see how those in the industry react.
Financial Technology
Financial technology, or fintech, is another mobile arena that’s critical to ensuring safe and ethical experiences for would-be bettors. Just like with location services, the reason that betting companies employ these protections is twofold.
For starters, casinos and sportsbooks want to be sure that their own financial interests are at stake. On the other hand, it’s good business to be able to say that customers are safe when using your platform, especially with something like mobile betting that can involve large amounts of money.
The cybersecurity applications of fintech seem endless: as with the mobile betting industry, the field evolves at a rapid pace as cybersecurity experts attempt to stay a step or two ahead of hackers or any other malicious parties.
While fields like fintech and cybersecurity can spike pretty daunting if you’re new to the concept, the basic premises are pretty simple.
Fintech provides a way of verifying that bettors are who they say they are, using secure platforms to vet a customer’s personal identifiable information (PII) like their social security number, address or birthdate.
Once again, this keeps the betting platforms high and dry, minimizing their risk of getting caught up in a scandal if people use their platforms to attempt to launder money or place wagers before they’re legally able to do so. It also protects the customers: massive corporations are some of the biggest targets for hackers because of the vast amounts of data they contain on their customers.
By taking adequate steps to improve their cybersecurity, betting platforms do what they can to avoid massive hacks from taking place, like those suffered by iCloud, Sony and Google in recent years.
Fintech makes it easier for anyone involved in the industry, whether consumers or providers, to sleep easily… and at the end of the day, trust is what a good business relationship is all about.
Random Number Generators
Last but not least, we’ll get into the gaming operation side of things. When you’re at a physical casino you can see the roulette wheel spinning, watch the dealer shuffle cards, showing you that you’re getting a fair experience.
With mobile betting games, you don’t have that same privilege, but you can rest assured that you’re getting a random (and therefore fair) hand.
Casinos use random number generators to do so, relying on technology to level the playing field: you don’t have to worry about collusion, either, as these programs are independently audited by third parties to ensure a fair experience.
Once again, trust is crucial in a fledgling business, and random number generators are yet another way that betting platforms build it.