North America has become the new focal point for casino gaming companies worldwide. Let’s face it: over the last two decades, anyone on the periphery of the industry, or engrossed in its remarkable innovations, has recognized the sleeping giant that is the North American market.
Since the beginning of this decade in particular, digital ideas have completely revolutionized the industry and ripped up the rulebook as we know it. Gone are the days of fragmented, localized approaches, where local monopolies and ideas would stifle the casino gaming industry’s potential, whether in Ontario or any other province.
The explosion in online gambling in the US in the late 2010s has now spread north, opening a new, prosperous stream for many casinos, whether they’re an Ontario casino looking to ride the current wave of popularity or based elsewhere in Canada.
As this melting pot creates an energized and reinvigorated approach to casino game design, those in the know have been looking for ways to springboard Ontario into the global conversation.
The groundbreaking presence of NFTs, which have helped reshape real estate, music, and numerous other industries, signals where the market is headed. Digital entertainment and ideas that exist solely online are among the most sought-after.
There’s a dichotomy: the market may be global, but it is still local, and custom gaming ideas often find the best market, particularly in Ontario. Yes, tapping into the latest ideas and using global trends as a barometer is a solid strategy, but to propel Ontario into the global landscape, it needs a niche to target, or a collection of creative ideas to fuse.
It’s not just Ontario’s geographical location that puts it in the direct line of the US market; the strength of the Canadian economy, and the fact that it has the world’s strongest economy on its doorstep, allows Ontario providers to catapult themselves into the global conversation. The startup ecosystem is also one of the most promising factors in Ontario’s economy right now.
It’s easier than ever for iGaming companies to form international partnerships with slot designers, innovators, and those who are driving iGaming into innovative new terrain.
In addition, there’s scalability, especially in investing in smaller, promising brands from developing markets and in global payment systems, the market’s current lifeblood, as a way to become the figurehead for these brands and bring Ontario into the global iGaming conversation.
The US and Canadian economies lead the world in gaming tech, infrastructure, marketing, and product scaling. More brands are also bringing marketing in-house, allowing Ontario startups to have their fingers in many proverbial pies.
If brands can break down these barriers and work within a digital, borderless ecosystem, it could provide the framework for something to really gather momentum between now and 2030.
While European markets definitely had the advantage in the 2010s, the North American market has come roaring back this decade. We have seen how prediction markets and digital payments are now dominating the news cycle. In addition, prediction markets are injecting a new lease of life into the online payment market, and subsequently North American iGaming. More importantly, it signals that the main innovators are now on this side of the Atlantic.
There’s no reason Ontario can not be in the mix, driving Canadian casino gaming growth and putting a spring in the market’s step as online casinos solidify themselves as the new global power. Let’s see how this market develops between now and 2030.
Photo: iStock
