If you look at the current fabric of the casino gaming market, it’s in the unassuming niche of payment options where we have seen some of the most significant innovations over the last decade.
From a user perspective, having the ability to choose from a dozen or so payment options might sound like a good idea. Still, without these options offering an actual alternative to the traditional payment methods that have fuelled the rise of online casinos since the start of this century, there’s no real need for them.
However, as with any innovation, there are plenty of fintech options that have gone above and beyond the standard options like Visa and MasterCard. While they have not replaced them, they have created a new dynamic in the online casino gaming world, particularly in slot gaming, which is our focus today.
Innovating Within The Existing Slot Market
New payment options don’t need to rip up the rule book of the conventional slot gaming market; all they need to do is offer a route for people to play games they recognize while also highlighting the benefits of new payment methods. While this might sound relatively easy, and maybe slightly reductive in theory, we’ve seen a host of slot gaming designers fuse conventional ideas with new payment options, and they have been able to find success.
For instance, progressive jackpot slots have carved out a particularly strong share of the market by leaning into the appeal of alternative payment options. As cryptocurrency has grown in stature and popularity, both in traditional investment circles and with a broader audience, those behind the brightest ideas in the progressive jackpot slot sector have been able to leverage these broader changes in the fintech world.
As is often the case with some of the most significant changes we’ve seen in the casino gaming industry over the past two decades, the most substantial systemic changes have emerged from taking a popular idea and combining it with something new, to introduce people to a market they are half-familiar with.
We’ve seen people buy burgers and fries with Bitcoin, and we have seen some of the world’s most prominent institutions put it on their balance sheets. Still, the common factor here is that crypto is introduced into markets people understand, which has underpinned the growth of crypto casinos.
Sticking To Conventional Fintech
Cryptocurrency might be making waves at the moment, but it is still conventional ideas that drive the market. While it might be driving innovations in trading and introducing people to digital currencies and their markets through trading bots, it is still a niche within the world of slots.
Those who still use the likes of Visa, MasterCard, and PayPal will be able to attest that these payment options remain the most prominent ones you will find right across the world of slot gaming.
However, it’s about choice. It’s not about one payment system completely running away with the market; it is about broadening the horizons and giving players as broad a choice as possible. PayPal maintains a towering presence in e-commerce, so it is no surprise that it remains one of the leading types of fintech in the world of online slots.
PayPal still maintains its payment guarantee, has robust anti-fraud legislation, and allows you to raise a case directly with them if you are a victim of fraud. Visa and MasterCard are the same, and it is for this reason, this familiarity, that some of the recent alternatives have not been able to knock conventional payment methods off their perch in the online slot gaming sector, at least not yet, anyway.
Taking These Ideas & Shaping The Future
Alternate payment options don’t just offer a route for slot gamers to find new ways to play; they also keep the whole industry on its toes. Those platforms that get too comfortable with their current format and do not pursue alternatives to keep their platforms fresh risk falling behind the competition.
For slot gaming platforms, this can be what determines whether they have the legs to sustain their presence in the market. We’ve seen how slot gaming companies have been able to jump from online platforms to mobile apps to cryptocurrency, and who knows, maybe even VR gaming and AI in the future.
Alternate payment options give us more options as gamers, but, from a broader industry perspective, they speak to how innovation and nonstop creativity fuel it on a global scale.
Perhaps in the future we could see cryptocurrency take a firmer grip on this market; it all depends on how popular and mass-adapted Bitcoin and blockchain gaming ideas become. So long as this innovation exists and there is a market for new, alternative payment solutions, the slot gaming market will continue to grow and reshape itself in response to new consumer demands.
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