Desktop Faces a Losing Race in Online Sports Betting
It’s been a long time coming for desktop whose downfall has been first indicated as early as 2012 and announced as a sure thing in 2015.
Could 2018 be the year those predictions are finally proved true?
Number play a simple game and offer a universal truth when it comes to the role of desktop market. From a perspective much broader than sports betting, the global desktop sales went down 9.6% in the first quarter of 2016 which was the sixth consecutive quarter with a downtrend in desktop orders with PC vendors.
Tablets, smartphones and other handheld devices continue to displace desktop due to their highly convenient nature which allows the end user to carry them in their pocket and access the internet, email, social networks, music and – betting operators – from whenever they are.
Fair play to desktop devices, they still lead the line as the single most productive tool for many demanding tasks and remain at the forefront of the business niche. Still, with the global online betting market spreading rapidly to accommodate the need of the most regular and common user it has come down to the availability, accessibility and convenience which are not desktop’s strongest suits.
Mobile sports betting business is booming and slowly overpowering the desktop platforms but operators have yet to gain full momentum and follow the pace. They still lack consistent reporting standards (KPIs) to have a precise overview of their mobile revenues.
The aforementioned statistics deal with the two most important KPIs that act as benchmarks for current analysis of the mobile market.
- Mobile betting stakes/revenues in % of total online betting stakes/revenue
- Total Mobile revenue in % of total revenue
The latest trend initiated by Sky Bet who are slowly moving into a mobile-only sphere is a big sign of things to come and numbers are once again here to support Sky Bet’s brave move. A look into the revenue reports from the third quarter of 2017 offers an insightful perspective into the rapid changes online betting world is going through.
Online betting operators are averaging 75% of their total betting revenues through mobile channels. Talking strictly about Sky Bet, we are dealing with no less than 90% of the online sport betting revenue coming via mobile. To put numbers into a wider picture, other notable operators such as William Hill or Ladbrokes are not far behind with 81% and 79%, respectively.
Operators used to focus primarily on launching mobile betting offers and the numbers above represent the figures focusing on betting stakes and revenues.
Suppliers and operators are now turning to mobile is lumps with mobile revenue recording a constant rise in percentage of the total revenue which is the second parameter that suggest the unstoppable and imminent death of desktop.
Average operators and suppliers have recorded a mobile revenue of 61% and 56%, respectively, in total revenue during the same period (Q3 2017) with Sky Bet once again leading the line with 82%.