The global casino market is currently valued at $263.3 billion. Alongside mobile casinos and other popular trends, crypto gambling is playing a significant role in boosting this number. The latest statistics show that more online gamblers are interested in crypto casinos and clearly prefer Litecoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies over fiat currencies. Below, we look at some noteworthy data on cryptocurrency in online gaming.
The Crypto Gambling Market
Cryptocurrencies are still a niche offering in the igaming world. But they are growing more popular by the day. More and more online casinos are supporting digital currencies as a payment method, allowing gamers to play popular games like Aviator, slots, and poker with Bitcoin and Ethereum.
This is in line with the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency in daily transactions. People can now use digital currency to purchase NFTs, jewelry, cars, real estate, insurance, and more. Despite this, the lion’s share of Bitcoin transactions – about 60 percent – is made on online casinos like Betway.
Crypto gambling is so significant, in fact, that the market is estimated to be worth $250 million. This number is barely a drop in the $93-billion-worth igaming industry, but it is growing fast, especially as more hybrid and crypto casinos open.
2023 data shows that crypto gamblers spent $2,925,599,422 in crypto on bets in Q1 2021. This number rose to $6,342,214,971 in Q1 2022 – an increase of over 116 percent. In terms of volume, about 36 percent of bets placed in Q1 2022 were crypto, up from 26 percent in 1 2021.
Bitcoin Losing Domination?
Ethereum and Bitcoin and the most popular digital currencies used for gambling. Bitcoin previously dominated the market – and still does to a degree – but its popularity seems to be dropping. Online gamblers are slowly turning to faster and higher volume coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The most recent data shows that Bitcoin accounted for 83 percent of all crypto bets placed in Q1 2021, but this number fell to 72 percent in Q1 2022. Ethereum’s share, on the other hand, rose from 10 percent in Q1 2021 to 13.45 in Q1 2022.
Other popular coins are eating up the share Bitcoin is dropping. Litecoin accounted for 6.45 percent of all crypto bets, Dogecoin 2.56 percent, and Tether, the tokenized dollar, 2.79 percent in 2022.
Crypto Casinos
The crypto gambling market is growing steadily because more casino providers are turning their platforms into hybrid casinos, and new crypto casinos are opening daily. By the end of 2021, there were 304 crypto casinos online, 30 percent of which allowed transactions exclusively in digital currency. The other 70 percent were hybrid casinos with crypto and fiat currency options.
The establishment of these casinos has become necessary due to the expanding market of crypto gamblers. Statistics show that these players spend $3 million in crypto on casinos every day and that about 30,000 players use crypto at least once a week.
Wrapping Up: The Future of Crypto Gambling
Cryptocurrencies are faster, safer, and more private to transact. Taking these and other benefits into account, it is easy to see why more and more gamers are turning to crypto gambling every year. Industry experts predict that crypto gambling will continue to grow and eventually attain a major share of the igaming market value. We will also see more crypto games and regulation efforts in the field.