Is Smartwatch Gambling the Next iGaming Trend?

Wherever a new gaming market emerges, it’s safe to assume that the gambling market will quickly follow. With the emergence of modern mobile gaming back in 2008 with the launch of app marketplaces, online casinos built purposefully for mobile devices would quickly emerge and have become amongst the most popular options too – but technology doesn’t stand still for long and new options are made available regularly.

The earliest smartwatches emerged in the 80’s but are nothing compared to what’s available today as the latest options are more akin to a smaller smartphone with all of the functionality and capability that our mobile devices have. They’ve become packed full of features including sensors to monitor heart rate, step counters, and music too – but most importantly, have the functionality to access the internet and to access sites that are widely available across smartphones too.

It’s still a somewhat niche change but is catching on as a growing trend over the past couple of years, whether connected to the internet through Bluetooth or through 4G networks that are available on some devices too, smartwatches don’t even need to be tethered. But does this also mean smartwatch iGaming is growing?

In some regards, yes, there are certain games that have been much easier to play on the smaller screen with both touchscreen gestures and physical buttons too, but there are also some other games that are very difficult to play on the smaller screen too. For most players it will be a matter of preference, whilst the larger smartphone display will lead to a better experience, those with a smartphone do have a more discrete option available to them if that was ever needed too.

The main benefits from smartwatch gambling come from the low amount of room required to play – whether it’s in a crowded space or somewhere that getting a phone out isn’t exactly ideal, playing on a smartwatch is an easy alternative. With that being said, there are some drawbacks too – not all user interfaces are designed to work well on this smaller form factor and could even be unplayable, and the hardware within smartwatches, whilst improving, still has a long way to go until it meets up to more demanding gaming options.

Given there has been lots of talk around other potential market expansions including extended reality in recent years, smartwatch gaming has seemingly come out of nowhere and has started to grow as its own unique trend – operators may not looking to develop services specifically for smartwatches just yet, but if the numbers continue to go up, that may not be out of the realm of possibilities either.