Matthew Handrahan, talk about Ben Cousins’ (ngmoco) opinion on the freemium model:
As soon as one competitor in a specific field drops the price to zero, he argues, it becomes very difficult for others to continue charging. It happened to mobile games in the space of a few years, and the touch-paper that will spark the same transition in PC and, ultimately, console gaming has already been lit.
You have access to the world, but you pay for how you use it. Compelling, perhaps? Zynga and others have already proven its prowess, but the stability of the market remains up in the air.
The fact that Americans are now betting on sports like football, baseball, and basketball instead of games one plays at a casino is one reason why the legalization of sports betting has blurred the boundary between iGaming and gambling. The National Football League (NFL) will be gambled on by 45 million Americans this season, up 36% from last, according to figures from the American Gaming Association. Beyond this, well-known sports brands like ESPN are thinking about granting sports betting operators a license to use their name.
The explosion of live streaming on sites like Twitch, YouTube, Facebook Gaming, Caffeine, Owncast, Mobcrush, and Steam TV was another factor in the rise of eSports and gambling games to place legal bets in US. Younger people are attracted to eSports because they are eager to watch digital natives like themselves, who are not elite athletes, compete online. Additionally, the game-playing dynamics of live streaming eSports have made it one of the fastest-growing segments in both iGaming and gambling today due to the enthusiasm of even older individuals.