Despite the ban on online gambling for local providers and the pandemic, the online gambling market in India is experiencing steady and significant growth. Although it is considered understudied, developers and providers see great promise in it.
Online gambling in India today
Today, betting on online gambling is banned in India, the only exceptions being horse racing and lotteries. However, thanks to the ability to circumvent the ban, which does not apply to foreign providers, the number of active users from India visiting gambling platforms is not only not decreasing but growing very fast. The best online gambling platforms can be found at https://gamblingtoprating.com. This year, the industry has surpassed $1 billion, and the number of players is aimed at 700 million.
Factors of development in the online gambling sector
The most developed and largest sector is betting. The popularity of sports betting among adults in India is high and continues to grow due to several factors at once:
- The traditionalism of the sector, making it the largest and most promoted;
- the rising standard of living, leading to an increase in the purchasing power of users;
- the large number of sports that can be bet on;
- the ever-growing (and already more than 825 million) number of Internet users in India;
The lack of restrictions in the European Union, such as advertising on platforms, deposit sizes, or credit cards.
All these factors make India one of the largest gambling markets in the world. According to some estimates, its annual turnover could be as high as $150 billion. Unfortunately, the bulk of the market is owned by local criminal clans and is outside the legal field. This means that its existence generates no revenue for the state coffers. Now the state is looking for ways to solve this problem. Many experts see the way out as the legalisation of online gambling at the state level. Such practice is successfully applied in the USA.
The most popular types of online gambling in India
As far as the gaming preferences of the region's residents are concerned, poker and fantasy sports are the main niches in the industry. In addition, cricket betting, a traditional sport in India, occupies a considerable chunk of the industry. They took the lead last year due to a surge in online betting on the results of the cricket championship games held in the previous year.
The digitalisation of the country and the development of the internet in even the remotest corners of the country, along with the government's willingness to regulate the industry, make India an attractive region for developers and providers.
