According to data gathered by SafeBettingSites, the revenue of the world’s five largest gaming markets has jumped by $10.04bn in the last three years. In just 2017, China was recorded to generate $20.8bn profit, making it the world’s largest gaming hub. With $17.6bn in revenue, the United States ranked as the second-largest gaming market with Japan, the United Kingdom, and Germany following respectively with $11.8bn, $3.1bn and $1.5bn profit, respectively.
In the next twelve months, the combined markets figure rose to $56.44bn, a $1.45bn increase year-on-year. What’s more, the upward trend continued in 2019, with the revenue of the five largest gaming markets growing by $2.29bn and reaching a total of $58.73bn.
However, these figures could be smashed once again once as time spent at home gaming due to the pandemic in 2020 is taken-into-account. Experts are predicting a significant rise in gaming revenues set to show by the end of the year. Current statistics project that the five largest video games industries are set to reach $64.84bn profit in 2020, a $6.11bn jump year-on-year.
Cumulatively, the revenue of the top five gaming markets is set to reach $68.50bn by 2024.
It’s therefore no wonder that gametech is becoming a fast income stream for both gaming and payment focussed companies.
Recently MiFinity, a global payments provider, announced a new partnership with the online gaming operator and platform group BlueOcean Gaming. The MiFinity eWallet is now available to consumers as a payment method across BlueOcean Gaming’s multiple brands, languages and markets.
Following on from MiFinity’s integration with PaymentIQ in 2019, this latest agreement builds upon the recent announcements in rolling out the MiFinity eWallet across multiple platform providers and gaming operators.
It offers customers a fast, simple and secure way to perform transactions with multiple local payment options that support deposit, withdrawal and transfer functionality in different currencies.
“Welcoming MiFinity on board means a great deal for us. Our clients operate across many markets therefore having a payment that offers a global coverage and detailed security technology sure represents a strong advantage for our offering”, said Mateja Pavlin, Head of Account Management at BlueOcean Gaming.
In the meantime, DMarket, one of the biggest gaming marketplaces for trading in-game items and skins, has already updated its payment providers multiple times in the last year.
Tamara Slanova is the Co-Founder, CFO, and Head of London Office at DMarket. Here she explains just how the company is leading the way in gametech.
How has DMarket changed the payment partners it’s worked with?
We are always looking for new and better payment options for our users, and that’s the only reason for us to sign with new partners. When we see an opportunity to reduce payment processing fees by changing the payment provider, we go for it. We also pay attention to the speed, convenience, and failure rates of transactions. After changing a provider of credit card payments a few months ago, we managed to decrease the failure rates by 50% while also increasing deposit limits and speed.
Another important focus is on regional-specific payment methods that help us expand our global presence. For instance, WeChat Pay has been a major factor in our rapid growth in China.
What have been the difficulties in terms of players withdrawing funds?
The most frequent complaints we get from our users are about KYC. Users don’t like it and we have to explain that it is necessary for their own security. Once in a while, users also make requests about particular payment methods that we don’t have yet. This is why we are always working on expanding the options for gamers worldwide. We have quite a few popular withdrawal methods and new ones are coming really soon.
Do you have any planned improvements in gametech payment methods that you see on the horizon?
As for the ability to earn more, that’s what DMarket is about. We have built a global ecosystem where game developers, gamers, designers, brands, influencers, and entrepreneurs can co-create digital content, trade it, make a profit and have fun.
