It is no secret that the European Union finds the online gambling industry to be problematic . But the problems actually don’t lie with the industry, it is in the way EU countries just do their own thing with regards to trading regulations. The EU is committed to a policy of free trade within the Union, but there are all kinds of issues that come into play, so individual countries tend to make their own laws regarding the industry.

One of the chief concerns of many EU partner countries is the problem of match fixing. So, they attempt to put an end to corruption in sports by stopping activities such as online sports betting, and it is this that affects industry players. While the European Union themselves battle with the case of creating a unified, or rather, common, platform for operators in the Internet gambling biz.
The real problem seems to be that the gambling sector is vulnerable, so protection, as well as stamping out corruption is the EU’s main points of focus.

There has also been a great deal of deliberation surrounding inconsistencies in the rules that apply to online gambling ops within EU member nations. We have seen evidence of this in Belgium, Germany, France, and other member states. These states seem determined not to come to the party in terms of this industry.

Their actions have been seen in the light of a monopolistic approach, and this

goes against the basic mandate of the European Union – that fairness and free e-commerce is an integral part of the structure.

The European Commission has requested industry input, and responded with an action plan, however, this has made very little difference to the way in which certain countries respond. Despite the fact that Michel Barnier – the EC Commissioner for internal trade has called for member states to fulfil their obligations, they simply go their own way.

Apparently there are five areas in which increased cooperation is required, but Mr. Barnier has also mentioned that the EC is “not proposing EU-wide legislation on online gaming”. However, they are still proposing that a common protection principle be adhered to, as well as requesting that all member states follow an across-the-board set of actions.

It is obvious that both the EU and member states have concerns such as underage gambling, cheating in sports, and money laundering, but these issues should not be used as an excuse for monopolistic gambling practices to take place. Age verification technology and other tools to protect the vulnerable have become highly sophisticated – operators in regulated jurisdictions are visibly making use of these. However the new EC action plan wants advertisers to be more responsible too.

We have been seeing some incredible growth figures for the mobile gaming sector of the online gambling industry. It has become obvious that this sector has grown so fast and so quickly, due to the fact that mobile technology now offers the capability of entertaining gamblers on the go. Increased smartphone use is one of the biggest heralds for this boom, and mobile-friendly online casinos are taking advantage of the feeding frenzy.

Some pundits of this industry are telling us that the mobile gambling marketplace will be worth more than $100 Billion by the year 2017. This could be more, but online gambling concerns are banking on sharing $45 Billion in profits, if the market reaches this figure. As one can imagine, some serious business people are looking at this business rather seriously.

Now that smartphones and tablets have been blamed as being the key drivers for this increasing trend, researchers have been taking a look at these users. Currently in the UK alone – 62% of the population are in possession of a smartphone. This is an increase of 14.2% since October 2011. Combine this use with the fact that gambling online has also grown, and we see that the mobile sector is responsible for a massive amount of virtual gambling spend, and it is they who are sparking increased profits for operators. In fact the fastest growth sector has been seen in online, and in-play sports betting by mobile.

Currently 15% of the entire gambling sector of the UK is driven by mobile gamers. A smartphone or tablet is eminently portable, much more so than a laptop ever was. The smaller these devices are, the more desirable they are, and much of a smartphone is taken up by screen. This makes it easy to use to access a game, and the game is easily seen, with superior graphic quality.

We have mobile banking apps too, so, it hasn’t taken long for gambling operators to work out mobile payment systems for playing these games for real money, and winning real money prizes too.

Gone are the days where we had to get dressed up, travel, and pay through the neck to have a night out in a casino. We take our mobile phones wherever we go, so wherever we are is our mobile casino. Games and many apps are free to download, can be played for free or real money, and casinos offer a ton of incentives to get us to play these games. They even give away free money.

For years we have been seeing exponential growth in the online gambling market, and a recent report released in the UK only confirms this for us yet again. Since 2008 when £1.27 billion was the number, this industry has grown to be generating a pretty impressive £2 billion in 2012. This is an 80% revenue growth. Internationally the business is worth a whopping £30 Billion.

William Hill claims to hold the largest market share in this UK industry. They are certainly one of the “Betting Giants” in the bricks and mortar biz, where online they control approximately a 15% share. This does not seem like a huge percentage in the bigger scheme of things, but the other large betting brands fall behind by 4% and more. This is quite a big deal when we are looking at figures in the Billions of pounds range.

The most dominant revenue spinner in the UK online gambling market place is sports betting, this has been the case for quite some time. It is also the fastest growth sector, with a high percentage of bets being placed from mobile phones – mostly smartphones. Online/mobile sports betting makes up for a total of 44% of the entire online gambling industry in this country! It has grown by a massive 102%, and is estimated alone to be worth £1 billion!!

Because the industry is such a massive revenue spinner, we have previously reported that the UK Government also wants to get in with a chance to win. Although nothing is concrete as yet, they are contemplating changing the law to lower taxes for online operators. We think this is a case of too little – too late. Gibraltar does not – they are resisting changes to UK Gambling Laws, and understandably so. They stand to lose a huge slice of this industry should UK developers, and operators up and leave from their shores.

Gibraltar has tried to ensure that the EU encourages the UK to drop new draft Gambling Tax Legislation. The Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association have even threatened legal proceedings should the new laws ever be enacted. The current UK daft proposals could see significant changes taking place, including removing “White Listing”, as well as requiring all offshore operations to be secondary licensed to offer gaming to residents in the UK.

Gibraltar is an island state that is White Listed which means, they enjoy status as a recognised UK gambling jurisdiction. If White Listing status was removed, taxation was dropped, and or secondary licensing became required, the well-establish Gibraltar online gambling industry might suffer quite significantly.

I have always been a huge fan of Net Entertainment games; this product is used by many UK/European-facing online casinos, and you may even recognise some games names: Jack and The Beanstalk™, Gonzo’s Quest™, Muse: Wild Inspiration™, Demolition Squad™, Zombies™, Blood Suckers™, Hall Of Gods™, Jack Hammer™, Wild Turkey™, Scarface™ and so many more. These games are of such a high quality it is my personal opinion that they outstrip the quality of Microgaming products.

This online gambling development software company has produced excellent results for 2012, and have even been named as the 22nd top employer in Sweden. Yes, they are a Swedish company, listed on the Swedish Stock Exchange, but operate with a remote license out of Malta. They therefore feature together with some of the biggest, and best names in online casinos available to a UK-facing, and European audience.

The operational excellence of this company for the year 2012, only serves to take me back to the days when I used to say "Microgaming had better watch out". The company is growing stronger by the year, and although are not as aggressively producing "mass quantities" of online casino games at the same rate as Microgaming, they produce them with the same if not far better quality.

New (2012) performance records have been set by Net Entertainment, with 12,300,000,000 gaming transactions in total, a 23% increase in revenues (year on year), and since the year 2006 – a median twelve-monthly growth of 32%. They have increased their European market-share to 27%, and the gaming transactions figures we see above, represent an increase of 43%.

NetEnt continues to enter new markets (Italy and Denmark are new), sign more new gaming partners, and has paid out a record breaking Progressive Jackpot Prize amount of over €17 million. In all honesty, what online gambler would not like to play at a site with PJP gaming network potential such as this?

This year, massive online gambling brands have been seen to be offering NetEnt slots, and if they are not, I don’t want to play there. Paddy Power recently joined the fold as did Boyles Sport. They are already found at Unibet, Smart-Live, Bettsson, BetVictor and many, many more. The group says that they are properly geared for opening in newly regulated territories, and it is here they intend to be "in the right place, at the right time".

I still believe that Microgaming has a tough fight on its hands from NetEnt. This brand has signed an agreement with 888 which has its own software development company( what’s that about?) And have also inked a deal with Bonza Gaming for Facebook.

Anyone want to take a bet which developer will come out on top?

Despite the fact that Zynga is essentially a US company, the US online gambling industry has hardly even reached the infancy stage. It is not legal at a Federal level, and only two states have so far made online poker legal, with a vague possibility that casino and other gambling activities, may become legal sometime in the future. Zynga however, had to change or fade into obscurity, so, the obvious choice was to change. They threw their lot in with online gambling giants bwin.party in October 2012, and have now opened UK-facing real money online gaming sites.

The launch was scheduled for yesterday (at the time of writing), and we have taken a look at the screens-shots, things are looking good.

These brand new sites are the first evidence of the bwin.party/Zynga partnerships, comprising of both a poker and an online casino website. These are both real money gaming platforms, aimed at players in the UK, aged over 18years. The casino features a full suite of approximately 180 games including classic table games such as blackjack, roulette, and slots, amongst many more.

At one time the Zynga brand was the leading provider of social gaming services in the world. But with this new and exclusive partnership, it brings together social gaming expertise, with the owners of blue-chip assets. We are expecting this aggressive move into the real gambling space to be a product of very high quality, and apparently so too do shareholders – stock prices for the company have increased by 50% after a shocking drop during 2012.

The company posted massive losses, and a now a new executive pay scheme basically doubles the salaries of various key executives Marc Pincus himself is on a salary of $1 per annum. He has obviously made more money than he will ever need already, and this is a fabulous gesture to prevent a brain drain. Top brass will have the potential to maximize performance bonuses, while he offers his services for just about free of charge.

According to news reports, the poor performance of the firm led to losses of game designer Brian Reynolds, Dan Porter, CEO of Draw Something (OMGPOP), and CFO Dave Wehner. The new salary scheme, plus Pincus’ sacrifice should have the desired effect, while the new real money gambling websites have resulted in a show of confidence in Zynga products. It also helps that they have partnered with bwin.party – the biggest Stock Exchange listed online gambling concern in the world. It looks like this year is getting off to a much better start.