Online gaming services provider SOFTSWISS says its latest analysis shows that the cryptocurrency segment “is experiencing slower growth compared to the broader iGaming industry”.
The company issued a state-of-the market report for the first nine months of 2023, based on data collected across more than 530 betting brands supported by SOFTSWISS digital technology. It highlights the growing use of cryptocurrencies by consumers, in order to pay for such services.
Its nine-month survey issued on Tuesday indicates that there was an 18.7 percent year-on-year increase in terms of monetary growth in crypto bets in the nine months to September 30. But the share of crypto bets in the aggregate bet amount in the first nine months was down by 4.3 percentage points from a year earlier, to 28.5 percent.
In 2022, the SOFTSWISS Online Casino Platform introduced some features related to converging fiat-currency -supported gaming, and cryptocurrency-supported play. From 2022 to September-end this year, the number of crypto bets surged by 66.4 percent, according to the survey findings.
During the first three quarters of 2023, the iGaming market “consistently grew,” stated SOFTSWISS.
In absolute terms, the total wagered amount across the 530 brands rose by 36.6 percent year-on-year in the first nine months of 2023, to above EUR80 billion (US$84.8 billion), while the number of bets grew by “almost 50 percent”.
According to SOFTSWISS, the sums of crypto bets since the beginning of 2022 “experienced incremental growth quarter-to-quarter”, but their “share in the total bets sum decreased slightly, primarily due to the more impressive quarter-to-quarter increase in the sums of fiat bets”.
Andrey Starovoitov, co-chief executive at SOFTSWISS, was quoted as saying: “An 18-percent increase in crypto bet sums may appear very modest when juxtaposed against a more substantial 45 percent expansion in fiat bets during the first three quarters of 2023”.
He added: “Taking into account the state of crypto in other spheres, such as fundraising, where the third quarter showed its worst results since the end of 2020, the position of cryptocurrencies in iGaming could be evaluated as comparatively stable at the moment.”
