Latest Trends of Online Slot Game Industry in 2021–22

Slot games are undoubtedly one of the most popular games among all other game categories including Blackjack, Roulette, Baccarat, Poker, etc. The sound of slots, spinning of reels & clinking of money always entice the slot gaming enthusiasts. But nowadays, gamers prefer to sit in the comfort of their homes and have a convenient gameplay thus online slot gaming has gained an unprecedented popularity since past some time. The atmosphere of land based slots can be recreated in the online slot gaming platforms for offering a realistic and enticing gaming experience to the players.

Slot Machine Terminologies

Here are some of the most frequently used terminologies related to slot games:-

• Action
  It refers to all the accumulated playing time of slot machines by slots gambler.
• Big Hit
  Slots reference for jackpot combination hitting on slots.
• Bet One
  It means that players of slot bet only one credit or unit per spin in slot machine.
• Cashback
  Reference to comps or rewards that is provided to club card players of slots.
• Doubles
  These are symbols reference in slot machines which triple or double winning amount when come three or two at a time.
• Fixed Value Slots
  These are slot machines in which coin size as well as betting amount cannot be altered.
• Free Spin
  These spins are offered on bonus slot machine as bonus features.
• Jackpot
  Top prize which is payout by a slot machine is termed a jackpot.
• Multiplier
  It refers to the feature of bonus slot machine in which payouts can get multiplied by ten times for a bonus win.
• Payback Percentage
  It is a reference to money amount that should be returned to slots players by a slot machine within a time period.
• Payout
  Amount won on a slot machine for creating a winning combination is called as payout.
• Reels
  Disks which spin inside window of slot machine and have some symbols on them. Money can be won by slot players through matching of appropriate symbols.
• Spin
  Spinning of reels can be activated through a spin button and also by pulling of lever on slot machine side & is used for determining if players have won or not.

Market Analysis

• As per market analysis, the expected incremental growth of the slot machine market is $8.21 billion USD during the time period of 2020–24 & the growth momentum is likely to be accelerated during the forecast period.
• Growth rate year over year is estimated to be 20.39%
• Growth of slot machine market is expected to be accelerated at about 10% CAGR
• 35% growth is expected to be originated from the locations of Europe
• Since Europe is found as one of the major markets for slot machines thus the region is expected to offer a myriad of growth opportunities for market vendors during 2021–24. Factors which are contributing for the slot machine market growth in Europe include launching of latest gambling services and evolving gambling regulations.
• Europe is expected to bring 35% market growth during the forecast period. The key markets of Europe for slot machines include Italy and the UK.
• Growth of slot machine market is expected to increase during 2019–24 by $8211.76 million.
• Key markets for slot machines include:-
  -France
  -US
  -UK
  -Italy
  -China
• Key factors which drive growth of slot machine market include:-
  -Growing involvement of vendors in market
  -Focus of vendors on catching up new slot game business opportunities through digital segment.
  -Increasing affinity of people towards online slot gaming options
  -Rapid technological advancements in the industry.

Online Vs. Land Based Slots

While talking to players in Vegas who are gaming enthusiasts & enjoy the different games which are on offer, some of the players will have an opinion that land based games bring more fun in comparison to online gaming options. While if we talk to other game lovers in different geographical locations, most of them will prefer sitting in the convenience of their home and enjoy online gaming in comparison to a traditional game floor.
This clearly indicates that there are different priorities of players depending upon the geographies and interests. Let’s have a dive at what players love & what they don’t love in terms of online slots when compared to the land-based counterparts:-

• Travelling Time
  People who have residents in the selected geographies where land based casinos are in proximity, they will definitely prefer to go to the casino floors and enjoy gaming in real-time. But the majority of people don’t have casinos nearby their residence so they will not find it convenient to travel every time thus they would prefer online slot gaming.
• Budget Friendly
  Land based casinos have great sounds, ambiance as well as enthusiastic sights of the crowd roaring on wins. You are served with drinks and you can have an enjoyable gaming time with your friends while moving from one slot machine to another. Dressing up to the best, filling your pocket with money to spend, taking a day off from work and travelling to the land based casino may sound thrilling but is actually not. When you travel to a casino, you have a certain playing budget in mind which you are going to spend in the casino but when you get that ambiance and the feel of game , you do not bother about the budget and you keep on playing and end up with huge expenditures on playing, drinking as well as travelling. But this is not the case with online casinos as you have full consciousness on where and when to stop and you can save yourselves from travel & food expenses as well.
• Real-Time Game Feel
  No doubt, the sound of audience applauding and cheering, spinning of reels, etc are an unbeatable joys that casino gamers look for but nowadays technology has made great advancements and even online slot gaming platforms offer you a real-time gaming experience through realistic game assets, 2D/3D game effects, animations, backgrounds, sounds, themes, etc. Thus online slot gaming proves to be a great option for gamers that provide them convenience, saves their time and is budget friendly.

Online Slot Industry Trends in 2021–22

For creating or developing slot games that can prove to be a great hit among the players, the slot game development companies should be more considerate and updated about the latest slot gaming industry trends, some of them include:-

• Hold & Respin
  One of the popular trends of slots is the mechanism of hold and respin. The way in which this game works is :- a bonus symbol or jackpot gets locked in place and after that remaining reels get re-spun. The main goal of hold and respin feature is collecting the largest possible rewards and the games also bring more number of bonus features thereby involving more players and giving them more reasons for staying longer in the game while enhancing the daily average revenue.
• Switching to Arcade Games
  In classic slot games, there were just 3 or 5 reels & for getting winning combinations, players had to combine those reels. With the technological advancements, game developers have now enabled changes in the slot symbols as well as the number of slot reels. Slot games have started appearing similar to the arcade games. With different levels as well as achievements, such slot games seem more exciting for players and bring great engagement of users.
• Mobile Friendly Slot Gaming Website/Software
  Mobile Friendly slot gaming platforms are one of the super trends in the online slot gaming industry as every player prefers to move gaming fingers over their portable and handy mobile device rather than sitting on a desktop for hours to play. Such software or websites were developed with a motive to enable players to enjoy their favorite slot game in the convenience of their homes on their desired smartphone and preferred browser without any time boundations. Nowadays most of the slot game developers are preferring mobile-first approach for the slot game development while developing web slot apps which come with super responsiveness for the mobile devices.
• VR and AR
  AR as well as VR are the booming verticals of almost every industry and the gaming industry is no exception as they are bringing a massive impact on the complete gaming industry’s economy. As the casino industry always seeks new and innovative ways for entertaining the players and gaming enthusiasts, VR & AR implementation in the world of slots can bring a great upliftment in the growth as well as revenue of the industry. Every player would love to see the innovative side of the slot gaming industry & will be eager to have a more realistic gameplay. Thus integration of augmented reality and virtual reality in slots is definitely the most trending aspect for the slot gaming industry.
• Enhanced Interactive Bonus Rounds
  A lot of new developments and innovations are getting introduced in the slot gaming industry and it has been found that players get more inclined towards the slot game platforms with more bonuses and rewards. Thus game developers can craft enhanced interactive bonus rounds that are tailored as per the common preferences of the targeting audiences. This will offer more control to the players for their slot gaming experience.
• Branded Licensed Slot Games
  Licensed branded slots are one of the most dominant slot trends which are based on popular musicians, television and movies. Since TV shows, musicians, movies and artists play a significant role in the lives of people worldwide thus the trend of licensed branded slot games has gained great popularity.

Countries where Online Slot Games are Popular

• Australia
• Japan
• New Zealand
• United Kingdom
• United States
• France
• Italy
• China

and many more

Slot Tournaments

Tournament slots bring a distinct gaming experience in comparison to the regular slots gameplay. In most of the tournaments, players need to pay some entry fees which goes to the prize pool and is further divided as a prize money among winners & also as casino fees which is more or less the same as that of Poker tournaments online. Majorly there are two categories of slot tournaments which are scheduled & sit and go. Each of them have slightly different gaming scenarios.

• Scheduled Tournaments
  Players are first registered for a scheduled slot tournament and after that they play within a predefined time limit. If your players desire to get directly into action , then scheduled tournaments prove to be a perfect choice. As soon as the entering deadline gets finished & all the participants have done their time, the participant or player with the most points or credits is declared as the winner of the tournament. There are different runners up prizes as well for the players who secure runner up positions in the scheduled slot tournament.
• Sit and Go Tournaments
  Unlike scheduled slot tournaments, sit and go slot tournaments only start after a successful registration of pre pre-decided number of players. The player who has the most credits after a pre-defined time period or after a fixed number of spins is declared as winner of the sit and go slot tournament.

With the rapid advancement of technologies, online slot gaming software has come into existence which possesses almost all the possible real-time gaming features for the slot players. Video slots where faces can be seen is one of the most relevant examples of realistic slot gaming. Due to technological growth, perhaps there might be a day when players will be able to wander virtually in casinos while talking & meeting with others, even enjoying a virtual drink with other players !!

Jackpots

Jackpots of online slots are also improving each day with a rapid rate and increasing affinity of people towards online slot gaming. About a decade ago, there were a very few casinos who offered jackpots but since industry has grown significantly and regulation of casinos by the government has come in, with every passing month, more slot jackpot casinos are frequently appearing. Some of the jackpots have now even reached $1m and some have even touched $6m.

One thing which players need to look out for in online slots jackpots is how much they are putting on stake for every spin and judge the possible chances of winning the jackpot with that stake. Jackpots are beneficial only when you earn something more than the amount that you have kept on stake for participating or for each spin in the slot machines. There are certain slot machines which have a specific rule that players must do “max bet” for winning the jackpots. If players do not max bet & fortunately hit jackpot sequences in the spinning reels, the players still earn a big win but that is not as big as the progressive slot jackpot. For the players with a huge playing budget, it might be a tendency to do max bet for hitting the big progressive jackpots but this is not the case with every player as there are some value players who have low budgets to spend but still look for winning the big jackpots. For value players who do not want to spend a higher money but desire to earn big jackpots, they can do max bets on just the winning line and not do the max bet through playing every line and that too with maximum credits. Players can also look for the games in which the lowest credit denomination is nearly 1 cent still the game allows for winning jackpots. There exists plenty of such games, players only need to search in a right way.

How to Start your Online Slot Game Business?

Starting your online slot business should be a well-planned and thoroughly researched process which involves following processes to be kept in mind by the entrepreneurs planning to put their first step in online slot gaming business:-

• Research about target audiences and targeted geographies for your business.
• Have a crystal clear idea about the online slot trends, slot industry news & do a detailed competitor analysis
• Choose a reliable and renowned online slot game software provider for your business.
• Secure verified, quick and convenient methods of payment
• Discuss with your software provider regarding the game assets, themes, etc
• After successful online slot game software development by your provider, make the platform live for your players
• Plan marketing & promotion campaigns for your platform