Social and mobile gaming drives growth in UK and Germany

LONDON, England -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- The UK and Germany are now the world’s top markets for online gambling, particularly social casino gambling, Belle Rock Entertainment can reveal. According to research from Socialnomics, close to 20% of the time devoted to playing online casino games takes place through social networking sites in both the UK and Germany.

But social platforms aren’t the only drivers of online gambling. Now online gaming sites, such as Belle Rock Entertainment, are optimised for mobiles increasing numbers of people are choosing to gamble using their mobiles. Germany is where this activity is most prevalent. Revenue from mobile gaming in Germany is expected to double by 2015.

Throughout the world, 81 million people take part in social gaming each day. In the UK, it is repeat players that make up a large proportion of this number; Socialnomics’ research found over 60% of UK social gamblers play at least once a day.

The social gambling market is still developing so growth over the next few years is predicted to be rapid. According to research from Transparency Market Research, there will be around 44% more social gamers in 2015 compared to 2012.

Facebook is one of the most popular social outlets to play these types of online games. One billion hours are devoted to social games each month on the social networking megalith, and now it has surpassed one billion users, we can expect to see many more hours devoted to social gaming on Facebook.

Gambling online, as a whole, is growing. Between 2010 and 2011, 32% more gamblers hit online casinos and in the UK online gaming now accounts for 15% of the total British Internet market. Smartphones, like Facebook, are becoming more normalised. Together these two social gambling enablers will boost the market further helping social gaming contribute a greater percentage to global gaming revenue which, if it continues on its current trajectory, is expected to reach $117.9 billion by 2015. Social gaming currently contributes $446.4 million to global social gaming revenues of $1.6 billion and falls just behind the US.