The IGN Data Hub - Sept 6, 2000

E-Gamblers Gripe

Do you know what your customers really think about your site? Greenfield Online surveyed 2122 online gamblers to learn players' opinions about online gambling, and found a lot of gripes. Among the study's findings:

Most players prefer free play (89 percent). The majority of those who do risk money will only bet $10 or less per visit.
Thirty-one percent of players are unhappy with e-gambling sites, while 60 percent believe that Net betting sites are "fixed."
Only 15 percent of the respondents felt online gambling was more fun than its brick-and-mortar version.
Nearly 70 percent of respondents expressed concerns about paying for their online gambling excursions with a credit or debit card.

"The message of this research is that those behind online gambling sites must do more to win the confidence of people who visit their site," a spokesman said. The report, "What Are the Odds?" is available on Greenfield's site for $3995.
www.greenfieldonline.com

Online Betting Winners

The dramatic changes taking place in online gambling is the focus of Ernst & Young's new report, "Winners and Losers - The Future of Online Betting." The authors of this report also attempt to identify which companies are likely to fail or succeed in the U.K. Net betting biz. A spokesman explains, "It is clear that in this highly competitive market only a few of the existing operators will survive in their present form. The battle between the eventual winners and losers will be fought in a complex arena and the winners will be those businesses that successfully address these challenges." The report lists the challenges as:

The online future is all about entertaining potential punters. They're in it for fun! The market will be about millions of people betting occasionally on major events and not the current model where a few people bet regularly on many events.
Establishing strong regulation will be critical. High standards of betting regulation reassure and motivate punters to bet with well-regulated bookmakers. The U.K. betting industry has a golden opportunity to take a global lead by establishing high regulatory standards in cyberspace.
Online betting is already a complex industry and no one will be able to do it all themselves. Forming alliances with natural allies and apparent enemies will be essential, as businesses focus on where in the online betting value chain they really sit.

Click here to read "Winners and Losers - The Future of Online Betting."

Wireless Gaming Likely to Grow

Thanks to widespread mobile phone penetration throughout Europe, and the new technology enabling rich content for download on customers' handsets, the wireless gaming industry is likely to undergo extensive changes, Datamonitor suggests in its newest report "Wireless Gaming." In the report, Datamonitor analysts see that more and more game publishers are developing content for wireless products, a boon for phone operators and manufacturers who consider gaming as premium online content.

NUA reports that "Wireless Gaming" predicts that current wireless gaming revenues will be low this year, but will grow to $1.6 billion in 2003. By 2005, revenues are expected to top $6 billion. Most of the revenue will be made in Western Europe, while the lagging U.S. market will probably be worth $2.4 billion by 2005.

Asia Online

NetValue has studied Asian Internet users, and found some significant differences among the five regions. Singapore, for example, has the most adults (age 15 and older) online, about 46 percent. Next in line is Korea with 42 percent of adults having gone online within the past month. The other three regions follow with Internet usage reported by 36.4 percent of adults in Taiwan, 29.2 percent in Hong Kong, and 23 percent in the Chinese cities of Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai.

Each region prefers going online from different places. In Korea, for example, cybercafes are the favored place to connect. Hong Kong users, meanwhile, prefer to go online at work or home. Except in Korea, Asian users named home as the preferred place to Net surf.

In Korea, those who typically have six months or less experience online are also the heaviest Internet users. The opposite is true for other parts of Asia -- those who've been online two years or more report the most Internet usage. Among all Asian users, however, the busiest Net surfer tends to be a male student over 35 who has been online more than two years.