Opening Thoughts

Of all the staples in land-based casino gaming, roulette was one of the table games many believed would have a different route to online success. Slot gaming, for instance, was able to integrate video slot mechanics and fuse them with online gambling platforms and their security to get a head-start.

Many experts believe slot gaming was the match that lit the fuse that has resulted in such an incredible journey for the online gambling industry. Of course, when we talk about online gambling, we factor in various games, but roulette now plays an essential role in this broader ecosystem.

So, despite the early trepidations of some in the industry, how did roulette become such an essential feature for online gambling platforms, and how has it adapted to recent innovations such as smartphones and tablets?

Live Streaming Services

Online roulette faced a unique challenge compared to other areas of the casino industry. Slots, for instance, do not require a live dealer or any streaming technology that beams in a live dealer directly to the palm of your hand. Obviously, live dealer games require a lot more bandwidth, and other factors must be considered.

Many casinos will have a live chat option that runs alongside these games. Hence, they need to ensure that the sites are secure enough and have enough bandwidth to appeal to an online audience via desktop and PC, as well as smartphone and tablet gamers.

Many factors assisted the rise of streaming services in casino gaming, but one of the most important and influential changes emerged from YouTube’s rise. This began a domino effect, creating a market where billions of dollars flowed into developing secure, fast ways to project videos onto mobile devices.

Casino gaming platforms, one of the most consistently profitable sectors that utilizes this technology, also employ their designers and developers to use it. By the early 2010s, dozens of online casinos could offer full online roulette live streaming to mobile devices.

The Importance Of A Changing Culture

In the mid-2000s, mobile phones weren’t something we used to connect to the Internet; we used them to call and send text messages. However, the idea of using our phones as one-stop shops where we could do all of our banking, social media, and photo storage, even as little as 20 years ago, seemed like a long shot.

However, the introduction of the first smartphone in 2007 completely flipped this belief on its head. Almost overnight, mobile phones became the new battleground for gaming companies, including casino gaming companies, looking to develop fresh gaming ideas that offered a genuine alternative to the current digital landscape, which revolved around PCs and laptops.

Now that the smartphone had grabbed a global audience, gaming companies were determined to adapt to this changing audience.

As we mentioned about YouTube, the consumer dictates the direction of major corporations. While some people think this is the other way around, it is all about demand, and consumers quickly wanted a way to access the internet, games, shopping, and banking on their phones.

The most prominent smartphone companies in the world listened to this changing rhetoric, and the gambling industry also paid close attention to these changes.

A Seismic Shift From The Gambling Industry

Casino gaming companies were among the first in media to truly test the waters with fresh technology. The first online casino launched over 30 years ago, and lottery competitions, especially continental ones, such as EuroMillions, were among the first in the world to digitise and offer mobile apps and digital ways customers could buy their tickets.

It happened throughout the gambling industry, including sports betting companies, bingo competitions, poker tournaments, and slot gaming companies. Anyone who had a stake in the burgeoning gambling industry had to start taking notice of this seismic change that was occurring right across international borders.

Conclusion

In many ways, online roulette developers just had to hop into the slipstream of this generational change. Casino companies, the financial arm, and game developers were all moving collectively to a digital world. As long as the money, investment, and demand were all present, they simply had to keep their finger on the digital pulse.

Granted, there were other changes, and they had to ensure they were operating within a framework that ensured their platforms remained safe and secure—but just like almost every other industry on the planet, everything was becoming digital. With the amount of money flowing into the casino gaming world, it’s unsurprising that the online roulette sector was part of this change.

The demand is the most crucial factor here – without this, there’s potential that mobile online roulette wouldn’t even exist as part of the online casino world.

They require much larger bandwidth, watertight technology that ensures all bets are paid out correctly, and enough bandwidth to ensure that the live dealer spinning the wheel is transmitted smoothly into the palm of your hand.

Any buffering or issues with payment or betting systems would begin to put people off. If it became a consistent problem, people would abandon online live roulette entirely.