A whitepaper published by Juniper Research has found gambling wagers could exceed $1 trillion dollars by 2021. The forecast predicts online gambling to soar from its current marker of $550 billion to $950 billion within five years.
The research suggests technological advances will be the catalyst for the spike and as it becomes easier to bet from your living room couch, more people will be inclined to get involved. Advancements such as mobile technology and virtual reality are being hailed as the key drivers of the surge towards $1 trillion.
Juniper believes virtual reality casinos are the way of the future and will provide further stimulus to the gambling market. The whitepaper says VR and mobile device technologies will allow users to gamble more frequently and at times of their own choosing, rather than having to rely on transport and a casino. It also claims VR will be responsible for half of all wagers by 2021, meaning about $500 billion worth.To put that in perspective, that would make VR responsible for 91% of the total wager value of 2016 ($550 billion).
A Swiss start-up company attempted a fully VR casino in 2014, but they have dropped off the radar after some initial success. Another company, SlotsMillion, exists as an entirely online casino, featuring real games and real money transactions.

This shows the technology is still in its early stages and whether we can have fully fledged VR casinos by 2021 would be questionable. The paper’s author, Lauren Foye says VR will initially only attract a niche clientele, but expects these participants will wager significant amounts on real-world casino style gambling products.
The research also suggests retaining customers and punter loyalty will be a big focus for betting companies going forward. Ideas such as rewards schemes and specialized news updates have been touted as ways they’ll attempt to keep customers coming back to them, rather than using a variety of bookmakers.
“User engagement goes a long way towards drawing in return business,” said Foye.
“Providing features such as news and media on favourite teams, as well as personalized offerings based on past betting activity, enables greater engagement and is likely to reduce churn.”
The whitepaper also suggests that despite large betting companies like William Hill allowing the use of bitcoins, the cryptocurrency is unlikely to see much usage going forward. Despite the push toward online gambling and virtual reality, digital currency such as bitcoin will not be mass-adopted by these betting companies. Bitcoin has also been heavily regulated around the world, making it difficult for bookmakers to incorporate.