If you ask anybody that works in online gambling and they will tell you almost everything has gone up in interest and activity. It has got so crazy that even online gambling affiliate programs are prohibiting affiliate sites from using the Coronavirus as part of their marketing to attract more players. They do this despite coming out with brand new welcome bonus offers, no other reason for that.
With all of that said, it is hard to ignore the reality that more people are home, fewer people working, and screen time is up with everyone. We see the following trends happening:
- Tech and entertainment stocks have risen along with profits
- Internet service providers are struggling to keep up with demand as more people are using bandwidth
- Telecom companies are seeing more user activity and higher bandwidth usage
- Sports and sportsbetting have tanked
- Online gambling has soared
We take a look at Google Trends to see the data come to light and what we see is an increase in slots, bingo, and poker games while blackjack has seen neutral interest along with casinos. Keep in mind that when the word casino isn’t trending up or down, it could be trending up for online casinos and down for land-based casinos.
As you can see from the charts we have sports betting dropping significantly, blackjack being neutral, and poker, bingo, and slots all increasing. It seems that the increase in poker is significant because you have players that when they are looking for poker amid the Coronavirus lockdown, know they aren’t really looking for WSOP or to play at their local casino which is no doubt shut down. They want to do this online.
Higher interest in online slots
We can see that Google Trends data shows slots have nearly doubled in interest from around the 3rd week of March. Slots is a very specific keyword and anybody looking for slots in spring 2020 is no doubt looking for online slots. It is interesting to see an increase in slots interest but less for blackjack.
More casino bonus searches
Looking at more Google Trends keywords comparing roulette, gambling, casino bonus, and free spins; shows that while the first 2 keywords showed some growth, the other 2 have surged. That is casino bonus keywords and also free spins have seen a spike in interest.
We can see gambling keywords more or less trending upwards but it is quite clear that people are looking to be entertained. This is just as evident when you look at the Google Trends in the past 90 days for Netflix vs YouTube. Anybody could tell you that moving screen time is happening on all types of devices and more users on these 2 streaming platforms.
Why bingo’s popularity is rising
Bingo was popular, to begin with, but what many people don’t know is that online bingo has more of a community feel than most people would know unless, of course, you are a regular bingo player. Many bingo sites have chat rooms and of course let's not forget that while waiting between games, players can spin on slots.
The new poker boom of 2020
Poker has been really sagging since 2011 Black Friday took a big swipe at the largest online poker sites. Despite trust in online poker rooms getting weaker year by year, it has probably hit a plateau for how low it could go. In saying that, while people are locked down in their homes, online poker has seen a surge and that is easily visible in the number of players. In Google Trends, PokerStars and even PokerStars Casino have done a good 10x increase in interest.
Post Coronavirus Trends
It is hard to predict what will happen to online gambling once the world sees the aftermath of the Coronavirus. There are talks with countries opening up their economies but nobody knows if travel and tourism will become normal anytime soon. People have been glued to their screens for more time than normal but that might change when people discover how much some prefer to be outdoors.
