Is online gaming surviving the recession?
13th February, 2009
The audit and accountancy group, Ernst & Young, published an article yesterday entitled, “All Bets off for Recession”. The article is said to be significant because it predicts that the online gaming industry will survive the recession and continue to do well.
As well as online gaming, the article also assessed how traditional gaming sectors, such as land-based casinos, bingo halls and bookmakers were likely to fare in the coming year.
According to Ernst & Young while the outlook for the traditional gaming sectors are mixed, as a whole the industry is very diverse, some parts of the industry having already suffered due to adverse regulatory changes, other parts are still untested by the recession.
However, Ernst & Young has said that online gaming has a huge advantage over traditional gaming in that it can tap into overseas resources. It is thought that the recession will be counterbalanced by the fact that the online gaming industry is still growing.
Online gaming operators can also take comfort in the fact that people are increasingly staying at home and placing low stakes online and, that because online gaming attracts a younger audience, it means that players are less affected by falling share or property prices.
Cameron Cartmell, head of hospitality and leisure at Ernst & Young, said: “The online gaming industry is likely to do better than other gaming sub-sectors as it is not solely reliant on the state of the UK economy, it is still going through a growth phase and with consumers saving money by staying at home I believe it will be a winner.”
Ernst & Young have concluded that those companies that are able to weather the downturn could do very well after the recession, with more opportunities for growth.
By Rommon
