Like many industries, the global gaming market has been profoundly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Traditional outlets like physical casinos, bingo halls and other gambling establishments have suffered record losses, and some are even threatened with bankruptcy, after being forced to shutter their doors for months on end because of government lockdowns.

And in the early days of the health crisis, major sporting events were cancelled or were postponed indefinitely, badly impacting the sports betting market.

However, to fill the void and to prove the old adage “it is an ill wind that blows no good,” there has been a surge in mobile gaming, rewarding those operators who had either invested in their digital strategy before, or were able to quickly adapt to the changed landscape/

As a result, many casinos have recorded record revenues and profits, and a surge in new customers, attracted not only by the games and promotions on offer, but also looking for a way to alleviate the stress and boredom of lockdown.

Africa has been no exception to this rule. The operators such as casinoadviser.co.za as listed here have all been beneficiaries to an extent of the events of the past year.

However, as the vaccination programme begins to roll-out across the world, it is time to begin what may happen to the gaming market in a post Covid-19 world.

Some analysts, for example, are predicting that the amount money that people spend on non-essential items like gambling is bound to drop. This is because money wilk be tight, with the pandemic having cost millions of jobs worldwide, and certain sectors of the economy, such as the travel, leisure and hospitality industries decimated.

At the same time, people in many countries can expect sharp tax rises. Government coffers have been emptied providing support programmes during the pandemic, and not it is time to begin filling them again.

At the same time, it may take time for traditional gambling places to get back on their feet again. Notwithstanding the vaccine roll-out, people will not be in a hurry to congregate in enclosed spaces once more.

Some changes though are here to stay, chief amongst them the shift to mobile gaming which appears irreversible.

Thanks to the proliferation of smartphones and the roll-out of 4G and 5G networks, people have discovered the convenience of being able to play games at home or wherever they are in the world, 24/7, without any constraints, at their convenience.

And now with effects like augmented and virtual reality, enhanced sound and graphics and a range of special effects, the online user can get much the same experience of being in a real casino as if they were physically their themselves.

Mobile game development was relatively unaffected by the lockdown either – that is because the development process is less involved than for more complex platforms, and it has been relatively easy for development teams to work on them remotely.

This has led to an inversion of the traditional game development model, where mobile was an afterthought, after they had been produced for games consoles and desktops first.

Now mobile first is very much the order of the day, and the new industry paradigm.