Are smartwatches the new trend for online gambling?

Traditionally, Smartwatches have been used for many sporting and health purposes, but are they now set to become the next device to gamble on? In a technologically obsessed world, we're depending more and more on our gadgets. Whether that's a Smartphone, Smartwatch, or an Alexa. We do everything on our mobile devices; from nutrition checks, meal planning, workouts, banking, grocery shopping, sleep monitoring - the list is endless. Adding Smartwatch online gambling to that list doesn't surprise us one bit. We’re wondering, however, whether it’s going to be a fad, or can it benefit online gamblers and take off just as HTML5 mobile casinos have?

What is a Smartwatch?

For those who aren't familiar, a smartwatch is a small computer that comes in the form of a wristwatch. Perhaps you're wearing one now. Now imagine playing casino games, betting on sports, or playing slots on it. This is what we’re exploring on this page today: the future of Smartwatch gambling in the UK.

Smartwatches have come a long way from the traditional "Sport watch" device, which is a watch that often 'only' included GPS fitness trackers designed for training, diving, and most outdoor sports. Traditional functions included training programs, lap times, speed display, route tracking, a dive computer, and a heart rate monitor. New Smartwatches offer what a traditional sports watch did, only much, much more. Today's Smartwatches have a fully-fledged operating system and sensors and provide a hi-res touchscreen interface intended for daily use. Smartwatches rely on Apps; the same way as mobile phones do. Smartwatches essentially mimic Smartphones.

The Rise of Smartwatch Casinos

According to leading gambling news site iGamblingSites.com, whilst not quite ready yet, the concept of a Smartwatch casino was first unveiled in early 2014 at the annual Mobile World Congress event in the USA and has slowly gained momentum. More and more gambling software companies including Playtech and Netent are creating gambling and betting apps for Apple devices that will run on an iOS operating system on Smartwatches. Software pioneers Microgaming are also said to be developing an app that will work on all kinds of Smartwatches in the market too. It’s still clearly very early days for betting online at Smartwatch casinos; but Smartwatch gambling sites are being developed and tweaked behind the scenes so that when ready, there's no compromise for today's mobile gamer.

Desktop to Mobile Phone to Smartwatch Gambling

The development of the iGaming industry has swiftly evolved over the past 2 decades. We're just getting accustomed to premium HTML5 mobile casino sites and soon it seems, there’ll be a whole new way to gamble online too: gambling on your wrist! Whilst the idea of betting on your Smartwatch may sound ludicrous to some, it makes sense to others.

Whether a smartwatch casino is for you or not, it's just another option of how you can access trusted online casinos and gambling sites online. Below, we've listed the advantages of betting at a Smartwatch casino:

Advantages of Gambling at a Smartwatch Casino

You Can Effortlessly Play On The Go: Much like a Smartphone, a Smartwatch is extremely mobile and is always within reach (no pun intended) so that you can pretty much log in and gamble on your preferred choice of slots and casino games anytime and anywhere. Of course, you still need a stable internet connection, but gambling on a Smartwatch has never made it so easy to access your favourite games.

You Can Comfortably Multitask: Since you are literally wearing your smartwatch, it's difficult to drop the device, like you could a bulky/heavy mobile phone. An often-known frustration of mobile casino users is that they can easily drop their expensive phone/tablet, or it can become heavy with their gameplay over time. We've all done it, haven't we? Been clumsy and dropped the phone - sometimes on our faces when scrolling late at night! With a smartwatch casino - this is almost impossible to do.

It’s More Private: The screen on your Smartwatch is little and far more discreet than any other mobile device, so it's possible to have that extra layer of privacy when playing online. Often, with a Smartphone, tablet, or a desktop casino like a laptop, you’re gambling on much bigger screens that lack any privacy. Unless that is, you're in the comfort of your own home but that's not applicable here because this article is about gambling on the go. With a Smartwatch casino, you can play with the peace of mind that no one’s watching over your shoulder or you're being anti-social on your smartphone.

A Simplistic & Intuitive interface: Due to the small size of the smartwatch screen, only relevant content is shown to you and everything else is cut out. This means fewer ads or irrelevant information on your screen that can be distracting.

Disadvantages of Smart Watch Casinos

As mentioned, we're still a while off Smartwatch casino’s widely launching and taking off, so until then, it's difficult to see the negatives that could come with Smartwatch casino apps. However, we envisage the following disadvantages and drawbacks when using Smartwatch gambling sites:

Device Size: Some people may find a Smartwatch screen just too small to fully enjoy an immersive casino experience. Perhaps slots may be difficult to see, as only a larger screen can show off a modern slots' full range of animations and features. It could be that Smartwatch casino is better for instant games, like scratch cards, lotto betting, online poker, and the live dealer one to one casino games like Roulette, Blackjack and Sic Bo.

Too Much Accessibility: With the UKGC successfully cracking down on I Gambling companies in the past 5 years to ensure they promote healthy and responsible gambling; you could question whether offering casino games and online betting options on a Smartwatch going that bit too far? Whilst there's no real difference between a Smartwatch to any other mobile device, you could debate that the screen is just so small, that it's not essential and therefore, is it just another way to target gamblers to play more and spend more?

Conclusion

It's just the start of Smartwatch casinos but creating gambling apps is nothing new; it's a bold and solid move for gambling companies to create gambling apps specifically designed for Smartwatches as it's said that more than 60% of online gamblers have switched to mobile gaming.

Smartwatch gambling apps could be the next big thing, though iPhone and iPad gambling apps are also hugely popular right now. We're watching this space very carefully in the new year to see if smartwatch gambling site launch. If so, will they take off or sink like download casinos in the 2000s have?