Gearfuse Technology, Science, Culture & More
A quick look at the stats will show that the gaming industry is bigger than it has ever been. With the advent of new technologies and the internet bringing gamers together like never before, the market has never had more offerings or more enthusiasm. But it’s not just the gamers themselves who are propping up the industry. Financial institutions have found themselves becoming powerful allies to the gaming industry, and this spells good news for the projects within it.
Nonetheless, how exactly are financial institutions throwing their hats into the gaming ring? Also, will this benefit the industry in the long run?
Enabling Fast Payouts
Within the gaming industry, iGaming has become a very powerful subniche and sees players wager real money on various casino games with the hopes of winning big. One of the long-standing challenges players have faced has been the slow processing of transactions by financial institutions, whether this is depositing money onto the iGaming platforms or withdrawing their winnings.
Within the gaming industry, several solutions have been considered, including the use of digital assets and in-platform tokens. Today, financial institutions have now evolved and are increasing withdrawal speeds for these platforms. As Matt Bastock writes, more iGaming platforms are offering same day withdrawals and providing players with quick access to their winnings, a sign of better support from financial institutions. As this becomes more widespread, the age-old issue plaguing users can be addressed.
Sponsoring Tournaments
One of the newest trends in the gaming sector has been tournaments. As social media has made the process of gaming more accessible to others and enables players to build an audience, there is big money in running tournaments for popular games like League of Legends. While these have already drawn a big audience on their own, they’ve also seen massive support from financial institutions. An example is MasterCard becoming an official sponsor of the League of Legend tournaments a few years ago. N26, a German neobank, also made headlines for sponsoring tournaments for GamerLegion and Rebels Gaming. For the banks, this is a benefit as it exposes them to the massive audience of gaming fans, which number in the millions at this point. The gaming industry benefits in multiple ways from this sponsorship. First, they receive financial support, which helps them continue to run tournaments well into the future. On top of this, support from massive platforms like MasterCard helps to grant credibility to various gaming projects, and this helps them in the long run.
Open Banking
Open banking has become one of the most innovative and important applications of technology within banking in the last few decades, and the gaming industry has benefited from this. Open banking essentially allows customers to connect their accounts across various service providers to their banking. It is through open banking that we can, for example, make instant purchases in apps on our mobile phones that are connected indirectly to our bank accounts. Open banking has only continued to increase, and with the boom of the gaming industry, it is seeing even more use. For example, in-app purchases are a major part of all sorts of gaming projects, whether that’s mobile games with microtransactions or major console titles. By continuing to support open banking, financial institutions create a landscape where gaming fans can continue to participate in their various ecosystems seamlessly.
In-game Advertising
In the same vein as sponsoring gaming tournaments, in-game advertising can be a way to create an overlap between the customer base for various financial institutions and the gaming industry. Anyone who has played games online, especially free ones, will attest that ads are a way to fund these projects and reward creators. There has been a growing presence of banking and other financial institutions in this space as many of them advertise on platforms like Twitch, within gaming apps, and so on. By opting for the sponsorship, banking and other financial institutions ensure that gaming projects can remain profitable and thus, can continue to exist.
Support and Grants
While the gaming industry is certainly thriving, it is no secret that the space is saturated these days. For new and innovative projects to stay afloat or even find their feet, they will need a mix of financial support and some level of mentoring on the money aspect of the industry. The good news is that several banks are already doing this. Barclays, for example, has a program in place that not only gives tax credit loans to businesses in the gaming space but also offers them practical resources on open banking and other such relevant information.
Support For Digital Assets
More and more, the gaming space is becoming intertwined with the digital assets industry. This has seen innovative projects like the Sandbox and Decentraland continue to succeed years after they were launched by creating immersive worlds that are tied to the digital assets space. But anyone who has followed the digital assets space will tell you that banking discrimination has been a major hurdle. From crypto-focused businesses being unable to open bank accounts to customers not being able to complete transactions related to the asset class, there has certainly been a struggle. Luckily, more banks are getting involved in the additional asset space themselves or at least addressing issues of discrimination for that industry. As this happens, the gaming sector benefits by being able to collaborate freely with it without fear of discrimination.
Conclusion
The gaming industry is bigger than ever, and it seems like there’s more to come. As we usher in this new future, the global financial sector seems to be on its side. From addressing prior practices that shut out key parts of the industry to offering financial and non-financial support, many institutions are dipping their toe in the waters. If this continues, the growth that the gaming industry sees today will be nothing compared to what it can achieve in the future.
