Australia - Digital Media - Gaming and Gambling

Synopsis

With the convergence of telecoms, media and IT we saw the arrival of digital media. Digital media has seen some industries diminish while it also has spawned the growth of new industries and seen others expand. In this report we focus on one of the key applications. New video applications are emerging as the internet media companies seek to exploit the added speed and capacity that the National Broadband Network (NBN) broadband infrastructure will provide. As speed and capacity increase and takeup by consumers and businesses we will see a whole new range of applications be entering the market over the next decade.

In one of the applications – gaming, we have seen console games change dramatically, with games, music and movies merging, integrating and moving online. Growing penetration of broadband and mobile broadband networks will also promote further growth in online gaming.

A record growth year for video game sales in Australia was in 2008/09 but by 2012 video games sales have now reduced as there are now many alternative and cheaper outlets for gaming downloads. By early 2012, with the Australia currency still at high levels, the gaming development industry is folding as the cost of producing and delivering games is now becoming cheaper from overseas markets.

Electronic gambling is taking a major share of the player money market and in this report we show some trends in this market area. The Interactive Gambling Act is still under review in 2012 and there may be some guidelines released later in the year. In this report we provide information and analysis and an overview of digital media developments in online gaming and gambling along with survey results with some statistics provided throughout the text and in tabular and easy-to-read chart formats.

Companies mentioned

Companies mentioned in this report include – Optus, Tabcorp, Sportingbet, FOXTEL, Sky Racing, Australasian Gaming Council, IEAA, Betfair, IGEA.

Hot topics mentioned

Hot topics mentions in this report include – Electronic gaming machines, interactive gaming, video games, online gambling.

Table of Contents

• 1. Synopsis
• 2. Market trends and activities
  • 2.1 Review of Interactive Gambling Act (2001) into 2011 - 2012
  • 2.2 R18 + gaming legislation
  • 2.3 Interactive gaming overview
  • 2.4 Updated information on the Australian gambling market
• 3. Mobile gaming
  • 3.1 Global trends
• 4. Online gambling
  • 4.1 Online market increasing into 2012
  • 4.2 A snapshot of the gambling industries – online and offline
  • 4.3 Betfair from Australia to the world
  • 4.4 Online gambling a global view
• 5. Online gaming
  • 5.1 Background information
  • 5.2 Online gaming – market trends
  • 5.3 Video gaming increases
  • 5.4 Online gaming to move to the cloud – 2012
• 6. Gaming surveys
  • 6.1 Digital Australia – 2012
  • 6.2 Online internet gambling participation rising – 2011
  • 6.3 2009 IGAA survey
  • 6.4 2008 IEAA survey
  • 6.5 2007 IEAA survey
• 7. Background gaming information – 2005 - 2008
  • 7.1 Australasian Gaming Council report
  • 7.2 Australian Casino Association
  • 7.3 Some recent historical information on the Australian market
  • 7.4 Contribution of gambling to retail estimates – 2007
  • 7.5 Online gaming statistics – 2007
  • 7.6 Sky Racing – TAB Active TV betting
  • 7.7 Tabcorp internet revenues top $1 billion
• 8. Gaming and gambling (separate global report)
• 9. Related reports

• Table 1 – Gaming machine turnover versus machines in operation – 2001 - 2009
• Table 2 – The ascendency of gaming machines – 1986/87 - 2008/09
• Table 3 – Gambling revenue by ‘Official’ sector – 2009
• Table 4 – Worldwide online gambling revenue – 1997; 2001; 2004; 2006; 2008, 2010
• Table 5 – Estimated interactive gaming revenue and device penetration rate – 2009 - 2012
• Table 6 – Gambling as a portion of hotels/licensed clubs and total retail (seasonally adjusted) – 2004 - 2007
• Table 7 – Gambling in the retail trade (seasonally adjusted) – 2004 - 2007
• Table 8 – Contribution of gambling to total turnover, by state (seasonally adjusted) – 2004 - 2007

• Chart 1 – Overview of gaming machine turnover – 1983 - 2009
• Chart 2 – The ascendency of gaming machines – 1986/87 - 2008/09
• Chart 3 – Gambling Revenue – The ‘Unofficial’ Growing Sector – 2009

• Exhibit 1 – Interactive gaming versus online gaming and online gambling defined