Written by

Kayode Kehinde

Kayode is a professional iGaming content writer and slots lover with extensive experience covering casino reviews, sportsbook platforms, top betting apps, among other emerging digital gambling products. He is known for creating sharp engaging iGaming content which readers absolutely love to read. He has a strong background in SEO, regulatory insights, and freelance coaching.

During nearly half a decade, the igaming market experienced an unparalleled level of sustainable long-term growth for the entertainment industry. Tailwinds from the COVID-19 pandemic, a continued expansion into the U.S. regulated legal sports wagering space as well as further normalization of gambling on casino games throughout the world were all major contributing factors to revenue reaching previously unimagined levels by the end of 2025. However, entering 2026, this picture appears much more complex. While the industry is still experiencing growth; however, its shape and form are changing with the information from the data suggesting that the industry had some optimism in regards to its future growth which may not be fully realized.

The Headlines vs. The Reality

Global online gaming revenues are expected to be over $100 billion by 2026 according to nearly all credible sources. This figure is frequently used as an indicator that the boom continues. As far as the top-line goes, this is true. However, there is nuance in terms of how quickly the industry grew from 2019-2023 (at approximately 11% to 14%) compared to current forecasts for growth from 2025 to 2026 (approximately 7%-9%). While these numbers represent high single digit rates of growth that are significantly greater than the majority of developed countries’ GDPs; they represent a significant decrease from the growth rate that was modeled into financial planning for investors and operators during the expansion phase.

A slower growth rate with a much larger total amount of money being spent on marketing budgets, M&A activity, personnel costs, and product development is fundamentally different than rapid growth with less money being spent on these items.

Market-by-Market: Where Growth Is Holding and Where It Isn’t

The Customer Acquisition Problem

One data point that typically isn’t included in many of the industry growth presentations is the cost to get a new depositing customer. In the U.S. sports betting space, the high watermark was greater than $300 per player in the very competitive (and large) marketing spending phase. Since then, this number has decreased but by far not as fast as the industry had anticipated.

The reason for this slowdown is due to the fact that the most easily acquirable customers have already been acquired. The remaining unserved addressable market in established geographic locations is now more difficult to access; they will be more price sensitive and naturally less inclined to use an online gaming product. They can be converted with better products, more targeted marketing (or ideally both) and neither is cheap.

To date, there are multiple responses from operators:

• They are shifting their marketing expenditures away from broad acquisition-based marketing efforts and instead toward loyalty and retention based programs for existing customers.
• They are investing in differentiating their products – i.e., Live Casino, Same Game Parlays, Personalization Technology – which allows them to increase their wallet share with existing customers vs. growing their overall player base.
• They are pulling out of unprofitable markets and focusing on areas that provide a positive unit economic profile.
• Their last response is through M&A, which enables them to purchase additional market share rather than attempt to develop/acquire it organically – There has been a significant increase in M&A activity throughout 2025 and into 2026

Regulation: The Wildcard That Keeps Complicating the Model

If there is one factor that could explain the discrepancy between iGaming’s forecasted vs. actual growth curve, that factor is complexity in regulation. Markets that had been expected to go live are moving at a slower pace or have stalled completely. Markets that did launch have imposed new restrictions on operators that have cut their profit margins.

The U.K. is an excellent illustration of this. Regulations proposed through the Gambling Act Review Process have included affordability checks for players who spend more than set levels of money. Operators report early data on player behavior resulting in decreased revenue from high-spending players, just those players that account for disproportionately large amounts of revenue.

Similarly Germany’s online casino regulations (finally available after several years) include both betting caps and limitations on games offered that make it less profitable than originally thought. The Dutch market was launched to great fanfare but has disappointed compared to expectations. In Sweden, while the channelization rate  (the percentage of all gaming bets made by consumers through regulated sites) reached nearly 90% before leveling off, it has stopped improving as regulators impose additional regulatory hurdles to entry.

Slowdown or Reset?

The straightforward response regarding if the gaming explosion has slowed down is “it depends.” Are we looking for a forever boom of 15% or greater annual increases? No, those numbers were never possible in saturated markets. Is the boom of people shifting their gambling habits from offline to online? Then no; I think the shift is continuing. In terms of market penetration, many are still below where they could be, and there are emerging countries just starting. Finally, the products continue to innovate (live casino, AI/personalization, prediction markets), and this increases the number of customers who can be addressed.

What 2026 will look like is a maturing gaming space that finds its sustainable growth rate after the extraordinary increase in revenue seen over the past few years. It isn’t a slow-down worthy of panic. However, it is a transition worthy of being understood because the strategies that worked during the rise aren’t likely to work once the trend slows.