It’s safe to say that the online casino market is booking. Gone are the days where you would have to trundle down to the local amusement arcade or if you had more cash to splash, book a flight to Las Vegas or Atlantic City to get the full buzz of the casino world. These days, as with everything, all the fun is quite literally at the end of your fingertips.
For our business, specifically film an television, the interaction between the two industries are becoming more and more aligned with studios teaming with gaming companies to license their content to pull in more players. With the global gaming industry worth a huge $47 billion in 2017, it’s not hard to see why the entertainment industry wants their piece of the pie.
Recent cinema titles include the likes of Bridesmaids, the brilliant Kristen Wiig starring comedy, King Kong, based on Peter Jackson’s movie, and even Iron Man 3, featuring gaming content from one of Marvel Studios’ most famous and most popular superhero movies.
Looking back, there are also some classic movie titles being converted into online games. These include the 1997 disaster epic Titanic, Sharon Stone’s breakout movie role in Basic Instinct from earlier in the decade, and even games based on classic gangster films like The Godfather and our own personal favourite Scarface, a film which is just about to get a new Hollywood update in the coming years. Even old western fave John Wayne has his own game – one officially licensed from his estate.
On the TV side, you can find online casino games based on Wheel Of Fortune, Jeopardy!, Game Of Thrones, The Six Million Dollar Man, Britain’s Got Talent and even Las Vegas’ own Pawn Stars.
Of course, it’s not all about gambling as most of these slot games are available to be played for free, but you have to agree they are a very clever inclusion into the online casino world from the entertainment business. With that $47 billion online casino and gaming industry worth set to grow to an estimated $51 billion in 2018, through to an estimated $59 billion-plus in 2020, expect that glowing relationship to continue to grow along with it.
