Hundreds of gaming providers compete for an ever-increasing player pool in the cutthroat world of online gambling. As a result, in this saturated market, businesses that use cutting-edge innovation have a significant advantage.
That’s why gambling giant Entain on Monday, January 31 created Ennovate, a lab dedicated to creating metaverse-based gaming and sports betting experiences.
According to a press release from Isle of Man-based company Entain, the firm plans to invest more than $133 million in startups that develop specialized software for non-fungible tokens and virtual reality/augmented reality technology.
These cutting-edge gaming/betting solutions will be put through their paces in virtual reality arcade games before making their online debut.
According to a statement released by CEO Jette Nygaard-Andersen, Entain aspires to revolutionize the industry through advanced technological implementation, groundbreaking sports betting, and interactive entertainment designed specifically for the metaverse.
The Ennovate platform has scheduled its development over the next five years. Its main purpose is to create virtual reality gambling and sports clubs. In addition, we need to promote business accelerators and incubators for online collaboration.
The lab, which has its headquarters in the heart of London’s Farringdon, seeks to attract the best and brightest academic brains and forward-thinking business executives by giving them a platform to exhibit their skills and revolutionize the online gambling industry.
Theta Labs, a blockchain-focused company, will join Verizon and British telecom giant BT in supporting the initiative.
According to Markets Insider, Entain had a 0.86 percent increase in stock price after announcing a significant investment in a division dedicated to the metaverse.
Explanation of the Metaverse
The idea of a metaverse is not brand new; it has been discussed for decades. Neal Stephenson, an American writer, invented the term in his 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash by combining the words “meta” and “universe.” among recent years, it has been popular among online communities that mimic the feel of open world video games.
Decentraland, Somnium Space, Axie Infinity, and the SandBox are just a few examples. All of them are run by a decentralized government, have an economy driven by Ethereum, and offer users access to a huge world map. So, their basic assumptions are the same.
NFTs can be created and traded on specialized marketplaces present on all three platforms, as can native tokens based on the ERC-20 standard. Someone paid $650,000 in December of 2021 for the virtual yacht “Metaflower” in the Sandbox metaverse.
In October of 2021, Facebook—now known as Meta—announced that it will be joining the metaverse. However, they have not provided a lot of details on what would be available in their virtual world.
The creators of Meta believe their virtual world, called the “metaverse,” will usher in the next stage in the development of human social interaction. Despite the demise of the company’s grandiose crypto project dubbed Diem, it is still expected that blockchain technology would be used in some capacity in the realm of Meta.
Many in the internet industry saw the demise of Diem as merely a speed bump on the way to the introduction of a new digital coin by the corporation.
Like the most popular metaverses right now, Decentraland has a number of casinos where users may place bets on both classic and original items using a variety of crypto currencies, including MANA and $ DG, the platform’s native tokens.
Concerning Entain plc
Entain plc, formerly known as GVC Holdings, is a global leader in the retail and online gaming and sports betting industries.
In 2004, in Luxembourg, under the name Gaming VC Holdings SA, Entain was established. The company, however, changed its name in 2020 to better reflect its global aspirations.
More than twenty nations across five continents have granted them permission to provide gaming and betting services. The corporation Entain owns several well-known gambling brands like Coral, Ladbrokes, Bwin, Sportingbet, and PartyPoker, and its shares is traded on the London shares Exchange. In Europe, these tend to have the largest fan bases.
Over the course of a year, Entain generates over $4 billion in revenue and over $617 million in operating profitability. They have been working hard over the past few years to enter into the North American industry by forming agreements with US gambling behemoths like MGM Resorts, which attempted to acquire Entain plc in 2021 but failed.
In August of that year, eSports betting pioneer Unikrn (located in the United States) was acquired by Enatin. This deal cost a total of $67 million.
Unikrn is well-known for pioneering token-based betting on eSports competitions. Ukikrn and FYX Gaming agreed to work together in March of 2021 (before the Entain transaction) to modernize the platform’s monetization system.
The current price of Entain stock is $21.63. It’s currently 35% cheaper than it would have been in September of 2021.