The year of 2013 will herald more innovation in the i-gaming industry with Social TV taking the lead in the neverending battle to win the hearts, minds and of course gambling wallets of consumers.

Mark McGuinness

Social TV has grown significantly over the last few years, driven by the growth in smartphone and tablet usage while viewers watch television and interact via social platforms such as Twitter with other fans. Before the advent of the internet, the TV set in the living room was the focus of attention in most households as families gathered round for entertainment, news and sports events. But now we have access to many more channels and the ability to view content on second screens (smartphones, tablets or laptops).

Of course, much focus from the i-gaming sector has really been the preserve of Facebook as a platform of choice for social games and engagement, but our outlook for this year is that Twitter, which is already the number-one destination for TV content sharing, will soon be courted by suitors from the gaming sector.

Why? Consider that TV as a medium still has millions if not billions in advertising revenue spent on it every year and, with economies across the globe still depressed and more consumers staying at home to be entertained, provides an opportunity to really engage bettors when marketing budgets are under scrutiny.

Of course many i-gaming companies and racetracks, for example, do use content with specific Twitter hashtags, using the platform for voting and soliciting feedback from fans and viewers, but there’s still a lot more that can be done in our opinion.

Twitter is looking at this seriously and last year launched its hashtag pages to show off what brands can get if they partner with the social network. One which was of particular interest was Twitter.com/#NASCAR which was a destination for fans and included commentary from drivers, their crews and expert pundits and behind-the-scenes photos and footage. Of course, some cynics might say it’s just a way for Twitter and NASCAR to help fans sift through all the clutter that they’d find if they just looked at the #NASCAR hashtag in the search feature on Twitter.

However consider the BBC’s final coverage of the Grand National was watched by 11 million and can still pull in viewers in tens of millions – presents a huge audience reach of potential gamblers, never mind the regular viewership that watches the domestic football leagues could present huge opportunities for the stimulation of peer-2-peer for social betting providers and in-play wagering.  

So perhaps in the way that social marketing departments have evolved over the last year with dedicated personnel, we may soon see the Twitter In–Play evangelist, who could have a hybrid of skill sets - an odds compiler and social marketer whose function is to push and initiate betting propositions around TV sports programming and content in a similar way to how some betting companies present their live in-play odds during the 30-second ad break.       

The days of sitting in front of the TV watching the same programme and betting the traditional way as millions of others - but unable to comment upon or interact with the event as it happens, in betting terms - will seem a rather isolated experience by comparison.