In a gold rush, sometimes it’s more lucrative to sell the picks and shovels, rather than dig for gold yourself. In this month’s update, we look at the US wagering ‘gold rush’ and examine two businesses that will continue to benefit by selling the ‘picks and shovels’.

German payments company Wirecard, which collapsed last month in a fraud scandal, was the biggest payment provider to grey market gambling operators. Now that they’re out of action, operators will need to find new avenues. Bitcoin will be one option.

The US is a massive growth opportunity for Playtech and they have US experience having been active in the US prior to the bans on online gambling there in 2006. Land-based casinos, state-sponsored lotteries and media companies are among the companies looking to ride the recent online betting boom as gambling is legalised across the country.

China is the largest video gaming market in the world. Of China’s 900 million internet users, over 640 million play video games. Naturally, it’s the biggest esports market, with a third of the world’s audience and revenue. 260 million are even happy to take a back seat and watch the professionals play, via live-streaming services. At the centre of this huge and bustling metaverse is a company called Tencent.

This month we'll dig deeper into the effects of the coronavirus pandemic and associated lockdown of both the online gambling and online video gaming industries.

The coronavirus dominated headlines in late February as the outbreak disrupted global economic activity and caused significant movements in financial markets. We've seen disruption and uncertainty emerge in pockets of the gambling and video gaming industries.

Only 18 months ago, investors could be forgiven for giving the BetMakers Technology Group a quick look and throwing it in the ‘too hard basket’. Now the company is 12 months into a new strategy focusing solely on providing software to betting companies and racing authorities.

Newspaper The Australian covered the announcement by listed gambling group BetMakers to manage fixed odds horse racing in New Jersey for 10 years, sending its shares up by more than 56 per cent on the day.