One of the most transformative things in the betting and gaming industry came when the Internet first began to grow in popularity in the mid-to-late1990s.

Sports betting sites, such as bet365 Sport, were founded to take advantage of this new way to bet, similarly more established sports books, names that were popular across high streets the length and breadth of the country, all clamoured to make the move online and begin to offer their services in the new and emerging digital realm.

In these early days of gambling and sports betting online, companies worked hard to develop their online presence and, while there were more than a few missteps along the line, by and large within a few years, we had a burgeoning online sports betting and casino gaming community.

That all took place 20 years ago and since then, sites like bet365 have now refined what they offer, improved upon the number of sports, fixtures and markets that they offer.

Furthermore, betting and gambling sites are now well versed in offering their customers a little more. Either by means of promotions, welcome bonuses or other offers, as well as freebies such as free bets and spins, or even developing tools, such as the bet365 Live Golf Tracker to name but one.

And of course, there has been a huge proliferation in new betting options, thanks to the development of new technology over more recent times with the massively popular In Play betting, live streaming, Virtual Sports betting and the emerging esports betting scene.

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Given that the Internet is not even 30 years old and judging by how central it has become in the lives of many billions around the world, it is tempting to think that we are still at the start of the Internet age and that there are more changes still to come.

That may well be the case, but it is likely to be the changes to the way we interact with the Internet in the future, allied to the development of new Virtual and Augmented reality technologies that could well be the driving force between the next generation of sports betting and casino gaming.

However, to make that possible, we need the next iteration of the Internet and if you were not aware already, that is very much on the horizon with the development of Internet V2.0, or as it is also known, the Metaverse.

What Is The Internet V2.0/The Metaverse?

Although it is a recent innovation, the current Internet is still based largely on a 30-year-old framework and within that, are limitations.

If you are old enough to remember the early days of the Internet, you may well recall that it would taken often many minutes, sometimes even hours to download a picture. Larger files, would often take days to download.

That’s because the speed of data transfer back then governed how quickly people could use the Internet today and while successive generations of connective technology, such as 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G, as well as the improvements made to Internet speeds and now fibre technology being rolled out to homes, data transfer is now no longer an issue in many respects.

What this has done, is opened up a huge potential for a new, more personal, immersive and relevant internet. A place where you can exist, own tangible items (such as Non-Fungible Tokens, esports game skins or even artwork) that have not just an online value, but a real world value too.

That’s the stage we are at now but Internet V2.0 aims to go one further and not just be a place you can visit and check into. The aim is that Internet V2.0 will effectively become your own online universe; or as it has become known Metaverse.

Within the Metaverse, you would be able to access all your social media platforms from a single account, you would be able to socialise with friends, play your favourite esports games, head off to a casino to play the slots, wager on sports betting, interact with family and more.

Now, you may think that you can do most of those things already, but where Internet V2.0 will change things greatly is not in the ability to access these things but rather how you access them.

The eventual aim of the Metaverse is to create an alternative digital reality where you can ‘live’ an alternative reality alongside your real life.

This may sound like science fiction, but we are already on the way towards making this a reality.

Technology such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Quantum Computing and much more are making what was once impossible and perhaps from the pages of science fiction, into a reality.

In the Metaverse, you will have your own character, name, identity and even possessions. You’ll be able to seamlessly move through your social media accounts, shop, bet, visit friends, take a virtual trip to far off places, play esports and incredible as it may seem, it may actually feel like you are really ‘there’ in a digital sense.

How Would The Metaverse Make Online Sports Betting/Slot Gaming Different?

As we have said, the Metaverse is about offering different faster options, it is about offering a virtual universe in which you can do pretty much anything you would like.

So, that means maybe your online betting experience in the Metaverse will see you be able to interact with other Punters in your bookmakers Metaverse ‘shop’, maybe you’ll be able to even jump ‘into’ the live stream of a sporting event and be able to watch that event ss if you were in the crowd.

In terms of Esports betting, technology exists where you could jump into an actual esports contest and view the contest from anywhere within the game map as a ‘ghost’ where your avatar is not seen on screen (and thus won’t influence the players or the game) but which allows you to view the action as you would like, either from one place, or from a roaming camera angle that you can control.

What is exciting about the Internet V2.0 is that we are only just starting to imagine what the possibilities are and what opportunities can be created with this new and developing technology.

So, if you think the future of sports betting and gaming is more of the same, then the Metaverse is very likely to take these popular forms of entertainment to a new level.