2015 will likely be remembered as the year the smartwatch finally went mainstream. Although companies like Samsung and Sony have had smartwatches on the market for a few years now, the release of the much-anticipated Apple Watch has taken the concept mainstream.
With smartwatches quickly becoming a new reality in the mobile world, developers are scrambling with ways to take advantage of the new technology. Online casinos, which are no stranger to the world of mobile devices, are one of the industries leading the way in researching if their product can successfully be ported to smartwatches. For instance, leading software designer Microgaming is already working on ways to bring its games to owners of Samsung’s Galaxy Gear 2.
While the benefits of being able to play casino games on a smartwatch (you can’t drop it, it’s non-intrusive) are fairly clear, there are also a large number of challenges that online casinos and software developers will have to overcome to make smartwatch gaming a reality.
The biggest challenge is the size of the screen. It is difficult to imagine any practical way to fit the bets for a roulette wheel or craps table on a tiny smartwatch screen. Even flintstones slot game, of which the most common are now larger 5-reel slots, would be difficult to put on such a small screen. Smartwatches also pose a challenge in that each one has its own operating system and features, instead of being standardized across all devices. These challenges will considerably hinder the development of casino apps for smartwatches, but casinos always find a way.
