The gap between how we use our phones and how we gamble on them is closing fast. Venture capitalist Anton Backman reckons real-money gaming is about to enter its mobile games era, and the shift could reshape how operators think about player engagement entirely.

Why Traditional Betting Apps Feel Outdated

Open any major sportsbook or online casino on your phone and you’ll find the same interface you’d expect from a betting shop thirty years ago: odds grids, bet slips, account balances, and game lobbies. The technology works brilliantly, but here’s the thing. Younger players didn’t grow up with that model. They grew up with social feeds, multiplayer games, progression systems, and live experiences that give them genuine reasons to stick around.

As general partner at Play Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on gaming, Backman has watched this tension develop from a unique vantage point. His firm invests in mobile games, and around 2020 and 2021, something interesting started happening: founders from the free-to-play gaming world began exploring real-money opportunities. Games like Solitaire, bingo, and bubble shooter became real-money products. But they weren’t built like traditional casinos. They were built like games.

“That convergence is something that has pulled us towards the gambling space,” Backman told CasinoBeats.

The Isolation Problem

Here’s where it gets curious. When millions of people play slots simultaneously on the same app, they’re almost entirely disconnected from each other. Social casinos work differently. They put players in virtual rooms together, add chat functions, let you see what others are winning. The core gameplay is identical, yet the experience feels fundamentally different because you’re part of a shared moment.

The question becomes obvious: if social mechanics drive engagement in free-to-play casinos, why haven’t real-money operators adopted them more widely?

Backman’s answer is straightforward. Why fix what’s making you serious money? Traditional products generate enormous profits, so there’s little incentive to experiment. The real change might come from newer products entirely.

Crash Games Point the Way Forward

Look at games like Aviator, and you’ll see where real-money products could be heading. Every player watches the same plane climb in real time. Everyone bets on when it’ll crash. You can see what others are wagering and when they bail out. It’s the same event, shared tension, genuine community.

That shared experience creates something traditional slots don’t offer: a feeling that your decision actually matters. Even if the maths are the same underneath, the psychology is completely different.

Backman sees crash games as the proof of concept. Video game mechanics, mobile gaming principles, and social elements are converging in real-money products, and it’s working. “Each time the plane goes up, it’s the same kind of experience for everyone,” he said. “They all bet against that same event happening, which is in stark contrast to those isolated slot reels.”

Whether traditional operators embrace this shift or newer entrants capitalise on it, one thing seems certain: the boring betting shop interface on your phone’s days are numbered.

What the team thinks

Sheena McAllister says:

Carl’s spotted a genuine tension in the market, but I’d push back slightly on the premise that traditional interfaces feel outdated, rather than simply different by design. The UKGC’s player protection requirements actually demand a certain friction in the user experience, whether that’s clearer odds presentation, mandatory account balance visibility, or deliberate checkout processes, so any operator borrowing too heavily from video game engagement mechanics needs to tread carefully around responsible gambling obligations. The real opportunity isn’t abandoning regulatory rigor for frictionless mobile gaming, but thoughtfully integrating modern UX principles while maintaining the safeguards that protect players and keep operators compliant.