Cover: " games" (CC BY 2.0) by Sean MacEntee

The MMO world has given us some impressive creations over the last few decades. From smash hits like WoW to more casual mainstream offerings like the Final Fantasy series, the gaming community has had a lot to be thankful for. However, it's not just the hardcore gamers who have benefited from the wealth of MMO offerings out there.

Since the turn of the millennium, iGaming (a cover-all term for online betting games) has grown from a cottage industry into a global behemoth. Indeed, from a handful of basic poker sites like the now defunct Planet Poker (1998) to hundreds of international platforms, iGaming has become an industry worth in excess of $41 billion (£34 billion).

Although it's a stretch to say that iGaming has proliferated because of MMOs, there's certainly a debt of gratitude owed by the former to the latter. While iGaming developers might not have specifically sat down and picked out the top features of WoW or League of Legends, they've certainly been inspired.
With that in mind, we've picked out three things the iGaming community can thank MMOs for:

Cross-Platform Capabilities

" smartphones" (CC BY 2.0) by sam_churchill

One of the reasons MMOs have thrived, especially in more recent years, is their ability to stretch across various platforms. Instead of sticking to their roots as PC games, MMOs have gradually become available across more devices as technology has improved and the same is true in the iGaming community.

Back in the industry's infancy, most sites were download-only affairs for PC players. Today, however, you can now play all manner of games on virtually any Internet-enabled device. In fact, the industry has embraced this idea of cross-platform compatibility so much that it now churns out games tailor-made for modern devices.

For example, instead of creating products for PC and then optimising for mobile, mFortune designs all its casino games in-house for mobile use first. Moreover, instead of using a single downloadable app, mFortune games like Sherlock and Mucho Money are sent individually to a user's device via an SMS download link.

This system allows users with any device, new or old, to join the action. Then, from this base, the operator has made its games available via a desktop platform, which means it's available to more devices at once.

Virtual Communication

" Museum of Communication" (CC BY 2.0) by Cea.

Another reason iGaming has thrived is because it's been inspired by the idea of collective effort and communication from the MMO community. Just as players need to work in unison to plan attacks and conquer worlds in the top MMO games, iGaming fans have to pull together to create larger prizes in certain instances.

Progressive jackpot slots like Mega Moolah are built on the idea of communal effort. Instead of one player spinning the reels for a fixed prize, each user who plays the game is connected via a network. A small portion of each player's bet is then taken and placed into a prize pool. The more people join the game, the larger the prize pool becomes. Eventually, someone rolls in the jackpot combination and wins the prize pool which, very often, is larger than any fixed slots prize.

Similarly, online bingo is now a major part of the iGaming industry. To help make the online game feel as realistic as possible, operators have created chat rooms. Similar to the live chat options in games like Call of Duty, bingo chat rooms allow you to talk to your fellow players as you listen out for the call of the balls.

Players and Strategy

" Dignitas Halo 1" (CC BY-SA 2.0) by EGL - X-Series

The final aspect of MMOs that's carried over in recent years is the players. Poker pros like Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier, who was once a StarCraft legend, are now killing it in the poker community. After picking up skills such as multitasking, reading players and planning out moves long in advances, Grospellier has been able to transition to online poker and win multiple titles. In fact, on top of £9 million in live poker earnings, the Frenchman has more than £1 million in virtual winnings.

After blazing a trail, ElkY has encouraged more MMO experts to cross over to the iGaming industry. However, more interestingly, we're now seeing poker players like Daniel Negreanu cross over and test their skills in Hearthstone tournaments. In fact, this recent development epitomises the dynamic relationship between MMOs and iGaming. Although iGaming is now established, it's still borrowing ideas from MMOs. But, more importantly, the MMO industry is now borrowing from iGaming to help encourage new players to test out the top games. This reciprocal relationship is bound to benefit both industries for many years to come.