Meta: Here are ten essential iGaming terms everyone should know about in 2024, from wagering requirements and KYC to progressive jackpots and megaways.
Playing games at online casinos or placing bets at online sportsbooks can seem a little bit overwhelming for some people, especially with the numerous terms and phrases you will likely encounter and must get used to.
Let’s dive straight in and take a closer look at ten key terms often used in the iGaming industry, and their meanings, that might make life a little bit easier for you when you next visit a website to have a flutter.
Ten Essential iGaming terms everyone should know in 2024
There are literally hundreds of different terms used in the iGaming industry to describe various things, but instead of listing them all, here are ten of the most essential terms everyone should know in 2024.
They include the following popular terms relating to various key areas of the industry, such as games and software, promotional offers, transactions, licensing and regulation, and customer service:
- Bonuses – special offers/promotions that players can claim, sometimes by making a small deposit and sometimes without having to deposit. Bonuses can be free sports bets, free spins to try certain online slots, or free cash bonuses/matching deposit bonuses
- Progressive jackpot – jackpots of the fixed coin variety are always capped at a certain amount. In contrast, progressive jackpots are NOT capped and can climb to no fixed amount before being won. They can often reach well into the millions before one lucky player wins
- Wagering requirement – sometimes called the playthrough, rollover, or turnover requirement. This is usually attached to online casino bonuses. The wagering requirement is the amount of money you must wager before you can withdraw any of your bonus winnings
- RNG (Random Number Generator) – this is a mathematical algorithm program designed to produce fair and realistic results in computer-generated online casino games like slots, table & card games, scratchcards, crash games, video poker, etc.
- Sweepstakes casinos – sweepstakes and social casinos are the same type of online casino and don’t involve real money gambling. In other words, players aren’t required to make a purchase on a sweepstakes casino
- Live dealer (games) – live dealer casino games are not computer-generated and don’t rely on RNGs to produce the outcomes. A live dealer is essentially a human being croupier, and the action from these games is streamed in real-time, 24/7
- Volatility – this describes how often a computer-generated game pays out and how big or small the average wins are. You have low volatility (smaller wins, but occur more often), medium volatility, and high volatility (bigger wins, but occur less often)
- RTP% (Return to Player percentage) – reveals roughly how much you can expect to win back after spending a certain amount of money. On average, online casino games typically have a 93.00% to 98.00% RTP% payout rate
- Software provider – this is the company (aka game development studio) that makes an online casino game and supplies it to the casino
- Banking option – these are the online payment methods (e.g., bank transfers, credit or debit cards, prepaid cards, cryptocurrencies, eWallets/digital wallets) currently accepted by the operator of an online casino in its cashier/banking section
These are just ten essential terms that you will most likely encounter. You also have things like licensing, which tells you where an iGaming operator is licensed and regulated, KYC (Know Your Customer), which is the process players must complete to prove they are who they say they are.
It normally requires sending in recent documents, including scanned colour copies of a bank statement or gas/electric bill, and a copy of your driver’s license or passport to prove you aren’t underage and prevent other fraudulent activities.
Final note
Other important iGaming terms you may also want to research are things like safer gambling tools, responsible gambling, VIP loyalty programs, online slots, free-play demo mode, gold coins, sweeps coins, fortune coins, and in-house games.
That’s not forgetting megaways, coin value, interface, bet level, hit/win frequency, live chat, platform, and payment gateway, to name a few.