Page 6 - Casino City's iGaming Pocket Directory - 2013 Edition

4 Sponsored by Casino City’s iGaming Pocket Directory
ABOUT BET365
The Internet, the World Wide Web and wireless technology have become such a
normal and regular part of our lives that it is almost easy to forget that at one point, it
was truly disruptive technology.
In the early 90s, traditional powerhouse retailers were dismissive of the potential of
the Web. Newspaper companies couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to read news on
a screen instead of online. Bookstores and music retailers couldn’t envision people
wanting to buy electronic versions of their products. And movie rental companies
scoffed at the idea that anyone would want to watch video “streamed” to them, let
alone an “on demand” lifestyle.
But as technology improved and expectations changed, the belief that the traditional
retail and media outlets would rule the world didn’t disappear. Instead, the
assumption was they’d take over the new Internet world the way they had the brick-
and-mortar one. Sure, the medium might change. But the economic pecking order
wouldn’t.
That assumption proved to be horribly wrong. Netflix changed the way people
consume movies and TV shows. Video rental stores never knew what hit them.
Amazon changed bookselling -- and eventually the entire retail market -- forever.
Craigslist and other online markets disrupted the newspaper economic model.
The big companies everyone expected to “win” in the new world were beaten by
smaller, quicker, more agile upstarts, who understood the new online world that was