"The skills and capabilities and experience that we have over 40 years in this industry has broad application to a great many industries. You should think about the future of the consumption of sport. You should think about the future of consumption of entertainment. You should think about how we engage players throughout their daily lives with other things that are interesting to them that adjoin their gaming experience--one of those things might be betting," Wilson commented.
"These are on a longer-term time horizon but we have a number of projects incubating inside the company right now as we think about that one that five-year-plus time horizon," he added.
On the subject of betting, EA has been criticized in the past for how some of its games use loot boxes, with some politicians and industry-watchers commenting that EA has created virtual slot machines. Whatever the case, these types of mechanics are incredibly lucrative already for EA. The company has made nearly US$800 million from microtransactions--including Ultimate Team mode--already this year.
Betting on video games is a growing industry. Numerous Las Vegas bookmakers are currently taking bets on various competitive video games. It only makes sense that EA--and presumably other top publishers--would be looking at betting a growth category as they look to the future.
Source: Gamespot (By Eddie Makuch)
