From fantasy sports die-hards to poker sharks battling online to grannies gambling on mobile casino apps, gaming is becoming less about scoring points and more about scoring benjamins. By 2025, over $100 billion globally is expected to get bet in various types of apps that pay cash. Let's break down where the action's hottest.

Daily Fantasy - Raking in Millions
Sites like DraftKings and FanDuel let fans build fantasy lineups across sports from football and baseball to golf, MMA, and more. Squad up your roster, and then watch the fireworks. Top dawgs can take home truly life-changing cheddar if their selections pop off.
With over 12 million registered users now getting their fix managing fake teams and winning money, this niche has investors seeing dollar signs, too. Over $7 billion in contest entry fees got collected last year alone, while top players are winning anywhere from six figures up to millions in a single tournament if everything breaks right. Meanwhile, DFS keeps raking in funding over $1.5 billion and counting from VCs hypnotized by the potential.

So, how are average Joes supposed to compete against data-driven professionals in these contests, you ask? While sharks using fancy algorithms have an edge, half the field makes the money in most tourneys. Just do some research, trust your gut, and get lucky!

Sportsbooks - Place Your Bets

Now that states like New Jersey, New York, and more are legalizing sports gambling, betting apps like DraftKings and FanDuel and specialized shops like PointsBet let fans put skin in the game on all kinds of matchups and events. No longer limited to shady offshore sites or sketchy local bookies, regulated mobile wagering makes getting action down smooth as Sunday morning with way better odds.
Wanna wager on if the coin toss lands heads at the Super Bowl? There's an app for that! Books earn their vigorish on every bet, so volume is king. Plus, with live betting letting you wager in real time and wild proposition wagers like who scores first or whether a big hit happens, this market has only begun opening up since PASPA got overturned. Over $2 billion already got wagered legally on sports since 2018, with projections topping $7 billion more annually by 2025.

Sure, it can get degenerate, but putting some lettuce down makes boring games exciting, and winning your bet feels Oh So Sweet! Just be careful not to go chasing losses or bet the rent money cause bankroll management is everything in this game.

Even Mobile Apps Want Your Dough
It ain't just fantasy sports and betting shops angling for that cheddar anymore. Even Candy Crush and Angry Birds are getting in on it too with in-app purchases of virtual tokens, chips, coins, and other jazz designed to keep peeps hooked while winning real prizes. We talking lotteries, slots, bingo, and more built into otherwise normal games people play waiting in line for coffee.
When casual gaming grannies gamble on slot apps, just imagine the cheese these companies making! Social casino and skill game apps scored over 117 million downloads globally just last year. While most come free to download, revenue from all those IAP microtransactions adds up fast. Lifetime revenues for these mobile real-money games approaching $6 billion and counting. Now that's a lotta money!

Addictive? Shady? Maybe. But hey, it beats boredom, right? And with everyone already glued to their phones, no wonder developers targeting this niche. The house always wins, even on your phone!

Today's Gaming Economy
While the action keeps increasing across all formats, this brave new world of real money gaming is still kinda lawless and uncharted. Regulations depend on where you live. Some key deets on how it all works:

Contest Sites like FanDuel and DraftKings let players put up entry fees to compete for prizes in games, testing skills like fantasy team roster building, poker play, trivia knowledge and more. Best performers win the biggest payouts, while sites take a ~10% rake off the top. Part skill, part numbers game, part lady luck.

Sportsbooks are basically trusted middlemen you place side wagers with, often using handicaps and point spreads to level the playing field, similar to Trading Places style betting. Books earn their vigorish on every bet, whether you win or lose. Savvy bettors look for edges, predicting when the lines set by oddsmakers differ from reality once the game shakes out.
And Casino Apps offer traditional games of chance like slots and bingo built for mobile. Most let you optionally buy virtual chips or tokens to keep playing, offering just enough real rewards to punters here and there to prevent churn. Their edge comes from random number generators and reel weighting that ensure the house always wins at scale.
With so much overlap, as sportsbooks add casino games and arcade apps offer real rewards, regulations still catching up. But that's what makes it fun, right? Now, let's get paid!