The iGaming market is one of the fastest-growing across the globe right now. Gambling and betting have been popular for thousands of years, but until recently, some of the biggest markets in the world weren’t accessible.
The UK has had well-regulated gambling laws that have been modified as more technology has become available.
Asian markets are more tricky, having only a few ways to enter the market legally – China, for example, only has two legal state lotteries – but a trip to Macau will see you surrounded by 41 casinos and a hive of gambling entertainment.
And the US has recently started opening states up to gambling, sports betting, and more.
The rules for online gambling websites also differ in each country and by state or municipality. Yet, it grows at a rapid rate.
With various games to choose from, online casino games are an attractive prospect. One of the most popular online casino games are slot games, mainly because of their huge list of themes for players to choose from. Typically, slot providers offer free versions to players so the players can try out a new themed slot game completely free. This method makes slot games one of the most popular as players prefer testing out a site and games before they choose to deposit their own money.
Since more countries and states are giving online casinos the green light, and the popularity of casino games continues to grow, perhaps it is time you launched your own, and it isn’t as difficult as you think.
Legalities
All online gambling activities are subject to the proper licenses for the right countries and states. You’ll need to decide where you want to offer your online casino and how the setup should look.
There are two ways this can be done, either in particular countries or offshore countries. Factor in that there will most likely be a wait time before you get issued your gaming license for each country you wish to make your online casino available.
You cannot skip this or speed up the process unless you opt to go down the white label solution.
White label offerings have the infrastructure ready to use, but you’ll need to be prepared to pay a little extra for this option.
Software
Software, after the legal issues, will be the backbone of your business. If you opt for the white label casino options, you will use the software within their package.
The software that you choose should be reliable, high-quality, and offer a range of game options. Of course, you can choose to specialize in one gambling area – in which case you will significantly reduce your software costs.
But it’s not just the games that need software:
- Admin role areas
- Affiliate management systems
- Anti-fraud systems
- Cashier systems
- Player management
- Game management
- Reporting engine
- CMS
- Promo and bonus management
- Newsletter and retention email system
There is a trade-off here; you will need to choose between paying a significant amount upfront for a complete software package that comes with almost everything you need – or skimping on the cheaper stuff to save cash and not having everything you need.
If you choose the cheaper options, you will likely be patching up gaps in what you need and what you have for a while – until eventually selecting the more expensive packages.
Marketing Strategy
You will be entering one of the most competitive industries around. Titans of the gaming market offer as much as $2000 in risk-free betting, free spins, or countless other loyalty bonuses.
Your marketing plan has to be tight, and you also have to be prepared to spend a large chunk of your budget to compete.
It is also beneficial if you have something that makes what you do unique. The uniqueness will give you a USP that you can exploit.
One of the critical points will be to ensure that you have the most popular games – and a huge variety of them. As there is so much competition, you need to make sure your games stand out.
As you build your marketing strategy, you will need to keep a close eye on your bonuses and promotions within the market material.
Building a blog into the website to have plenty of SEO content is also one of the essential things in your marketing strategy.
At a minimum, you’ll need to outline:
Positioning in the market – usually, a team will handle this, but you will announce your goals band, your USP, and what games you will have available.
Pre-launch advertising – collecting as many exciting email addresses and maximizing the public’s enjoyment of FOMO and exclusivity (be the first to know).
Content – plenty of content ready to go live and a slew of content lined up.
SEO – the texts, the pictures, META, tags, everything.
Money
There are two many factors here, one is your budget, and the other is what you are going to do with it. You are going to need a business bank account and a merchant account and have agreements with payment system providers.
A legal, financial structure is essential to the wellbeing of your business long term. For this, you will usually need lawyers, bank managers, accountants, and more.
Your initial budget will have, by now, already be somewhat depleted, but there still needs to be enough to pay for the marketing and cover any unforeseen costs (there are always some!).
The time frame for the launch of the casino will be based on the paperwork and length of time it takes to get the licenses for the countries you wish to offer casino games in.
Multiple testing for UI and UX issues will need to be done before the public launch, so a smaller testing group is often the best idea.
What’s noted above are the broad strokes of how to set up your online casino; the final step, of course, when all of that is done, you can launch your online casino out into the world.