Perhaps starting an online casino business seems complicated and difficult, but it is not as hard as it appears. As with most processes, there is a clear set of guidelines that guide one through such an endeavor.
By following a proper sequence of steps and paying attention to the essential details can result in starting a successful online casino brand that will bring both benefits to the operator and endless hours of pleasure and entertainment to its customers.
A technical challenge and a decision that relates to the overall size of the market, creating an online casino is not out of reach in the extent setting up a land-based one would be.
Preparation: Covering the Legal Issues
Before you consider how your online casino website would look like and what content it will provide for the audience, keep in mind that your site needs to be licensed. That being said, a jurisdiction needs to be selected in order to obtain a license to operate in your desired markets covered by said jurisdiction.
Should you decide to obtain a license from the Malta regulator, for instance, know that the process can take about 6 months to complete. It usually takes from a couple of months to a year.
You also need to register a company, a legal entity, and create the legal and financial infrastructure for your business. Your gaming company needs to have a bank account and it needs to sign agreements with payment system providers that will handle financial transaction between the casino and the customers.
If you don’t wish to deal with excessive legal and banking hassle, you can turn to a “white label” solution. This option involves additional costs, but delivers ready-to-use infrastructure and allows you to lease software together with the gaming license and banking options from a software provider while operating under your own brand.
Selecting Software Provider(s)
Once the legal and infrastructural issues are dealt with, it’s time to bring in the casino software providers and load your website with casino games. Making such decisions involves estimating the balance between the price and the quality of the software.
What you should be looking for are an attractive design, popular games and a reliable gaming platform with effective management tools and features such as email retention, anti-fraud system, cashier, payment system management interface, affiliate management and CMS, among others.
A package that includes all the mentioned components costs more, but in the long run, this has proven to be a better option than buying cheap at first and then paying double in the future to sustain the project by adding what’s missing.
The software provider should also offer you regular software and game updates, technical support and hosting. You will be entering a long-term partnership with one or more software providers, so take your time to evaluate the existing options before finally deciding on this matter. It is recommendable to look for flexible, fully customizable software solutions that allow you control and stable management.
Marketing Planning Before Launch
Online casinos’ success depends a lot on marketing. It is considered a good strategy to research your competitors before launching the project as this will give you a comprehensive picture of the market you are about to join.
By knowing how they operate and what results they are experiencing allows you to devise a unique offer which will attract customers and make them stick around. A promising marketing strategy includes adopting the best practices of advertising, promotion and brand development.
At this point, make sure to contact internet marketing agencies or individual marketing specialists who work in online gambling. Look for agencies that specialise in SEO content, email marketing companies and media resources which compose casino overviews. These should be your partners.
Setting the Budget
Defining the costs of legal issues, software and marketing should be the point where you start considering your budget, at least for a determined period once your operation lunches. Commonly, first-time online casino owners set a budget at least for the first year of operation, while long-standing, experienced companies can do that for a longer period.
Your main pre-launch expenses will include company set-up, obtaining the license and software, hiring the staff and devising a pre-launch marketing strategy. Once the site is up and running, you need to consider the expenses covering running the company, paying the license fees, software support, game providers, marketing campaigns and staff salaries.
Website Design and Layout
It is rather important how the online casino website will look like. Investing in front end development will potentially affect online players and make them choose your gambling site over thousands of others. It is recommended not to clutter the site with unnecessary graphics or elements that might slow it down.
Loading time is essential and influences the overall gaming experience for site visitors. On a similar note, your front end should be able to integrate seamlessly with your database. If you are not sure how to create your own front end solution, you can turn to your software provider as they often have predefined templates to offer.
Post-launch Marketing and Retention
Your new online business is up and running. Now what? That’s right, more marketing. The online casino market is an extremely competitive one and you need to have a good marketing strategy implemented on all the stages of the project.
At first, you need to work on positioning your online casino as a quality, trustworthy gambling venue. Point out how different your site is from the competitors and what special features it offers. Announcing the website lunch should also be a big deal and proceeded by heavy marketing.
After the site is put online, keep exploiting the possibilities of SEO, online advertising and banner networks to further promote your brand. Then, start taking care of your customers.
They are the key to your business’ success, so keep them happy through retention campaigns and rewarding bonus systems. These include frequent bonus deals and loyalty programs. A part of taking care of your clientele is also providing them with an efficient support service that runs 24/7.
Last, but not least, establish and maintain affiliate networks. Contacts with partners will propel your online casino development in the right direction.
