Online gaming and gambling companies are some of the most profitable businesses in the entertainment industry. As a result, a lot of people with entrepreneurial spirit are looking to online gaming as a good way to excel in their careers. If you look at the Aussie online casino sites and how well they are performing it’s easy to think that you can pull it off as well. However, both gaming and gambling companies have tight competition and need to constantly improve in order to retain their customers. Here we will go over some of the tried and tested ways on how to start a successful gaming business.
Software Provider for Pokies and Other Casino Games
If you want to have games on your site on your app you will need to reach out to different software providers. If you look at different online pokies you will see that they are available on multiple casino sites in Australia. In other words, those sites are only hosting the games that are developed by various gaming companies. Building this type of game library will require a lot of capital, so you can start by teaming up with a single software provider, and then add more as your site expands and acquires more users. Currently, some of the best software providers for pokies are:
- Microgaming
- Aristocrat
- NetEnt
- QuickSpin
- Yggdrasil Gaming
- International Game Technology (IGT)
Any one of these providers will work as all of them have a few iconic titles that gambling enthusiasts love to play online. Moreover, they provide table games like video poker, baccarat, blackjack, roulette, craps, etc. Therefore, collaborating with a single development company gets you the whole package.
Online Casino Gambling License
Technically you don’t need a license to run a business, since there are unlicensed online casinos out there. However, these are rare and you are less likely to get more users if you are running an unlicensed gambling platform, plus a government can take legal action against you. In other words, you will need to cover this expense as well and figure out where you wish to incorporate your business.
There are some regions where online gambling businesses are illegal, but the act of online gambling is fine. They basically accept foreign businesses that are regulated in the UK, Malta, or Curacao. So, you will need to seek legal advice on how your country treats online gambling and what are your best licensing options. It would be ideal if you can get a license that allows you to offer your content in Canada and Australia, as these two countries gamble a lot. You can then expand onto Ireland, Singapore, and the UK.
Unique Web Design
If you wish for your site to stand out then you need to make it look and feel unique. This only applies to aesthetics, not the UI. It’s important to have memorable and appealing animations, as well as a unique font. It needs to look vibrant, joyful, and entertaining, and at the same time, it needs to have a certain theme that matches the name of your casino. It’s really up to you and your creative team to figure that out, but you can find a ton of examples online simply by looking at the competition.
You can also add a blog section to your site, and share interesting content there. This can help your digital marketing campaign, and you can also show regulators that you are a responsible provider. You can cover topics on the importance of responsible gaming, and you can share tips and tricks for the users. Talk about the best strategies to enjoy and win on pokies, share the latest developments from poker tournaments, or talk about the most played casino games. All of these give you a great chance to optimize your site and make it more visible on search engines.
It’s important to note that you should not go overboard with complex design elements. After all, your site needs to work smoothly on small screen devices and it needs to load fast. Having complex code or demanding graphics can slow down your casino and result in a negative and frustrating user experience.
Marketing Strategy
We touched upon digital marketing strategy or SEO in the previous section, but it needs to be way more elaborate than that. You will need to come up with affiliate marketing, bonuses, promotions, ad campaigns, and SEO strategies if you are to be visible. This is something that almost any other operator out there is doing in order to be visible.
Online Casino Affiliate Marketing
You want your users to recruit other users, and the best way is to have an affiliate program and to reach out to influencers. They can do a small review of your site or app, and it would be good to have poker rooms, as this game gets a lot of views and can be streamed.
Bonuses and Promotions
The number one reason why users create more than one account is that they get to take advantage of welcome bonuses and promotions. You need to think about how to balance the amount of free stuff you are going to give out like: free spins, free chips, cashback bonuses, deposit multipliers, etc., and wagering requirements. Basically, if these wagering requirements are too high the offer won’t be as attractive whereas if it is too low you could be losing a lot of revenue.
Casino Ad Campaign
You want your site or app to be visible so you will have to pay Google or other search engines for a promotion. This will allow your site to be at the top of the search results so long as the relevant keywords are a part of a search query. Moreover, you need to have ads that lead to your site on relevant websites and apps. This will allow you to target specific user groups, and get the people who are likely to play to come over and check out your platform.
SEO Strategy
This is where your blog section comes in handy as content can be linked and promoted on other sites. Also, you need to make sure each section of your site uses relevant keywords, and that the app description follows this same pattern. You should definitely focus on local SEO at first and target only users who can access your online casino. Additionally, you can get sites that review other casinos to add your gambling platform on their list as well. This gets you more link juice and more pokies players will be able to find your site.
Conclusion
As you can see, starting an online gambling business is neither easy nor cheap. The things aren’t that different for creating a brand new online game. You would still need a lot of time and money to do so, and it would have formidable competition right from the get-go.
Alternatively, you can start a software development company and see if there are some new and creative ways to improve casino games. This way other online casinos can be your clients. Another positive fact is that more countries are in the process of legalizing online gambling, so there are some untapped markets that will begin to pop up.