Starting an online casino business is difficult because there are multiple things you have to take into account, and the process can be rather confusing for a beginner. Today, we’ve collaborated with Sophia Novakivska of DashTickets to help you understand the industry, set your expectations, and provide you with a simple outline of the steps required to build a casino website.
Starting out
We’re going to be honest — the online casino market is currently a flooded and highly competitive place, and it takes enormous effort to simply stay afloat — not even talking about succeeding in the niche. While casinos are potentially highly profitable, and there are multiple shortcuts one can take to start working as soon as possible, it is still a heavily regulated niche that requires navigating lots of legal complexities and considering multiple nuances beforehand.
Not only that, offering a new casino to the customers is especially difficult — earning trust in the industry is extremely important to succeed, and achieving this would take years of hard work with zero PR missteps.
That is why we generally do not recommend creating your online casino business without having at least some expertise in the matter. There are lots of things you need to do beforehand: from understanding the industry trends, risks, and competition to choosing your casino type and game providers, and then deciding on your business model and revenue structure.
Licensing
Any casino requires a license to operate, and you have several routes to take here. To put it simply, aiming for a UKGC or a similar license is a goal for high-tier websites and is considered to be the most valuable since the requirements are quite demanding. At the same time, there are other licenses you can get, which will not be viewed as a sign of quality but will still enable you to operate.
The licensing process is too nuanced and detailed to be described in a short article — it would require a lot of research, so make sure to dedicate a proper amount of time to it, and, ideally, contact a lawyer specializing in the matter.
Select software providers
Any online casino needs games, and there are lots of providers you can choose from, like Soft2Bet, Softswiss, each with its benefits and downsides. Not only that, each provider has its own terms of partnership which may or may not suit your preferences.
Once again, there is a lot to consider here — from choosing between white-label solutions and custom development to addressing mobile support, game variety, and even overall aesthetic direction.
Secure payment solutions
Secure payment options are an absolute necessity, and it is probably one of the most difficult aspects of starting an online casino business. Right from the start, you have to provide multiple varied payment options for different countries and currencies, all of which should work seamlessly and reliably, while also providing fast, transparent, and secure withdrawal options.
While PayPal can attract many players, but it will work only on legal markets. You should do a proper research, which payment methods preferred by players on your region. For example, do they like POLi payments, Inclave login system or classic debit cards.
Ensuring all of this requires an incredible amount of work that cannot be avoided. Starting out small with several payment options is a path you can take, but it will make your website look inferior to your competitors, so be aware of it.
Design and marketing
With so many competitors, a unique and memorable design and marketing strategy is one of the very few tools you have to differentiate yourself and attract audiences. Branding, user interface, theme — all of this might seem secondary to you after all of the previous steps, but most players only really care about these, so you have to ensure that your website looks and feels absolutely amazing. Imagine spending so much time on legal and financial work only to create an underwhelming experience that players find lacking and have no interest in — that’s just the worst.
Apart from the design, you have to entice new audiences to try out your online casino, which means that you need affiliate programs, content marketing, regular bonuses and promotions, a lot of ads, and several retention strategies in place if you want to get at least a small slice of the pie. Most of this work requires a dedicated team if you expect to achieve any results, so be ready to establish a smooth hiring process.
Customer support
Finally, customer support is one of the few ways you can address any issues with your website and ensure that users are satisfied with it so that your reputation isn’t ruined over just a few months of work.
With thousands of casino options available to them, gamblers have become incredibly picky and won’t settle for anything other than perfect, and you have to provide the best possible experience at all times. When something goes wrong, you need to immediately address it, and a lot of times that means having a dedicated team that operates live chat, email, and phone calls.