How to Start an Online Casino
Posted by Harry Kane on Monday, November 25, 2019
According to the most recent statistics, there were an estimated 5.8 million businesses trading and open for business at the beginning of 2019. This included a growing number of innovative tech startups, which helped to create a private sector business population by 3.5% year-on-year.
It’s also interesting to note that SMEs account for around three-fifths of all private sector employment in the UK, and a little over 50% of turnover in this space.
Given this and the fact that the iGaming sector remains one of the biggest growth markets in the UK, it’s little wonder that the nation’s growing army of entrepreneurs are increasingly inclined to launch brand new casino platforms online.
But what exactly is involved in this process, and what steps can entrepreneurs take to launch an online casino successfully? Here are some steps to help you on your way:
1. Getting Started – Securing an iGaming License in the UK
Whilst the iGaming market in the UK is one of the largest and most progressive in the world, it’s also subject to some increasingly stringent regulatory measures.
These regulations are developed and imposed by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), who consider all licensing applications and regularly review individual operators to ensure that they’re complying with the terms of their agreement.
Make no mistake; no online casino can operate legally or compliantly in the UK without a valid license, so securing this accreditation remains a crucial building block for any entrepreneur who wants to succeed in the competitive iGaming space.
Interestingly, there are different types of licenses available to applicants, depending on the precise nature of your business and the verticals that you offer to your customers. However, you’ll definitely need to apply for a basic operating license from the UKGC, as this will grant your casino the legal right to sell to customers within the boundaries of the UK.
Beyond this, certain stakeholders within your business will have to apply for a personal management licence (PML), depending on the role that they play within your venture.
For example, anyone who has responsibility for overall strategy and the delivery of gambling operations is legally required to apply for a PML, whilst the same rule applies to employees who manage your company finances and implement budgets.
Similarly, it’s important that your business employs people who are responsible for achieving regulatory compliance, and these individuals will also need to apply for a personal license that safeguards their role.
Whilst it can be hard to determine which employees are liable to apply for a PML, securing the relevant licensing for an online casino is far easier than attempting to do the same for a brick-and-mortar alternative.
In the latter instance, you may also need to apply for a personal function license and a premises license, increasing the time taken to become fully complaint and eventually launch your brand new casino platform.
As it stands, securing an operating license from the UKGC typically takes between six and 12 weeks (from the submission of your application to receiving final approval from the regulator). In terms of cost, a full operating license in the UK will cost approximately £150,000 per year, and it’s imperative that your business pays this annually if it wants to retain its status as an accredited and reputable brand.
This annual sum must be paid in addition to a £15,000 application fee, which covers the administrative costs of securing accreditation.
Of course, you may be tempted by the notion of establishing your headquarters overseas, particularly if you can target tax-friendly havens such as Malta, Spain or Curacao. The latter jurisdiction is also known to offer licenses at a considerably reduced rate, theoretically creating a scenario where you could launch your iGaming venture for less.
Regardless of your base or underlying business model, however, you’re legally bound to apply for a license from the UKGC if you want to operate in the UK. You need to keep this in mind from the outset, as you look to scale your venture as organically as possible.
2. Software and Your Website – The Key Considerations
Once you’ve secured a license to operate, the next step is to consider the precise content of your website and the verticals that you’re going to offer to your customers.
These are two of the many considerations that you need to keep in mind when launching an iGaming website, and they’re undoubtedly crucial to the long-term success (or failure) of your venture.
If you look at the market leading casinos, you’ll see that they offer a wide array of casino games and verticals, whilst many also provide a virtual sportsbook to their punters. This type of strategy may be a little ambitious for independent startups, however, so you may want to consider creating a streamlined platform that focuses on either casino gameplay or sports betting.
If you do create an online casino, you’ll also need to determine the precise range of games and disciplines that you offer to customers.This can include a selection of slots, roulette, baccarat, bingo and poker, whilst you’ll also have to consider whether or not you want to launch a live casino vertical.
We’d definitely recommend placing a heavy emphasis on slot games, with this genre becoming increasingly dominant in the iGaming market. In fact, a 2018 report from the UKGC revealed that slots accounted for nearly two-thirds (64.5%) of the online GGY in the UK, so these titles can really provide a boost to your annual revenues.
You can certainly build a diverse and popular games’ library around a selection of popular slots, whilst identifying the most in-demand table games and incorporating these as part of a live casino platform. When dealing with real-time casino gameplay, you should definitely prioritise quality over quantity, whilst also liaising with software providers who can guarantee authenticity and a high quality of dealer interaction.
Regardless of how you choose to structure your casino, the games’ library that you create will ultimately guide your decision in terms of which software providers to work with.
After all, certain software houses have specific specialities and a particularly impressive range of games, with companies such as Evolution Gaming renowned as the market leading developers of live casino platforms. They’ve even won the coveted Live Casino Supplier of the Year award every year since their inception in 2010, and look set to continue this trend in the future.
Given the popularity of verticals such as slots and live casino gambling, it certainly makes commercial sense to partner with a number of selected software houses.
This may seem counterintuitive in some ways, not least because partnering with one reputable develop is easier from cost and logistical perspective.
However, liaising with a handful of strategically selected software providers offers a number of advantages, particularly if you want to create a diverse casino that’s appealing to players of various demographics and genuinely immersive.
Not only does this type of approach provide greater depth and enable you to effectively target a broader selection of players, but it may also help you to access a more comprehensive package of features.
This can include everything from payment processing and licensing to technical support and marketing, whilst working with larger software houses can also help you secure new slot games ahead of your competitors.
Targeting well-known developers who boast a selection of high quality and in-demand games will also provide your casino with a competitive edge in the marketplace, enabling it to win new custom and claim a viable share of the action!
Whilst you may be reliant on others to create a viable games’ library (unless you take the challenging and time-consuming approach of developing proprietary content), you’ll at least retain the autonomy to create an attractive and secure web platform.
When it comes to designing your casino platform, it’s wise to compare the market and review the sites operated by your competitors. Most platforms tend to boast relatively bright and contrasting colours, for example, whilst also creating a horizontal scroll of their best offers and promotions somewhere above the fold on their homepage.
The site must also be intuitively designed and easy to use, with all games organised into relevant categories and accessible with just a couple of clicks from the main landing page.
Of course, these universal design rules mean that many of the leading and most competitive sites boast an exceptionally similar aesthetic, so you may want to consider other ways in which you enable your platform to stand out.
Developing a visual or conceptual theme for your website represents an excellent starting point, particularly if this is relevant to gambling and maintained consistently throughout the platforms landing pages. Your theme can also include a colourful and interactive mascot, which can characterise your brand’s identity and create a visual hook that can really engage punters.
Some of the most engaging iGaming mascots include Mr. Green’s Dapper Gentleman and Royal Panda’s uniquely cuddly representative whilst there are many others that have helped new operators to compete more aggressively in a crowded marketplace.
Whilst the design of your website is an important consideration, however, this ultimately means little if you’re unable to provide a secure platform that safeguards your customers’ personal and financial data.
As a minimum, you should ensure that your site is secured with 128-bit SSL encryption, with this technology used by leading financial organisations and capable of guaranteeing the integrity of your financial transactions.
On a similar note, it’s important to integrate trusted, transparent and reputable banking methods into your website, as this creates a foundation from which players can credit their account and make withdrawals in real-time. The key is to provide a range of payment options for customers without compromising on security, with methods such as debit cards, bank transfers and selected e-wallets particularly popular.
It’s certainly important to combine traditional and secure methods such as bank transfers with e-wallets like Neteller and Skrill, as this creates the ideal balance between earning customer’s trust and creating the capacity for instantaneous transactions when required.
3. Last But Not Least – Marketing Your New Venture
In many ways, our guide so far has focused on the legal and backend aspects of launching an online casino brand.
It’s also important to consider the various methods of marketing your new venture, as you’ll need to find an effective and profitable way of targeting customers and competing in a market that’s packed full of established operators.
Make no mistake; your business will live or die based on the number of players that you attract to your site, as your primary source of revenue remains the losses of individual punters. You’ll therefore need to effectively target players and attract as many customers to your site as possible, primarily by leveraging the principles of SEO and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
This type of integrated marketing approach is key, as you must make it easy for interested customers to find your brand whilst simultaneously reaching out to others who are relatively new to the market.
SEO can certainly help to make your casino brand more visible, so long as you’re able to identify a range of relevant search terms and create natural link profiles that enable you to rank well in organic search engine results. So, when customers search for casino brands online, your brand is sure to feature prominently on the first couple of pages.
Social media channels also enable you to target specific demographics more aggressively, through both paid and organic means. You can purchase ad spaces on Facebook and promote these amongst your target audience, for example, whilst also sharing unique and organic content that links directly back to your website.
This strategy also requires you to create insightful and interactive content that readers want to engage with, with anything capable of adding value to punters likely to be shared across broad user networks.
The key is to market your brand as organically as possible, whilst also creating immersive and readable content that appeals to customers. This will ensure that Google feature your brand prominently in free search results, laying the foundation for long-term success in the future.