Online casinos are the most popular form of online gambling and also, the most profitable one. We’ve seen massive increases over the past few years on every single business aspect, from the number of gamblers, software developers, games, and finally, business numbers. Opening an online casino platform requires a lot of work and preparation, whether you are doing it by yourself or hiring a professional. If you ever wondered how much would it cost to open an online casino or what is the online casino software price, you’ll never get an exact answer. Everything depends on the entrepreneur’s choices, the business and marketing plan, the vision, and of course, the budget. If you’re thinking of setting up a gambling business on your own, read this article to find out the answers to the most asked questions.
What Does an Online Casino Platform Include?
First thing’s first, you need to know precisely what you need to set up your online casino platform. An online gambling platform consists of the online casino software, a casino platform, payment systems, technical support, and lastly, a license.
Even though we mentioned the license last, it is critical for online casino businesses because that’s how they become legal. Getting a permit can cause difficulties depending on your region. If you set up the online casino platform in the United States, you should know that each state has its own online gambling laws and requires different taxes. Gather your information correctly and choose the most permissive state or the one with the lowest fees. The gambling license and the other legal documents might take a while, but in the meantime, you can proceed to the next step on your list. Budget wise, the jurisdiction fees and the license fees can go up to 60.000$ dollars, depending on the location.
Online Casino Software
The next step on your list, also essential for your business and your budget, is buying online casino software. The online casino software market is very competitive, and developers strive to offer the most high-quality products available. This competition results in so many choices for entrepreneurs, each offering the same packages.
Checking the online casino software price is the first way to tell how good the products really are. Also, there’s the brand factor that can add a couple of digits to the final number. The leading online casino software developers charge around 200.000$ dollars to 300.000$ dollars, depending on your preferences. However, you can find deals starting at 100.000$ dollars and sometimes even lower. It is not mandatory to choose gambling software coming from top-companies only. Smaller software providers are offering high-quality products at significantly lower rates. Checking each software feature individually is the second way to tell how good the software is.
The online casino software price gets higher when the game collection is bigger as well. Most popular online casinos offer around 3000 games to their customers, ranging from video slots to table games. Choosing high-quality games is vital for your company, because that’s what attracts clients and generates profits. Therefore, you should offer various games, with different themes, bonuses, jackpots, and other rewards. Diversity is the key to a popular online casino platform and happy customers.
The Online Casino Platform
After choosing and purchasing the software, you’ll need to build a website. The website’s design and set up process is not as expensive as the online casino software price, but it can reach 3000$ dollars. If you have the knowledge, you can tackle this step by yourself, but a professional might get things done faster. Also, a reliable web-designer can take out more from your ideas and vision and transform them into something beautiful.
The website’ set up connects with the software, and together they make up the casino platform. This step shows you the final product, with all its sweepstakes games, control panel, security features, and other options.
Staff Management
While some online casino owners manage the website by themselves, you shouldn’t consider doing the same. Managing a business is stressful enough, let alone dealing with IT issues and payment errors. This is why you should hire your own staff or partner with professionals that will help you. On average, you should employ around 20 people that will take care of all of the website’s needs.
You’ll need a dozen experts for the technical support team, that will be on call 24/7, answering your client’s needs. The IT team is also vital for your online casino platform, and hiring three people to do the job is more enough. Other than this, your staff needs a few more people that will help you with the marketing and the promotion of the business. The full one year’s expense will raise to 300.000$ dollars for all of the staff, if you are hiring in the United States. A cheaper version would be hiring people based in countries like South Africa. This country is famous for its low gambling business rates and its competent professionals.
Marketing and Promotion
Theoretically, your virtual casino is ready to go, and your staff is fully prepared. You have people helping you promote the gambling website, but how expensive are the actual marketing tools?
The correct answer would be between 20.000$ dollars and 100.000$ dollars. With this money, you’ll pay for advertisements, online promotions and adds, and SEO services. This is a fair price considering that this is how you engage with clients and make them your users.
Payment Systems
Even though the online casino software price includes payment systems, it is not enough. Clients prefer multiple payment options, from Bitcoin, different banks, and e-wallets like PayPal. Most payment system companies charge around 50.000 dollars for one month of services. Besides, you’ll need to have around 500.000$ dollars in funds ready for eventual refunds.
Importance of Casino Games
It is almost impossible to think about an online casino platform without gambling games. If you intend to launch an online casino, you need to know the importance of choosing great casino games for the future success of your business. During your market research, learn about the preferences of your target audience and plan accordingly. If your future audience likes skill-based games, it means that you need to focus more on table card games rather than bingo, keno, or any other type of chance-based casino games. Besides that, learn about the RTP of each game in order to estimate your future income based on the house edge.
Launching the Online Casino
Launching the online casino platform is the final step on your list, and you should pat yourself on the back for coming this far. There’s a right time for everything, including an online casino, so pick it well. Most experts say that you should open the online casino as soon as you have a green line from the United States. American gamblers represent a considerable part of the entire online gambling community, and attracting them to your website will do nothing but wonders.
On the other hand, now that you launched the online gambling website, you might wonder when you’ll get your investment back. Breaking even takes around two years from the opening moment, depending on the business. With the right promotion, catchy website design, and the best online casino slots collection on the market, you can get your money back even faster.
Conclusion
In conclusion, you’ll need around 1$ million dollars for a brand new online casino. The prices displayed earlier makeup to one year of full services, with everything you need. You can opt for different periods or handle some issues by yourself, and the prices will surely decrease. Seeking out a sponsor is also a great idea, especially now, when the online casino market is worth more. This way, you can have the online casino platform of your dreams without spending all of your savings. If you are a businessman thinking of investing in something new, online casinos are one of the best choices available right now.
