Online casinos are the places where we rest after stressful days and enjoy our time with our friends while making money. The gambling games are a great alternative to video games, and the best thing about them is the profitability. There are thousands of people who are tuning in to online casinos. Some of them play casino slots while others prefer to enjoy table card games. One thing is common for all of us and that is the love for online casino games. On the other hand, it is a profitable business for young entrepreneurs too. How much does it costs to start an online casino and why you need to know that? These questions will find an answer in a few passages but for now, let us analyze the scope of online gambling business and find out how much it will grow in the next few years.
The research that has been conducted by Coherent Market Insights suggests that the rate in which the online gambling industry is growing is enormous. In fact, they foresee an 11 per cent increase in the next seven years for this business. Is not it sounds too good to be true? Yes, it is. However, the growing pace and the former success of the industry makes us believe these estimations.
How Much It Costs to Start an Online Casino?
Do people want to know how much it costs to start an online casino? Most of the times, they are willing to sacrifice their resources and time to enter this magnificent business. However, those people have so many questions and uncertainty that they do not want to risk it all. If you are one of those people who would like to start an online casino and build it from scratch, but is not sure about the potential expenses, you came to the right place.
After reading this article, you will manage to estimate the cost of building a gambling website, connecting various payment methods, getting a license, permissions, acquiring gaming content, running marketing campaigns, advertising, promotions and so on. So, without further ado, let’s get right into the subject matter and start with the registration process and its potential costs.
Registration
It would help if you got registered as a legal entity to start an online casino and the whole process. Without doing that, it is virtually impossible to complete the most basic tasks of building a gambling platform. For instance, those tasks are opening a relevant bank account, entering into partnerships and making legal agreements with your payment system suppliers, casino software providers, obtaining a license, and so on. The primary tip for young entrepreneurs is to seek a cheap but reputable country for getting these things done. It is better to get the registration in the state where you would get your gambling license too. By doing so, you will avoid losing time and money while trying to get documents for governmental bodies of various countries. Be careful about the prizes of this process. Below we will show you some real numbers that you need to pay attention to.
How Much Money Do You Need for Registration?
For a fact, offshore countries usually have fewer requirements, and they are cheaper for getting the registration done. Another advantage of working with those countries is that they have relatively less taxation. In Gibraltar and Curacao, there are no fees for the early registration process. At the same time, the countries like Costa Rica charges from 3000 euros and in the Isle of Man, you would need to pay at least 1100 euros to complete this process.
It is, of course, is not the only cost that will appear. You need to hire a local lawyer for professionally completing these tasks. You cannot submit documents and work on these issues by yourself because it is a very critical matter, and you should avoid making silly mistakes at all costs. For lawyers, you will need to pay from 500 to 1000 dollars until the whole process finishes. Other aspects such as registering the trademark of your future business, the fee for applying to necessary governmental organs, and so on will add to this stage of the online casino development process.
Purchasing Online Gambling Software to Start an Online Casino
The online casino software is the most crucial aspect of the gambling platform. The importance of this element is undeniable. The success of your business depends on the quality of gambling software because of the further development of the project, and this system powers functionality. Capability and most importantly, the reliability of the gambling software is what you need to look for. Many classifications determine the end price of the white label casino game software. The platform and overall control tools are the first. Without getting a highly functional administration panel and management tools, it will hard to control the platform as soon as the number of visitors increases over time.
It is the foundation for your business, and in this stage, your costs can vary from 10 to 5000 thousand dollars depending on the software provider that you have selected. You need to be aware of the commission fee while acquiring this platform too. Depending on the origin of the gambling software provider and their license, you would need to pay 15-60 per cent commission fee before initial purchase. Most popular gambling software providers in this field are Real Time Gaming, Novomatic, Cryptologic, Playtech and Microgaming.
Gaming Content
It is the second most crucial aspect of purchasing gambling software. It would be best if you think twice before making any tough decision about this aspect. There are thousands of various casino games. Depending on the needs of your business and the type of gambling platform that you are going to build, you need to choose the gaming content. The kine of the gambling platform is essential for determining this aspect. For instance, if you are going to offer mainly skill-based gambling games, the best options are poker craps and blackjack. On the other hand, if you are going to provide chance-based casino games primarily, you would need to include online casino slots, bingo, baccarat, and so on.
You can decide to buy the games separately or choose the software model that has ready gaming collection. Prices vary from 200 to 5000 dollars when it comes to the games. Keep in mind that this cost includes the fee amount too. For those of you who decide to cherry-pick and get different games from various casino software providers, the price would be around 200 dollars per game. However, it is not advisable to do it like that because of the high expenses. You can get a full set of games, and whenever any addition is necessary, you can purchase that gaming title separately. The most popular gambling platforms that offer creative gambling games in advance are Betsoft, Playson, Microgaming, volution Gaming and Net Entertainment.
Payment Methods
Offering a variety of payment methods when you start an online casino is one of the criteria that sets the best from the rest. The online casino software should function in a way that it allows the conduction of transaction between casinos and players. There are need to be a lot of options so that players can choose the one that they are used to. There are many suppliers when it comes to doing the process separately. You can work with Click2Pay, PayPal, Neteller, Master Card, Visa Card, and Skrill.
However, the easier method would get payment procedures inside the same software package. The gambling software providers have contracts with those suppliers, and you not need to talk to every one of them to agree if you get the payment methods as part of the gambling software. If you would like to conduct it separately, the cost for all of them would be around 12-20 thousand dollars. It is not recommended because you will both lose money and time, which is what we want to avoid especially in a limited budget.
Fee for a Gambling License
A license is one of the crucial matters that you need to know about before starting your gambling journey. It is a document that gives you access to host the servers of your online gambling business in-country or a state that issues this license. You cannot just enter any market without this document. Otherwise, you will be banned from that area and in the worst case, from the business too. Below we will discuss the most popular countries where you can get a gambling license and analyze the costs and terms of receipts accordingly.
Malta is the first and most popular place that entrepreneurs go to get a license and start a business in the online gambling industry. The cost of the license from Malta will take you around 15.000 euros annually.
The time frame for getting this gambling slot machine license is uncertain. However, it will most probably take around six months to get. For the license from countries like the United Kingdom, you need to spend about 25.000 euros and wait for at least ten months to acquire. There are cheaper options, such as Belize and Curacao. From Belize, you would get a gambling licence in 2 months, and you would need to pay around 10.000 dollars annually. On the other hand, Curacao offers the cheapest deals in the industry, and the cost starts from 4500 euros, and they hand out the license in less than one months. Make sure that you searched for this data and find the right gambling license that will help you to function in a market where you chose to operate.
Why You Need to Have A License and What are the Types of It?
An online gambling license is a tool that will allow you to function legally in a certain region. The license has a variety of types according to the permitted activity. They are classified differently for six various groups. The first-class gambling license allows you to provide repetitive gambling games and build a gambling platform. Those games include skill and chance-based online casino games, lotteries, and so on. Class 2 gambling license will allow you to offer bets including significant events, e-sports, sports, and fantasy games.
Class 3 license is for promotional activities regarding the other people’s online casino platforms. With a Class 4 gambling license, it will be possible for you to control the online casino operations from your local country remotely. Class five and six is mainly about the maintenance and control over other people’s platform either for commission or fee.
Why Class of the License Matters?
Keep in mind that the class of the online gambling license that you are going to apply has a significant effect on the price tag as well as the tax amount. Other costs are involved in the process. For instance, if you would like to get a license from the Canadian government, you would need to pay around 15.000 Canadian dollars for the technical verification, fairness check and so on. In Antigua, you would need to spend about 5 thousand dollars for documentation and verifications too. To sum up, all the costs that are involved in license and software are around 200.000 to one million dollars depending on the provider that you chose to work with.
The process can be divided into two major parts. The first part is about obtaining the actual license. By employing this method, you would get a final product that includes games, license and so on. The supplier of the software completes all the steps mentioned above on behalf of you. By utilizing this approach, you would only need to pay for the software, annual license fee and extra games if you wish. The second phase is about the work for sublicense. The little tasks that take much of your time. In the Isle of Man, for instance, this process can cost you around 5 thousand dollars.
Website Development Process
It would help if you built an effective online casino website to compete in this business. For that, you need to incorporate both web developers and designers and work on the initial project. First of all, designers should make you a logo that is appropriate to your business, either include the name of the brand or creatively demonstrates your strengths. For designing the website, you need to work with both the front and back end developers. The cost of building a gambling website can vary according to the choices that you make during the process. For instance, let us say that you hire full-time web developers and assign them tasks regarding the website. In that case, you w9uld be in full control, and those employees would be held accountable. So, by working with full-time web developers, you will be able to complete the website before the deadline.
Another advantage of it is the updates and changes. During the draft phase, you might suggest changes or ask them to do the tasks differently. However, the downside of employing full-time developers for designing your website is the cost. You do not know precisely how much it will take for them to complete the task. Thus, it will be harder for you to decide on the terms of the contract. Overall, they charge higher prices than freelancers. You might work with freelancers during this process too. You can create a team of freelance developers and assign them a variety of tasks. It is a relatively cheaper method. However, you need to be careful while choosing them and make sure that you work with responsible people. Overall, the website design and development process would cost you around 5 to 8 thousand dollars.
Promotions and Marketing Campaign
While you start an online casino, it is essential to make a market research before the time where you enter the industry. Find your target audience, their interests and see whether or not this market fits your initial ideas about the business. After you settle down, you can start running marketing campaigns, both online and offline. The PPCs, Banner and Display ads are working effectively for this method. Besides that, you might give a shot to affiliate programs when you start an online casino. They are useful and relatively cheaper programs that can lead the interested audience directly to your platform.