It’s been a tumultuous couple of years for the gambling industry. First of all it had to contend with the introduction of tighter regulations. Then there was the COVID-19 outbreak. Without wanting to be too indelicate, casino and bingo site businesses have experienced a boom in terms of player numbers due to the lockdown – people clearly have more time on their hands. But with further regulatory interference expected somewhere down the line, many within the industry are bracing themselves. So is it worth setting up an online bingo site as a gaming startup business, given the volatility of the market?
Crowded Marketplace
The gambling industry generated £14.4 billion in gambling yield from 2018 – 2019. Unsurprisingly, the market for these businesses is pretty crowded. There are hundreds upon hundreds of online casinos and bingo sites plying their trade in a fiercely competitive sector. It follows then that anybody looking to join the fray will be going up against a raft of seasoned operators with money to burn. What’s more, they’ll also have to contend with their white-label underlings of which there are thousands.
Many wannabe operators try to get around these challenges by focusing on specific gambling niches. And when we say ‘niche’ we’re not referring to things like iGaming verticals. Nope. Market saturation is such that specialism goes way beyond ‘slot’ or ‘table game’. The focus is now far narrower with a strong focus on specific developers and even casinos that offer certain payment options. It’s a bit tough for a gaming startup business.
Online Bingo Businesses
Online bingo, although not as crowded as casino-gaming, is still pretty competitive. With that said, it’s still possible to rank in the SERPs as long as you’re ready to write a lot of content – and not the kind of cursory crap that used to score big with Google. We’re talking useful, informative copy that will help the user and attract back-links. If you’re willing to put the time and effort in an exercise a great deal of patience, you’ve got a chance. But what kind of payment model should you use? Well, you’ve basically got two options: white label or affiliate.
White Label Online Bingo Sites
White label casinos are massively popular in the casino and bingo sectors as they are straightforward startup businesses to create. To put it simply, white label platforms sign up with the big operators and then repackage their gaming software to suit their own brand. A good example of this kind of site is Sailor Bingo, which runs on what’s known as the Dragonfish network. For many digital entrepreneurs this is a great solution because the first-party provider will usually take care of customer support, the update of games and software maintenance. Integration is usually extremely straightforward. However, these types of arrangements don’t come cheap and may be beyond the budget of your gaming startup business. In most cases they cost thousands of pounds.
Affiliate Review Businesses
Affiliate marketing is another popular approach, especially for people with little cash to spare for their gaming startup business. The arrangement works like this. You sign up with an affiliate network or with an actual operator (almost always free). You’re then given access to links which you can place on your website. If somebody clicks on this link and then makes a deposit on the site you’re linking to, you get a commission. As a far as iGaming goes, commission rates are extremely lucrative. Happily, many online bingo specialists offer these partnerships.
To make this kind of arrangement work, you’ll need to attract hundreds of visitors to your website. How do you do this? By ranking in Google’s top ten. And how do you rank in Google’s top ten? By composing a huge amount of (useful) content regularly – then you’ll need to wait for at least 18 months before you see any meaningful results from your labour. Oh and you’ll need to get hundreds of back-links. Easy!
