Online Casinos Are Mushrooming on the Web
Have you noticed how the choice of online casinos on the Internet seems to be growing exponentially by the month? I have been working in Internet marketing since 2000, and the growth in this market has always been there, but just recently it seems to have gone off the scale.
Have you ever wondered why? This used to puzzle me at first, and it's not just down to the fact that more and more games are on offer online- whereas it used to be just casino and poker, now you have gin rummy, backgammon, and bingo (and that's not even including financial spread betting and sports betting). I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I mean, sure, in theory it is easy to launch a casino online. You just stick up the site, right? But when you start thinking of all of the areas that you need to cover: games, security, customer service, paying the winners, taking the bets, marketing...the list is pretty big.
Well here´s how I understand it.
There are the well established betting companies such as Betfair and Casino-On-Net 888, that are well known. They have investors, they have gone public, and they have the size and money to do all of these things themselves, much as a food retailer like Tescos or a bank would. They set aside money to develop their own games, they manage the money and they employ a big team of customer service agents, marketing people and technical staff to run their businesses.
Then there are companies such as Wagerworks and Cryptologic who purely develop the games software and then supply this to other companies who market the games as an online casino. These marketing companies can either be well know brands (such as Virgin who have an online casino) or less famous outfits who just happen to be good at online marketing.
And this is where the story starts to get a little more complex. The software companies prefer not to muddy their hands with the whole business of taking bets from punters so they leave it to the marketing companies. They spend their whole time programming new casino games which they then supply to their partners through a fee or revenue cut. The marketing or branding companies then promote the games under different casino names.
Of course, on the web, it is relatively quick and inexpensive to design a nice looking face for a range of games that are essentially the same- some of these businesses may have up to 10 different brands or Online Casino sites on offer, in the hope of capturing a fatter piece of the pie if they have more brands out there on the web (much like car companies customise their ranges to appeal to a broader market).
So just as you have the Volkswagon Golf, Golf Plus and Golf Estate, you'll also see the Eurogrand Casino, 32 Vegas Casino and The Sky Kings Casino, all promoted by a company called cpays. All three casinos are pretty much the same when you get in. The only difference is the bonuses on offer and the colour of the casino.
To throw another stick on the fire, you have a situation where the number of software companies developing online casino games on the Internet is growing rapidly. So you have more casino games being promoted by more marketing companies who are each promoting multiple brands. Do you see how this suddenly starts to look a little crazy?
But it can't continue like this, surely? Well, in the short term, it probably will as the growth in the market is sustaining this king of activity (i.e. everyone is making money). But over the long term, I think things will shake out. Companies will have to build more loyalty with their customers, and that means having fewer, stronger brands, So you´ll have the equivalent of the casino industry in the offline world, with some fewer larger groups dominating the market.
Until that happens, remember that all this competition also means that there are lots of goodies and bonuses on offer as there is a lot of competition out there. So make hay while the sun shines, but make sure you do your research before you wade in. It is better to spend some time researching the options available to you. The casino that is offering the highest bonus is not necessarily the best choice.
Have you ever wondered why? This used to puzzle me at first, and it's not just down to the fact that more and more games are on offer online- whereas it used to be just casino and poker, now you have gin rummy, backgammon, and bingo (and that's not even including financial spread betting and sports betting). I couldn't quite put my finger on it. I mean, sure, in theory it is easy to launch a casino online. You just stick up the site, right? But when you start thinking of all of the areas that you need to cover: games, security, customer service, paying the winners, taking the bets, marketing...the list is pretty big.
Well here´s how I understand it.
There are the well established betting companies such as Betfair and Casino-On-Net 888, that are well known. They have investors, they have gone public, and they have the size and money to do all of these things themselves, much as a food retailer like Tescos or a bank would. They set aside money to develop their own games, they manage the money and they employ a big team of customer service agents, marketing people and technical staff to run their businesses.
Then there are companies such as Wagerworks and Cryptologic who purely develop the games software and then supply this to other companies who market the games as an online casino. These marketing companies can either be well know brands (such as Virgin who have an online casino) or less famous outfits who just happen to be good at online marketing.
And this is where the story starts to get a little more complex. The software companies prefer not to muddy their hands with the whole business of taking bets from punters so they leave it to the marketing companies. They spend their whole time programming new casino games which they then supply to their partners through a fee or revenue cut. The marketing or branding companies then promote the games under different casino names.
Of course, on the web, it is relatively quick and inexpensive to design a nice looking face for a range of games that are essentially the same- some of these businesses may have up to 10 different brands or Online Casino sites on offer, in the hope of capturing a fatter piece of the pie if they have more brands out there on the web (much like car companies customise their ranges to appeal to a broader market).
So just as you have the Volkswagon Golf, Golf Plus and Golf Estate, you'll also see the Eurogrand Casino, 32 Vegas Casino and The Sky Kings Casino, all promoted by a company called cpays. All three casinos are pretty much the same when you get in. The only difference is the bonuses on offer and the colour of the casino.
To throw another stick on the fire, you have a situation where the number of software companies developing online casino games on the Internet is growing rapidly. So you have more casino games being promoted by more marketing companies who are each promoting multiple brands. Do you see how this suddenly starts to look a little crazy?
But it can't continue like this, surely? Well, in the short term, it probably will as the growth in the market is sustaining this king of activity (i.e. everyone is making money). But over the long term, I think things will shake out. Companies will have to build more loyalty with their customers, and that means having fewer, stronger brands, So you´ll have the equivalent of the casino industry in the offline world, with some fewer larger groups dominating the market.
Until that happens, remember that all this competition also means that there are lots of goodies and bonuses on offer as there is a lot of competition out there. So make hay while the sun shines, but make sure you do your research before you wade in. It is better to spend some time researching the options available to you. The casino that is offering the highest bonus is not necessarily the best choice.
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