Bored of being against the house on the best online poker sites? Why not become the house on your own online platform? It’s an interesting proposition with many potential opportunities and pitfalls. We’ll go through some of the more pertinent issues that every online poker entrepreneur should be aware of before attempting to play on the best online poker sites for us players.
Legislation and regulation
While you and I might love poker, unfortunately not everyone does. Poker and gambling in general can sometimes be seen as a nefarious, immoral or unlawful activity. This leads to a myriad of different stances on poker which make for a real headache when it comes to setting up an online poker platform. Poker might be a global game that many people understand but it’s nearly impossible to offer a global product with many countries outlawing it. If you want to stay out of trouble it’s best to comply with the land of the law and start off by operating in poker-friendly countries.
Incredibly crowded marketplace
Online gambling isn’t a new concept anymore. A lot has happened since Party Poker dealt the first online poker hand in 1998. There are new domestic sites and offshore companies setting up gambling sites every day, with a lot also closing down. To attract and retain customers platforms have got to incentivize activity. Whether that’s free plays on the site, discounted chips or other poker-related gifts. However, these can become excessive with the platform not actually being able to pay what it promises.
This also means that your brand and product must stand out from the others available to customers. It’s got to be fresh, appealing to the contemporary audience and offer something different. It’s variations of poker or hosting other card and casino games, it’s important to stand out from the crowd with a USP.
Global appeal and wide expansion opportunities
One of the appealing concepts about starting up an online poker business is that you don’t have to inform customers what the product is. It’s not a new concept. It has a near-global understanding, making for a big potential customer base. The reach for the expansion is equally as exciting as online poker rooms can often extend their business reach into other online casino games and markets.
Growing customer pool
Anyone with an internet-enabled device is a potential customer for your online poker room. While smartphones aren’t a new phenomenon, the global ownership rate is only expanding year-on-year. In 2016 it was reported that there were 3.6 billion smartphone users worldwide. The latest data from 2022 suggests that the figures have almost doubled with around 6.9 people now using them. Meaning that there are more and more potential customers with every passing moment.
Dedicated customers make for decent revenue streams
Poker players tend to be very committed to the cause. Poker isn’t just a card game to them, it’s what they want to do all day every day. This faith and dedication to the pastime can lead to tidy profits for online poker providers as they can capitalize on their customers’ passion. Whether it’s selling customizable app themes, appearances, access to better poker rooms or better traffic, almost every commodity on the app has the ability to be profitable.
Opportunities to trade in multiple currencies
Given the global reach of online poker (or the possibility if it weren’t for some draconian governments), there is the chance to bank and trade in multiple currencies. This of course is a blessing and a curse. While it is commonplace for a platform to display just one currency to bet in, that can’t stop you from taking customers depositing in whatever currency they have. The world of crypto is an interesting space, if you can encourage customers to spend in a new coin just before a spike in value, then it could be very beneficial.
Initial software and infrastructure costs
One of the initial hurdles when setting up your own online poker platform is the costs included with it. If you’re going to use your bespoke software, it’s going to be expensive to pay a good developer to do that. Then again, if you do it yourself, it’ll be timely to do so. You’ve also got to keep the site secure and safe with a decent cybersecurity infrastructure. These initial costs can tot up to a pretty penny. Of course, you could just lease the facilities but then you’ll have to pay the license fee every year which isn’t ideal at all.
