UK Market Advice

[Imperator000]

Hi everyone,

I've just joined the forum and am reading through the massive amounts of useful information on here. I'll be starting my own casino portal this month and being based in the UK my plan was to begin by focussing on the UK market. I was wondering if anyone could give a little advice on whether that's a good plan to follow or not?

Thanks,

Imperator

[FictionNet]

Hi everyone,

I've just joined the forum and am reading through the massive amounts of useful information on here. I'll be starting my own casino portal this month and being based in the UK my plan was to begin by focussing on the UK market. I was wondering if anyone could give a little advice on whether that's a good plan to follow or not?

Thanks,

Imperator

Not.

eta. explore other English-speaking markets if you want to retain your sanity and make any money

[drifter8]

Keep away from Uk market. If you concentrate on it, you might lose your faith, lots of effort and earn nothing at the end of the day.

[Former Member 14]

I'll be starting my own casino portal this month and being based in the UK my plan was to begin by focussing on the UK market. I was wondering if anyone could give a little advice on whether that's a good plan to follow or not?

That's a huge, gigantic, NOT... from me too!

Not trying to discourage you, but (and as I tell all newbies) it's not the cash-cow it once was.
Basically you've missed the 'boat' by at least 10 years.

FYI... if 100 newbies started today, in 12 months time maybe 2 or 3 would still be doing it. That's a 97 - 98% fail rate.

It's highly competitive.

Even for veteran affiliates like myself and others with years of exp in this gig, if you make 1 bad SEO decision, it could spell disaster for your organic traffic. On top of all that, you then have to know which programs are trustworthy and which are not. You could do all this work, and then not be paid.

Being a newbie these days, is akin to a minnow swimming in the shallows, and watching as sharks rip other fishes to bits out past the reef.

Six years ago I was still making decent 5 figure commissions each month. Previous to that, a lot more. Now, occasional I get a decent 5 figure sum, but mostly low 5 figures (sometimes less). Reiterating, not trying to discourage you BUT affiliate veterans with years of exp, including skill sets of SEO, coding and what not, are now finding it harder to make a buck. If that's an indication of anything, then sorry, but what hope does a newbie have.

If I was starting out these days, I wouldn't. I find something else which was ground floor, and invest my time in that.

Anyway... if your still here being a casino affiliate in 12 months, then maybe you will cut the grade. If not, then don't feel bad, it's a tough gig!

[FictionNet]

UKGC-licensed properties are subject to additional Advertiser Code-of-Conduct terms and conditions (applied by ourselves) and additional pre-listing non-refundable payments in order to be even considered for inclusion on our sites now. This does not apply to any property that decides not to renew its UKGC license. As a former 75%-ish UK-only affiliate for the better part of twenty years, this should tell you something about how I view the UK market now.

[Mattbar]

As pointed out the UK is hugely competitive but it is also a big market. It will take a long time or a big budget to rank for decent keywords but if you plug away at it you can make it work, but it will likely take years before you see any decent return.

It is worth starting several sites maybe and targeting different markets and products, eggs in many baskets and all that.

[casinoportal]

I wouldn't solely target the UK market, it is very competitive and saturated, the UKGC are constantly moving the goal posts, and you will need to comply with the regulations. You could build up a player base and a few months down the line the casino closes to the UK market, we have already seen a few close to the UK this year. It is quite expensive for casinos to operate in the UK now with all the taxes and license fees, hence you will also earn less by the way of reduced commissions.

I started back in 2002, did very well and sold my network, having just come back into it again this year after 10 years, I can tell you a lot as changed. Gone are the days where you could build a 10 page website and be ranking in Google within 3-6 months. To succeed your going to need to build a site with hundreds of pages and new content added regularly, and your looking at a min of 6-12 months before you start getting any decent traffic if you do your SEO right, even 1 to 3 years I would say to rank for major keywords. You need to look at it long term with a 1-2 year plan, just don't come into it expecting to do well early on, work hard and it might, just might pay off with a bit of luck.

[Imperator000]

Thanks for all the advice everyone, I really appreciate it. Based on the common consensus here I'm going change tack and look at some of the other English speaking markets instead.

[Brokkoli]

UKGC-licensed properties are subject to additional Advertiser Code-of-Conduct terms and conditions (applied by ourselves) and additional pre-listing non-refundable payments in order to be even considered for inclusion on our sites now. This does not apply to any property that decides not to renew its UKGC license. As a former 75%-ish UK-only affiliate for the better part of twenty years, this should tell you something about how I view the UK market now.

Can you please provide us (or PM me) with a copy of your "additional Advertiser Code-of-Conduct terms and conditions"? I very much like the idea

[HodgeyBoy]

Another thing to consider is the type of site that you produce.

'a casino affiliate site' is a very wide remit and, as as already been mentioned here, many other experienced bigger sites are already dominating that space, particularly in the UK market.

My advice would be to consider finding a niche area within casino that may not be currently well served by other sites and then mining that seam. You would be looking to 'narrow cast' to fans and devotees of that specific niche as opposed to going head to head against the big boys and 'broadcasting' with a general casino news and information site.

That said, that's generally my advice these days for any iGaming product, not just casino

[Former Member 14]

My advice would be to consider finding a niche area within casino that may not be currently well served by other sites and then mining that seam. You would be looking to 'narrow cast' to fans and devotees of that specific niche as opposed to going head to head against the big boys and 'broadcasting' with a general casino news and information site.

Agreed, well said!

Trying to compete head-on with established igaming venues, but also large (super) affiliates, is a waste of time. Unless you have very-deep-pockets, and even then (with so much competition) it may not be worth it these days.

Crumbs aren't too bad, enough will still get you a loaf of bread, then some

[LowFlyingBird]

The amount of operators to pull out of the UK seems to be on the rise.
1x2 software provider for 1xbet is "pulling out"...which is funny as it's in reference to a pornhub casino investigation.

http://www.insideworldfootball.com/2...t-allegations/
https://calvinayre.com/2019/08/12/bu...investigation/