If a business will not be around in 5 years, then it’s not worth doing. This is a test we hold all our projects to and consider whether we can envisage them (with different sets of variables and market conditions in mind) “being there” long into the future.
Longevity of business increases ROI expontially. If a business can generate revenue for as long a period of time and if proper financial controls are in place, the ceiling for ROI is in fact even difficult to discover.
Since we value longterm sustainability, we now must set out to achieve it and understand how to do this in an efficient manner.
This inevitably leads to the question: “What is the difference between an iGaming businesses that dissapears in a short period of time vs. one those that have existed for decades and will continue to exist for the decades to come?”
The answer is somewhat in the question — The fact that we are trying to ascertain what makes the longterm market leaders different means we are looking for specific differentiating factors.
Many might point to the size and available resources of the market leaders, but this is intelectually lazy and ignores the fact that at one point (even with support and funding) the current market leaders, were beginning their journey too.
Some factors we consider to be important are the ability to acquire users economically and retain them. Although one can “throw money” at both of these of challenges, it is much like putting a band aid on a deep cut, as once it is removed the cut is again revealed. In fact marketing spend, retention or reactivation spends should be considered amplifiers rather solutions.
In the real world, where moving the needle quickly is often expected and sometimes necessary: it can be very tempting to run large campaigns in order to show results, but in the end something has to give. Either the business will come back to address the core matter or the business will no longer be in business.
Some of the differentiating factors that we look at are found in the technology itself, intellectual property and branding.
If a business not only controls its own platform (thus not being vulnerable to externalaties), but crafts it from the ground up to be optimised to retain users, it is already in a stronger position than 90% of the iGaming industry. Looking at leaders like Bet365 (Sports) or PokerStars (Poker), they have both put tremendous emphasis on proprietary technology in their respective sectors — Creating an undeniable product that acquires and retains users far more successfully than their peers.
Somewhat like the chicken and the egg, it can sometimes be unclear what came first in the case of Bet365 and PokerStars; Was it their platform, their brand and maybe well executed marketing that amplified these unique attributes.
Today, regardless of how many accounts a customer may create with Bet365 competitors, they will most likely continue to return for life. The same goes for PokerStars and poker. They have made their brands synonymous with their primary offering, have invested in the IP associated with this offering, and make use of their positions to continue to be unique.
It was Bet365 who brought In-Play (Live Betting) to the market, and effectively it was PokerStars who ushered in innovations like Zoom (Speed) Poker, Spin & Gos leaving the others to only copy months or years later, playing catch up. These types of developments also reaffirmed their positions of owning their primary offering.
We do not foresee these brands losing their positions, but as the world changes, there is and always has been room for new market leaders in iGaming.
Changes in user demographics, mobile first development, and ever decreasing attention spans are amongst some of our current considerations when creating platforms that will survive the test of time.
Building good foundations, with the correct strategy is so important because possibly one of the only things more challenging (and economically relevant) than climbing to the top is staying there.
