“There has always been a surge mentality to get in to as many markets as possible in gaming. It doesn’t mean every company is planning it right. Maybe you know of a company that isn’t even planning to expand at all.”
“There is no excuse to not be making international efforts with your online company. Every company is unique. Go and take that uniqueness, that hook, to a new market.”
– Me
History of Expansion
iGaming has always been a global affair. This industry took advantage of tech early and rapidly. This beast exploded across the world at light speed. That is the beauty of online tech, it works almost anywhere and instantly.
For the big gaming operators, like PokerStars, 888, Party and others, pioneering into new markets has been a focus point for as long as I can remember.
For the most part, the top companies expand well and plan well. Cutting edge expansion planning really. Not always positive results, but they try. ‘Stars, (whom has signed up almost 100M players), had a bad time going into New Jersey, as did Party Poker having their CEO Norbert Teufelberger detained by police in Belgium.
Those two expansion project fails were out of control and really came down to issues with government and market conditions. Both issues have also been partially resolved since.
So setting aside regulatory roadblocks, in my view, the rest of the expansion mistakes come down to bad planning.
Purpose of this Article:
In this article I breakdown some ways that the small and medium enterprise gaming related companies should plan for expansion into new markets. Goal setting and expanding is difficult but it isn’t impossible.
The types of companies that should read this are the companies that provide services, such as affiliate companies, media companies, tournament tours and travel companies. I suppose there are some ‘physical’ shops which sell poker chips and the like too.
7 Ways to Plan a Move into an International Online SME Company
1. Scouting the Action
– Get your scout on. Find out everything you can about the country you are looking into entering. Read, research and write it down. A bulk of the information is out there for harvest.
– Talk to anyone you know from that country. If you don’t know anyone, it is probably a bad idea to enter.
o You don’t have any local friends, so go meet people from that country, get to know them. Be liked. Contribute to the relationship. Give something.
– Don’t believe everything you hear. People will misdirect you on purpose and by accident.
– Look at case studies of similar companies in the market.
– Write a concise and thorough report to show to your boss or owner before jumping in. Ask him/her to see who he/she knows, it might surprise you.
2. Networking and Nurturing
– Plan the effort. This can be hard with language barrier, but look into your network and figure out who you want to talk to.
– Once you decide your target audience, take some shots, get introduced.
– If you can’t find anyone, again, you are not ready. Go and meet some people from that country.
– Enter all the communication into your internal tracking system.
– Plan trust barriers with new people and don’t break them during the meetings. Be honest, always, but control the level of ‘giving away’ information.
– Be delightful and show empathy. One of my favorite local tech companies uses the term delightful often. I like that and our industry should nurture this.
3. Tracking Everything
– Track your costs analysis, opex and finance documents early.
– Early day’s expansion shouldn’t cost too much money. If the effort is clearly tracked you can really control the cost.
– Track everything else, too. I don’t make pretty tracking sheets, but I am always tracking. I learned this skill and use it daily.
– Have your team weigh in on the tracking.
– Use tracking to help make decisions.
– Don’t stop. Lots of people feel threatened by tracking, but they shouldn’t.
4. Hiring like a Boss
– Try to hire someone that actually knows who you are and has experience in this field. Preferably you know who they are too. That said, solid people can come out of left field.
– You shouldn’t just show up somewhere new without help on the ground. Talk to someone first. Talk to a dozen people.
– Decide if you want someone on the ground or if you want to satellite market from somewhere else after talking to some peers.
o I always recommend having someone on the ground, but I have seen it work both ways.
– Decide the deal. You going to just pay them a rate? Or do you want to try and minimize the risk and put them on a revenue share deal? Maybe they want to buy in to you?
o I prefer the revenue share deal or the buy-in, but that is because I would want to find people that desire to earn and have a history of success.
– Do major due diligence and have some form of contract before taking the plunge.
– Communicate, communicate and communicate, especially early. These newbies need direction. Heck, you are a newbie to them too. Clear and regular communication is project management best practice rule #1. Lack of or wrong communication is probably the #1 reason projects fail.
5. Testing
– Use your sense when you pick what you are testing. Be fancy, ok, but mainly be solid in your picks on what to test.
– Test before going all-in somewhere.
– If you have a hunch that a new expansion needs to go all-in and ASAP to be successful, and you are right on every hunch, still try to find a way to test.
6. Don’t do anything illegal
– Riding the surfboard of grey area in online gaming is thrilling. Lots of the successful mega businessman in gaming live for riding the grey waves.
– Many people argue what is and what isn’t legal in this space.
– Personally, obviously, I don’t think anyone should ever do anything illegal or that may attract negative attention. Always respect and obey the government.
o Every country has different laws, so make sure you know the laws as they pertain to your projects. In the world of online marketing and tech, many countries still haven’t caught up. Be wary and hire professional advisors in those countries.
– If something becomes regulated, defined or enforced suddenly. Something that before hadn’t been addressed, immediately figure out what to do. Don’t let an infection spread.
– Do the paperwork required for every market.
7. Don’t get lost in the BUZZ
– The terms ‘green pastures,’ ‘Asia’ and ‘Latin America’ are thrown around like confetti at an Italian wedding in the iGaming business.
o Simply don’t fall into that trap.
– Go do the work. Don’t talk about the best case buzz as an uninformed person that hasn’t spent a minute in that market.
– The world is a big place, but the internet community is small.
– One does not simply ‘go into Asia.’
Final Notes:
Take each market as a snowflake, unique and delicate. Don’t be a cowboy until you understand the new market and culture. Don’t melt that snowflake with heat from a 6-shooter pistol.
Do the research and apply it to find the right balance. Track things and do not be scared to discuss the tracking.
Be data informed, not data driven. It is impossible to be data driven in this situation. If that’s the plan, it will fail unless luck plays a part.
Once you hit that sweet spot, learn to maximize it while not getting overly cagey.
Taking on the trendy sounding ‘international company’ tag is a good tactic and it is fun. Expand your horizons and expand your customer base.
In the next article I will be talking more on going international. I will be getting more granular on some of the workflows to initiate as the pertain to the points above.
Robbie is on Linkdin and twitter. He has successfully run E-commerce sites in over 30 languages and has an abundance of cross-jurisdictional awareness. He has spent over 10 years living abroad and driving international and domestic online marketing and tech projects for award winning companies.
