This is a guest contribution by Carl of Casinomir.com. If you would like to submit a contribution please contact Bill Beatty for submission details. Thank you.
Scandinavian countries, together with the United Kingdom, have been among the front-runners when it comes to the rapid development of the online gaming market. Despite the fact that a big part of the population of the Scandinavian countries participate in online gaming activities such as casino, poker and sports betting, national laws are still playing catch-up as old legislations are not up to date with today’s online environment.
After Denmark regulating their national online gaming market several years ago, Sweden is now the next one in line with a proposal of a national regulation that includes government tax for online gaming. Norway and Finland are also expected to follow the same path at some point over the next decade. With the new laws and legislations, there will be both benefits and drawbacks for actors in those markets.
With the tax implication, we are likely to see both consolidation and elimination when it comes to operators and affiliates. Profit and margins will become smaller, which means running smaller operation might not be as profitable as it has been historically. This, combined with one of the fiercest competition in the world, means that the prospect for organic SEO affiliates within online gaming in Scandinavia might become worse over the next couple of years. So what are the options in order to move away from this to a better landscape?
Many affiliates have looked into other marketing channels when it comes to generating revenue over the last couple of years. Pay-per-click, email, SMS and even advertising are more common methods for affiliate marketing today. Social media have also grown more and more, with more tools and options available to monetize big crowds of followers nowadays. In addition to the new market sources, another option for the Scandinavian affiliates would be to look at other geographic markets to create new opportunities for themselves.
Aside from the tough competition in Sweden and other Nordic countries, there are still many emerging markets that affiliates and operators are looking into. Regions like Asia, South America and Africa are still far behind when it comes to penetration of online gaming. Whereas law will stop players in some countries to enjoy online gaming, there are also other markets that are just simply behind when it comes to technological development and online gaming behaviour.
One of the affiliate companies that have looked into this option are the founders of Casinomir. “Since day one we have always tried to build our business in a scalable structure, in order to cover more regional and national markets,” says Christian Skoglund, one of the two founders of the company.
Armed with a background in IT, Christian teamed up with childhood friend Carl Ahlvik, who had experience working in the iGaming business, to create the next generation of online gaming affiliate websites.
One of the main pillars of building a structure that can cover many markets are to minimize the manual work behind sites, which is something Casinomir is trying to prevent by developing its own backend and CMS system that will handle more sites efficiently. Content creation and translation are key to have relevant and well-written content, but they are also among the few things that can’t be automated when it comes to online gaming affiliates, Skoglund said. To solve this, affiliates can either outsource this part of the operation or hire people with knowledge of the domestic language.
With language being one of the few things that stands in the way for expansion into other markets for Scandinavian affiliates, we are likely to see more of them trying new waters over the next couple of years as well as trying other options when it comes to marketing channels on their own domestic markets. Exactly how the new legislation and tax will affect the Scandinavian market environment is too early to say, but the fact that it will have influence is almost certain. Both operators and affiliates will have to change their strategies in order to adapt, and it will be interesting to follow the development in this ever-changing business called online gaming.
About the author:
Carl Ahlvik is an online gaming entrepreneur and full-time affiliate. He has got a economics degree from Uppsala University, where he wrote his thesis about online gaming regulations. Carl can be contacted at http://Casinomir.com
