In this interview with CalvinAyre.com’s Stephanie Raquel, Vin Narayanan of Vinistic Gaming offers some tips on launching an online gambling business in Asia.
Asia remains an economic bright spot despite widespread concerns of growing protectionism, a rapidly aging society, and slow productivity growth.
In a regional assessment issued last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated the growth of the region will increase by 5.5 percent this year versus the 5.3 percent growth it experienced in 2016.
The positive outlook of Asian countries is driving many online gambling operators to expand in the region, which makes up 60 percent of the world’s population.
Vin Narayanan of Vinistic Gaming, however, pointed out that launching an online gambling business in Asia is easier said than done. He said that operators need to figure out what they want to do before starting a business in the region.
“The ecosystem is complicated because there are lots of moving pieces. You’ve got to have a gaming provider. You’ve got to have a platform provider. You’ve got to get a payment processor. You’ve got to get customer support. You’ve got to get affiliate marketers. You have to get someone who will do fraud. When you take all these pieces together, there’s a lot of work that needs to get done,” Narayanan told CalvinAyre.com. There’s no such thing as a turn-key solution. You can’t just walk in the door, flip the switch, and start making money. You actually have to go through an education process.
There are key questions, according to Narayanan, that online gambling operators need to answer if they want to do businesses in Asia. These questions include: What are the missing pieces in the equation? How much time I’m going to spend on customer help?
Narayanan also emphasizes the need for operators to educate themselves with the basic processes and culture of each Asian country.
“On the regulatory standpoint, you have to understand that regulations are changing. The regulations in the Philippines, for example, are changing so people are still figuring out how that’s going to work,” Narayanan said. “There’s some due diligence in there and there’s also still some wait-and-see because we are still in the process of figuring that out.”
