New Report Unveils Top Client Acquisition Strategies for iGaming Startups

In a new report, emerging gambling start-ups have shared their strategies for acquiring their first customers.

Industry investor Waterhouse VC engaged with a spectrum of iGaming companies, both B2C and B2B, to unearth the most effective ways to build momentum at the early stages of a company’s lifecycle.

“High-touch customer engagement emerged as the clear front-runner,” says Tom Waterhouse, Chief Investment Officer at Waterhouse VC. “It reinforces the idea that in the early stages, doing things that don’t easily scale can be the key to building a solid customer base.”

According to the founders surveyed, actively involving customers in the development of the product will encourage word-of-mouth marketing by delighting your existing customers and turning them into advocates for your brand.

Incentivizing early adopters came in as the second most popular tactic, highlighting the significance of immediate customer rewards and recognition.

Summary of tactics employed by the iGaming start-ups surveyed. Image: Waterhouse VC

A notable trend observed in the study indicates that B2B start-ups typically concentrated on one or two strategies, in contrast to B2C start-ups which tended to adopt two to three approaches. For instance, Shuffle, an online cryptocurrency casino, led the way for B2C start-ups by employing four distinct tactics to achieve their initial growth.

Ishan Haque from Shuffle describes their novel approach: “Instead of participating in traditional acquisition channels like streaming or traditional affiliate marketing, we recognized our edge in finding influencers with a small following, but that following consisted of 1000 true fans.”

“These fans wouldn’t interact with these influencers by clicking “like” on their posts or watching a stream for 30 minutes; rather, they would be in a group chat with the influencer, talking directly to them, 24/7. This proved to us that an influencer with 10,000 “true fans” would bring us more revenue than someone with 1,000,000 followers.”

Dublin-based ‘speak-to-bet’ technology company Voxbet focused on offering incentives, in the form of exclusivity, as a way to acquire their first customers.

Jonathan Power, Founder & CEO, remarks, “Typically, we have used exclusivity as the reward for an early adopter. I think this is now more important than ever because if you look at innovation over the last 15 years – betting in-running, cash out and bet builders – in each case once 1 operator proved demand every operator copied within months.”

Then there is the tried and true tactic of leveraging your network to build momentum in a business. According to Clyde Harris, Co-Founder of product and technology consultancy Circle Squared, an existing network can be a valuable source of referrals and introductions to potential customers. “Further deepening and strengthening these connections has enabled us to sign strategic partnerships with organizations where our offerings complement each other but do not overlap”, Harris explained. “This in turn has brought in new customers directly as well as raising our profile within the industry.”

Tom Waterhouse further comments, “The absence of paid advertising in these early stages reflects a strategic shift towards more organic and relationship-driven growth methods.”

“It’s a reminder that understanding your audience and directly engaging with them is a precursor to scaling acquisition through paid channels.”

The full report with every tactic can be found on the Waterhouse VC website.