As some of you may know, the online casino industry in the Netherlands is opening its gates for reputable casino providers that want to bring Dutch players new opportunities to enjoy their favorite games. The Dutch Remote Gambling Act, or KOA for short, was set to implement in July last year, but it got pushed back twice and entered into effect this month.
As of now, the Kansspelautoriteit (KAS) expects about 40 gambling companies to file for a license in the following months, with at least 35 of them being almost certain they will get a chance to enter the market. This will turn the Dutch gambling market into one of the biggest in Europe, with some expecting to even surpass Germany, another EU country that is working towards regulating its online gambling market this year.
Dutch players will be able to play at a regulated online casino in their country starting this Fall, so there is plenty of time for casinos to prepare for their big launch.
The Dutch market will undoubtedly be a very competitive one, so any gambling company wanting to start their business in the country is going to have to provide a stellar experience if they want players to choose them over the others. If this is your plan, but you don’t know where to start, you have come to the right place!
Below, we are listing a number of tips on how to open an online casino, focused on the Dutch market and the expectations of gamblers in the country. So, without further ado, this is what you should take into consideration if you want to enter the Netherlands’ casino market.
Conduct research to find out what Dutch players like
One of the main reasons people turn to online casinos is because of the huge library of games that these platforms offer. This is why, if you want to get ahead of your competitors, you need to make sure you provide games they are going to enjoy playing. Still, bringing in each and every game you can possibly acquire is going to be costly, and your website will end up requiring huge hosting efforts, which is going to add to the costs as well.
Before you start developing your website, start conducting market research to find out what players in the Netherlands like to spend their time on. There are multiple ways to do this, so make sure you explore all your opportunities.
While the Dutch online casino market is still in its infancy, we have managed to find a bit of data on player preferences. In a recent survey, an informational hub that focuses its activity on online gambling reveals the majority of respondents (38%) like to play roulette, with blackjack following as the preferred game for 31% of those surveyed. Slots come in third, being the go-to type of game for 25% of players.
These three types of games seem to be the ones Dutch players focus on, so you may want to take this into account when researching what games to bring to your platform.
Factor in all the potential costs
We are not going to sugarcoat it: opening an online casino requires money; quite a lot of them. Still, this does not make it impossible to start your business on the right track. If you need motivation, we recommend you look into the artist that became a casino entrepreneur and now runs both a famous platform and an impressive art gallery. He is proof that if you want something with all your heart, you can achieve it.
Going back to costs, you will need to factor in a lot of aspects that require your money, including:
- Getting a license: the costs of getting a license for opening an online casino in the Netherlands are not fixed and may depend on factors such as the number of owners and the type of company you plan to open, but application fees won’t go under a total of €150,000.
- Developing and hosting the website: if you factor in the costs of design, development, and hosting, you can expect your platform to cost anywhere between €2,000 and €10,000, or even more.
- Software costs: you will need to populate your online casino with games, and while some of the most commonly found games are not as expensive to acquire, if you want unique games, you will need to buy a development package that can end up costing you more than €100,000.
- Marketing costs: especially in a market as new as the Dutch one is, you will need to invest a lot in your marketing efforts to get them to pay off. Expect to take out about €1,000 every year for marketing expenses.
Invest in the right type of gambling software
Gambling software is quite expensive, as we mentioned above because developers know the casino industry is a very profitable one. Still, investing in these aspects and choosing services such as Codeworker will improve your casino conversion and make it worth your pennies. When you first start your website, you are going to need at least three types of software to run a reputable platform:
- Platform software: this is, put simply, the foundation that englobes all the elements your casino is built upon. It should be designed to help owners easily manage the platform, administer accounts, and edit certain aspects when necessary. This is, in simpler words, your entire website, inside and out.
- Slot machines: if you want to attract players, you need games, and you need plenty of them. Slot machines are sold as scripts, which are then integrated into the source code of your website. These scrips are usually sold as packages, which include the software and gaming systems, but some developers also offer them individually.
- Payment options: casinos want their users to be engaged and play games frequently, and to do so, players need fast and reliable ways to deposit and withdraw money. While it may sound like a big investment at first, we recommend you include as many payment systems as possible, including crypto, to give players as many options as possible.