The many problems of launching a gambling start-up

I remember listening to a webinar billed as “Where is the innovation in betting?” over two years ago, when my dominant sperm had already met my business partner’s fertile egg and we were nurturing Bookee in our collective womb, ready for the birth some months later.

I knew the guy leading the webinar so I thought there would be no harm in listening in – at worst I would hear someone talk about a cool idea that was being released imminently being labeled as “the tinder for betting” and at best this guy might give me some advice.

You do a lot of that at the seed stage. You hope that nobody will beat you to the start line and you try and get advice wherever you can. It turns out I needn’t worry on either front.

There are loads of hurdles to overcome when starting a business: get your pitch right, get your founding team together, get some cash, don’t spend all your cash too quickly, lawyers, accountants, insurance, office space, machinery, so on and so forth. It’s mind boggling and a massive high-five to anyone that’s done it. But that is just a normal business. Gambling comes with an entire new set of “WTFs?”

Underworld

First of all, it’s gambling. People don’t like it. They might all love a flutter but they do it in the shadows. You don’t tend to get a lot of potential investors from outside our dark world who go: “Oh yeah I’m constantly on UnamedRubbishBettingApp and it’s crap; I really get what you’re trying to do.”

Instead you get: “Whilst we understand the concept and see value in it in today’s market, we do not (currently) invest in gaming.” I always admire that (currently) because it basically means if the equivalent of a Snapchat or Facebook emerged, but instead of being a social network it was an app that let you bet with your mind, they’d drop their pants quicker than you can say (currently).

Red tape

So finding the cash is normally harder than other industries. Regulation also makes things fun. The thing with Bookee is that nobody really knew what we were. Gambling? Hmm probably not. Tech? Yep. Marketing? Yep. But then you do the tech in-house right? Yes. So maybe it is gambling? Good. This is a dance we performed basically weekly until quite recently.

The point is that you can’t just ‘open’ a betting firm in the UK (and for good reason, obviously). There are all sorts of insane laws that have been set up that literally only experts can interpret and advise on. When you start a business for the first time, you’re lucky if you’re a lawyer or an accountant or even a doctor, which is great and it will help with contracts or accounts or if someone in your office is dying. But it won’t help with everything. Having an idea is all well and good, but the vastness of the work that needs to be done to support it is quite frankly mental. The good news is, if I can do it, I promise you anyone can.

Hearts and minds

And then…drum roll please…the piece de resistance…MARKETING. How are you going to market Bookee in such a saturated market? Good question, experienced marketing investor, very good question. Let’s say you invent an app for finding the perfect security guard (minder?) you probably won’t have that much competition, at least at the early stage.

But betting is quite simply a joke. Money is poured in from funds amassed outside of the UK and the UK public lap it up, whether it be the free bets or the celebrity endorsement or straight-up cash in an envelope through your postbox – this market is packed. FULL! Not quite.

There are upsides to businesses operating outside of the UK – most of them are not that in touch with the UK itself, so end up massively missing the marker when talking to their audience – the downside is that even if you do hit a marketing winner, they’ll just copy you and pour in more money. Goody!

So three key obstacles to overcome if you’re a betting start-up from someone who is currently breathing it, albeit somewhat wheezily at times. There’s a pretty good reason why there is not too much innovation knocking about in gaming and when it does come along, it often dies. But don’t be put off current or future entrepreneurs! There are paths to success (if/when you do find them, please point me in the right direction).

If you are genuinely interested in breeding or nurturing innovation, then listen to those with the ideas, and advise them on the real hurdles that will come, not the obvious ones, they should know them already.

Now, go forth and multiply!

After co-founding the award winning mobile-first betting app Bookee two years ago, Adam Wilson now focuses on the product and business development areas of the fast-moving start-up