What players see once they open the site, what steps they need to go through in order to sign up and make a deposit, which bonuses they are offered, which games they see and how long it takes to withdraw their winnings, and whether live chat support helps quickly and effectively - all these factors decide whether a casino becomes a player’s favorite or not. Let’s have a closer look at each of the factors to help operators avoid some pitfalls which can easily turn players away from the casino.
1. Design
Being the face of the casino, design welcomes the users and makes their first impression of the casino. Shall it be something out-of-the-ordinary to impress and stay in the memory or shall it rather be standard and typical for an online casino? This is a big question. While many casino players have a clear image of an online casino website and feel more comfortable in the traditionally designed space, others appreciate innovation and a smart look.
So it’s up to the operator to decide whether to use the good and proven template design or create a completely new cutting-edge look to surprise the players. But whichever option is chosen, make sure to observe some general rules of casino website design, and the keyword here is user-friendly:
a) The website and the games shall load quickly from whatever region they are accessed.
b) Sign up / sign in and deposit action buttons shall be noticeable and displayed more than once on the home page.
c) To guarantee better conversion rates, the registration process itself shall be as easy as possible.
d) Games shall be easy to navigate through. A nice example is Oshi.io which allows advanced sorting by the provider, game type, character and theme group, ease of play, game popularity and intensity, etc.
e) The home page shall display various interactive widgets, such as the leaderboard showing top winners, the jackpot growing in real-time, etc. This communicates that the online casino is "alive" and other players are getting lucky right at this moment.
f) Mobile-friendly means user-friendly. Players must be able to access the casino from any mobile device and get an equally smooth gaming experience from their computers.
g) The home page shall display all licenses, certifications, and important partnerships that a casino boasts because this helps communicate trust and reputation, which is what most players closely look at.
2. Choice of Games
Even if every casino has its set of most popular casino games which make the biggest part of the casino profit and this set may seem sufficient, players still appreciate the choice. The more games a casino can offer, the bigger the audience it is able to cover.
Ideally, you need to have some well-known game providers like NetEnt and Amatic, some live leader content like Evolution Gaming, and some fresh, innovative content, e.g. Endorphina or Pragmatic Play. Finally, games from the world's best gaming software developers show that a casino has partnered with the industry leaders, and that adds to the reputation.
3. Variety of Payment Options
Just like with the games, players need to have a choice of payment options, so the more you offer, the more deposits you get. The mix of available payment methods strongly depends on the regions the casino is targeting.
4. Easy Withdrawals
A factor of critical importance. The less time and paperwork it takes to withdraw the winnings, the more loyal your customers will be. Any player would rather play at a casino that can withdraw his winnings within 10-20 minutes without any hassle, rather than at a casino that asks for a lot of additional documents without clear reasons or simply delays payments for days.
With this said, standard withdrawal procedures such as checks of personal documents (Know-Your-Customer checks) shall not be neglected, because we don’t want any possibility of fraud here. This is why your customer support and compliance teams should be as responsive and as fast as possible.
5. Live Chat Support
Effective and friendly front-line support is one of the main reasons players return to an online casino again and again. It is of great importance to have 24/7 client-managed service to answer any question and solve any issue in the most amicable way possible. Make sure that your support managers answer live chat inquiries within 60-90 seconds and are quick to offer the solution even in the trickiest situations and to the most demanding players.
6. Bonuses and Promotions
There is no casino without bonuses and free spins. The more generous and versatile promotions you offer, the happier your users are. Tip: always display your most attractive bonus offers on the homepage with the links to the registration and deposit pages.
7. Acceptance of Cryptocurrencies
We added this extra factor to reach the lucky number 7. On a serious note, with the growing popularity of Bitcoin, the ability to accept deposits in cryptocurrencies is almost a must for any online casino which wants to be at the forefront of the industry. For players websites working with Bitcoin are associated with innovation, a higher degree of privacy, and much faster payment processing time.
Conclusion
As clear and evident as all of the above success factors may seem, not all online casinos have the full set to go with. All the factors are equally important (well, quick withdrawals and great customer support prove to be more crucial for avid players), while failing to be consistently up-to-par on most of them may seriously damage the reputation and "likeability" of an online casino website.
This is a lot of work to do, from creating the high-end design to building a professional support team, and the casino operator alone cannot possess complete expertise in all of the spheres. Nor does he need to, as long as there are people who specialize in different areas of iGaming and can provide professional support in each narrow segment.
So, you could let your casino software provider care at least about the web design, the choice of games, and the support of payment methods. See if you can outsource client support in order to avoid employment and training hassle. Unless you are a marketing expert yourself, get professional consulting in casino promotions and player acquisition, and get the best pros to do SEO for your website. Don’t rely on your own skills only but learn from those who have already achieved success in the industry and see how the mutual efforts bring your website to the top positions in online casino rankings.
You can also read how to start an online casino with SOFTSWISS software.
