The gambling industry has shown unprecedented growth over the past 10 years. Thanks to the development of technology and the ubiquity of the Internet, this market attracts tens of millions of people worldwide who are willing to spend money on risky entertainment.
Given the trend towards even faster development, the investment potential of the gambling segment is increasing every day. But what areas exactly do you need to focus on to get the most out of your money? In this article, we will discuss some of the most profitable ways to invest in gambling that allow you to make significant profits in the long run.
What is investing in gambling?
Although many entrepreneurs associate gambling investment with casinos exclusively, this industry covers many more promising areas. In addition to investing in stocks of well-known gambling companies, you can benefit from the sports betting niche, information sites, social media, and even free mobile casino apps. And of course, one of the most profitable ways to invest in gambling is the launch of your own online casino.
Each of these areas has its own features that will dictate the success of your investment. Besides that, you need to understand which recognized companies are really worth your attention in order to increase your chances of returning the money spent with a substantial profit. With this in mind, we have analyzed each of the mentioned ways to invest in gambling in detail and collected useful statistics for you.
Sportsbook apps
Sports betting is one of the most promising areas for your investment. Therefore, you can analyze the major companies that offer users sportsbook apps. These apps are incredibly popular and allow bettors to spend money on bets anytime, anywhere. While profit in the US segment of this market reached more than $2 billion in 2021, the Gabelli Securities report shows that this metric could increase 5 times by 2028.
When it comes to the most notable players in this market, you should take a closer look at the following companies.
Flutter Entertainment
Even if you have never heard of this holding company, you must have come across well-known firms that belong to it. Flutter operates such established sports betting brands as BetEasy, Fanduel, Sky Bet, and several others. On top of that, it owns popular gaming brands like PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. Flutter claims that it already covers over 40% of the US sports betting market and continues to expand. Also, the company’s brands are represented in Italy, the UK, and Ireland.
DraftKings
This American company specializes not only in traditional sports betting but also in the so-called fantasy sports challenges. Its app allows fans to track events in all of the world’s most popular sports leagues, including the NBA, English Premier League, NFL, NASCAR, and several others. In addition, to capture an even larger share of the betting market, DraftKings partnered with the NFL in 2021. Given this, it is fair to say that the company is actively expanding and can recoup your investment in the coming years.
Aside from these companies that focus exclusively on sports betting, you can also check out other players who are planning to expand into this gambling segment. For example, Yahoo has already developed its branded sportsbook in collaboration with MGM. Besides that, the Walt Disney Company has also been monitoring the sports betting industry. The only catch here is that these corporations are dividing their business efforts among other areas, and this approach can affect the growth of their sports betting stocks negatively.
Time-proven gambling companies
Considering that the world is slowly but surely returning to normal life after the pandemic, gambling companies that operate land-based casinos expect a large influx of visitors. Therefore, you have an excellent chance to take advantage of this trend and invest in the stocks of some time-tested company.
MGM Resorts International (MGM)
This firm owns not only the eponymous land-based casino located in Las Vegas but also other popular venues like Bellagio, Mirage, and Delano. According to a Statista report, the company’s profits increased substantially after the fall caused by pandemic restrictions in 2020.
Caesars Entertainment (CZR)
This company also operates dozens of gambling venues in Las Vegas. But more importantly, it has managed to accumulate over $9.5 billion in profits in 2021. The Statista report shows that this figure has surpassed the 2020 results by almost three times.
Other promising companies for your gambling investment include Penn National Gaming (PENN) and Las Vegas Sands (LVS). The first firm operates dozens of betting and gambling establishments across the USA, and the second owns a casino of the same name with one of the highest capitalizations in the world.
Tutorials for online casinos
As online casinos become more and more popular, more and more people are joining the gambling community. Many of these beginners do not understand how gambling establishments work and what features they offer. This fact opens up a promising investment direction for you – gambling tutorials in various formats.
If you decide to take advantage of this opportunity and create your information resource for inexperienced players, you should use all the channels that are available in the current webspace.
Information site
To provide potential customers of online casinos with useful information about their upcoming gambling experience, you can invest in developing an information site. As a rule, such platforms focus on the main criteria of gambling operators’ working flow. These are bonus offers and their wagering requirements, licensing, available game content, payment methods, customer support, and some other aspects.
Educational YouTube channel
Since we live in the age of social media, you should not ignore YouTube as one of the ways to invest in gambling. Modern users like to consume educational content in video format and you can benefit from it too. To draw attention to your informational videos, you can dedicate full reviews of online casinos, interviews with popular gambling personalities, rules descriptions for popular games, reviews of software providers, etc.
TikTok channel
Another significant social channel for your gambling investment is TikTok. Today, it is one of the fastest-growing mobile apps in the world with over 1 billion active monthly users. If you invest your money in creating quality video content that fits into the requirements of this platform, you will be able to attract numerous users who are potential customers for online casinos.
If you manage to generate a considerable audience of users around your gambling-related content, you will be able to return your investment through paid subscription information. On top of that, many licensed gambling operators will want to get recommendations from your experts and put advertisements on your website or social media.
Launching an online casino
Although starting an online casino may seem like the most obvious way to invest in gambling with a tremendous ROI (return of investments), this process has numerous nuances. You will have to spend money on things like:
- License from a trusted regulator;
- Software;
- Integration of game content and payment systems;
- Staff;
- Website development.
Licensing
This step is the most significant in terms of attracting customers as players do not trust gambling platforms that do not have a reliable license. To purchase a license, you must understand in which region you want the online casino to operate. Many countries have state licensing authorities that control the gambling industry. At the same time, some of them allow online casinos to operate on the market under the license of foreign licensing organizations. The most popular regulators in the world include Curacao eGaming Authority, the UK Gambling Commission, and Malta Gaming Authority.
Game content
You can waste your gambling investment if you do not find diverse gaming content for your collection. You should fill your casino’s catalog with games from recognized software providers that can offer you fast integration and timely updates. As for the required categories, you will need:
- Classic casino games (blackjack, baccarat, roulette, poker);
- Hundreds of modern slots;
- Live casino games with experienced dealers, etc.
Without an extensive game library, you will hardly be able to compete with other popular gambling operators.
Payment services
You should also consider that there is no point in investing in a gambling platform if you cannot provide your customers with several reliable payment services. When players have trouble with deposits and withdrawals, they tend to visit thematic forums and share their complaints with other gamblers. This factor can have a significant negative impact on the reputation of your online casino, and potential players will ignore your site instead of registering there.
Free casino app
While opening your online casino is a complex and painstaking process that requires serious investment, a free casino app will make it much easier for you to enter the gambling industry. Such applications target players who want to master a certain game or come to gambling for entertainment purposes only.
To develop your free mobile casino, you will need a development team and reliable software providers. The idea here is to fill the app with games from reputable companies and allow gamblers to play with virtual credits.
The monetization of such an app will revolve around two factors:
- Advertisements that users have to watch to continue playing;
- Selling credits for real money.
Many players enjoy unlocking additional in-game content as their credits increase. And if they lose free credits too fast, they can invest some real money into virtual credit packs to unlock new games faster.
Benefits and disadvantages of gambling investments
| Pros | Cons |
| rapidly growing online gambling market | high competition |
| diverse investment options | complex procedure for launching your online casinos |
| a growing number of potential customers | strict legislative regulation of the industry in many countries |
| relatively short payback period |
Potential risks of gambling investments
Risk assessment is an integral part of any investment regardless of the business. When it comes to gambling, you need to consider the following criteria that can seriously affect the prospects of getting your money back with some sort of profit.
Industry regulation in different countries
Depending on which niche you will direct your investments into, you need to pay attention to the regulatory features of the region in which you will operate. Even though the gambling industry has begun to develop in many European countries and American states, it does not mean that the local government will offer you perfect conditions for growth. In many cases, countries tend to legalize gambling and betting just to supplement the budget through high taxes. So, you need to target those regions that really want to develop their gambling market.
Unbiased assessment of potential profit
Before you choose the way to invest in gambling that suits you best, conduct a thorough analysis of the niche you are interested in. Given the growth tendencies of this business across the globe, many entrepreneurs have already jumped on this “investment train”. Such activity among investors not only shows excellent prospects for the gambling business but also leads to higher expenses.
Bottom line
Considering the rapid development of technology and the decline of the global pandemic, the gambling market is becoming an increasingly promising area for profitable investments. Contrary to popular belief, this industry does not limit your investment opportunities to just launching your own casino. On top of that, you can use your money to buy growing shares of popular sports betting companies, develop your own free casino app, or create information channels about gambling on social media.
The regulation of each of these segments may vary depending on the regions you are targeting. Therefore, you need to analyze the business area you are interested in carefully and assess all potential risks before investing significant money in it.
Read more: Best Gambling Payment Providers
