Social Media Tracker: How brands can best manage their expansion into new jurisdictions

As more countries and jurisdictions around the world legalise and regulate gambling, it is vital that such expansions take the needs of local players into consideration. It is often not enough for a pre-existing brand to move into a new jurisdiction and expect to pick up players, no matter how successful they might be.

What steps can we see brands take to achieve a level of localisation in these new operations, and why are these actions so important? Let’s take a look at why it is vital that brands create these local materials, and how they can use them to build a reputation and presence in their new market.

Why is language support important?

When launching and expanding to a new country, a brand must consider including language support for their new customers. Many brands will use English as their lingua franca both for their website, marketing and other communications. English is the most popular language on the internet, with approximately 25.9% of internet browsers making use of this language over others.

If a brand launches in an English-speaking jurisdiction, this is obviously not going to be a problem. However, it does become an issue if a brand was to launch in an area that uses other languages over English, or even has a high population of non-English speakers.

Studies have shown that over 87% of non-English speaking customers won’t engage with sites that are available only in English. If igaming brands were to only use English, they would potentially miss a large part of the population that they wish to target with their expansion – simply because they are not offering the language support that these players want to see.

Being able to offer language support native to that of the new jurisdiction is key. It helps to establish trust and increase brand loyalty for the brand, while also ensuring that potential new players are not turned away simply because they cannot understand the site.

Why is a new site important?

A brand will already have a good website with great engagement, so why should they have to create a new set of pages just because they are in a new jurisdiction? There are several reasons to do so.

The first might be to implement language support, as detailed above. This can be done through the creation of a new site, or it could be by creating translated pages of the original site that are accessible through the existing domain.

However, there are many benefits to creating a new site with a country code TLD that matches the jurisdiction that the brand is expanding to. Firstly, ccTLDs allows a brand to target traffic from that specific country. A brand that wanted to target British players should consider using .co.uk, while one expanding to Germany should set up a site with the .de ccTLD.

This move is fantastic for local SEO and will help a brand to increase their rankings for country-based results. In addition to this, local domains and ccTLDs help give the site more credibility, especially if the site is then available in that country’s local language. Some countries have strict regulations regarding who can purchase and use their country code domain. Should an igaming brand be able to meet these standards, it will show that they are a trustworthy brand worthy of the attention of potential customers.

Case study: Betway

Germany has recently undergone a major overhaul of its online gaming regulations, allowing slots and poker to be accessed online. As a result, there have been many brands, both already offering sports betting within Germany and those newly launching, who have been implementing the above actions to boost their operations here.

A great example can be found in Betway. Through its site, it offers many different types of sports betting. The German site is available in the German language and carries the .de ccTLD. These are both indicators that Betway is serious about creating a great platform that their German customers can use intuitively.

In addition to this, the brand has been creating partnerships and marketing strategies to build familiarity with their potential German client base. It has worked with Munich advertising agency David+Munich to create a new campaign to expand its presence in light of the new German changes. It has also become the lead betting partner of the Bundesliga teams Schalke 04, VFB Stuttgart, and Eintracht Frankfurt.

All of these actions will help to raise Betway’s profile within the German market for sports betting. When the time comes to launch its online casino in Germany, it will be with the confidence and understanding of the transformed German market, and a pre-existing customer base that trusts the brand.

Language and local support can work wonders for any brand that wishes to launch in a new jurisdiction. It is vital that marketing materials and websites are adjusted to meet the expectations of the new brands, even if that means translating them into a new language. No two countries are alike – even if they are neighbours – and so operators need to treat them as distinct individuals when they wish to begin operations there.

Sharon McFarlane is the managing director of Digital Footprints – a digital marketing agency that specialises in igaming. She has eight years’ experience in the industry and has contributed regularly to industry magazines and conferences sharing her expertise on all things digital marketing. Her company offers an outsourced solution for igaming businesses when it comes to content marketing, social media, UX design, website design, branding and conversion rate optimisation.