The top 10 countries to consider investing in for new igaming brands or market diversification

The desire and requirement to expand internationally for igaming brands has been growing for many years. However, over the last eight months, the need has started to fuel a lot of established brands to consider bringing plans forward.

The appeal of a new country is simple. For established brands, a new country means new players, but it is important to remember that with every new territory comes the cost and expense of gaming licences and adapting your business model to the localised laws. With that, making the decision to expand can be risky without the proper insight and a clear market strategy.

At Blueclaw, we’ve been monitoring search interest closely for years and use tools like Google Trends, SEMRush, Ahrefs and SEO Monitor to closely track and understand shifts in the market. During the UK’s Covid-19 lockdown, we’ve discovered a new use for it; understanding changes in search trends to identify the best countries to launch a campaign in.

In our latest blog post, we used Google trend data to obtain the average interest in four key “topics” related to online gambling. In Google Trends, “topics” group together translations and meanings from many languages under a single heading, so it is great for understanding perception worldwide.

The post concludes with an overall top 10 countries to target based on rising or increased trend data around all four topics, and the results can be seen below.

The top five countries to consider setting up an online casino in 2020

1.      Argentina – 20.5 point increase against last four years

As with any business venture, increased interest doesn’t necessarily mean a sure thing. Despite the city of Buenos Aires passing legislation in 2019 to allow the opening of the online gambling market, the regulatory process to obtain operators has been halted in May this year.

With 79 land-based casinos throughout the country, it is only a matter of time before the flood gates open and with a well-established user base, Argentina will be well worth the risk, especially if search interest in online gambling facilities is anything to go by.

2.      Canada – 20.25 point increase against last four years

Coming in a very close second is the golden goose of North America. Canada appeared in the top six of three out of four topics (it was 10^th for bingo, obviously not a big trend in Canada). While it’s currently illegal to operate an online casino from within Canada, Canadians are still able to play offshore and it is unsurprising that interest and competition has been steadily increasing. The SERPs are certainly getting increasingly competitive, but as the market has continued to be established and earn brand loyalty it has become increasingly worth the investment.

3.      New Zealand – 18.25 point increase against last four years

With a set-up similar to Canada, online sportsbook and online casinos have been popular in New Zealand for years. However, during the Covid-19 lockdown both casino and poker saw huge spikes of interest as a result of sports no longer playing.

This might not be one to capitalise on for a brand not already established in the country, but the short-term lift in the UK has certainly turned into a strong year-on-year upward trend on poker alone.

4.      United States – 16.25 point increase against last four years

As complicated situations go, the US presents one of the more complicated set-ups. With state-by-state legislation all at different stages, it takes a careful approach to gain traction within the country. However, once the laws are clearly understood, there is a lot of opportunity in progressive states and those that are working through their agenda to regulate and launch in the near future.

5.      Chile – 16.25 point increase against the last four years

In a complete opposite move to neighbour Argentina, Chile approved online gambling in June 2020 in a bid to offset the damage created by closure in the global pandemic. In particular, online casino and online bingo were two of the biggest drivers of interest based on our analysis.

Although the initial legislation appears to only cover “remote gaming” platforms for land-based casinos already operating in Chile, it is a huge shift in the right direction and if the interest and demand for it continues to increase, this could be one to watch very closely.

Search trends are a great way of narrowing options, with Google Trends providing the ability to take into account a topic regardless of language barriers, which can be used as a powerful tool to inform decisions. Clearly, Blueclaw Media Ltd isn’t an expert in countrywide gambling legislation, but interest in a market often translates into increasing awareness, better demand and a developing or evolving market.

Rachael Sammut is the marketing consultant at Blueclaw Media Ltd. With over 13 years of experience working with industry leading brands in the igaming sector, Sammut and the Blueclaw team specialise in SEO, PPC, content marketing and digital PR, and are committed to providing competitive strategies to assist at any budget.