#31: Stop Burning Money

Right now, somewhere in the iGaming industry, a company is making one of the most common yet costly mistakes: launching their brand without proper market understanding. They'll spend tens of thousands of dollars driving traffic and promoting products while making mistakes that could have been easily avoided with proper research. This isn't speculation—it's a pattern I've witnessed repeatedly across markets.

Market research in iGaming is one of the most undervalued techniques available to operators. Yet most companies would rather start driving traffic and launching brands without proper understanding of their markets or even basic product localisation. They'll burn through marketing budgets, making mistakes that could have been avoided with proper market research.

Understanding the Market Reality

The first step in any successful market research initiative is setting clear objectives. This might sound obvious, but it's a step many skip in their rush to gather data. You need to understand what you want to achieve: Are you exploring a new market? Understanding player behaviour? Analysing competition? Each goal requires a different research approach.

But objective-setting is just the beginning. The real challenge lies in collecting and analysing the right data from the right sources. This isn't about gathering every piece of available information—remember, getting too much data without a clear strategy on how to understand and use it leads to wasted time. 

The Four Pillars of Market Research

Through years of experience in the industry, I've identified four crucial elements that form the foundation of effective market research in iGaming:

1. Market Landscape: This is about identifying market trends and understanding player behaviour. You need to grasp the dynamics of market shares and how they shift over time. Without this understanding, you risk completely misaligning with market realities.

2. Consumer Insight: This goes beyond basic demographics. It's about understanding consumer preferences, spending habits, game engagement patterns, and how to build effective communication with your players. What content should you prioritise? How should you structure your site? These decisions should be driven by deep consumer understanding.

3. Competitive Analysis: While this might be the easiest part to execute, it requires more than surface-level observation. You need to understand strategies, competitive product offerings, and market positioning. What are your competitors doing? How big are their market shares? How are these shares changing over time?

4. Regulatory Impact: This might be the most critical element of all. Some markets, like Kenya—my favourite example—can effectively die overnight with the wrong regulatory decisions. You need to understand not just current regulations, but how they've influenced markets and might change in the future.

Real-Time Analytics: The Missing Piece

One of the most common mistakes I see is companies treating data analysis as a periodic exercise. Some operators tell me they analyse their data once every five or seven days. In today's fast-moving market, that's simply not enough. You need a data department looking at your metrics and understanding the health of your business in real time.

This is where modern technology comes into play. We now have tools that allow us to process terabytes of data in real-time. This isn't just about having access to data—it's about having the capability to understand market shifts and adjust your strategy based on that data immediately. Because sometimes, no matter how much you invest, if the market is declining and regulatory pressures are pushing you out, it just doesn't make sense to continue.

Turning Research Into Action

The value of market research lies in how you translate data into actionable insights and strategies for your product, marketing, and customer retention. This isn't a theoretical exercise—it's about making concrete decisions that affect your business outcomes.

Take channel selection, for instance. Your market research should tell you exactly which platforms your target audience uses most frequently. Is it Google? Facebook? Affiliate networks? Programmatic ads? The data should guide not just where you spend, but how much you allocate to each channel, and when you deploy your campaigns.

Consider demographics as a crucial example. I remember a conversation with colleagues from Germany a few years ago who noticed that the percentage of women in the casino segment was growing dramatically. Yet today, some operators still aren't targeting women at all—they're stuck with the old assumption of "male, 18 years plus." This is exactly the kind of market shift that proper research helps you identify and act upon.

The Technology Evolution

We're seeing one of the most monumental shifts in consumer behaviour in recent years, and businesses need to adapt accordingly. The iGaming industry, however, is still relatively outdated. Many companies are still using old-school PDFs and Excel sheets, working with formats and insights that haven't evolved with the times.

This is where AI and machine learning come in. These aren't just buzzwords—they're tools that increase your chances of understanding and predicting player behaviour and optimising your marketing efforts. Yet many companies aren't utilising AI well enough. It's one of your cheapest paths to operational excellence, allowing you to not just replace manual work but empower your team to do their jobs better.

Continuous Monitoring: The Key to Success

Market research isn't a one-time exercise—it needs to be continuous. You should be updating your research at least quarterly, preferably monthly, especially in growing markets. This helps you keep up with:

- Changing trends in the markets

- Player behavioral shifts

- New games and their impact

- Regulatory changes

- Competition changes, including new brand entries

- Emerging technologies and platforms

Additionally, you must perform pre-campaign assessments before launching any major marketing initiative. This might seem like extra work, but it's far less costly than launching campaigns based on outdated or incorrect assumptions.

The Path Forward

The future of iGaming belongs to companies that can make data-driven decisions quickly and effectively. As the industry becomes more competitive, relying on real-time data for informed decision-making isn't just an advantage—it's a necessity.

The question isn't whether you can afford to invest in proper market research. The real question is: can you afford not to? In an industry where market dynamics can shift overnight, your ability to understand and respond to these changes isn't just another business function—it's your survival tool.

The tools are there (Cheeky shoutout to Blask). The data is available. The only question remaining is: are you ready to turn market research from a checkbox exercise into your competitive advantage?