How to choose a game aggregator for your online casino business.
What is Game Aggregation?
The game aggregator allows you to connect hundreds of software providers and thousands of games with just one integration to your online casino.
You can be fully integrated within a few days.
You can compare it to a shopping mall where hundreds of different brands offer their products. This is a great way to attract and engage people in shopping mode.
This service is also great for customers – they can save a lot of time by visiting just one place instead of spending a whole day searching for the right pair of shoes.
That’s exactly what game aggregation is for:
- It allows operators to discover hundreds of software providers and connect with one easy integration, saving time and money.
- This allows operators to learn about new software providers, test their games, and expand their offerings, which can lead to higher customer retention.
Should you use a game aggregator for your online casino?
That depends on what resources you have, how much time you want to invest, and what partnerships you have.
Many online casino platform providers also offer aggregation services and they will force you to use them. This is a way for the company to make an extra profit when you start generating GGR.
The integration process is different for each aggregator, so this is also a way for the integration team to streamline the process and reduce costs. It would take much more time to integrate different gaming aggregators every time.
That’s exactly what game aggregation is for:
- It allows operators to discover hundreds of software providers and connect with one easy integration, saving time and money.
- This allows operators to learn about new software providers, test their games, and expand their offerings, which can lead to higher customer retention.
There are dozens of game aggregators on the market and each one claims to be the best. But is that really the case?
What are the disadvantages of using a game aggregator?
There are some serious disadvantages to using game aggregators.
Latency is always higher with aggregators
Which means your games can load slower. This is a bigger problem with sports betting, where every second counts, but it can also be a big problem for online casinos if they decide to work with gaming aggregators whose servers are located in Europe but are supposed to serve the Latin American market. This can have a negative impact on the user experience and your customers may prefer a casino that has a faster connection.
Many software providers offer different incentives to operators
You might get a more attractive revenue share if you reach a certain GGR. Seasonal promotional materials and other gaming content can be easily accessed from the client area. All these benefits may not be available if you work through an aggregator.
The bonus system can be another problem
When different software providers offer free spins or other bonuses for some of their online casino games, it’s difficult for an aggregator to always keep up with the changes. Especially when the software providers offer seasonal bonuses.
Keep an eye on your Data
Imagine someone wins a large sum of money at your online casino. You have to rely on the aggregators and their goodwill to investigate the situation. Even though many of them do their job well (otherwise aggregators wouldn’t be so successful), direct integration with software providers allows you to have all the data at your fingertips. You can easily check which game was lost and when, and retrieve other important information for your risk management.
Maintenance
It may happen that your game aggregator decides to perform a major maintenance on all systems. In this case, all your games will be unavailable. If you get hacked, it’ll lead to similar results.
The offer
Since the only way for the game aggregator to make money is by adding some points on top of the revenue share that the software providers give, the offer you can get from the aggregators is often worse. This isn’t always the case, because aggregators can get a big discount based on the cumulative GGR they generate for software providers.
Not all software providers decide to work with aggregators
The larger the software provider is, the more likely they’re only to allow direct integration. Example – Playtech recently made a strategic decision not to accept new aggregators. Only existing partners have the opportunity to offer their games.
What are the advantages of working with a game aggregator?
Despite all the disadvantages, most online casino operators choose to cooperate with game provider aggregators. And here’s why:
The KYC
“Know Your Customer” process of working directly with software providers can be intimidating. They require a lot of documents. With aggregators, the KYC process is simpler, which attracts many entrepreneurs.
The amount of work required to integrate an API can be quite high
Costing you around two thousand euros per integration. Now multiply that number by thirty software providers you might want to have. That’s an additional sixty thousand euros that startups would be better off investing in marketing.
Up-to-date integrations
Every reputable game aggregator has a partnership team that is constantly working to integrate new game content. And since there are more software providers than ever before, it’s their job to evaluate every opportunity and sign only a few that add value to operators. More than eighty percent are rejected. This is a great way to expand your range of casino games without having to deal with every new brand.
Putting together a package of thirty software providers takes a lot of legwork
KYC, agreements, negotiations, and integration can easily take a year or more. So if you want to get started quickly and offer a decent number of casino games to your customers, a casino games aggregator is a good choice.
As a startup, should you work with a casino games aggregator?
In practice, there are hundreds of successful online casinos that work with aggregators.
1xbet, parimatch, mostbet, just to name a few
This is a cost-effective solution for startups. It allows you to get all the popular video slots, and titles for different markets without any industry knowledge.
It’s also worth noting that we work with many companies that have gone a long way towards developing their own online casino platform. These teams are usually well-funded and can invest both time, expertise and money to integrate directly with game providers.
For someone who is just starting out and wants quick results, we’d advise starting with a casino game aggregator.
Work your way up to generating enough GGR to then invest in direct integration and give yourself a competitive advantage. If your online casino platform allows it.
Checklist. The most important points you should consider when choosing a gaming aggregator
Make sure that the game aggregator you want to work with has an impressive portfolio of all software providers for your market.
This includes the two most popular titles – Pragmatic play and Evolution. This may differ to some extent.
For many bureaucratic reasons, many aggregators may not have access to the largest software developers in various markets
- Ask to be shown the backend and check all the features that the game aggregator offers. This is the biggest thing, because it takes a lot of effort to keep up with all the game providers and provide all the features that the operators need.If you see that the backend is full of game content and features that are updated regularly, that’s a good sign.
- Find out where the servers are located to avoid high latency issues. Your players will appreciate that.
- Make sure that your game aggregator offers 24/7 support. You want issues to be resolved quickly when they arise. Time zone differences can play a big role here. If something happens and your market is Latin America, but you’re working with an aggregator from Europe, you want someone to be reasonably knowledgeable, even if it’s nighttime.
The deal you get is most likely the setup fee, the minimum fee, and the revenue share.
Now you know enough to understand that it’s almost impossible to get the best of everything. Most likely, you’ll get what you pay for, so calculate smartly and don’t hunt for the cheapest offer.
Think long term and choose an offer that adds value to your business.
