The BeFund team has extensive experience in iGaming development in general and gambling project development in particular. Quite often, people ask us: “How much does it cost to develop a casino?” with the hope that they can get simple answers, for example: “Twenty will be enough” or “A hundred thousand will be just right”. In fact, to say something like that is extremely unprofessional, because developing an online casino is an extremely complex, multi-level and large-scale process, where all tasks are interconnected. “More expensive” here does not always mean “better”, although “cheaper” will almost always lead to problems and losses. In this article, we will try to briefly describe an MVP project with a budget of $50K, which is average for this niche, but allows you to create all the necessary tools and infrastructure in a high-quality way. Please note that we are only talking about development without marketing and product promotion, and we also do not take into account legal aspects – purely an online casino as a technological product.
What is an online casino from a technical point of view?
For online casino users, this is a page on the web or in an application window where you can experience success, feel the excitement, play the game and get a real win. Everything is clear here. However, from the point of view of development, all this is unnecessary lyricism, since any casino is a loaded IT product with implemented real-time logic, where speed and data security are extremely important.
Today, there are many offers of ready-made (White-label) or almost ready-made projects, where you can make a minimum of custom solutions (your own design, in-house games) and immediately enter the market. Well, such a solution has the right to life, but you should remember: no one will guarantee you complete security, so you should be prepared that at any moment your casino and profit will not be yours. And this is not a conspiracy theory – this is business, and a very tough one at that.
The Turn Key solution, when the entire project is developed from scratch under the total control of the customer, is the safest, but it costs a lot of money and, moreover, is long in time – 12-18 months, as opposed to White-label, which is deployed in six months at most. So the optimal solution may be a hybrid: development from scratch, using a ready-made API of complex processes from proven providers. This is how the BeFund team developed the vast majority of casino projects and, by the way, all parties were satisfied with this approach.
Development stages
After defining the project architecture, you should move on to planning. We identify seven main, in our opinion, stages that involve creating an MVP with planned directions for further development:
1.
Planning and orientation. At this stage, we determine the theoretical foundations of the future casino. We choose the types of games that will be the main lead magnet for users; we predict what may be of more interest to players. We establish regional affiliation, that is, how many languages our service will have. We also determine the payment methods with which we will integrate. From a development point of view, we choose the project’s technology stack.
2.
Architecture design. At this stage, the customer’s participation is minimal, since the leading role belongs to BeFund specialists and the main task is database design. Both the speed and the logic of the work in general will depend on how competently the players, sessions, transactions, rates and other entities of the solution are placed in the database. Also at this stage, the information processing queue system is determined, where our specialists prefer RabbitMQ and authorization methods.
3.
Backend development. The longest stage (8-12 weeks) is devoted to the direct development of the backend. Its heart will be the game engine (game logic server) that controls all game processes and most importantly – the distribution of profits and winnings. Another important task is the development of the Wallet service and balance management. We strongly recommend not using ready-made solutions here for obvious reasons. At this stage, the RNG (Random Number Generator) solution is implemented, which can be purchased from third-party developers, and the Anti-Fraud module, which is almost impossible to create independently.
4.
Front-end development. Do not confuse with design – at this stage the interfaces are already programmed. Usually a web application is created, mobile adaptation is carried out and the issue of Real-time updates (WebSocket) is resolved. The BeFund team suggests that clients also consider (or instead of) the possibility of duplicating the casino in Telegram or completely placing it in a MiniApp application in Telegram. Such a move is not only worthy of attention, but also has a number of advantages associated with using the Telegram infrastructure. But that’s another story.
5.
Payment integrations. Only now we move on to the main stage, thanks to which you will receive profit. How many and which payment systems you choose – it does not matter. These can be fiat systems, electronic wallets, cryptocurrencies and much more. The main thing is that the service does not have restrictions on cooperation with casinos and that you have at least two such services. After all, if due to malfunctions and failures the client cannot withdraw profit and there is no other tool to do this – the casino can be closed immediately, because this is the worst possible blow to trust and reputation.
6.
Testing, which we set aside an average of 5 weeks for. And testing in such a project requires much more than just going through the QA pages of the online store. After the usual software tests and Unit/Integration, it is necessary to perform a load simulation of more than 10,000 users simultaneously. It will also be important to check the game balance and RNG operation, on which the profitability of the project will depend.
7.
DevOps and deployment. Unlike others, in casino projects DevOps work is more important. Automation using CI/CD pipeline methods will be needed not only at the production stage, but all the time. After all, a stable number of users depends on the “seamless” operation of the entire infrastructure, and any errors can be fatal.
So, it is quite possible to create an effective MVP for an online casino and launch it in 27 to 39 weeks. From our own experience, we want to say: it is better to spend more time on planning and research than to rush, but run into dangers after the release.
Technical infrastructure requirements
For smooth operation, it is necessary to correctly select and configure appropriate technologies. Online casinos are software with increased load requirements, especially during peak times (weekends, during the implementation of marketing activities).
A cloud environment is quite suitable for hosting the server part. You can safely consider providers such as AWS, GCP or DigitalOcean. To handle simultaneous requests from 10,000 users, which is what we are aiming for at the beginning, you need:
> 2–4 application servers (8–16 CPUs, 32 GB RAM);
> Separate DB server (PostgreSQL + Redis);
> CDN for static content (CloudFront / Cloudflare).
The object-relational PostgreSQL database is best suited for creating a main transactional database. This database management system handles complex queries better, which will be useful both in the operation of the casino itself and for obtaining a lot of analytical information, of which there will be a lot.
Redis is best suited for data caching, allowing for efficient work with sessions, real-time data, and setting limits.
A separate important issue is data security. There is no upper limit to improvement here, as the challenges in this area become more threatening every day. However, there is a necessary foundation, the creation of which gives advantages over attackers. These include:
> SSL/TLS + WAF (Web Application Firewall);
> DDoS protection (Cloudflare);
> Data encryption at-rest and in-transit;
> 2FA for the admin panel;
> Rate limiting and IP blocking.
As for the admin panel itself, it is not as complicated as it may seem. We know from practice that more tools do not mean better management. In fact, several dashboards are enough to manage an online casino, the main thing is that they are convenient and understandable for the user.
So the casino administrator will need a player and KYS control panel, a block of detailed financial reporting and payments, tools for managing bonuses and conducting promotional campaigns, as well as a Real-time dashboard load. Of course, the system should provide analytical reports, but when scaling the business, it will be increasingly difficult to achieve fast and high-quality analytics. So this issue should be raised separately over time and data engineers should be involved in the project.
UX and design
The statement that each subsequent casino is similar to the previous one is false, because the level of user satisfaction directly depends on the visual design. Yes, a casino is about excitement, about dopamine, which the player receives not only from the result (winnings), but also from the process itself. Therefore, what your casino will be like depends entirely on you, and the BeFund team provides only practical advice from experience and from the development side.
First of all, you should adhere to the correct User flow, which will help players stay in your casino meaningfully. The clear sequence of registration – deposit – game – payout should not be violated: this way the person will know what actions to take to get the result.
Secondly, if the design is custom, you should follow the rules of adaptability. This rule is actually important for any project, but in a casino it is simply a law. And if your client still puts up with the lack of adaptive design, say on a tablet in some online store, then a similar situation in your casino is no longer forgivable. So the design should adapt to all types of gadgets: desktop, tablet, mobile.
A lot of attention should also be paid to player personalization. Give them a search and the ability to filter search results: games by name, popularity, winnings or other metrics. It is also worth providing categories so that even without searching it is convenient to find the game they like the most.
Finally, the design should not burden the system. Remember that in a casino the time between choosing a service and the first interaction is important and it is no more than two seconds. So if your design involves “heavy” images or a large number of them, you should take care of “lazy” loading and other techniques. But we at BeFund know all this, so we will help you do everything right.
When do we start?
From ancient times to the present day, humanity has wanted bread, entertainment, and a slot machine. No joke – casinos are always in demand, and online casinos will become available to anyone with a gadget and access to the Internet. So the question “Is it worth developing a casino?” is not entirely correct: it is better to ask: “Will my casino be better and safer than those of our competitors?” Above, we described an MVP project with a budget of $50K, which will definitely work well and fulfill its main function – bring profit to the owner. And where there is profit, there is scalability, improvement, and even more profit. The BeFund team is ready to go through this difficult path with you and share the experience gained from previous projects.