The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every fragment of society, bringing the world to a halt. The streets are empty, offices are no longer bustling and commercial spaces have run out of life. To curb the spread of COVID-19, government authorities around the world have imposed strict social distancing protocols that have restricted the movement of people at public places.
This took its toll on the casino industry too. With people refraining from stepping outside, like many other businesses, physical casinos are having a tough time surviving. While we are all hopeful that things will restore to normalcy soon, all is not that gloomy at the moment.
Digital casinos are a gleaming ray of hope. With people logging in remotely from their homes, the online gaming world is fully equipped to roll out a wholesome playing experience. As a business, it’s important to make the most of it. At the same time, it’s imperative to make the right decisions to ensure that the physical casinos are ready for the post-COVID-19 world. We’ve put down a few points that can come in handy.
Upgrade with the best
With physical casinos missing from action, online casinos will see a hike in traction. People from all corners of the world will log in to play their favorite games. According to some reports, the online gaming win in Pennsylvania reflected an increase of 24.5% in March, with cumulative winnings adding up to $24.3 million. Whereas, in New Jersey, from 39.1 million last year, the online gaming win rose to 64.8 million this year, with a year-over-year increase of almost 66%. This shows that it is crucial for the operators to efficiently tap into this segment of the market so as to generate maximum revenue.
The smartest thing to do for online casinos at this point in time is to reconfigure their IT infrastructure. For, in this scenario, the key to growth and user retention will boil down to offering a seamless and enjoyable playing experience to users. That’s why you need to upgrade your backend systems so that it will enable you to host more players, process digital transactions faster, ensure security, and more. Deploy efficient maintenance tools that will help you keep up with the growing numbers and volume.
Keep the core team intact
The foundation of any great business is its employees. During these crucial times, employees play an even more decisive role. Now, businesses need to keep their core team of software experts, operational executives, managers, and other personnel closely related to business operations intact. Additionally, it is also important to have your database marketing manager, sales director, the accounting staff, casino managers, finance executives, and others at hand and ready to step into action as and when the time is right.
What’s also important is to manage human resources wisely. Whether on furlough or using other models, businesses need to chart out a careful employment structure that is beneficial for both parties – this is of great importance given that we are going through tough times. This way, businesses can oversee the smooth functioning of online casinos and at the same time let you manage financial resources to pave the roadmap for sustenance till the end of this crisis.
Manage finances
The key to surviving this pandemic is making smart financial decisions. Businesses need to identify critical expenditures and leverage them. By maintaining close relations with vendors like IT, online sales, marketing representatives, and more, casinos can pivot online to generate crucial earnings. It is critical to maintaining a healthy rapport with these key vendors as casinos share a symbiotic relationship with them – one needs the other. By ensuring effective communication and keeping each other updated on future plans, deliveries, and expectations, even during crucial times, casinos can get the support they need.
By reiterating marketing budgets to meet online demand and revising other business costs, a symbiotic balance needs to be achieved. That way, a comprehensive and effective cash flow management scenario is created, which will allow businesses to handle the financial crunch in the short term to sustain longer. If done correctly, it even allows businesses to maintain a crucial reserve of revenue that can help in making a quick and optimized transition to full operations once things fall back to normal.
Keep users engaged
Though physical casinos may not be operational, businesses need to ensure they remain in touch with their players. This player engagement can help in businesses maintaining a healthy rapport.
By leveraging digital media to reach out to their user database, casinos need to keep their customers engaged through mailers, daily content, and other modes of communication. This way, businesses can maintain a steady brand recall, which can come in handy while promoting their online gaming services or any other promotions.
Make tactical enhancements
Since the on-ground traffic is reduced to zero, casinos are presented with a much-needed break that they can use to examine their casinos. Specific areas and spots can be identified within the casino where the gaming experience can be enhanced. This time can be used to ideate and develop new point-earning models, gratifying existing players, revamping the rewards program and analytics, and more. This will help in offering a great experience to customers in the long run. From a physical layout point of view too, casinos can make essential modifications to the property like adding new and unique features or changing the existing setup, to enhance the venue.
Prepare for uncertainties
As daunting as it may seem, it is difficult to ascertain when the world will bounce back on its feet. Until then, businesses need to make smart decisions to sustain and thrive. It’s important to anticipate changes and keep a close eye on all the developments that are taking place around us. This is the only way to sustain during these turbulent times, which we are sure will overcome soon.