Hello and thank you in advance for giving this a read. I hope I am posting this in the right section.
My name is Sean, I work with a small group of entrepreneurs and investors to start a new bitcoin sports betting and casino website. I am trying to get some input and feedback from the community regarding some of the best practices and common expectations for and from this kind of business. We have been looking for quite some time at this forum and several others and feel that there are users who have significant experience with similar websites, so we'd like to ask for suggestions so we can improve our service.
PRODUCTSFirst of all, I will explain what we plan to offer:
1) Casino games - 4 roulette tables, 2 blackjack tables, several slots, 2 poker games. For now we will only launch with about 10 or 15 casino games until we can reach an agreement with one or two of the big providers such as PT or NE or MG.
2) Multiplayer poker - we will start our network from scratch (unfortunately), our game will work in-browser without any software downloads.
3) Sportsbook - 3% to 10% odds on soccer, american football, basketball, NHL, horses. No live betting.
4) In the very close future, live casino - we are in discussions with two providers, as soon as an agreement is reached regarding revshares and integration.
5) Binary options (stocks, metals, currencies) - as soon as we finish our integration with our 3rd party product provider.
DEPOSITS/PAYOUTS
Deposits and payouts only with bitcoins. There is also a prepaid code system which allows members to deposit bitcoins, buy credit codes and sell them for cash either in-person or through the internet.
Deposits will be instant, payouts will take anywhere between 1 hour and 24 hours at first, then depending on volume we might want to automate this so that payouts also are processed instantly
ACCOUNT TYPESAll users must have an account, even if it's an "anonymous" account where they do not have to provide any personal information. An e-mail address will be sufficient. The following account types will be available:
Standard - normal users, casual gamblers/players
VIP - high volume accounts with minimum deposits of $5000 in BTC per month
Trader - for arbitrage traders who want higher odds in order to match their bets vs an exchange
What we are looking for
Mainly suggestions and constructive feedback, as follows:
1)
Regarding our bonuses program.
We've noticed a lot of websites offer bonuses varying from one-time $/EUR 20 fixed amount and up to 500% every-deposit bonus. We can work with either fixed amount bonuses or percents, either one-time bonus or a bonus for each transaction. We are however concerned regarding offering high bonuses because I see how lots of websites fail because of this - they offer 100% bonuses on each deposit and later when people win and request payouts they close down shop. We do not want this to happen, so we must offer the right bonuses so that users are attracted to the service, but at the same time we want to make sure the business is sustainable.
We can offer the following types of bonuses:
- first deposit fixed amount, like for instance $25 one time with the first deposit
- every deposit, fixed amount - up to $50 on each deposit of $50 or more
- first deposit, a percentage in bonus, for instance 25% up to $50
- a percent of each deposit, like for instance 50% on each deposit up to $500
- bonus coupons - enter a code and get a bonus based on the last deposit, each coupon will have a bonus percent and cap. Those we'll give away only to select customers and also offer for free for Christmas.
Note that we can offer different bonuses to different types of accounts, for instance traders can get an one-time $20 bonus while VIPs can get 100% on each deposit. Rollover requirements may be different, as I will further outline below.
So, question #1: what do you think we should offer in terms of bonuses?
2)
Regarding rollover requirements.
As mentioned above we can offer different types of bonuses to different types of accounts.
For example, a $25 one-time bonus can come with 5x rollover requirements on sports with minimum odds of 2.5 per bet, while a 100% each deposit bonus would require a 20-30x rollover requirement with minimum odds of 4.5 per bet. This is so that people who just want to have fun can get enough bonus funds to play for a long time, while others such as traders or those guys who just want to get rich quick will have a hard time clearing the bonuses through payouts from our site.
So, question #2: what do you think the rollover requirements should be, for the bonuses you suggested previously?3)
Margins on sports eventsBy default all our market data will come at 2-3% margins. We will further customize these margins based on account type, sport and time of the year. For instance, we can lower default margins to a standard 10%, but drop it to 1% for Christmas. We can also customize margins based on types of accounts, for VIPs we can offer a 1% boost on Soccer or Horses, while for traders we can offer a 0% margin on odds under 2.0 (or whatever is the minimum for wagering requirements) so they can clear the funds through an exchange and return for additional business.
So, question #3: how would you customize the margins on a sportsbook?
4)
Casino gamesAll games are configured to pay out 90% to 95%. For now we do not plan on changing this, but please send suggestions for promos or casino-only bonuses.
We are also interested in:
Product testing
Where we will give you a $100 code and you can go ahead and play with the website as much as you want. Just so that there won't be any confusion, you will not be able to withdraw this money. You cannot withdraw any winnings either.
AffiliatesWe will have a 30% affiliate program with real-time reporting and also 10% commission on all credit sales (prepaid codes), so if you feel you can bring in some customers please e-mail your name and phone number and someone from our side will give you a call.
Paid links:
We are interested to buy quality non-spammy links at a flat rate per month, we can pay in either Paypal/Skrill, Bitcoin or with credit codes (15% bonus on these) you can sell to other people for cash. If you are interested please send an e-mail with links to your sites, pages you're willing to link from, your asking price, your name and phone number and if we're interested we'll give you a call.
Paid reviews:
We will give you $100 credit to play with the site and you can write up a review, send it to us first for confirmation, and publish this on your website. You will not be able to withdraw the test credit or any winnings. You can use affiliate links and promo coupons so you get more $ from your traffic. If you are interested please send links to your site(s), sample content you've written, asking price and your name and phone number and we'll get in touch with you.
We are also interested in any constructive feedback that can help us improve the product, eg feature suggestions, do's and don'ts, links to other sites or games that you like.
To get in touch please send e-mail to sean.everlast@gmail.com. Note that if you post replies/questions here we may not be aware for several days, so it's best to get in touch over e-mail.
I will be looking at this forum but will not participate in discussions, so any questions you expect answers to should be forwarded by e-mail at first, then discussions can take place over the phone.
Later edit:
We are OK to use escrow if required, or we can pay in advance via Paypal/Skrill only to verified business accounts.
