Romania recently announced a significant overhaul of its online gambling regime with a secondary legislation adopted, the Romanian igaming sector is ready to go by the middle of July.

However, the changes in the law which enabled the online gambling sector to get licensed is received somehow as a treat rather than an opportunity by local bettingshops and casinos. They should understand that by being present online can expand their business nationwide and increase their client base. Every change is a new business plan and the changes in Romanian iGaming sector are fundamental. Gamblers that have been already using the online websites are somehow disappointed because of their accounts being suspended until the operators apply and receive a license in the demographic.

Presence of affiliates

Affiliates are the key factor for spreading the word and marketing your brand. Since 99% of the affiliates based in Romania are fluent in English, some of them have built really popular bilingual websites and offer the gambling crowd exclusive offers and tools. They usually work with well-known and trusted operators. The effort of being loyal has been rewarded by certain operators which translated their websites in Romanian as well. Since the cost of living isn’t that high in Romania, the budget of some affiliates can be well-organized and put to effective use in local advertising. The marketing budget of top ranked affiliate websites can reach up to 10,000 Euros per month and absorb about 70% of the players that are based in the demographic.

This means the affiliate side is doing quite well, we see some large portals dedicated to online gambling such as PariuriX.com, which is probably the largest affiliate website dedicated to gambling in Romania covering sportsbetting, casino, bingo and poker. We can rank Ghidpariuri.org as the second affiliate website in Romania, they also run Sportfogadas.org which is in Hungarian and dedicated to the Hungarian market, taking into consideration that Romania has a 6.5% Hungarian minority.

The 3 major players on the Romanian market

We can consider 3 major players in the demographic which occupy about 90% of the online gambling market in Romania, these are Bet365, Unibet and Sportingbet, sportsbetting being the main market of online gambling activity. Betclic has made a lot of efforts signing their brand ambassadors but the operator can only occupy the fourth position and split the 10% market share with Bet-at-home, Bwin and Betfair.

The online poker market has been booming for quite a long time being shared between Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, but after the major shutdown at Full Tilt we received a lot of complaints and the brand and the online poker crowd lost their interest and trust.

Potential new entrants considering Romania (operators, affiliates, suppliers etc.)

Romania is a large gambling market which needs to be taken in consideration by operators that are looking to expand in Eastern Europe. With over 65% of its population having access to the internet(estimated 13 million users), not to mention the 4th highest internet download speed in the world, Romania has a lot of potential to host many large operator’s demands and infrastructure. In terms of human resources, some of the key professionals in IT and customer service were born in Romania and would gladly choose to work for a multinational company without having to emigrate to foreign countries.

Our advice is to prospect first and create marketing plans that are based on monthly promotions, focus on teaching the users to trust online gambling and of course its benefits. The second advice is get mobile, there is a high percentage of mobile users, Romania Being one of the largest smart phone consumers in Europe, mostly due to the 4G connection and attractive offers from the key telecommunication company from Europe.

Affiliates that are looking to build a user base in Romania, need to focus on getting the right information that is needed in the demographic. Their current marketing plan needs to focus on getting the operators they are working with to get licensed on the territory of Romania.

Specific local characteristics or requirements that companies considering the country’s iGaming market should be aware of

The already active gambling crowd in Romania is experienced and fraud attempts may arise. Be sure to have an antifraud system, Eastern Europe is all about earnings and the highest rate of bonus hunters are coming from this area.

Secondly, take the land based betting shops and casinos into the highest consideration. They are there for a strong reason. The Romanian market is just starting to get educated in the e-commerce sector, by the means of paying online and using their online available methods. There is a paradox in the banking system, there is a high percentage of bank account and card owners, but the use of them is minimal. However, there is a huge increase in the use of online banking and online purchases using payment cards.

Get local, even if your global. Be sure to sponsor football teams or tennis players , advertise on local televisions and promote offline. Romanians are addicted to advertisement and consume it daily.