In a new report, emerging iGaming companies share their strategies for acquiring their first customers.

Industry investor Waterhouse VC engaged with a spectrum of companies, both B2C and B2B, to unearth the most effective customer acquisition methods for new startups.

Key insights

• Seven strategies account for every start-up securing their first customers.
• 50% of surveyed startups credited only a single strategy for their early traction.
• High-touch customer engagement is the go-to tactic.
• Paid ads absent in the list of top tactics for customer acquisition.
• Tactics deployed to attract initial customers are often significantly different from those used in scaling customer acquisition.

“High-touch customer engagement emerged as the clear front-runner,” says Tom Waterhouse, Chief Investment Officer at Waterhouse VC. “It reinforces the idea that in the early stages, doing things that don’t easily scale can be the key to building a solid customer base.”

Incentivizing early adopters came in as the second most popular tactic, highlighting the significance of immediate customer rewards and recognition.

A notable trend observed in the study indicates that B2B startups typically concentrated on one or two strategies, in contrast to B2C startups which tended to adopt two to three approaches. For instance, Shuffle, an online crypto casino, led the way for B2C startups by employing four distinct tactics to achieve their initial growth.

Ishan Haque from Shuffle describes their novel approach: “Instead of participating in traditional acquisition channels like streaming or traditional affiliate marketing, we recognized our edge in finding influencers with a small following, but that following consisted of 1000 true fans.”

In the realm of B2B startups, Checkd Group particularly stood out. Callum Broxton, Head of US Operations, remarks, “For our US launch … we were able to leverage our established UK business to build relationships with North American operators.”

Dublin-based ‘speak-to-bet’ technology company Voxbet focused on offering incentives, in the form of exclusivity, as a way to acquire their first customers.

Jonathan Power, Founder & CEO, remarks, “Typically, we have used exclusivity as the reward for an early adopter. I think this is now more important than ever because if you look at innovation over the last 15 years – betting in-running, cash out and bet builders – in each case once 1 operator proved demand every operator copied within months.”

Tom Waterhouse further comments, “The absence of paid advertising in these early stages reflects a strategic shift towards more organic and relationship-driven growth methods. It’s a reminder that understanding your audience and directly engaging with them is a precursor to scaling acquisition through paid channels.”

About Waterhouse VC

Launched in August 2019 by Tom Waterhouse, Waterhouse VC specializes in global publicly listed and private businesses within the wagering and gaming sectors. The fund offers wholesale investors access to the Waterhouse family’s extensive experience spanning over a century in the industry. Since its inception, the fund has delivered performance of over 27x, with a return of +39.5% in 2023.