Five essentials of online casino translation

When discussing casino translation we must remember that online gambling is one of the most lucrative global industries but it’s not without its challenges.

Marketing a single site to gamers around the world is no easy feat and the standards are set impressively high by the leading online casinos.

To compete with the growing number of global names, you need to hit the ground running and translation is one of your first challenges. Here are five essentials your casino translation process needs to get right:

#1: Language selection

The gateway to multilingual websites for users is language selection. It doesn’t matter how great your translations are if you deliver the wrong language to the wrong audience. Sadly, there’s no perfect solution to language selection because you can’t guarantee the native language of any given user.

However, you can automatically select the language based on user location, which will deliver the right content in most cases. For those who might be travelling in the area or living overseas, make sure you have an intuitive and obvious language selection option so users can easily switch languages when necessary.

#2: Gaming translation and localisation

Yes, that’s right – translating your games is pretty important when it comes to online casino translation (what a shocker). That’s not all you’ll need to think about though. Casino translation tends to be an ongoing process and localising your games will make it easier to add new languages to your games, as well as edit/update your games without creating a mess.

Localisation isn’t purely about making your life easier; it’s also about improving the casino experience for your users. Localising design elements (eg: button sizes) to create the best UX across each language is vital to getting gamers back for more and placing that next bet.

#3: Local gambling laws

This one gets overlooked far too often and it’s a tricky subject at the best of times. We’re not legal advisors but we can tell you how important it is to understand the gambling laws of each target audience you have and we can also help point you in the right direction.

Don’t get caught out by this. International gambling laws – particularly for online casinos – is a murky area and regulations are constantly changing. Make sure you know the score and keep up to date with any developments.

#4: Terms and conditions

Closely related to gambling regulations are your own terms and conditions as an online casino. First of all, you’re legally obliged to provide this information but it’s also there to protect you from any users who might cause you problems.

Providing an accurate casino translation for each of your target audiences is important, of course. While, depending on where your business is based (particularly one location vs multiple), your requirements for providing terms and conditions might vary.

#5: Payment options

Payment options is an area that’s separating online casinos right now. We’re seeing a boom in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency casinos while digital platforms like PayPal are widely accepted now. The key thing to remember is that preferred payment choices – whether they’re traditional or digital – vary around the world.

For example, Alipay dominates online payments in China while Japan has a surprisingly slow adoption of digital payment options. Meanwhile, in Europe, things are far more diverse. Credit card payments are still on the up and the adoption of digital wallets like PayPal, Google Wallet and Apple Pay are a mixed bag.

As always, the key to these five casino translation essentials is audience research. Make no assumptions and find out precisely what’s needed to crack your target markets. Next, you have to come up with the casino translation workflow that’ll make things happen in the most efficient way – and that’s where we come in.