Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 5,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their casinos. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through a casino business plan template step-by-step so you can create your plan today.
What Is a Casino Business Plan?
Your business plan provides a quick snapshot of your casino or online casino business today, and it lays out a road map for the next three to five years. With clearly defined goals, identified challenges, and strategies for success, your business plan is a living document that will grow and change alongside your casino.
Why You Need a Business Plan
A casino can be a particularly tricky business to operate because you must stay on top of the legalities of the gambling industry, as well as the explosion of online casinos. Casinos must also be wary of economic cycles, as slowdowns mean customers have less available disposable income.
A written business plan is absolutely essential for any casino to navigate an ever-changing landscape. In addition, investors and lenders depend on the business plan to decide whether your casino is an acceptable risk.
Source of Funding for Gambling Businesses
With regards to funding, the main sources of funding for a gambling business are bank loans and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable. But they will want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business.
The second most common form of funding for a casino is angel investors. Angel investors are wealthy individuals who will write you a check. They will either take equity in return for their funding or, like a bank, they will give you a loan. Venture capitalists will not fund casino or gaming activities.
Casino Business Plan Template
Your business plan should include 10 sections as follows:
Executive Summary
The executive summary is the first section of the business plan but is normally the last section written.
The first page of the executive summary is what will convince lenders or investors to read on, so it is important to capture their attention right away.
Provide a concise description of your casino, a market analysis that proves the sustainability of your concept, and an explanation of your unique qualifications to fulfill an identified need.
Company Analysis
The company analysis sums up your casino’s past and present.
Describe its founding, current stage of business, and legal business structure.
Talk about past accomplishments, such as securing key funding or partnering with a dealer school to hire new graduates.
Explain your unique qualifications in detail, such as patented new automation or software package technology.
Industry Analysis
This section focuses on how your casino fits into the existing landscape, including the online gambling industry.
It is important to identify your relative market or the particular niche of the gambling industry that your casino will target. Will you have an attached hotel? Offer a cheap buffet? Focus on penny slot machines or high-dollar table games?
Explore the industry to decide where your casino fits, and then conduct market research to identify the current trends and market projections for your niche of the market.
Explain your solutions for any challenges that you find.
Customer Analysis
For this section, decide exactly who your customers are. Do you want to target high rollers? Run a small casino for local residents? Are your customers buying a fantasy experience or do they want down and dirty no-frills gambling?
Identify your target market demographics and specific needs, and then explain how your casino will meet those needs.
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Competitive Analysis
Who are your direct and indirect competitors? Describe your competitive environment and how you plan to stand out from the competition.
Direct competitors are casinos that fulfill the same need for the same target market.
Indirect competitors fulfill a different need for the same market or the same need for a different market.
Talk about each of your direct competitors individually, focusing on what makes your casino different from theirs. Combine your indirect competitors into a group and discuss them as a whole.
Marketing Plan
Your marketing strategy and plan should be based on the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion.
In the product section, describe each of your casino and gaming activities individually, along with any other products and services you sell such as food, liquor, or hotel nights.
Price requires a list of what you will charge for each of your products and services, along with your reasoning for choosing those price points.
The place is your casino’s physical location along with any web presence.
Promotion is what you will do to convince customers to come to your casino. This may include sales and marketing strategies to bring in new customers and encourage loyal customers to keep coming back.
Finally, customer retention is your method of building brand loyalty.
Note that the gambling industry is currently restricted from online advertising including advertising on social media platforms. Get creative with your advertising efforts with billboards, flyers, and promotional materials within your casino.
Operations Plan
While the previous sections focused on outlining your goals, the operations plan explains how you will meet them.
Everyday short-term processes are the individual tasks involved in running your casino, from maintaining the slot machines to making change for customers.
Long-term processes are your plans for reaching business goals such as opening new licensed casinos, adding a hotel, or hitting a specified profit margin.
Management Team
The management team section of your business plan shows lenders and investors that your casino has the business chops to make it in a complicated marketplace.
Identify your key management team members, including the Chief Executive Officer and other corporate executives, and highlight the expertise in their backgrounds that prove their ability to build a company.
If there are weaknesses, a strong advisory board can help, but you need to show how board members will actively contribute to your casino’s growth.
Financial Plan
A casino is a complex institution that handles a great deal of money on any given day. While the financial plan is the most scrutinized element of any business plan, it is especially critical for your casino. Yet it can also be extremely difficult to write.
You are expected to break down all current and future revenue streams according to their relative importance and implementation timeline and disclose all projected sources of outside funding. You should also summarize both your past and future financial projections including future Income Statements, Balance Sheets, and Cash Flow Statements based on key assumptions that must be both reasonable and verifiable.
You also need a strong exit strategy that shows your understanding of the market and eagerness to capitalize on the casino’s profitability.
Appendix
In the appendix, attach documentation to prove the claims made throughout the business plan. Full financial projections, patents, letters from potential partners, and other paperwork can help make your case for funding.
Finish Your Casino Business Plan in 1 Day!
Don’t you wish there was a faster, easier way to finish your Casino business plan?
With Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!
OR, Let Us Develop Your Plan For You
Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.
See how Growthink’s business plan consulting services can create your business plan for you.
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